Gothamist: Franklin Park Brings Beer Garden to Crown Heights

tihuanaku

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:20:34 -0500

I live pretty close to FP and at first I was psyched about it. But now I don't like going there anymore because it feels so segregated. Of course, after a few beers none of that seems to matter any more, but walking through a white island after being immersed into a black sea is an uncomfortable feeling, at least for me (I am white btw)...

fresser

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:01:47 -0500

#9/13, I'm no youngster and, like I said, I grew up in this city, a middle class kid from the Bronx who went to NYC public schools and who is raising my own kids in this great borough. Like Bugs says, generalizations are simplifications. I do take it, the good, the bad, the ugly, and--most of all--the change that has always been part of life here (and most other places, too). If you can't get with that concept, then maybe you're the one who needs to consider leaving.

thefacts

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:45:04 -0500

Having drunk beer on St. John's Place likely before you two were ever born, I shall not have you insinuate what the feelings of locals are towards you. Take it or leave it!

bugsinamber

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:42:22 -0500

going back to what #14 was saying: let me add that the woman who rejoiced at the opening of the 24-hour organic store was a local, in her 40s perhaps. *she* was the "hipster", going by the fancy herbal drink she bought (i'm guessing such drinks comprise the rating system). in another incident, at another store, there was a very old local woman requesting a list of organic/vegan things that i hadn't even heard of. i was in a remote village in my country once. not too long ago, it lacked roads connecting it to anywhere. a few years later, there was a road (there was a road!), which changed the place from head to toe. it was still a remote village, but now it actually had commerce. people unloaded off the daily buses and flowed in and out for whatever reason. a foreign journalist with us regretted the change, romantic as she was about the secluded old days of the village, which pissed my friend off because all he wanted was for the residents to have more options, and most important, a road! was it more pleasant before the commerce? most definitely yes. were the residents better off? that depends on how you define "better off". do i know if i prefer the pre-road days or the post-road days? that'll take a long time figuring out. do i regret gentrification? very much so. do i think Franklin Park is the devil? probably not. do i think the many locals in the hood will enjoy Franklin Park? why the hell not?! they're not a different species are they? are they so poor that they can't afford a drink? it's very condescending to think so.

bugsinamber

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:07:58 -0500

#15, my landlord is poor because he's got huge medical bills (and he's got a big family to take care of too). we don't have intercom because he can't afford it yet. the problem with people like you, and those who throw the word "hipster" around as if the dictionary suddenly went blank, is generalizing. i hate generalizing. everyone's got their own story, and every story deserves respect. respect is far more important that ideals. plus, a city, a hood, is a being- it involves, it dies, it rises, it falls. there are a lot of things i wish i could save in tact, but change, both bad and good, are mighty forces. before crown heights was dominated its current reisdents, it was dominated by someone else. as for me, i'm not white, i'm not american, everywhere i've moved is home to me, because my home is nowhere.

thefacts

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:48:47 -0500

#9 (14) and #13: It is people with attitude like yours that make most of us - except landlords - dislike gentrifiers. So, sleep well tonight knowing how many people poor people your higher rent checks have displaced.

fresser

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:01:12 -0500

#13, that's very eloquent. I feel much the same about my Lefferts Gardens nabe, next door to you. That's why I live there. I don't believe what you describe has to be mutually exclusive with all manners of gentrification. I think it's insulting to those who live in ungentrified "hoods" to suggest that they don't want to go out with their friends for a beer or have a decent supermarket and so forth. I don't think any neighborhood with no diversity of residents, goods and services--on the high and low of the economic scale--is worth blindly romanticizing.

bugsinamber

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:34:22 -0500

#7, I wake up looking down on its streets. And sometimes to its 2am beats. I run to its stores to pick up milk and cheese, and when they're all out of pita bread it infuriates me with defeat. I hear them say "Salaam Walikum", I hear them say, "Hey baby, what's up?" The old woman at the laundry is always talking to herself, and I know her face, I know her voice. When we walked into the newly renovated 24-hour green market, someone sang, "Hallelujah!". Right then that same swarm of pigeons swirled one more flight, because the man who lives across me is pacing the rooftop with his stick again. Besides, I moved an old piano 3 flights up, so this must be home. My landlord's songs and daughters and cousins are running up and down the stairs, and the woman from next door has squatted on the stairs again because she's been running out of breath. She's been running out of breath since long before we moved in. Franklin Avenue is my god damn hood.

femiredwood

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:40:20 -0500

can i say how excited i am! woo-hoo! the thought of enjoying a beer a few blocks away from home in the summer excites me!

Nick S

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:46 -0500

man, that grammar in my last post is Chung-esque.

Nick S

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:57:31 -0500

if every commenter that accuses everyone of either being a "hipster" or a "transplant from the midwest" is by actual locals, then i'm very very proud of being a transplant (not from the midwest though..there's this place further west called 'the west' that alot of people come from too.)

fresser

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:32:39 -0500

Enough with the "no real Brooklynite" bs, #7. You sound like an idiot--I've heard that line 5 bazillion times. And guess what? I'm from The Bronx, and I'm here gentrifying Brooklyn and whadya gonna do about it? Bottom line, if it's good, I'll go, you'll go, we'll have some fun, feed the economy and a local guy (Roff) will make good. If it's not, well, that too is the American way.

rockypocky

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:59:49 -0500

they DID paint over one "crip for life" tag on bedford because that building was for sale. that was the same week they repaved Bedford, and the next week Franklin Park opened.... say...i'm beginning to think something is happening around here...

thefacts

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:50:12 -0500

Your hood, #4 ?!? No real Brooklynite uses that word to describe their neighborhood. You are a gentrifier, no better than the hipster gentrifiers of Wburg that you disdain. Don't get uppity. And don't get mugged of your lunch money.

bugsinamber

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:18:12 -0500

go franklin.

liulide

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:50:55 -0500

yeah gentrification!!! now if only someone will paint over the crips tag down the block

Chosun

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:44:12 -0500

My hood (Crown Heights) is far from hipsterville. It may turn that way in a few years, but I guarantee that there won't be any robots walking around on Franklin Ave anytime soon.

jaja007

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:41:26 -0500

Next, they are going to put a golf course in Brownsville..

murph

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:32:40 -0500

Good. Dear Hipsters, stay in Brooklyn. Leave the Astoria Beer Garden alone now.

Chosun

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:48:33 -0500

I walked by this the other day and was wondering what it was. Thanks for the clarification. Finally, my hood is getting some interesting spots!