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Community Corner

Will The Real Park Sloper Please Stand Up

Part one of a two part series.

So, who’s a real Park Sloper? Are there people who have a more legitimate claim to this neighborhood than others? Do you have to have been born here—or to have moved here before a certain date—to be considered authentic?

I think not.

New York City is a city of immigrants. Just about everyone who lives here is from someplace else. That’s why this question of authenticity strikes me as anathema to what this city is all about. Indeed, the neighborhoods of New York seem to be in a constant state of flux (and gentrification) as one population is replaced or intermixed by another. That seems to be the nature of this high paced city where real estate is king and whole stretches of the city are relentlessly being redefined, reinvented and redeveloped.

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E.B. White wrote in his 1948 book, “Here Is New York,” that there are, essentially, three kinds of New Yorks.

“There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born there, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size, its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter--the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. Of these trembling cities the greatest is the last—the city of final destination, the city that is a goal. It is this third city that accounts for New York’s high strung disposition, its poetical deportment, its dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements.”

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In my 20 plus years living in Park Slope, I’m still stumped when asked to define a true Sloper.

Sure, there are plenty of Slopers who were born and raised here, and that accident of birth gives them a certain cache, an “authenticity” you can’t really acquire by simply moving here later in life. Natives do have a kind of authority when it comes local history and knowledge about what’s here and what came before.

Indeed, my own children are native Slopers and they will one day be able to laud that over others if they so choose. They will always have a special connection to this place and a unique perspective on it.

Many others moved to Park Slope for personal and economic reasons. Some came because they married someone from here, others because the real estate is less expensive than in Manhattan. Some arrived after college, lived with roommates and then decided to make it their home. And others emigrated from foreign countries and moved here to be close to their countrymen.

According to the book “The Neighborhoods of Brooklyn,” edited by John B. Manbeck, in the late 1880’s Park Slope attracted Brooklyn’s well-to-do who wanted to live near Prospect Park and the areas other historic landmarks. Prospect Park West with its mansions and stately apartment buildings was known as the Gold Coast from Grand Army Plaza to First Street.

After World War II there was an exodus to the suburbs by wealthy Slopers and working class people moved into the North Slope. At that time many of the brownstones were turned into rooming houses.

It was in the 1960’s and 1970’s that residents and newcomers began to renovate brownstones as they recognized the historic value of these glorious structures. The South Slope became home to new residents from Puerto Rico, Latin America, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Ireland.

In the 1980’s many lesbians arrived and since 1993 the Lesbian Herstory Archives has been located in Park Slope.

Indeed, the neighborhood’s reputation for progressive politics was certainly a factor in why certain groups settled here. Because of the affordability of houses and large apartments (compared to prices in Manhattan) the area was at one time a magnet for teachers, Legal Aid lawyers, writers and social workers that could afford to live here with their families.

In the early 1990’s when I moved here, Brooklyn (and Park Slope in particular) was one of the places you looked when you couldn’t afford to live in Manhattan anymore. When my son was born we were in need of a 3-bedroom apartment and a friend, who had bought a co-op apartment on Garfield Place near Sixth Avenue in the 1980’s for $25,000, suggested we look out here. He was constantly bragging about the neighborhood’s amenities like the Food Coop, the Brooklyn Museum, the Botanic Gardens and Prospect Park. 

Still, I had to be dragged out here kicking and screaming—I was a born and bred Upper West Sider and I felt entitled to live there. But in the 1980’s, the Upper West Side became rife with corporate lawyers and financial types, and I was priced out of my old neighborhood and forced to look elsewhere.

Since moving here in 1991, I have seen more than a few migrations. First came others like me, Manhattanites with families, who were priced out of rentals in their own neighborhoods. Then came the two-career couples (lawyers and financial types) that could afford to buy coops.

In the late 1990’s and the aughts, Wall Streeters and dot commers discovered Park Slope and its brownstones. BMWs, Audis and Mercedes became ubiquitous. The newcomers had money and they brought a decidedly different set of values and attitudes to the neighborhood.

Is there a real Sloper or is that an ever-changing, evolving concept just like this neighborhood. What do you think?

Tune back in on Monday, July 11 for Part II in this two part series.

Editor’s Note: If you’re looking for answers to about the neighborhood, check back Tuesday morning!

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