reality czech: i spent my first 18 years a prisoner of the suburbs--and totally self-conscious of my non-white background. on top of that, my paranoid parents would never let me out of the house bc we were targets of racist acts. trust me, it sucked, and my life here in the city is heaven in comparison. whenever i step out of my apartment (with a backyard) here in boerum hill, i am in awe of how lucky my daughter is to grow up in a place where she will never think of her ethnicity as a negative. this city is a good place to cultivate her esteem, on top of her street smarts, and everything else the city has to offer that will make her a well-rounded, aware, engaged person.

"Reality Czech, how's about you lighten up a little. Insulting people, and posting smart-aleck comments every 20 minutes doesn't add to the conversation.

It just makes you seem like an entitled a-hole."

I am entitled - entitled to view my opinion like each and every one of you here.

Park Slope hate is mildly amusing, but it's a decent place all in all. Less pretense than a lot of Williamsburg, lots of good food options and a big park nearby. It is a bit overcrowded, but I just avoid the North and Center parts if I'm not feeling like dealing with people.

http://www.pokemonelite2000.com/ani079.gif

o hay guyz.. i herd park slope haz lots of kidz!

I feel like New York has never had such inter-neighborhood animosity! It seems to be driven by class issues and the ridiculous cost of living here... maybe I'm wrong. It makes me sad.

Anyway, I live in the greater Slope area. I'm on the outskirts, so my rent is cheap. It's nice. Occasionally I find the local parents a little funny, but I think it's fantastic to raise kids near such an amazing park... And the area is actually pretty diverse.

I like the bars and restaurants. I like that there are spendy places on seventh and the dollar stores on fifth. I like walking to work up the quiet streets. I like that I can not only walk to the park, but the Brooklyn Museum and the Botanical Garden.

I grew up in the Suburbs. We had black people, asians, latinos, etc (although this was in California). I loved it.

We played hide and go seek and tag on our street, as well as soccer, water balloon fights, etc. I sailed paper boats down my gutter. I rode my bike peacefully in the middle of every street in my neighborhood.

And yes, I also had a paper-route!

I loved the fresh air, the hiking, the trick or treating, and I still was close to a major city (SF - 20 mins away)to go to museums.

We also had sushi (gasp!) and any other kind of food you could order.

The suburbs are awesome.

park slope is for gays. There I said it. GAYS! Windsor Terrace is where it's at

I grew up in NYC in the late 70's and early 80's, and I'm really glad that I did. I know there isn't much of a middle class left here now, but there used to be, and plenty of the kids I grew up turned out to be some of the smartest, coolest, most well adjusted folks that I've met to date. I'm not saying that growing up in NYC is the only way to raise a great kid, but I think if you use the city to your advantage it has a lot to offer for raising a family.

The only point in my life I haven't lived in NYC, was the five years I spent away at college. When I started school there was no question that I was much more of an adult than my peers. One definite advantage of growing up in NYC is you are going out and interacting with all types of different people, and being exposed to a wide variety of situation: some positive, some negative. Either way, you mature quickly and can handle yourself around adults from a young age. Plus, since you've been drinking at the Palladium or the Limelight since you were 14, you tend to miss out on that whole freshman year blackout drunk bad decision phase.

Sure, people love to pick on the Slope, but it's an easy target. True, it does have an overwhelming percentage of loud mouthed do-gooder transplants,but if I was raising kids I'd seriously think about raising them in Park Slope (If I could afford it). The main problem with the neighborhood is that it has become so insanely expensive that it has turned into a strictly upper class place for wealthy young families.

#28 on my #25:

Those aren't generalizations, that's what I witnessed/experienced on 7th Avenue yesterday. Honestly! (Maybe only two offensive stroller moms, but at least two.) Horrible! Not a pleasant place for a stroll, not at all.

I will say 5th Avenue isn't so bad.

Hey, Reality Czech, you're not right. You have your opinion, it's not fact. To your points:

1. You seemed to imply city kids couldn't get jobs. I proved otherwise. 12 year old city kids can babysit, tutor, whatever.

2. Actually my parents didn't watch every move I made. I was a latchkey kid, I took the subway by myself, went to the store by myself and learned to survive.

3. Park Avenue buildings have substantial play areas. So do all those chic brownstones. They're in the back. Not to mention the park's a short walk away.

4. I'm not a parent, so I don't know what I'm supposed to "be selfish" about. I did grow up in the city, though, and I feel I had a much better childhood than my friends from the 'burbs. Since I had a full academic scholarship to college, I now make six figures, I have a wonderful marriage and a pretty damn good life, I guess their way worked for me, eh?

