Cheaper brownstone communities in Brooklyn

Bed-Stuy is just too far away. Are there brownstones in LIC?

If "just across the river" is a requirement, your cheapest bets will be in Greenpoint, Red Hook, or Carroll Gardens. The latter will probably prove a bit pricier, though probably better in terms of transportation options nearby.

What is your budget, and what do you mean by "too far"; too far by subway or too far by car? Some lines are way faster than others, so living close to an express stops in Crown Heights or Bed Stuy would get you in Manhattan faster than living in Red Hook or Columbia Street Waterfront or Greenpoint (right by the river.) In all these neighborhoods, you can find a 4-family between $800K and $1.2M, depending on size and condition.

"Bed Stuy would get you in Manhattan faster than living in Red Hook or Columbia Street"

That of course assumes you don't get killed on your way to the subway. Not everybody makes it...

Socialist, you're not exactly a reliable source re: Bed-Stuy.

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/26374-bed-stuy

Bed-Stuy is like the East Village, your mileage will vary depending on whether you live at 4th street and Bowery or 11th street and Avenue D. Since the OP is mentioning 4-family brownstones close to Manhattan, we're talking about large houses in the historic districts near Nostrand or Utica (A stops), not Murder (Myrtle) Avenue tenements.

W'burg G'and B'wick, don't have too many brownstones and are not known for brownstones, too.

maly, have you walked through Nostrand or Utica???? maybe not as bad as Myrtle, but still a place i wouldn't want to walk after sundown. don't forget, sundown is the time you come home from work for a significant period of time in NY.

Funny how some people are willing to drop close to a $million bucks on a neighborhood they've never lived in nor investigate personally ! Shows somehow stupidity is not related to how little money you make!

tommy, what happened to the investment properties in Newark...too scared of the hood?

'tomboy, not sure what "G'and" is, but there definitely are brownstones in those other neighborhoods you mention.

maly, agreed about Bed-Stuy. Amazing how people forget that it's all block-by-block in this city. Hell, even the west village has its dicier blocks.

sledge, your anti-Bed-Stuy rants are well-documented on that thread I linked to. But go on if you must...

I have walked there around dinner time, I've always felt safe. I have friends who live there. It's not any scarier to me the Upper West Side or Yorkville: there's definitely an added danger when you walk on residential (read dark and deserted) streets. I would like to say that in 15 years of living in NYC, I got close to getting mugged twice: once on Broome and Crosby around midnight, and the other time on 6th avenue and Houston on a cold winter evening. I'd put Stuyvesant Heights on par with Chelsea, and Bedford Corners with the East Village; the closer you are to projects, the darker the night, the more you have to exercise caution.
Honestly, the strident posters "you are going to get killed on the way to the subway" sound completely ignorant and insane to me. Heck, walking in Paris feels more dangerous than walking in Stuyvesant Heights.

Bed Stuy have some of the prettiest blocks in Brooklyn, but unfortunately its community lacks too much civism to consider it a nice neighborhood to live in!

Yes. I'm scared of Newark. Jersey City and Hoboken are great, but expensive too...plus I want to diversify. I really like W'burg - it has a good vibe as does carrol Gardens. I wonder if Bushwick will develope.I'm wondering about Washington Heights and Hamilton Heights (near Broadway). I like Harlem but it seems to lack vibrancy - where are the stores, bodegas, restaurants.

sledgehammer, more prejudiced garbage from you. It's ridiculous. Whatever happened to that free housing offer you made me? I'm still up for it, if you want to put your money where you mouth is.

Where is that mythical New York neighborhood, composed of civil, polished, couth citizens of the world?

I don't care how fired up you get with my opinion about Bed Stuy.
Keep yourself informed on this Blog:
http://bed-stuy.patch.com/search/articles?cat=1998198826
You can't deny there aren't 5 or 6 shooting stories in Bed Stuy every Week!

I think the houses in bed-stuy are gorgeous but like newark, the number of shootings is just too frightening. if they put a cop on every corner at night, then maybe bed-stuy....but who wants to have to watch one's back when walking home at 3am.

See, that's pretty reasonable, Tommy. I do agree that purely residential neighborhoods are not the best options for people who keep late hours. If you often work very late and/or like to go out, mixed neighborhoods are way better. You can walk to work and walk home from restaurants, corner delis, bars and restaurants keep crowds 24/7, and that's definitely safer.

sledge, the link you posted shows a grand total of 1 for this past week. So much for "5 or 6." For comparison, see what happens in the village:
http://thevillager.com/villager_442/policeblotter.html

This is a big city - these things happen. But your paranoia/prejudice about Bed-Stuy is way overblown. Let me know about that free housing offer when you get a chance. I'm very interested.

