Bed-Stuy – buy or die?
As I approached the corner of Throop Avenue and Van Buren Street in early summer 2013, I couldn’t help but notice the giant “Murder — $50,000 Reward” sign that loomed over the intersection, emblazoned with the photo of a dead businessman. The New York City neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, I’d heard, was still a little “rough,” but the sign was unlike anything I’d seen outside of Wild West movies. Almost comically, the image was plastered with a blood-red ‘Solved’ caption, as though calling out a fatuous warning: attention, would-be Bed-Stuy murderers — you might, eventually, be caught.
Walking down Van Buren Street I passed a high, metal wall topped with barbed wire. The wall hid several dogs with big barks and cast a film noir-like glow over the entire block. Next to this mystery lot, I quickly realized, was my potential new home. As I toed my sandal against the pavement and wondered what to do, I saw that on the street out front kids were playing basketball in a normal, very human-like way that I hadn’t seen kids do since I’d moved to Manhattan three years prior. They bounced and passed the ball and didn’t appear to be spoiled or neurotic; they even cast smiles my way as I watched. A couple of women standing outside my new building, a five story walk up, greeted me with open faces and hellos. When I decided at last to go inside, they held the door open.
* * *