L Magazine lists Park Slope in top neighborhood power rankings

Photo by Park Slope Lens

Just for the hell of it, L Magazine has pit Brooklyn neighborhoods against each other in an ultimate power ranking. While Park Slope nabs a spot (#8) among the top 12, it still loses out to the stench that is Gowanus (#6) and Greenpoint (#1), the nabe with its pain-in-the-ass commute.

Using a scientific (read: arbitrary) approach, the free NYC magazine judged neighborhoods on criteria like food and drink, accessibility, culture, infrastructure, affordability, and emotional baggage. Park Slope received good marks for its streets lined with trees, brownstones and dining institutions. Our proximity to Prospect Park was also a plus. However, the stroller-happy culture and pricey digs pushes young people out of the hood.

According to the magazine, the future population of the Slope will potentially be younger.

Then again, Park Slope’s position as the borough’s kid-capital is slipping, with erstwhile hip Williamsburg poised to take over. Will the whole neighborhood become as cool as its hipper south side already is? Or will parents simply take over the borough? The ranks of all those fogeys opposed to the Prospect Park West bike lane are bound to start thinning.

So I have a bone to pick with their rating of our neighborhood. If the influx of strollers are so irritating, why is Williamsburg ranked higher than us. The gentrified neighborhood has been seized by pricey condos, babies and Duane Reades. Seriously, I was at the Williamsburg Waterfront's Fleet Foxes show on Saturday and they even kept those drinking segregated from the child-ridden. You don't see that shit happen at the Bandshell. I'll keep paying an average rent of $2,900 for a two-bedroom apartment (still cheaper $3,400 in Williamsburg) and not dealing with the hot mess that is the L train. Counterculture, my ass.