Finslippy mama-bloggerista Alice Bradley is deserting Baristaville this weekend. She and her hubby gave suburbia a three year trial, but Brooklyn, always tugging at their citified heartstrings, won them back. So ok, Alpha-mom Alice can’t appreciate the burdens joys of home ownership and won’t look back. I love living in Baristaville, but would have to agree that gardening is over-rated – at least when you’ve got teenagers in the house. How does she really feel? Alice’s soul-barring RAQ (recently asked questions) rekindle the quintessential suburbs v. city debate. Tell us, would you ever, are you dying to go back?

53 replies on “Finslipping Away: From Bloomfield Back To Brooklyn”

  1. Why is everything crossed out?
    Go back to what? Living in a noisy concrete jungle? No thanks. I like my yard, my garden, birds, bees, everything except for the deer. And we still have time to visit flea markets.

  2. Why is everything crossed out on the site? I don’t have teenagers so I don’t think gardening is overrated. The taxes in Brooklyn are a lot lower, but the houses in good hoods are incredibly expensive and the subway sucks way more than NJT trains.

  3. Apparently, she won’t stop until everything is redacted, including both her 3 years in NJ, as well as this entire website.

  4. Does she wear MOM jeans too?
    She’s all MOMed out.
    Please.
    (And did she really need to move here to discover that you need a car to do things? Take care of her house/yard? Perhaps if she asked around, she might have found out some of this stuff in advance…)
    (And calling this an experiment for her blog/job may allow her to write this off her taxes– Good for her!)

  5. After some serious thought, my significant other and I decided last year (before the stock market tanked faster than the Mets and the Jets) that she would seek employment in Manhattan (I work primarily from home) and we could then sell our Manse and rent in the City. Of course now that is pretty much out of the questions because the Help Wanted section for Manhattan doesn’t take up too much room in the newspaper, and selling the Manse now would result in a financial shtupping, having bought near the top of the market. I still do very much want to retire in Manahattan — in about five years or so — and work part time. I do not deal well with boredom, and New York is a most unboring city. Hopefully, President Obama’s economic restoration plan — along with really pissing off my conservative friends, hee, hee — will result in new job opportunities in NYC and restored real estate values in NE Jersey, allowing us to make the move.

  6. I’ve never lived in the city and probably never will given that my job and friends are over here. As much as I love the city I feel that NNJ is a great compromise – access to the best to be offered on both sides of the Hudson but with much cheaper housing and much higher taxes…
    There is no one perfect place to live that fulfills every need we might have – only a pretty good compromise.

  8. “There is no one perfect place to live that fulfills every need we might have.”
    Unless you have gazillion dollars and can live anywhere you want, money ebing no object.

  9. Heck, there are luxury townhouses in Manhattan that sell for $2MM but have less than $15K for taxes. A townhouse in Glen Ridge has $23K for taxes. >:P

  10. Good Lord, no, Spot! I was dragged up in the Bronx, thank you, and I have absolutely no intention of returning (except for an evening or two at Domenick’s on Arthur Avenue). Somewhere below 90th — east or west — would be fine for us. And Brooklyn is out of the question: it is becoming the New Bloomfield… :)>

  12. Spot – the only “luxury” townhouses in Manhattan that are as low as $2m are in Harlem or Washington Heights.
    That’s more of a Brooklyn price -Park Slope etc.
    Manhattan – you’re looking at 5 M and up.
    NYC residential taxes are lower because they have plenty of commercial buildings paying real estate taxes.

  13. I’ve lived in Washington Heights, Forest Hills, Morningside Heights, the Upper West Side, Carroll Gardens, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Pelham Manor, Carroll Gardens again, and then Montclair.
    I also spent some time in Syracuse.
    Montclair rules.

  14. Right now, with the way I feel about winter, I would love to be someplace warm, like San Diego, Santa Monica, the Florida Keys.

  15. Buh bye – don’t let the door hit your @ss on the way out. And please take some other transplants with you.

  16. I lived in the city for close to 10 years and before that, Hoboken. Montclair works for me for one simple reason. It fits my needs, and the # 1 reason is that it is NOT the city. My next move will probably be towards the shore. You can have the city. Enjoy.

  17. When you work in the city, you can go to the flea markets and be part of the rat race. (When I am in the city, I drink during lunch) When I work from home, I don’t. Should say someting about the quality of city life! Personally, I like having my bed to have its own room, and a kitchen you can cook in. Take out? you cant find take out in montclair?

