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My husband had an interview at Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx this month and he recently received another interview invitation in NYC this time for Brookdale Hospital in Brownsville, Brooklyn for next month.
Like I did with the Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx I started reading on here about the area the Brookdale Hospital is in which is Brownsville. I'm more worried because everything said about it seems negative and scary. There are no champions of the Brownsville area like there were with the South Bronx or the Bronx in general. Even the locals in Brownsville recounted stories of gangs running the place and that it was very dangerous. With the stories of the South Bronx they seemed less violent and mainly filled with the people crushed by poverty, and that members of the community felt safe in general and that the Bronx was the final frontier for up and coming and it will have it's day.
The medical students and doctors on city-data that rotated at the Brookdale hospital said it was a poor hospital in general, and for training, and that it was only good for trauma because of all the gun shot wounds and stabbings. Someone also linked an article that Army physicians train there for trauma before being sent into combat. That there were no good neighborhoods in the surrounding areas though some people mentioned the area right across from the hospital wasn't that bad but you really don't want to live there. They mentioned even crossing the street to the hospital made them a target in Brownsville and advised when leaving the hospital at night to leave in a group or with security guards. None of that was mentioned for the area where the Lincoln hospital is located.
I thought Brooklyn was red hot and up and coming with the gentrification but many mentioned that will never reach the Brownsville area. My idea of Brooklyn has been shaped from the Sex and the City episode where Steve is trying to get Miranda to buy a house in Brooklyn. Steve would say, "Brooklyn", and Miranda would reply, "Broken". Eventually they moved there and remodeled a house to live in. That's kind of similar to what I've read about on here with the gentrification of Brooklyn.
I'm wondering where do people that work at Brookdale Hospital live then? I was looking at all the links in the Cyprus Hill thread and thought the structure of the homes seem charming with the wooden houses and the brick houses. I was kind of sold on the idea because it seemed to fit our description too of a single middle class mixed race and religion family wanting to buy a home in an affordable area with some green areas/parks and start to raise our own family. Plus I read there is an Arab community there buying up homes.
I looked on Trulia and I could see us buying a fixer upper in the CH area and recruiting our friend of the family that has a remodeling business. From the pictures linked on google street view the neighborhoods look quite similar to where we lived in Idaho with the ideal areas being the North End with the historic houses and the Warm Spring area with the mixture of wood and brick homes. They all have character and they're older and need to be fixed up while many other homes are already redone.
I also checked the Brooklyn safety map and the Cyprus Hill area seems fine on there, but it seems my husband would have to drive through the dangerous red area to get to Brookdale hospital. We're thinking of keeping the car for the commute in this area rather than taking the local transportation and having to go around. The transportation in this area seemed unreliable and even the walk from the train to the hospital seemed dangerous. Is it realistic to travel this route by car or is Cypress Hill too far? Should we be looking at other areas in Brooklyn that are more reasonable? My husband's all about getting the most for his money so if it's cheaper or he can save money by selling the car, and live in an affordable apartment area, and travel by local transportation then he may be more inclined to go for that.
Any advice would be appreciated. I still have a lot to read up about on Brooklyn and I was lucky to come across the prior thread, "The Bronx isn't bad anymore," at the time. We don't get to pick where we get placed for his job so if we end up in the Bronx or Brooklyn at one of these hospitals we'll have to make it work.
Something tells me that cypress hills brooklyn is nothing like where you lived in Idaho. Look at Bergen beach and mill basin in brooklyn or even howard beach in queens. If you prefer the architecture in cypress hills, you might want to look into ridgewood queens which wouldn't be such a bad drive. I assume he'll get free parking at the hospital?
We don't know about the parking at the hospital yet but I'll have him inquire when he goes for the interview. We were just thinking to use the car because from the threads on here it sounds like the transportation is spotty in this area and more risky at night.
My husband had an interview at Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx this month and he recently received another interview invitation in NYC this time for Brookdale Hospital in Brownsville, Brooklyn for next month.
Like I did with the Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx I started reading on here about the area the Brookdale Hospital is in which is Brownsville. I'm more worried because everything said about it seems negative and scary. There are no champions of the Brownsville area like there were with the South Bronx or the Bronx in general. Even the locals in Brownsville recounted stories of gangs running the place and that it was very dangerous. With the stories of the South Bronx they seemed less violent and mainly filled with the people crushed by poverty, and that members of the community felt safe in general and that the Bronx was the final frontier for up and coming and it will have it's day.
The medical students and doctors on city-data that rotated at the Brookdale hospital said it was a poor hospital in general, and for training, and that it was only good for trauma because of all the gun shot wounds and stabbings. Someone also linked an article that Army physicians train there for trauma before being sent into combat. That there were no good neighborhoods in the surrounding areas though some people mentioned the area right across from the hospital wasn't that bad but you really don't want to live there. They mentioned even crossing the street to the hospital made them a target in Brownsville and advised when leaving the hospital at night to leave in a group or with security guards. None of that was mentioned for the area where the Lincoln hospital is located.
I thought Brooklyn was red hot and up and coming with the gentrification but many mentioned that will never reach the Brownsville area. My idea of Brooklyn has been shaped from the Sex and the City episode where Steve is trying to get Miranda to buy a house in Brooklyn. Steve would say, "Brooklyn", and Miranda would reply, "Broken". Eventually they moved there and remodeled a house to live in. That's kind of similar to what I've read about on here with the gentrification of Brooklyn.
