Articles (1)
Park Slope
Entitled parents. Bratty, “gifted” kids in organic T-shirts. Yes, yes, we’ve heard it all about these brownstone-lined blocks, which march east from Fourth Avenue to Prospect Park West and south from Flatbush Avenue to the Prospect Expressway like phalanxes of beautiful, well-behaved children. Slope families are happy to have you believe anything but the truth—that their neighborhood is a diverse, community-oriented enclave with access to very decent sushi and a cleaner, less-crowded version of Central Park—if it means they’ll have a better chance of getting their kids into P.S. 321. Take the N, R to Union Street or the F to Seventh Avenue, and you’ll quickly feel like you’ve walked into a Todd Parr children’s book: Every kind of family strolls the sidewalk here. And while New York City as a whole is no stranger to diversity or celebrity, in Park Slope those aspects have a very PBS feel—as if you, the stay-at-home dad, the gay mom and Maggie Gyllenhaal were all guest stars on some tasteful kids’ show. Fun shops Superboys and Wonder Girls can try on capes in front of a wind machine to see how they’d look in action at the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co.(372 Fifth Ave, 718-499-9884). That feature alone is enough to sell us on the spot, but push back a secret set of shelves and—kazam!—you’ll find yourself in the hidden headquarters of 826NYC, a nonprofit writing program for kids ages six to 18, cooked up by onetime Brooklynite Dave Eggers. If your tween is into knitting, she’ll lov