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B r o w n s t o n e r s n a v e T h e i r S a y :iCobble Hill:It BeatsUrban CrabgrassBY MIKE PETTITThere are a number of reasons to live in a townhouse in the City. The paramount reason is that the alternative is to live in the suburbs. I've tried that. I lived in Harrison. New York, the former home of Amelia Earhart, where brokers, bankers, lawyers and business executives now retire each evening to dream their sleep and sleep their dreams. The crowded trains overheat and run late. The cocktail conversation centers around crabgrass, sailboats and house paint. The women spend their early years looking like TV mothers, reach mid-life crisis, decide they are unfulfilled and blame it on their husbands. Most of the men spend so much time commuting, doing the weekend chores and making ends meet that they haven't had time to decide if they%u2019re unfulfilled or who to blame it on. Camelot, it is not.Living in a townhouse in Cobble Hill builds character. Little people with radios sewn to their ears walk by until late at night doing a traveling version of %u201c Name That Tune,\7 on the Richter Scale. The dogs love the trees, particularly the one in front of my house, and try not to miss it. Dealing with workmen makes the trials of Job look like an Andy Hardy movie.But, aside from testing your metal, there are a number of other good reasons to live here. The fine edge of life is here if you have the interest to take advantage of it, from local theater, community groups and politics, to stained glass classes at the Y. There is no reason to be isolated here, which brings me to the real reasons why life in a Brooklyn townhouse is one of life%u2019s true pleasures: the people around you. They care about each other, their neighborhood and their city. And that, my friend, is worth a lot more than all the crabgrass in Larch mont.Wrapping UpA Renaissancein Boerum HillBY HOWARD LEWISBack in the 60s, Helen Bucklerwas a feisty lady dedicated to thecreation of Boerum Hill. She had ahelluva lot of writing and public relations experience under hertoque%u2014she knew that you had to package \Product needed a name%u2014thus,Boerum Hill. No one had the nerveto argue with Helen Buckler and point out that we were not on a hill, a heights, a slope or for thatmatter, a rise. Actually, we%u2019re sort of on a plain. Well, no matter, it was part of the packaging. All prestigious places are up in the air%u2014besides if you tell %u2019em often enough you%u2019re on a hill%u2014they'll believe you. So we built this Hill, battled the bureaucrats, politicians and buildings inspectors and presto%u2014a full fledged%u2014%u2019pndmarked brownstone cor-v it' It only 15 v rdIHhat . oe%u2022 . h neglect, abuse%u2018What Makes My Neand planned obsolescence in about 20 years, we have a pretty good record. Besides, we all know it%u2019s far easier to destroy than to build.Any community is its people and Boerum Hill has, within its confines of 30 blocks, some of the most interesting, creative, industrious, boring and fun people of any place 1 know. Where else could an \tic Antic%u201d be seeded, nurtured, matured, and lovingly presented to all the people of New York City%u2014but especially to be enjoyed by all our neighbors. We have neither pretensions nor modesty. We will never have a view from the promenade, we will never have the acres of Prospect Park to jog around%u2014but we have the knowledge, deep in our hearts, that we took a blighted area destined for trashing%u2014and with guts, zeal, determination, money, ad infinitum%u2014created our own 20th century renaisssance.Should we have called it Renaissance Hill?UniquenessMakes theDifferencein FlatbushBY CAROL HOULIHAN FLYNN%u2018%u2018Flatbush ain%u2019t Rushing,%u201d the sign in the subway proclaimed in big black and white letters. We looked at each other apprehensively. What were we getting in for? That was two months ago. the day we decided to move to Ditmas Park. We%u2019ve learned since then that the sign was right. Flatbush is unique.We moved to Ditmas Park from London, where we lived for three and a half years in a tall, thin house straight out of \stairs.