I'm wondering where do people that work at Brookdale Hospital live then? I was looking at all the links in the Cyprus Hill thread and thought the structure of the homes seem charming with the wooden houses and the brick houses. I was kind of sold on the idea because it seemed to fit our description too of a single middle class mixed race and religion family wanting to buy a home in an affordable area with some green areas/parks and start to raise our own family. Plus I read there is an Arab community there buying up homes.
I looked on Trulia and I could see us buying a fixer upper in the CH area and recruiting our friend of the family that has a remodeling business. From the pictures linked on google street view the neighborhoods look quite similar to where we lived in Idaho with the ideal areas being the North End with the historic houses and the Warm Spring area with the mixture of wood and brick homes. They all have character and they're older and need to be fixed up while many other homes are already redone.
I also checked the Brooklyn safety map and the Cyprus Hill area seems fine on there, but it seems my husband would have to drive through the dangerous red area to get to Brookdale hospital. We're thinking of keeping the car for the commute in this area rather than taking the local transportation and having to go around. The transportation in this area seemed unreliable and even the walk from the train to the hospital seemed dangerous. Is it realistic to travel this route by car or is Cypress Hill too far? Should we be looking at other areas in Brooklyn that are more reasonable? My husband's all about getting the most for his money so if it's cheaper or he can save money by selling the car, and live in an affordable apartment area, and travel by local transportation then he may be more inclined to go for that.
Any advice would be appreciated. I still have a lot to read up about on Brooklyn and I was lucky to come across the prior thread, "The Bronx isn't bad anymore," at the time. We don't get to pick where we get placed for his job so if we end up in the Bronx or Brooklyn at one of these hospitals we'll have to make it work.
Merry Lee,try to keep in mind that The Bronx is the same size as Philadelphia and Brooklyn is the same size as Chicago.That's why it is equally impossible to generalize about either place.Both of these boroughs contain some of the best and some of the worst neighborhoods in the city.
I am not really very familiar with Cypress Hills but I think I agree with G-Dale.It will never be anything like Idaho.
Do you have a preferred demographic you'd like to live among? Cypress Hills is pretty much all hispanic. I basically assumed you were white. Canarsie might be the closest not ghetto option. That does not mean it is a white neighborhood.
Thanks for that comparison bluedog2. On a map NYC looks so small. I thought where do they fit all 8 million NYers? Then going there you realize it's really big.
The comparison to ideal neighborhoods to live in Boise was more out of familiarity in regards to the structure of the homes in the areas linked on google street view for Cypress Hill. I am well aware NYC is not Idaho, but I did have to say some of the posts in the CH thread won me over with the description and similar attractions to the area as we have. I'm also open to any other suggestions for areas to live and various commutes.
From our experience staying in Queens last trip the commute to Lincoln took an hour and ten minutes. We ended up finding the place to stay off of airbnb.com that worked out. They guy picked us up at the airport and dropped us off which made it convenient. Now the tickets are twice the price they were a month ago so only one of us gets to make this short trip and he was thinking to stay at the same place, but when we looked at the commute from Queens to Brooklyn it seemed twice as long. We have to travel west to Manhatten then south to Brooklyn and then east again to the hospital. The route is like a big C. So we're looking at airbnb.com again for places that are in Brooklyn this time to stay. Due to this I suspect living in Queens and using the local transportation would be too long for the commute to the hospital unless we kept the car and drove, but maybe driving would still take just as long?
G-dale I am white and my husband is middle eastern. We'd like to live where we'd fit in and the CH description fit that. I'm not adverse to the poor but I am adverse to violence. The Canarsie area was also described as bad for a place to live in the Brookdale hospital threads.
You'd be the only white person in cypress hills. Not really, but pretty much. Canarsie is more of a middle class black neighborhood. Also check out woodhaven, richmond hill, Glendale, ozone park and sheepshead bay. Parts of queens are much closer to brooklyn than the Bronx. Parts of queens are even closer to that part of brooklyn than other parts of brooklyn are.
I'm from Cypress Hills. The most notable populations are various Hispanic groups, I believe the Puerto Rican population are in decline in Cypress Hills. Dominicans and Mexicans are growing in number. There are a notable population of South Asians (Bengali, Indian, ect) in both Cypress Hills and City Line, this population is also growing fast.
There's also segments of old stock NY Italian, Irish in the area. More today than a few years ago, at least I find this population more noticeable at current date than a few years ago. Perhaps home buyers from neighboring areas to the north and east are taking advantage of home prices. We also have a number of Black-Caribbeans from Trinidad, Jamaica, and other islands. And finally, a growing population of Chinese and Arabs too.
I've seen Hipsters that are common in Williamsburg-Bushwick on 3 occasions, but not too valid at the moment.
All in all, I don't think any NYC neighborhood will ever be as similar to Idaho.
In these parts of Queens is there local transportation that doesn't go in a semi-circle and take a long time or do you recommend keeping the car for the commute?
My husband is the type of Arab that also has African features so I'd be the main one that stood out I suppose. I've lived in all Hispanic communities and grew up in Austin, TX, which has lots of diversity so I'm not really worried about that unless you or others think it would be a problem for the community itself. They mentioned in the CH thread there was an Arab community buying up homes and some mixed race couples but like you said not much really.
Since we have a couple months I'll certainly look into the recommendations and I thank you all for your kind responses.
If he does end up planning on commuting by subway, you'd probably want to stay by the 3 line in brooklyn. The walk from the L line is further and likely more dangerous of a walk in general. From southwest queens, you'd probably take the J/Z or A to broadway junction and transfer to the L.
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