NYT Goes to Midwood

Saturday, December 5th, 2009

The Real Estate Section goes to Midwood:

MANY blocks in Midwood, with its rows of orderly detached homes and private driveways, give the feeling of a carefully planned suburb — a serene surprise after turning off a thoroughfare like Coney Island Avenue or Ocean Parkway.

But closer inspection reveals that the landscape has, in fact, been altered: on virtually every block, at least one or two homes have been significantly expanded — built up, built out, even built down.

The larger homes blend in as best they can with their smaller neighbors, but their oversized shadows are hard to miss: they are evidence of the wealth and the larger families that a thriving Orthodox Jewish population has brought to Midwood in recent years.

“Midwood has always been Jewish, but it wasn’t always Orthodox,” said David Maryl, a broker at Jacob Gold Realty. “Now for every family that’s moving out, it’s an Orthodox family moving in.”

Brooklyn’s Community Board 14, which covers the eastern half of Midwood, fields several home expansion requests each month from the area, said Alvin M. Berk, the board’s chairman.

He said the board first noted the steady trickle of requests about eight years ago and now handles about 30 a year. “This seems to be a fairly high rate of building expansion,” he said. “But there’s generally no opposition — maybe just some concerns about a proposed enlargement reducing a neighbor’s light and air.” But applicants often make concessions to ease those concerns, he added.

Rather than building a larger home, Bill and Diana Spiegel bought one. They’ve moved about a mile east. “We love the area,” Mr. Spiegel said.

They walk more than a mile each way to attend the synagogue in their old area, because “we have a little separation anxiety,” he said. But on their way, they probably pass more than a dozen synagogues; they will probably switch to one nearby once the weather turns cold. “It seems like there’s a real sense of community here, and they welcome you,” Mr. Spiegel said.

Brokers say that Orthodox families first moved into Midwood about 25 years ago as they were priced out of Borough Park, a better established Orthodox neighborhood to the west. Nowadays, Midwood is “very sought after, because people want to be near family and friends, a yeshiva or a synagogue affiliation,” said Sora David, a broker with Eisberg Lenz Real Estate. Being within walking distance of a synagogue is critical for those who observe Orthodox Jewish laws forbidding driving and other activities on the Sabbath.

The article touches on, but doesn’t totally get at, the changes within the Jewish community in the neighborhood. Yeshiva of Flatbush, a top Modern Orthodox high school, for instance, has been around — and been Orthodox — since the 1920s, and lists notable graduates including Isaac Mizrahi, Wendy Wasserstein, Leon Wieseltier, and Nobelist Eric Kandel, though its demographics have shifted in recent years.

- Ben

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Andrew

Ironic that this article comes just days after the misinterpreted fiasco in the post ‘Under One Million.’ Thanks for closing out the post by the way, I’m glad there is some sort of pseudo-fascist censorship to look forward to (limiting the real voices of this community.) Let’s all talk exclusively about how wonderful the yummies are at Purple Yam and how beautiful the photo of the day is!

For those who care or participated in the initial blog conversation: real issues in the community such as demographic shifts, security issues, political tension, racial friction, rent prices, influx of private homes for sale ALONG with smaller yet valid arguments revolving around themes like reviving not demolishing the architectural integrity within the neighborhood should all be able to be discussed in a manner where all sides can be heard.

Let it be known there was no intent to pin an overall downgrade of this particular sector of the neighborhood character solely on Orthodox Jews; however I was pointing out there is a “trend” in this part of Victorian Flatbush where I have personally witnessed a small wave of the Orthodox Jewish community altering the homes substantially (obviously typical custom if you read the NYTimes article —and OF COURSE other families from various different backgrounds have also done so through the past decades.)

If that hurt someone’s feelings for some bizarre reason by saying that some new homeowners don’t seem to do a good job with Victorian homes, and furthermore one begins to extract racism and calls me one (by the way Jews are NOT a race, they belong to a religion; the politically correct term would be a ‘people’ and only the most anti-Semitic persons have historically referred to the Jews as a race to differentiate them in negative ways.)

There was never any profanity in the original post nor was it escalating to a point of extreme discomfort in terms of content, so please in the future back off and let those in the community have a discussion and a voice, whether the convo if full of intellectual matter or merely an argument, there was obviously an interest where it received 11 posts in half a day.
http://www.ditmasparkblog.com Ben

Thanks for the input, which was civil (minus the inevitable “fascist” line).