  18. Everyday for the last 5 yrs i miss living and growing up in brooklyn and my wife pines for the bronx, together we have settled on agreeing that queens would be fine too (Astoria) unfortunatley my daughter has friends that she has spent time making and building a life for her youngself through softball/soccer/swimming and playdates…but it seems they are movng away too due to job loss and such maybe our dreams can come true and we can make our longing escape!! and take my childhood friend who cureses me everyday for following us here with us)

  19. *** Snark Alert***
    Oh, yes, if only Obama can wave his magic wand and make the economy AND the housing prices rise….. And pay my mortgage…. And give me a raise… And pay for my kid’s college…
    Forgive me, but if you wait for the G’ment, you’ll find yourself on a roof during a flood.
    …. But then again, if you make bad, selfish decisions you just might get a bailout… Wall Street and Homeowners alike.
    I wonder how those responsible renters feel… Suckers!!!! You should’ve lied on that loan application….

  20. I do not know these people well- but I do know they worked at improving their community while they were here. I wish them the best of luck- it takes courage to move at a time when I suspect they have lost some money. But they are following their hearts- or “guesses”- which is all any of us can do. Good luck with everything!!!

  21. We are going to retire to Philadelphia. I think when the kids are grown and on their own, the usefulness of the burbs is greatly diminished. Another 5 years and we will be out of here. Needs change and we are looking forward to city living.

  22. What a small world, I met Alice at the Watsessing School Book Fair, not realizing she is the one behind Finslippy. She is very likable, and mentioned to me that she was moving to Brooklyn because she missed her family, etc. Some of you are unbelievable, with your snarky comments and judgements. She made a decision, didnt like it after all, now she and her family are making a different choice. It’s called LIFE. Good for her.

  23. Sorry, but who really cares about all this stuff– the economy will fix itself…
    THE news of the day is:
    The Obama’s got a Portuguese water dog!!

  25. “Forgive me, but if you wait for the G’ment, you’ll find yourself on a roof during a flood.”
    Which, in Manhattan, is probably a good place to be.

  26. “…Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Pelham Manor…”
    Good Lord, Pearlstein, are you following me? My family moved from the Bronx to New Rochelle, Larchmont, and Mamaroneck, and I graduated from Pelham Memorial High School, where we lived for 8 years. My sister still lives in Pelham Manor.

  32. One reason people are making comments about Alice Bradley’s move, leitergirl, is that they were invited to by the Barista. Surely you can’t still be surprised that people will speak candidly here.
    I wish finslippy well, but I find this constant breast beating about city v. suburb pretty tedious. Manhattan dwellers may be on the whole a sophisticated lot, but they can also be as provincial and close-minded as anyone else. And anyway don’t they all consider Brooklyn to be a suburb? And who really cares?

  33. The few times I looked at the Finslippy blog (hint to Baristas: update your list of links, mikey’s very own scrunched-up “effort” to do a political blog, to cite just one, is long gone from the airwaves) I found it impossibly arch and over-cutesy. Can I then assume the blog will now be dumped by the Baristas?
    And if it is, can the Baristas do the same for Looky Daddy? (Which trumps so many others in terms of its own contrived archness.)

  34. “Tell us, would you ever, are you dying to go back?”
    And “back,” of course, requires no elaboration… It is that magical pied-a-terre in one desirable section of a borough or other that one reluctantly abandoned for the ultimately tuneless siren song of the suburbs. Psst – Baristas- we’re not all from Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, or the better parts of the Bronx, suffering through the unexpected toil that is (gasp) lawn maintenance or re-learning (not very well I might add, based on my observations) to drive an automobile. Some of us have been here all along.
    Would I go back? If it can be to the Montclair of ten (damn, maybe twenty) years ago before so many self-important asshats decided to try and turn this into Park Slope West, well then, an emphatic hell yes.

  36. Agreed. But unlike the people it describes, I am not yet weary of the word… unless you can offer an alternative?

  37. We lived in Brooklyn for 10 years and loved it–Windsor Terrace, Park Slope and Clinton Hill. We moved to Glen Ridge close to 12 years ago and love it as well. When we moved here, it was for space and diversity. The options were to spend $150K (imagine that?) on a 3 bedroom house in the Montclair area or a one bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. Now that we are here and have kids, we are very happy. We know our neighbors, people look out for us/our kids, and half the neighbors are from the City. I wouldn’t mind retiring to Brooklyn but I am very content now that our kids are growing up with a sense of a neighborhood and that we know and can count on our neighbor, especially since I never knew as many neighbors in Brooklyn as I know here.

