Bed-Stuy Gateway and the Fulton-Nostrand Revitalization Project

The British Are Coming, the British Are Coming!

You just gotta love those Google Alerts. It's like a trusty labrador retriever: you tell her, "go fetch me all the news on Bed-Stuy" and she comes back on a daily basis with everything, useful or not, that has even a mention of the phrase. Well in our inbox today was this precious gem of an article from across the pond in The Times of London about a UK couple that has found brownstone bliss in Bed-Stuy, and they're proud of it.

Murder, drugs and guns were just some of the terms used by people who tried to warn us against buying a brownstone townhouse in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. But the abundance of exquisite and unspoilt late Victorian architecture, its proximity to Manhattan and the bargain prices on offer in the supposed gangster’s paradise they call Bed-Stuy were enough for my fiancée Alida and I to ignore the nay sayers for long enough to discover that they were quite wrong.

After reading this glowing review of our beloved Bed-Stuy, we can't help but wonder: Is The Times doing a Lenten penance for the smackdown of an article it published on June 25, 2005 in which reporter Dominic Rushe said Bed-Stuy is "a horrible and inconvenient area of Brooklyn with some lovely buildings and a nasty crack habit." ?

Link: Big Apple's Core Appeal - The Times of London
Previously: On Wall Street: Dominic Rushe: Big Apple Homes Are Ripe for a Fall - The Times of London via Brownstoner

A Home With Charm, and Challenges - New York Times

Bed-Stuy, with its beautiful stock of magnificent, pre-war homes chock full of architectural detail, is attracting not only price-conscious Manhattanites, but also retaining long-time Bed-Stuy residents.  Take a look at the Bobb-Semple family profiled in November 18th's "Habitats" column in the New York Times. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bobb-Semple joined a curious subset of Bedford-Stuyvesant's gentrification when they bought their MacDonough Street house for $548,000 in 2004. Though they are part of the wave that's transforming the neighborhood, the Bobb-Semples didn't arrive from Manhattan or more affluent parts of brownstone Brooklyn.

Instead, they were gentrifying from the inside. Mrs. Bobb-Semple was raised in Brooklyn, and her husband arrived from Guyana in the fifth grade. Her parents were longtime Bedford-Stuyvesant residents. And the couple had been live-in landlords in a nearby three-unit brownstone they bought for $155,000 in 1995.

Congratulations and kudos to the Bobb-Semples for continuing to invest in Bed-Stuy.  However, we're not quite sure why the author of the article characterizes the Bobb-Semples as part of "a curious subset of Bedford-Stuyvesant's gentrification."  First of all, when people move within a neighborhood, it's termed "incumbent upgrading" not gentrification.  Furthermore, isn't commitment to a community in the mold of the Bobb-Semples exactly what you want to happen in a community?   And why exactly is their decision curious as opposed to the decision of these two new Bed-Stuy homeowners?

Link: A Home With Charm, and Challenges - New York Times.
Link: 2 Guys, 2 Sheepdogs, a Flock of Neighbors - New York Times

"Stretching Your Rental Dollar in New York"

Via Brownstoner, this article comes from the New York Daily News which scans the five boroughs to find the least expensive places to live and highlights Bedford Stuyvesant as its Brooklyn pick. 

Give Bed-Stuy a try if Brooklyn's where you want to be.

Rental apartments can be found in its handsome brownstones and brick row houses — just like in pricier Brooklyn nabes. Once stigmatized for its high crime rate (and parodied in the Chris Rock TV show "Everybody Hates Chris"), Bedford-Stuyvesant has turned around and is popular with brownstone buyers. And transportation's a cinch — the A train gets you to lower Manhattan in 15 minutes, and midtown in 25 minutes.

One-bedrooms are available for $1,000 to $1,100 per month in Bed-Stuy — in Brooklyn Heights, they're $1,700 to $2,000.

Link: Stretching Your Rental Dollar in New York [Brownstoner]      

NYTimes Article on New Residents to Bed Stuy: "2 Guys, 2 Sheepdogs, a Flock of Neighbors"

The New York Times "Habitats" Column from the 10/23/05 issue profiles two men who purchased and renovated a home on Lexington Avenue, 1/2 mile north of Fulton Street in Bedford Stuyvesant.
Link: 2 Guys, 2 Sheepdogs, a Flock of Neighbors - New York Times.

New York Magazine - The Tipping of Jefferson Avenue

Neighborhood change is happening all over New York City, and no less than in Bed-Stuy. As Bed-Stuy continues to change and as the debate over gentrification's goods versus evils rages on, people wonder what kind of Bed-Stuy will exist in five, ten or twenty years. In its April 25, 2006 issue, New York Magazine takes a look at "How Gentrification is Effecting (sic) One Block in Bedford-Stuyvesant."

Link: The Tipping of Jefferson Avenue - New York Magazine