Bed-Stuy: The Battle is Joined

A Curbed reader writes to rebut Friday's correspondent who proclaimed Clinton Hill, not Bed-Stuy, the new hotness:

I feel I can't let your reader's comment about Bed Stuy go uncontested. I agree that Clinton Hill is beautiful, but your reader simply doesn't know Bed Stuy. There are blocks upon blocks of historic brownstones that have remained virtually untouched because no one could afford to "update" their homes. In fact there is a landmarked district, Stuyvesant Heights.

Take a drive one day down MacDonough, Halsey, Hancock, Jefferson etc from Bed Stuy to Clinton Hill and you will see the area has the potential to become a Park Slope. Bed Stuy is a little bit of a north/south story?the south containing the great brownstones and the north having more low-income housing.

I purchased a browstone there a year ago with about 99 percent of the original details. I go to Clinton Hill a lot and I hate to break it to your reader, but there isn't much difference between Clinton Hill and Bed Stuy?some nice blocks and some not so nice blocks and still not that many amenities (!!). From Fort Greene to Bed Stuy is like one uninterrupted neighborhood of beautiful rowhouses. Now if you're talking Fort Greene, that 'hood has the potential to be a "Brooklyn Heights," but why would you want that?