It’s always a balancing act in terms of keeping the comments section open and lively without allowing it to devolve into a screaming match, or indulging trolls; and that one seemed to me to be getting pretty broad-brush on one side and ad hominem on the other. Blog comment sections have a tendency to get very bad very fast, and are notoriously bad places to debate the broader issues of the day.
http://beanygetsablog.wordpress.com/ bean

i live in midwood – one of the last secular non-practicing jewish families left on our block (between k&l) and our block is and has been for a long time, almost exclusively orthodox. the hard part is raising a nyc girl amongst this group. the adults are polite and cold. the kids are raised with such an insular nature that they do not say hello when you pass them and say hello first but just stare with hostility and my daughter has been ignored for the most part. it’s been pretty hard on her. children children everywhere and not a one to play/talk with. why don’t we move? our little house was a grandfather’s house and then his son’s and now our family’s. i transformed a sad and swampy backyard to a beautiful lush garden only to watch every other backyard not just paved over, but high high fences erected to keep out anyone else. houses are gutted and rebuilt to the max allowed by law and this year a neighbor built perhaps the most hideous square boxed out extension on the front of their house over the foyer that i have ever seen…these are not victorians but sweet old-fashioned 1930′s homes. andrew, above, isn’t wrong. a lot of the orthodox community that are in midwood and moving into the edges of ditmas park neighborhoods have different feelings about what’s aesthetically important to them. they want the space but many don’t treasure the details. look at ‘midwood mansion’…the neighborhood between coney island avenue and ocean parkway – h to m – mcmansions all. feh. not my thing.
so it behooves those who do treasure such things to keep on top of landmarking (fiske terrace was just landmarked, yes?) and to try to preserve the beauty of the ditmas park neighborhoods.
Alexandra

Actually, Andrew, many Ashkenazim do see their Jewish identity as primarily ethnic or racial. Perhaps you should update your understanding of the politically correct terminology.
ldancer

Exactly, Alexandra. We are a specific ethnicity, different from the Slavs we lived among for centuries. I don’t know if that’s the case for Sephardim, Mizrahim, Azeri mountain Jews, etcetera. Maybe. But as for us, many of us would NEVER identify ourselves as Jews because of religion – it’s completely ethnic.
BB Panda

If Judaism were a race rather than a religion then it would be impossible for people of other races to become Jewish. Fortunately that’s not the case. I go to a synagogue where there are several converts from different races, and I’m always happy to see Judaism represented in many different hues. I don’t agree with Andrew’s opinions on everything, but think he’s got it right that the correct term would be “antisemitism.”
James

Alexandra and ldancer… you are actually agreeing with Andrew. It’s about *identity* — i.e., ethnicity. Race tends to be technically defined as related to phenotypic variation in a population…. skin color, eyes, facial structure, hair, etc. Genetic sorts of things.

You family were probably pretty much the same “race” as the non-Jews in your nieghborhood in Krakow. Though there may be some differentiating features — but enough to be considered a different “race”… probably not.

Now ethnicity is also a slippery one since it’s very much based on cultural and group identity. Think about the secular Jews in Germany during the War. They identified themselves as Germans… or Bavarians… or Berliners…. or whatever. Only the orthodox Jews were not assimilated (and that was the same for orthodox christians too). The Jews weren’t differentiated, for the most part, in everyday life until the labeling began — identity cards, gold stars, etc. A common nationality and identity was stripped from them and they were given a new “definition” that many (most?) didn’t quite identify with. (It only took root later on as this new identity provided strength in the sense of unity — but it was actually fairly arbitrary in nature)

If I stand on the corner in Borough Park, could I say the folks around me are a different “race” than me? No. Absolutely not. Can I say we are a different ethnicity? Yes, of course. And while there are cultural practices or traditions that secular jews and orthodox jews share because of regional origin (northern europe, for example)… it would take a lot to convince me that the secular, non-observant jews of Park Slope and the Hasidim of Williamsburg share a cultural identity!!

SO, ethnicity is an interesting thing. And I think Andrew’s use of the term “a people” is just as accurate. And probably more flexible.

May I ask… why do you identify yourself as Jews if not because of religion? (In some manner) What exactly “binds” you to the rabbi in Crown Heights? the raver in Tel Aviv? the tall black woman in Ethiopia? the sephardic mystic in Morocco? You’re all “Jews” right? Ethnically? Racially? Or perhaps connected through religion and traditions that perhaps aren’t as strong as “ethnicity”

(This was written, quickly, for the purpose of spurring thoughts and ideas…. trust me, I’m sure there are flaws and gaps in logic and the like. So, to preempt some of the typical blog-ish behavior, feel free to dismiss everything i said because of some minutiae or awkward phrasing… but keep it to yourself)
m

Actually BB Panda, the term “anti-Semitic” is most always used incorrectly, as a large number of people in modern times who practice Judaism are neither Semites nor descendants of Semitic people. Speaking solely on religious grounds, the term Abrahamic and its variations are perhaps more appropriate.
Alexandra

James, I didn’t use “ethnic” to mean “cultural.” If Ashkenazi Jews don’t constitute a racial category, how do you explain shared genetic traits, like the tendency toward Tay-Sachs?

