Oral History Subjects Needed: The Civic Council is looking for older Park Slope lifers (or near-lifers) whose stories we can save for future generations. They will be interviewed this fall by students at the Secondary School for Research at John Jay, working with professionals from the Urban Memory Project and the Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS). The interviews will be recorded and videotaped, posted on the PSCC and BHS websites, and archived as a trove of Park Slope history. Send us names of possible subjects as soon as possible!Nominees' names should go to editor at parkslopeciviccounsil.org
We know a number of folks on our block who have been here since the 60's and 70's, and I want to hook them up to do this.
I know from some of the long-timers that when the hood (I'm talking about south of 9th Street and west of 7th or 8th Ave) hit rock bottom it was redlined by the banks (or maybe it was the redlining that sent it to the bottom). You could not get a mortgage to buy a home or building at any price. People borrowed from friends and family, paid cash, and did what they could to keep things safe. The house Lori and I bought 11 years ago for what seemed like a fabulous amount of money was, we are told, available for $1,000 during the white flight. Last year the real estate agents would have flogged it for 1,000 times that redlined price. Of course, next year, it may be sitting somewhere closer to the middle of those numbers. So, in the 60's and 70's, neighborhoods were let rot or taken down (depending on your point of view and address) by the banks refusing to give any mortgage at all, and in the 2000's they were ridiculously puffed up and may come down again because the banks came to give mortgages regardless of ability to repay. The pendulum swings both ways, and seems to spend precious little time in the safe, fair, humane middle. I mean, I'm old, but I'm not older than dirt, and it looks like I'm getting to see at least one zenith and nadir.
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