Gowanus Lounge was walking down Third Street in Park Slope between Fifth Avenue and Fourth Avenue, when we wandered past two gentlemen in their fifties who were longtime residents of the neighborhood and, clearly, could recall when things along the avenues and some adjoining streets weren’t quite so affluent as they are now.
It was a simple exchange:
Guy Number One (looking at an open parking space, beyond which was visible the massive new Leviev Boymelgreen residential building on Fourth Avenue): “I’m surprised there’s a parking space.”
Guy Number Two (glum): “Yeah.”
Guy Number One (resigned): “Usually there isn’t one.”
Guy Number Two (resentful): “The place is gettin’ ruined by all those fuckin’ yuppies just lookin’ to get rich.”
Guy Number One (resigned): “Yeah.”
1 response so far ↓
1 Anonymous // May 17, 2006 at 12:44 pm
Yea, Im a guy that just moved onto that block and the neighbors are less than friendly. First off, park slope has always had its share of brooklyn-yups, which is cool to me, I grew up in Bensonhurst. You’ve got to celebrate brooklyn for different people, classes, etc. The most writers in any square radius in the world live in Park Slope. This is a good thing. A bad thing is the ppl that have been living on this side of 4th have such a bad attitude towards anyone other than those other ppl living here 30+ years. I doubt its a matter of “yuppification” and more a matter of them seeing their rent-controlled lives going up in smoke or even a socio-ethnic thing. Those same guys you overheard are probably the same ones who call me “gringo” on a daily basis and put dead rats in front of my door…and that’s progress?