It’s conventional wisdom that if you’re a white, middle class parent, you want to be in Park Slope. Land of expensive strollers, precocious children and bizarre arguments over children’s clothing. But, a new report, coming to us via Brownstoner, is exploding that wisdom and possibly setting the stage for a few rage explosions, because apparently Bay Ridge is the best place in Brooklyn to raise a kid. So, what’s it gonna be Bay Ridge: hipsters or yuppies?
The report from the Citizen’s Committee for Children, which Brownstoner was nice enough to shell out the fifty bucks to read, ranked neighborhoods all over the city on their fitness for your kinder. Bay Ridge came in fourth overall, thanks to a high rate of home ownership, good schools and parents there having steady work. Park Slope, despite it’s reputation as the child-friendly neighborhood in the city, was rated 15th overall mostly because the rich people there live in the vicinity of poors. So now that the secret is out, will parents in Park Slope and South Slope pull up stakes and flee towards Bay Ridge? Probably not actually, they’re pretty dug in at this point. But, will there be a whole new generation of young people having kids who come south from Williamsburg and Bed-Stuy? Only time will tell.