Barbara Crockoran on NY Press's Most Loathsome New Yorker list

Not a surprise, though I thought she could have easily bumped up higher from her current #4 ranking to at least #2.

"Corcoran's success has opened the doors of the city to scores of locust-like imitators swarming the next 'hot, hip hood' to drive out blacks, Puerto Ricans, pensioners, old people, struggling families, squatters and anyone else who can't step up in the market-rate plate. 'The Corcoran Group is the Wal-Mart of real estate,' says one local Brooklyn broker. 'Corcoran goes into a cheap neighborhood and brings in a developer to rip apart the organic fabric.' The Corcoran website states that Barbara founded the company at a 'key moment in New York City real estate history'the 1970s'just as the city went from being a market predominantly composed of rentals to one of individual ownership.' Sound familiar?"

Which individuals are owning now? Certainly not anyone I know. That "anyone else who can't step up in the market-rate plate" includes virtually all first-time home-buying families in the city, regardless of color or creed. Incomes that many people consider middle or upper middle class are frequently south of the affordability line, even in Brooklyn. The dividing line is somewhere along $150,000 and rising. Sure singles and couples without children could find a 2 BR in an okay Brooklyn nabe, but for anyone with thoughts of raising a family, especially one where there is a stay at home parent, Brooklyn is just not the place to do it if you or your spouse don't make this kind of scratch. You could buy with the idea of leaving as things change, but who wants to make that kind of investment when change could just around the corner -- from a baby to a new job or loss of one?

Congratulations Barbara, you've just re-invigorated the cycle of urban flight that I am suspecting (if pricing trends continue over-valuing NYC real estate) should crest within the next ten years. This trend isn't new, it started post WWII, when all the suburbs and exurbs of NYC were populated by regular folk with families who were looking for a better deal than what they had in the city, as well as an opportunity to own-. Through the millenium, the NYC exodus has continued to envelop not just outside NYC proper, but the metro region, pushing NY'ers to cheaper locales in Florida, the Carolinas, and the rest of the Eastern Seaboard.

Families started moving back into many of overlooked Brooklyn nabes in the 70's, 80's and 90's, reversing the urban flight trend. Now those same kinds of families could not settle in those neighborhoods even if they tried. The lucky ones who bought then and have stayed could do so either due to steady jobs, independent work, or compromise to their careers.

But what about their next generation? Where are their kids going to live and raise a family? They are going to move out of the city because they have no choice. It reminds me of when my uncles in Jersey or Rockland used to visit my grandmother in Woodhaven, Queens. There was a sense that she and the rest of the older generation was left behind in the City, while the rest of us went on with our distant, largely separated lives. That kind of physical disconnection between family is always there in modern life, but when you see what things could be like when family are nearby, you get a sense of what we have truly lost as a society. I've had family closeby for the past ten years and, although an occasional bane, has been truly wonderful. That is something I will miss the most.

I will also miss getting to know a neighborhood -- its places, its people, and idiosyncracies. Not much I can do about it. And if you think I am just a complainer, stop reading and go get your own blog. I feel like there is so much change in life that happens -- from work and personal life -- that you need a few things in your life to have some permanence. And why not a home? Why not get a place that you and your family can grow into?

The 50 Most Loathsome New Yorkers 2005