From wikipedia (the most trusted source on the internet):

In an ethnic sense, an Ashkenazi Jew is one whose ancestry can be traced to the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. For roughly a thousand years, the Ashkenazim were a reproductively isolated population in Europe, despite living in many countries, with little inflow or outflow from migration, conversion, or intermarriage with other groups, including other Jews. Human geneticists have identified genetic variations that have high frequencies among Ashkenazi Jews, but not in the general European population. This is true for patrilineal markers (Y-chromosome haplotypes) as well as for matrilineal markers (mitochondrial haplotypes).

A study by Michael Seldin, a geneticist at the University of California Davis School of Medicine, found Ashkenazi Jews to be a clear, relatively homogenous genetic subgroup. Strikingly, regardless of the place of origin, Ashkenazi Jews can be grouped in the same genetic cohort — that is, regardless of whether an Ashkenazi Jew’s ancestors came from Poland, Russia, Hungary, Lithuania, or any other place with a historical Jewish population, they belong to the same ethnic group. The research demonstrates the endogamy of the Jewish population in Europe and lends further credence to the idea of Ashkenazi Jews as an ethnic group.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_Jews#By_ethnicity

BB Panda, it’s not an either/or thing. I am not denying that Judiasm is a religion (that would be absurd) or implying that conversions to Judaism are invalid. It’s also pretty clear to me that anti-Semitism is a kind of racism, and not distinct from it.
BB Panda

But Alexandra, you’re also acting as if Ashkenazi Jews were the standard by which all Jews should be judged. Yes they share a lot in common genetically since most of them came from the same shtetls. But from my perspective there are too many Jews from different parts of the world to make being a Jew a racial thing. I’m also too aware that the last time there was a real movement to designate Jews as a race rather than religion was in Nazi Germany.

M., I agree that most Jews are not direct-descendants of Shem from the Torah, which is another good reason why Jews are not a race. But when I looked up the definition for “anti-semitism” in the OED I found it to be: “Theory, action, or practice directed against the Jews. Hence, anti-semite, one who is hostile or opposed to the Jews.” So I’m gonna go with that term. Besides anti-Abrahamic just doesn’t sound right.
Matt

Anti-Abrahamic would mean that one is against followers of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. I would guess there are very few militant anti-Abrahamites out there directing their hatred specifically toward those three religions, although there are quite a few folks opposed to religion in general.
liz

Maybe talking about people stirs more response, but I want to talk about the houses: the renovations of the homes in Midwood over the past 25-30 years are simply not to my taste. I liked the well-proportioned homes–many small, some big, none huge–with little lawns and typically open porches. It was a beautiful neighborhood that encouraged interaction. These houses, built between 1910 and 1930s, have been replaced by and large with large characterless boxes that occupy too much of the lot and too much of the sky. I don’t love them aesthetically,and I don’t like them environmentally: little houses used to contain big families,with 0 or 1 car. Now HUGE houses in the neighborhood usually have at most five residents and at least 3 cars. If you want to finger a group to blame, I suggest you target Americans. McMansions and excess consumption are national defects.

My only quibble with the Times article is that neighbors do often complain–but the fines for violations are so low that folks appear to build what they want and include the penalties as a cost of construction.
Sam

I think a bit more perspective is called for in this discussion. Regarding development in Midwood, it is a function of increasing population pressure for a finite amount of land.
This has been going on all over the city, and it just happens to be in Midwood it involves many (but not limited to) Orthodox Jews. Not so in other areas, like Brighton Beach near Coney Island, where there are neighborhoods with nary an Orthodox Jew around containing truly hideous buildings in place of those former one level beach bungalows.

It’s going on in Queens, and it has been happening in Manhattan for well over 100 years!

(In Manhattan, it’s reached the height of absurdity with land marking of nondescript East Side apartment houses that were built on the lots of razed beautiful brownstones.)

Getting back to DP and DPW, if you want to talk about buildings that changed the character of the neighborhood, then the worst offense to our neighborhood was the building of gigantic apartment houses on all the blocks between Cortelyou and Dorchester, and on Newkirk near Ocean Ave.!

The only reason the rest of the neighborhood still mostly maintains its Victorian character, is due to a combination of good fortune and the efforts of a very active Neighborhood Association. Truth be told, this neighborhood was largely shunned, that’s right SHUNNED from the 1970s until the mid 1990s, because of its proximity to the changing neighborhood of East Flatbush and Ocean Avenue high rises. Probably because of the relatively small housing stock, and a concerted effort by some real estate brokers to protect this neighborhood, it did not degenerate into a slum. We can all be grateful to them. When the housing bubble burst after 1989, and there was a great wave of flight to the suburbs from the city teetering on the edged of bankruptcy, the homes here were going begging at asking prices of $250k. Today these homes will cost $1 mil.

