Myrtle Ave. Offers Condos for Brooklyn Yuppies

It's easy to be a voyeur when all the new neighbors have glass windows. A few blocks down Myrtle - in both directions - you can sneak a peak into one of several new condos. While most have been bought, there are many vacant residencies, casting a ghostly glow of newly constructed cement and glass on the bustling avenue below. Myrtle ave, also known as Murder ave, where in the mid-90's Busta Rhymes was mugged in the White Castle parking lot - or at least that's what a long-time resident told me late last night in line for the hallmark creamy small burgers.

Now, Myrtle ave. even as far east as Nostrand avenue, is considered prime real estate for the yuppie. Developers are calling the strip "Clinton Hill," a sort of fraudulent advertising tactic so as not to deter buyers from the oh-so-scary neighborhood of Bedford Stuyvesant (where the properties are actually located).

On the corner of Myrtle and Nostrand, the recently erected "Mynt" condo has its immaculate entrance facing Marcy Playground and offers "refrigerated storage room for grocery deliveries." Who knows why these new residents can't walk, or even drive down the street to the grocery store?



Also, the converted chocolate factory on my corner is advertising a glass enclosed rooftop gym. This building is selling lofts for almost 500,000. Good deal, right? Maybe if you're in that bracket that lets you slide without paying property tax for a while. (more on that later)

The Absolute condo, west on Myrtle on the corner of Steuben street, is offering all the amenities of the modern day condo, not to mention White Castle is just next door. In The Developers Group ad there is mention of a "walk through an eclectic neighborhood to Fort Greene Park" - where, it isn't said, but you could get away from the people of color and young artsy Pratt students (you know, just in case, wink* wink*)





Neighbors, be ware!

Me, the Burgeoning Yuppie

In an effort to pen my first blog post, stop procrastinating and beating myself up for fear of poor grammar and spelling, I'll begin by explaining myself, in the position of becoming a full fledged yuppie. After leaving the hot mess that is Washington, D.C., moving to an unfamiliar area here, in Brooklyn, I have decided I can no longer deny my obsession with yuppies. I'll have to admit that I might (by some standards) fall somewhere between the yuppie/hipster demographic, but could easily locate myself as an upwardly mobile, middle class, college-educated, white woman. Washington, D.C., as I knew it growing up in the rapidly changing neighborhood of Mt. Pleasant, was full of the career budding, resume boosting hypocrites. As I grew into my teens, I noticed the coffee shop trend: outrageously priced, sugar loaded, caffeine drinks served at fast-paced, loud shops where folks (yuppies) sat around all day, supposedly working from their laptops. My first reaction, even as a young (non-working) teenage girl, was: "don't these people have jobs?" That was when I was informed of the new WiFi technology offered next to your steaming tall non-fat (two-pump) hazelnut mocha latte.

So, before WiFi, and even before the appropriation of yoga as a way to stay thin, yuppies filled the converted lofts and row houses of our urban centers and "up and coming" neighborhoods. It was in the 80's that they began to park their Beemers (BMWs) and Mercedes on the streets instead of the garages of their suburban parents , inhabit coffeeshops and upscale restaurants, and stroll designer carriages with pampered children through parks: the start of shameless gentrification. Shameless because these were the folks who were young, wealthy, and driven to accumulate more wealth. These yuppies also wanted to show it off and set themselves apart from the previous generation of hippies.

According to a 1986 survey by Louis Harris and Associates, 73% of Americans believed that yuppies were primarily intent on making more money; 81% of yuppies agreed that they were. Also, 72% of the public believed that yuppies were more concerned with their own needs than with the needs of others; the same percentage of yuppies agreed. Additionally, 70% of those surveyed thought yuppies bought flashy cars and clothes in order to set themselves apart from others; 81% of yuppies said this was so.

And so, this blog will continue to dissect the social demographic of our contemporary yuppie brothers and sisters, and when and why they choose or refuse to call themselves a yuppie.