"I think the houses in bed-stuy are gorgeous but like newark, the number of shootings is just too frightening. if they put a cop on every corner at night, then maybe bed-stuy....but who wants to have to watch one's back when walking home at 3am."

And let's not forget the one of the key issues that everyone on this board is apparently too "PC" to mention, but I'll bring it up anyway: if you're WHITE, you might as well have a bullseye painted on your back. You will not blend in with the rest of the "community" and you WILL be a target.

It's not necessarily about race, I think its about class. If one is walking down the street with Louis Vuitton bags, one is obviously an outsider. I'm dark-skinned black and quite frankly I've walked in the rougher parts of Newark, Jersey City, Bed-Stuy and knew that I was being watched by guys just sitting around with nothing to do and that was in the middle of the day. And I don't wear flashy clothes although I certainly don't wear sagging jeans

tommy2tone -- there is a very nice middle-class neighborhood right on the border between Queens and Bklyn, called Ridgewood.

It is not large. Traditionally it was Polish Catholic, and working class. Over time, real estate values went up and buoyed the neighborhood a bit, so now it is more middle-class.

The housing stock is not brownstones but rather 2-story row houses. They have some charm. And yards, if that is part of what you are looking for.

The downside is the long-ish commute -- I think there is only one subway in and out, maybe the J or M lines.

Plus, Ridgewood is bounded on a couple of sides by Bushwick, which is not a place that I would want to walk around in.

But for the sake of your long-term health and that of your family, don't move to LIC or Greenpoint until after they clean up Newtown Creek. It is the most polluted body of water in North America, having been a chemical dumping ground for industry for more than a century. Newtown Creek contamination has spread to ground water in nearby areas.

Be well. GG

On the other side of the coin, as a small white woman, I have never been harassed. Of course my style runs more to bohemian chic and no label handbags, so to outsiders I may look like a young, clean baglady, with nothing for muggers to covet. I wish streeteasy would ban racist douchebags. You have nothing real to add, just ignorant paranoia.

"I wish streeteasy would ban racist douchebags. You have nothing real to add, just ignorant paranoia."

I wish Streeteasy would ban hateful name-calling. But alas, we don't always get what we wish for.

People can say what they want, but if one doesn't feel comfortable, then that's an issue. I think the data speaks for itself.

I have no patience for racist people; it's just stupidity and ignorance. Stop being a paranoid racist douchebag, the name-calling will stop.

"And let's not forget the one of the key issues that everyone on this board is apparently too "PC" to mention, but I'll bring it up anyway: if you're WHITE, you might as well have a bullseye painted on your back. You will not blend in with the rest of the "community" and you WILL be a target." -NYC Matt

http://spotcrime.com/ny/brooklyn/bedford-stuyvesant

not necessarily, I know a white guy who lives in bed-stuy and he's never had a problem...but he doesn't look like someone you'd want to mess with.

"I have no patience for racist people; it's just stupidity and ignorance. Stop being a paranoid racist douchebag, the name-calling will stop."

Racism = inconvenient and politically incorrect truth.

maly, don't think they need to be banned, but certainly called out for the pretty obvious prejudice.

Matt and sledgehammer think that their comments are "un-PC" and "honest" when really they're just patting themselves on the back for having the chutzpah to say these things, completely ignoring the fact that they make extremely lazy stereotypes about class, education, and skin color. It's shameful. It's one thing to be brave and state the truth - it's another to be dumb and just say sensationalist things.

sledgehammer, here's that map you were touting, and expecting to see massive crime increases in (whoops): http://projects.nytimes.com/crime/homicides/map
Also, http://spotcrime.com/ny/manhattan/

NYCMatt, if it's the "truth", please, citations and research on most likely victims of muggings in NYC: race, age, gender, crosschecked with race, age and gender of perpetrators. You must have that at your fingertips, since it's the brave and inconvenient truth.

