ABSTRACT
It was just so nice. The clubhouse was so nice, the pool, the tennis courts. It had everything I wanted, but yet it was nice and secured.
—Manor House resident
While we all want to live in a perfect community, our ideas about what is perfect vary. Park Slope, Brooklyn, with its mix of townhouses, apartment buildings, and condominiums from various historical periods, accommodates a wide range of family types-singles, couples, and families of all ages, nationalities, and cultures. It is politically active with hippie remnants and countercultural lifestyles that remind me of graduate school in Berkeley, California. On the other hand, there are graffiti on buildings, trash on the street, and a high incidence of car theft compared to other parts of the city. I handle these daily nuisances by painting out graffiti, picking up trash, and parking in a secured garage. “It’s a trade-off,” I say to my suburban friends, “living in the city with the diversity and street life I enjoy, balanced by cleaning my sidewalk and paying to park my car.”