Realistically, with population pressure continuing as normal it would take a miracle (or strict land marking which is a double-edged sword) for DP & DPW to look at all like it does today some 50 years from now.
Jen

I’m not sure where in Midwood this is referring too. I know some houses around DPW were rebuilt in larger and very different styling, but that has as much to do with building requirements as anything else. If the hull of a wooden house is rotting, you have to replace it, or even if you just want to expand: fire codes don’t permit building with wood. That doesn’t leave many “authentic” options.

Houses further out toward H, I, J are hideous already, and rebuilding them can only improve things.
http://www.crazystable.squarespace.com Brenda from Flatbush

I find myself grousing about what the very Orthodox folks are doing to their Midwood houses on our excursions there over the years (especially the mega-bloaters overbuilt hideously to accommodate new yeshivas and the like), but one of the commenters above did well to point out how many other “groups” (whether racial or religious or whatevuh) are guilty of the same offense against the historical context of their neighborhoods, especially in Queens, where I grew up. (There’s a good blog, Queenscrap, that has chronicled some of it.) We have a natural tendency to want to pin blame on a highly visible group for not sharing our tastes and the deeper value set they may represent (ie. historical preservation vs competing priorities); in Douglaston, to give just one other example, the Koreans have come in for it. What’s really interesting is how the same architectural McMansion vernacular (fat limestone balustrades, “Juliet” balconies, glaring brickface, pave-overs, tortured corkscrew conifers etc.) seems to appeal to such a diverse swath of historic house-trashers, from Orthodox Jews to Bangladeshi contractors to good ol’ born-in-the-USA types. How did this generic all-American parody of Klassy Homes become an aspirational standard for people from such a broad swath of cultures? Discuss amongst yourselves.
liz

I don’t think “population pressure” is to blame for the hideofication of Midwood. Tearing down two buildings that housed between two and four families to build one stuccoed 10,000-square-foot home for one smaller family has more to do with consumerism than overcrowding.

The city is more populated than in the past; this has made me miss the once open spaces of Midwood even more, before so many houses had flat fortress-like facades and covered such a massive amount of the lot.

(Although I do like the purple castle in the East 20s between Avenues M and N. Eccentric is a recognizeable American vernacular.)
James

So, to be clear… the Ashkenazim are an ethnic group… the “Jews” are not. Is that what I’m hearing? I’d like to update Wikipedia with the consensus.
Charles

I was born at Brooklyn Jewish Hospital, long gone, in 1942. Until I was seventeen I lived mostly in Brooklyn in a number of different neighborhoods, the last being what we called Flatbush, but what is now called Midwood. Once I left for college my parents, like so many others, moved out. In their case, to Riverside Drive. From then until about 15 years ago, I lived mainly in Manhattan but in a couple of other places as well. During the 20 odd years I lived in Manhattan with my wife, taking foreign visitors to Brooklyn was one of the specialties of our house.

We would drive through Manhattan streets, usually on a Sunday, and then into Brooklyn, where I would drive through one neighborhood after the next pointing out how an “Italian” neighborhood turned into a “Jewish” one, which then turned into a “Pakistani” one, out to Coney Island and back, and how one could tell mostly by the stores whose stock changed to meet their customers’ demands. Our friends would marvel at how you could go to a barbershop on Coney Island Avenue and have someone speak Urdu, Yiddish, English…. This, they understood, was the real wonder of New York. Neighborhood villages of different ethnic groups living cheek to cheek mostly in peace. It’s been a great privilege to have grown up and lived in this environment.

What surprised me most when I started do this was that the physical Brooklyn I knew as a child had changed very little. The houses, lawns, yards, all looked pretty much the same. What mostly changed were the people in them. Where I had grown up in neighborhoods that were mostly Jewish and Italian with some Irish and a couple of what we called Indians – but who are now called Native Americans, the range of ethnicities is far greater than it had been in my childhood. What I inferred from this was that the reasons that people came to live in Brooklyn in my father’s generation are not so different than the reason people come to Brooklyn in my son’s.

Of course this wasn’t and isn’t Eden. There were places where I was not welcome and places where “they” were not welcome. And although Brooklyn has maintained a huge stock of beautiful residential buidings – many over time had been altered or torn down to make way for more profit or bigger families. Like everything, and this may just be the perspective of someone born in 1942, this has gotten worse as fewer and fewer people throughout our entire country seem to be capable of identifying with the greater good. It seems to be how we our evolving. When we find a solution for the United States as a whole we will find the solution for Brooklyn or visa versa.

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