Blowjob2103, you're the one calling the race card , i havn't ! What i'm calling is to think twice about the idea of dropping close to a $million bucks in a neighborhood where the community has little to no civism!
Civism = the attitudes and behavior of a good citizen.
I'm calling for civism as in and don't litter, don't play loud music in your apt or your car park on a residential area while you consciously know that it can be heard 2 blocks away, do not assault, rob, rape, sell drug to or shoot anyone within your community!
If Bed Stuy's resident were white hillbillies, my speech would excactly be the same. I told you before, it's not the race i'm denoucing here. Get a fvcking clue, stupid!

maly, data and facts? No, this is tea-party-style affirmation! Backed by gut-feeling and conviction!

"NYCMatt, if it's the "truth", please, citations and research on most likely victims of muggings in NYC: race, age, gender, crosschecked with race, age and gender of perpetrators. You must have that at your fingertips, since it's the brave and inconvenient truth."

I don't need "citations" and "research" other than my own observations and common sense.

Once you grow up, Maly, you'll know what that's like.

and a healthy dose of delusion and willfull blindness. It takes a certain kind of not-racist person to sign off "get a fucking clue, stupid" to decry the lack of civism of poor people in predominently black neighborhoods, or argue with a dark-skinned black man that white people are the real victims, because of the color of their skin.

Very nice, sledge. You talk about "the attitudes and behavior of a good citizen" but then call someone "blowjob" and "stupid" in the same post. Amazing.

What is it about Bed-Stuy that makes you think it's prone to litter, loud music, violence, and drugs? Please explain. Where does the lack of civism come from? And why is civism apparently so prevalent in other Brooklyn and Manhattan neighborhoods (you know, despite the litter, music, violence, and drugs that go on there)? And what is it about Bed-Stuy that makes you think property values are not properly accounting for these things?

wow, this racism thing is so out of control. i think people have to accept that because of past history that black (african american) neighborhoods are simply rougher...even my mother was upset that i was walking in another city because apparrently there is a big problem with young guys and guns. even my brother was yelling at me and his goal once was to be a rap star.

i think people have to accept reality.

Do NOT associate me with NYCMatt, i do NOT share his opinions.

sledge, your own words seem to betray you:

"That's exactly what i meant, Matt."

Now, can you answer the questions above? I'd really like to hear your thoughts.

Take a look at Dyker Heights or Bay Ridge. Bay Ridge Pkwy( 75th St) between 10th ave and 3rd ave. The street is lined with late 1800's brown and line stones. Many have walk ins that are rented to Doctors , and two apartments. The area is wounderful, and has been that way for decades.
Good luck

sledgehammer, you still there?

Dyker Heights and Bayridge are too far....I'm looking for 1/2 stop service to Manhattan.

"I'm looking for 1/2 stop service to Manhattan."

What does that mean?

he's looking to buy a brownstone that is very close to the city for cheap in a good neighborhood.... that's a stretch.

i've seen some come up in the Gowanus area on Park Slope side. they are not that cheap, but are surrounded by much more expensive ones in either direction. just hold your nose during the summer months.

I've never been to Gowanus. Does it really stink? I find that hard to imagine. My mother still thinks Jersey City smells although she hasn't been there in over 40 years.

on a hot summer day, it will smell within a block on Park Slope side. i lived many moons ago on the Carroll Gardens side and it smelled on only 2 days being 1/2 block away. it's been dredged since then.

I thank my pals who showed me Stuyvesant Heights everyday. I love my neighborhood and that includes my kind black neighbors who have made me feel welcome from day 1. My neighborhood always cheers me up. I used to live in the "Bedford" section of Bed-Stuy and that was really not for me. Totally different story. No harm done but I never ever felt welcome there.

The type of people who move to Stuy-Heights seem to really appreciate the neighborhood. The are working to make it nicer and they understand it's incredible history. The neighborhood association is phenomenal. I'd like to keep it that way.

I'm a native New Yorker. I know where my neighborhood ends and where it begins. Be smart. Don't judge. Check it out, you'll be glad you did.

By the way I work in the financial district and it takes me 30 minutes door to door on the express train. I'd be lucky to own a home here.

Just curious yoster why did you not feel welcome there. Thinking of moving to Jefferson near Nostrand...

To reply to whomever said if you're white you have a bullseye on you as far as crime, actually that's incorrect. Criminals are more likely to target Black people in predominantly Black neighborhooods because there is this feeling they are less likely to report the crime to the police (for fear they won't be believed, will be ignored or of retributions), whereas the white victim will make a big stink and get all kinds of attaention and they'll get in bigger trouble.