Brooklyn Paper Explores the Boom

Ten short years ago we remember calling friends who lived in Prospect Heights out of their minds. Later as we moved to Brooklyn as renters we felt lucky to have a park and bars close to the pad and a decent commute for a pretty measly monthly bill. As we grew up and saw the boom begin we were lucky enough to buy a place in a quiet sleepy neighborhood that allowed us to bike ride to those restaurants and still be close to work (we all actually work in Brooklyn now so have no commute complaints).

As our incomes have grown a bit and we've started to think of family and yard etc. we're realizing the dream here is harder to attain.... But it's not just in Brooklyn, those friends in the Heights just bought a house in Long Island that we think is nice but certainly out of the range we would want to pay. Many of our friends are starting their families in one bedrooms. We increasingly find ourselves envious of those who had the forethought to go a little over their means for a bigger place years ago. We're also a little surprised about the types of people moving into those hipper hoods we left behind (I didn't realize I-bankers wanted to be in Brooklyn!). Generally we love were we will and are happy those who surround us within our immediate community are similar to us in terms of priorities, community, etc.

We love it here and have no plans of leaving but often wonder depending on our next step were we will go... Even if we do make a good profit on this could we afford anything else close by that will have a little more space? An article in the Brooklyn Paper from Saturday explores Brooklyn's turn around and many of the individuals who made it happen. It also touches a bit on the concerns we're sure many of us share.

Brooklyn’s desirability is encouraging intense growth that brings more people, more cars and some of the very urban ills that borough residents hoped were in the past.


The drastic population influx could give way to Manhattan-style residential density. Love them or hate them, projects like Atlantic Yards and all the new residential towers in Downtown Brooklyn are happening because developers think there is a market for the thousands of units of housing and tens of millions of square feet of office and retail space.


Many of the people who “saved” Brooklyn can’t afford to live there anymore.

Who Saved Brooklyn? (5/19/07 - Brooklyn Paper)