Best Blocks in the Neighborhood? And for What?!

As is its custom, The L Magazine just released a list that is bound to rile up conversation (and yes, we are falling right into the trap). In its 50 Best Blocks in Brooklyn, our area is on the list several times, and one mention really irks us. Let’s see how we stack up.

• In its “Five Best Blocks to Live On” category, they chose Westminster between Beverley and Cortelyou. While it very well may be the longest block in the neighborhood, is it the best one to live on in the neighborhood? We’ll bet everyone who lives there thinks so, but then everybody who lives someplace else probably thinks their block is the best (at least we do!).

• For “Best Block To Pretend It’s the 18th Century,” they picked the very sweet Albemarle Terrace, which currently has a seriously amazing home for sale. Marlborough between Beverley and Cortelyou made the list last year as “Best Block for Pretending 
it’s the 1950s.”

• Can’t really argue the “Best Block for Wildlife” being Campus Road between E 22nd and E 23rd Streets. We love those parrots. “Best Block for Accidentally Running into a College Campus,” Hillel Place, well, yeah.

• Now on to the category neighbors will probably be less thrilled to see:

Best Block for Having Sex
Waldorf Court, Midwood
The thing about finding a good place to have outdoor sex is that you don’t want to be rude. You don’t want to be in some really obvious place where a million people could walk by. Also, you want it to be as clean as possible. And it’s not bad if there’s a fence to hang onto. That’s why this cul-de-sac is perfect. It’s a really quiet street where you’re not likely to encounter pedestrians, and it’s in a nicely maintained part of Midwood. Plus, there’s a fence at the end of the street where it dead-ends at the Q tracks. Perfect.

We’re assuming they are referring to Waldorf Court between the subway tracks and East 17th Street (which we wouldn’t call Midwood), but really, what they’re talking about here pertains to any of the streets in our area that dead-end at the subway or LIRR tracks.

And we think we speak for residents on all those blocks when we say thanks for nothing, L Magazine. These dead ends have enough problems with people dumping trash, using the area as their toilet, and hanging out while doing some other very un-neighborly things. We don’t need anyone glorifying these blocks as a place for a quiet hook-up. We live here, and we don’t want to see that. We doubt you’d want to have any of that happening on the block where you and your family live, either.

Image via Google Maps