I'm sorry - "a lack of new police officers"? Due to a lack of speed limit signs on a side street, I drove on it 100 mph. How about if people were to control themselves a little better? I hate to say this but my father would have whipped my ass from this end of the street to the other if he had ever heard I'd gone and done something so stupid - then he would have called the cops.

Willoughby and Walworth isn't in Clinton Hill, it's in Bed-Stuy. Walworth is several blocks past Bedford, and is one block from the Marcy projects. There is also a notorious speakeasy/coke bar on the corner there, so I imagine the student who was mugged knew what they were getting into. I lived there in 2002 and was mugged on the exact same corner (completely my fault for being drunk and out late). Pratt students have always been targets because they have money, the neighborhood folks don't,and because Clinton Hill isn't safe and hasn't been in 40 years. I know many people who went to Pratt, and all were mugged at least once in their time at the school. If you gamble on living in an 'under-transition' neighborhood, the cost of the occasional mugging is a fact of life.

Old NY is back people.

I went to Pratt. This is nothing new. Everyone there had a run in with either a mugging or harrassment. The biggest probelem however, is that big pockets of the neighborhood are really economically depressed and the incomming students weren't always sensitive to that (ie. the occational girls carring Prada bags around in a show- offy/ naieve way and students getting really drunk at the local bars. Pratt does a lot to generate awareness of some of the neighborhood's problems, but not everyone listens. I found a lot to love about the area but leared to stay out of the Associated Food Market.

Brooklyn's gentrification is slowing, even coming to a halt in some places. As long as you have a large number of poor people living there & other parts of the city, the trend of gentrification will eventually reverse and if the economy continues to decline, who knows what will happen. You have to laugh when some people suggested that Bed-Stuy would turn into another Park Slope or Williamsburg.

hah, that's the corner i live on in the ny times picture. makes me feel pretty safe.

anyway, since yesterday, there have been cops on pretty much every corner in the area with a number of them patrolling in groups, and there's a mobile command truck sitting on the corner of emerson and classon every night. i was wondering why until i heard about the ny times article. how long are they planning on being here?

Also, there are not any police officers in Clinton Hill other than a few blocks around Pratt.

The cops arrive with the condos.

The historical perspective that is shown is the last years. To see the current history (ie last two weeks) see the complete recent compstat PDF here:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/crime_statistics/cs088pct.pdf

Last week:
Robbery up 250%

6:49 - Gentrification may be slowing, but it's not going away. It's all cyclical, and right now the economy is in the tubes and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to buy. The front lines of gentrification might contract a bit for a year or so, but once the economy picks up and the people have confidence in the real estate market, you can bet that the sweeping tide of moneyed people buying undervalued Brooklyn brownstones will continue.

I rent my place on the line between Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. I wasn't around 10 years ago, but from neighbors and friends who attended Pratt years ago, I'm told that the neighborhood was a much more dangerous place to live. But while home prices and rents may be stagnant right now, they're not plummeting, and people aren't moving out in droves. They might be staying put and not venturing further on into Clinton Hill or Bed Stuy, but no one is leaving. In two years, once the economy recovers, home prices and rents will go up again and people will begin to venture further into Clinton Hill and Bed Stuy, especially as more and more people react to the fast increasing costs of commuting from the suburbs and choose to start and raise families in Brooklyn instead of the suburbs.

In my opinion, gentrification is a slow, steady process that generally reflects local macroeconomic trends, and not so much not a flight of fancy that reflects microeconomic/consumer trends. One can argue which of those forces plays the largest role in gentrification, but I think it's safe to say that in another 10 years, Clinton Hill will look and feel a lot like Fort Greene does now, and Bed Stuy will look and feel like Clinton Hill.

Pratt's been in that neighborhood looong before any of the long time residents. Pratt needs to encourage gentrification and buy up more property (while it's relatively affordable) if it wants to increase student enrollment and the value of it's holdings.

Pratt has one big building proposed for the lots on Myrtle where the KFC used to be and breaking up the superblock that is there now. Hopefully that will happen.

Other than that Pratt has sold off some of its property which the new owner it letting decay while trying to flip it.

I haven't seen any crazy spikes in crime in the neighborhood- but I don't walk around waving hundreds of dollars of electronics either.

Don't park your car overnight by Pratt BTW.