If you really feel a kid's entire existence is tied into the ability to do lawn work, have a park route and live in white-bread suburbia, well, I feel badly for you.

CARRIBBEAN NANNIES are a menace. I can't believe how many black ladies pushing white kids in strollers are on the upper west side. It's fucking scary. It's like social darwinism at it's finest.

Reality Czech, how's about you lighten up a little. Insulting people, and posting smart-aleck comments every 20 minutes doesn't add to the conversation.

It just makes you seem like an entitled a-hole.

"You can babysit, work retail or tutor anywhere." Yeah right, maybe YOU can, smarty, but this just ain't for the average kid. Work retail? Right, at 12 years old, give me a break.

"cities have statistically less kidnappings than the 'burbs and kids here grow up with a lot more street smarts to avoid danger."

Yeah, that because your parents watched over you every move you made.

"newsflash: lots and lots of people in NYC have HOUSES, complete with backyards."

Really, all those houses on PArk ave. All those houses on Fifth ave. Look, I understand you;re being defensive, but really, you need to wake up to reality. Defend it all you want, you are being selfish. That is my opinion, but guess what? I am right and you are wrong.

Actually, Reality Czech, most city kids do get jobs, just as suburban ones do. You can babysit, work retail or tutor anywhere. We also grow up to be a lot more independent, self-confident and mature than our suburban counterparts. When I was in college, the idiot kids who were drinking themselves into comas, hanging out windows and getting themselves into stupid situations were invariably the sheltered suburban ones. As to the safety issue, cities have statistically less kidnappings than the 'burbs and kids here grow up with a lot more street smarts to avoid danger.

As for the whole "backyard to run free" nonsense, newsflash: lots and lots of people in NYC have HOUSES, complete with backyards. Even in Manhattan a lot of buildings have yards or play areas. Parks? Try Riverside, Flushing Meadows, Prospect, shall we go on? I had plenty of places to play and ride my bike as a kid.

You might think it's selfish to raise a child in the city. That's your opinion. It's not fact.

"What about moving out of the city to save money on taxes, isn't that selfish."

Now here is a real smart guy. Dumbass, taxes are a lot more in the suburbs than in the city! Property taxes are nothing in NYC.

The only thing more predictable than Park Slope hating on Gothamist is bike hating on Gothamist.

Sorry folks, but I grew up in suburbia where my parents never had to drive me anywhere, I walked or rode my bike, and this since I was 12. I also had a paper routwe, something unknown to you city folks, I also did a lot of yard work to earn money, again something many of you just don't get to do. My parents did leave the city when I was born as they didn't want me raised somewhere I couldn't roam free. As for living 3 blocks from a 500 acre park, you are one of the few, most city kids don't live that close to any park, and most parents wouldn't even let their kids walk that far to any park. Where I grew up we had plenty of parks, but the greenery wasn't just limited to parks, we had forests, fields, trails, that you just don't have in the city. Furthermore, my parents did take me to the city and it's museums often. Nowadays a child can get culture from TV and the internet, as well as museums. So, unless you feel that you can justify your selfish reasons to raise a child in the city by saying they get more culture and art, which is not true, and which is dependent on the individual child anyways.

lame generalizations, Robot.

Art, culture and people who don't all look like you. I'll trade that against a back yard any day of the week.

Just because your cab driver is from Pakistan and the guy that delivers your food is from Ecuador and the woman that cleans your office is from Mexico doesn't make your world multicultural. If you are white and rich and your black and Asian friends are equally rich and went to the same Ivy League school as you you are about as sheltered and naive as someone growing up in Nebraska. Probably more sheltered because the kid in Nebraska probably doesn't have a sense of entitlement.

Those kids growing up in the city with rich parents are tomorrows assholes. Frankly, I'd raise a kid as far from these parents as humanly possible.

All of my best friends that grew up with me in Bklyn are all well-adjusted, good people who didn't get F'd up like so many suburban and rural kids I know, because they had outlets like some of the best parks, great culture, diversity.

I don't know if it's better to be within walking distance of everything a city has to offer vs. the space and relative safety of a smaller community. I CAN say that some native NYC-ers will argue the above, and others will say that suburb dwellers lack "street smarts" that develop when growing up around hoodlums. Are you going to claim that everyone who didn't grow up within the 5 boroughs "inferior" because we're fucked up, or not fucked up enough? Which is it?

I overheard a guy other day in the neighborhood on the phone the say, "what's the point of living in New York if there are no New Yorkers left?" Does this mean the next generation of kids who flood the city from the suburbs wil be the spawn of people like this guy, making them targets of mockery from "real" New Yorkers? :)