Would anyone call Brooklyn or the Bronx beautiful? (Newark: house, living)

[gradstudent77]

Originally Posted by CaptainNJ

when all you know is nyc, you set the bar very low.

For what? Suburban-style development? Some people find the suburbs repulsive, its a personal preference thing.

[Carantini]

you dont think a kid who was raised in the bronx as a baby and now hes like 18 wouldnt consider his hood beutiful, even if you dont? of course he would, and does often. the people living in what some ppl call gettos love it to death

[analyticalkeys]

Originally Posted by Carantini

you dont think a kid who was raised in the bronx as a baby and now hes like 18 wouldnt consider his hood beutiful, even if you dont? of course he would, and does often. the people living in what some ppl call gettos love it to death

All of the Bronx isn't "ghettos" is the point.. that's what this thread seems to be implying, but that simply isn't the case. There's plenty of nice areas that aren't very urban at all, if that's what's defined as beauty.

[neonwattagelimit]

Originally Posted by Weekend Traveler

I have friends who chose to live in Brooklyn or the Bronx because they say it is so beautiful. I do not see it, both seem ugly. Now someone could love the people or the culture and the history of these places or have warm memories but physically beautiful?

There may be some nice parks and nice looking trees in some parts of these New York areas but as a whole would you call the Bronx or Brooklyn beautiful?

On the whole, probably not. But on the whole, there are very few cities that are truly beautiful, or truly ugly. Most places tend to have a lot of beautiful and ugly areas that balance each other out, more or less.

I'm not particularly familiar with the Bronx, but Brooklyn has plenty of beautiful areas, and not just parks. Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Bay Ridge along the waterfront, the old houses in Midwood, Flatbush, and Kensington. There's lot of little places, as well, that I'm not going to mention...there's too many.

New York is a place where you're walking along a tree-lined block of brownstones, turn a corner, and then, BAM, giant ugly post-war apartment building painted lime green. That's just the way it is. It really varies a lot on a block-to-block basis. Also, I'm the kind of person who finds old industrial settings oddly beautiful...so it's all a matter of opinion. But, yeah, for conventional beauty, those areas I mentioned above are good bets.

[Woozle]

Manhattan would be quite beautiful if there was not a single visible fire escape in the borough, and residential buildings consisted exclusively of old townhouses, Candela/Roth style pre-war apartment buildings and modern luxury condos. Alas, this is not the case.

Much of Manhattan housing stock is old walkups with rusty fire escapes marring the facades and hideous brick boxes from the 1940's-60's. Most people live in Manhattan DESPITE its buildings. The Bronx may, for the most part, be even uglier, but Queens and Brooklyn are mostly just old (often pre-car) suburban housing stock - duplexes, rowhouses, bungalows.

There are some beautiful streets in all boroughs (particularly in brownstone Brooklyn, UWS, UES, bits of GV). But all the boroughs are, for the most part, UGLY. Such is the nature of this great city.

[NeilVA]

Sure. It depends on your point of reference.

[jjbradleynyc]

Originally Posted by Weekend Traveler

I have friends who chose to live in Brooklyn or the Bronx because they say it is so beautiful. I do not see it, both seem ugly. Now someone could love the people or the culture and the history of these places or have warm memories but physically beautiful?

There may be some nice parks and nice looking trees in some parts of these New York areas but as a whole would you call the Bronx or Brooklyn beautiful?

Completely subjective. What one person deems "beautiful" another finds "ugly."

I think there is a beauty to industrial buildings that have been abandoned. Also, there's a beauty in the energy, excitement and busy nature of a street during rush hour.

As grandmothers for generations have said "beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

[bluedog2]

Originally Posted by Carantini

you dont think a kid who was raised in the bronx as a baby and now hes like 18 wouldnt consider his hood beutiful, even if you dont? of course he would, and does often. the people living in what some ppl call gettos love it to death

This is exactly right and it is the reason why I have always been reluctant to trash any neighborhood on this forum no matter how bad I think it might be.
Too bad some others don't seem to any misgivings about doing so.

[CaptainNJ]

Originally Posted by bluedog2

This is exactly right and it is the reason why I have always been reluctant to trash any neighborhood on this forum no matter how bad I think it might be.
Too bad some others don't seem to any misgivings about doing so.

i think its better to be honest than be sensitive to others and give out bad information. people who grew up in a place are not the best people to give opinions about that place. they are less objective because its what they know and often have come to appreciate. plus, people are often trained to hate other places because it helps them be happier in their place (nyc's hatred for nj for example).

[bluedog2]

Originally Posted by CaptainNJ

i think its better to be honest than be sensitive to others and give out bad information. people who grew up in a place are not the best people to give opinions about that place. they are less objective because its what they know and often have come to appreciate. plus, people are often trained to hate other places because it helps them be happier in their place (nyc's hatred for nj for example).

I understand what you are saying but I wasn't suggesting that people give out bad information . There are ways to to suggest that certain areas aren't great without being offensive or denigrating of folks who call it home.

There are also many people on this forum who make blanket, incorrect and offensive statements about entire boroughs of which they know almost nothing.It's like they drove across The Cross Bronx Expressway once, in 1976 and think they have seen The Bronx.It would be like if I went to the worst part of Newark once in my life and decided that was what all of New Jersey looked like and labeled the whole state a ghetto.