%u201dWhen we were transferred to New York, we had mixed emotions. We spend days driving around, rejecting the high rent and crowded conditions of Manhattan as well as the long commutes and depressing sameness, however spacious, of the suburbs.Then we found Ratbush. After looking at several houses in Prospect Park South, MidwoodPark, and Ditmas Park, each onebigger and more interesting thanthe next, we decided to move intothe area, which seemed to offer allthe things we had been seeking:the variety and convenience of thecity and the crickets, space andContinued on Pape MUpbeatAmbiancein Fort GreeneBY TOM KENNEDYFort Greene is an always stimulating and sometimes gracious butrarely simple place to call home. It shares, of course, the traditional family style values associated with Brooklyn's Brownstone Crescent but it also has much more and some less. My wife, our 22Vj year old and 1 share our \Brownstone on South Elliott Place. We%u2019ve been in Fort Greene some %u25a0' %u25a0 %u2022' After five years as. %u25a0 * good bit of reflectionchose to invest in Fort Greene%u2019s future because in all honesty weIt%u2019s a State of Mindin Park SlopeBY KAY HOLMES SEARESPart Slope is a state of mind. It%u2019san Upper West Side mentality,minus some of the crazies, and as acommunity, it works.The fact that I live here isimmaterial. I%u2019d be saying the samething from a green-eyed distance ifI were still living in my old roomson Riverside Drive. Like many ofmy major life decisions, I moved toPark Slope three and a half yearsago quite by chance. I was looking for a larger living space in an urbansetting and Park Slope even hadtrees. 1 found a renovated Oricarowhouse at a reasonable price but it wasn%u2019t until I%u2019d re-arranged thefurniture three times and overhauled the plumbing that I realized what a neat place I%u2019d fallen into.Apart from obvious advantages, like being able to walk down-hill both to and from the F train and buying a Haagen-Daas ice creamcone at 11 p.m., Park Slope boaststhe only women%u2019s bookstore inBrooklyn, a food co-op and ababysitting pod, unrivalled in itsfriendly efficiency. It%u2019s an easy jogto the Brooklyn Museum or theBotanical Gardens or theChildren%u2019s Zoo%u2014and Grand AmyConi%u00absued on Pape 35ProspectLefferts Garden:Our DreamlandBY BERNICE SEALY My husband Beresford and 1diligently house hunted for three years betore we purchased our home on Maple Street between Bedford and Rogers Avenue in 1%4. I%u2019ll never forget the evening we found our dr^xm house.We had just arrived home from work, and I was very excited because I%u2019d discovered another real estate office t%u2019 . had a house for sale in the New York T,tries that weBY FRED AND MARYROSENBERG''After several months of vievtingthe worst real estate offerings inmost popular brownstone areas,(many of which we could barelyafford) our dream of owning abrownstone faded. Then we foundSunset Park: a geographic arearoughly bounded by and includingGreenwood Cemetary on the north,6Sth Street on the south, on theWest by the Narrows (the gatewayto New York Harbor) and to thetst by 8th Ave.As is most older mbaa areas.Sunset Park has its share of innercity problems A poverty, grafttttedand deteriorated buildings; but, ithas remained a relatively stableworking class community with agrowing number of concerned andvocal community residents. Whilewalking through the area one isimpressed with the number of wellgroomed brownstone, limestoneand brick row houses scattered onuniform blocks throughout the area(parts of which are a proposedhistoric landmark district).A flourishing shopping center stretches along 5th Avenue, catering to the needs of a vibrant multi-ethnic community, A delightfully unexpected view of the Manhattan Skyline is available within parts of Sunset Park and a view of the Narrows c&n also be found from many of the frontwouldn%u2019t trade its upbeat ambience for any other neighborhood in New York.Fort Greene offers the finest selection of Brownstones still available in Brooklyn. Its homes can be stunning%u2014W e%u2019re New York%u2019s largest and newest (September 26, 1978) Historic District. Although it took seven years of community struggle to convince the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission that Fort Greene merited designation, every Fort Greene resident is justly proud of the achievement .Houses, however, are only 1/3 the story. The real Fort Greene lies in the incredible collections of tolerant, interesting and sensitive individuals who have taken those homes and dragged them back from likely ruin. Fifteen years ago, once proud Fort Greene had become a slum. Today, every block has a substantial number of fully renovated homes and that trend is accelerating. The people who have brought this about are black, white, straight, gay, young and less so. In Fort Greene the backbone of the emerging neighborhood are the predominately black men and women that bought homes in the 1950%u2019s and 60%u2019s and them through the worst years. The younger renovators, white and black, are now also a major factor in the area. Together, their efforts produce an invigorating atmosphere of self-reliance and aggressive nation building.It MayHave UrbanProblems butSunset ParkFulfilled OurBrownstoneDreamiOENIX. October 12.1978