  38. I’ve lived and worked in Boston and Manhattan — as a single woman. Loved it. Then I married NJ and have lived in Glen Ridge (DH’s home town) for 40+ years. Love it, too. Would I go back? Sure — If I was the same age as I was then, but know what I do now.

  39. Like trixie, I wonder why the assumption is that “going back” means to NY. That’s a pretty provincial view right there!

  40. Manhattan was wonderful: when I was younger… much too noisy and hectic now. I do not like walking down the street and having to play dodge’em with people who are deep in cellphone conversations; or find solace in a single tree growing out of pavement; or avoid taking in a deep breath until I exit the subway station; or look over my shoulder before turning the key to open my locked apartment; or wear headphones to block out the screech of subway wheels…etc.etc..
    ~great place to visit though:-)

  41. Fins….When you get back to Brooklyn, call my friends Ralph & Alice Kramden at Bensonhurst-0-7741. They’re selling tickets to a beefsteak at Ralph’s lodge. Good place to meet new friends. I hear Reggie Van Gleason III might show up….Pow! Zoom!

  42. walleroo I agree totally with everything you said, except asshat. Great word asshat. Been using it for years.

  43. “I hear Reggie Van Gleason III might show up…”
    “Mmmmm! Good booze!”
    I agree that city life vs. suburban life is pomegranates vs. persimmons: either you duck the folks on the sidewalks blabbing on their cellphones, or you duck the asshats in their SUVs blabbing equally unconciously on their cellphones. But to be retired (or, more likely, semi-retired) in Manhattan means having the time to spend the better part of a week at the Met or the Strand Bookstore, instead of an afternoon punctuated by DeCamp schedules. It means going to daylight baseball games (what few there are) during the week, or taking in the ponies at Belmont or Aqueduct.
    Damn, PAZ, you now have me back reminiscing about Toots Shor’s, Jilly’s, Jimmy Ryan’s, Gallagher’s, Costello’s, and any number of other apostrophized saloons where you could run into someone famous or, more likely, just a room full of drunks. Sometimes they were one in the same… 🙂

  45. Lived 20 yrs in NYC, West Village, & 17 yrs now in NJ. I still love New York but go back? No way. I feel that it would literally be going back, as in backward.
    I hope that our next move will be to Maine, or someplace else I haven’t imagined yet. It’s a big wide world out there & I want to taste some different slices of it before it’s time for me to leave.

  46. Fins….When you get back to Brooklyn, call my friends Ralph & Alice Kramden at Bensonhurst-0-7741. They’re selling tickets to a beefsteak at Ralph’s lodge. Good place to meet new friends. I hear Reggie Van Gleason III might show up….Pow! Zoom!
    ——————-
    Fins, maybe you can even brive a dus!!!

  47. I like Bloomfield. If you close your eyes it tastes just like Montclair.
    I was born in Manhattan and lived in the Bronx as a toddler. I remember the big waterbugs in our basement apartment and my mom futilely trying to kill them with her shoe.

  48. No need for the snarky comments about Alice. They were great neighbors and we’ll miss them. I can attest to the fact they really gave the suburban life a try – if anyone is a regular follower of Finslippy they will remember Alice’s post about her obsession with weeding her garden – but as the owner of the almost-100-year-old house behind their former home, I can also agree that a house, particularly one of our vintages, and a yard, take up a lot of work and time, and if it’s not your thing then it becomes a nuisance.
    Even though I love my house and yard and enjoy my garden, I sometimes envy my mother in her studio apartment down the street a ways! No maintenance!
    As for Finslippy and LookyDaddy, I find both of them very enjoyable – amusing or poignant by turns – and very worthwhile. Not everyone has the same tastes.

  49. One poster’s view of what constitutes “amusement” or “poignancy,” Mauigirl, is sometimes retch-inducing to another. And the sheer contrivances. offered up in the guise of chuckle-laden self-deprecation, in both Fin Slippy and Looky Daddy have always been much too obvious. The search for the next real successor to the very talented Erma Bombeck goes on.

  50. Yippee for Cathar! After reading Finslippy’s blog for the first time (yesterday), the words that sprang to mind were “just a bit too precious.” And not funny.

Comments are closed.