Don't Tread on Windsor Terrace

Finally something to break  me out of my writer's funk. Just make me mad enough and my fingers get to tappin those keys.

I always read the Real Estate section of The Sunday NY Times first. It's kind of like a game to me. Where are the biggest sales, where can I find that big fantasy Victorian with the wrap-around porch for a few hundred thousand....I did say fantasy. Well this Sunday, Dec.8th 'Living In' article featured Windsor Terrace. I was so excited! Then I read the title: 'Less Way Station, More Destination'; a backhanded compliment if I ever heard one. The article may as well  have been titled ' Windsor Terrace, Live There if You Have To'.

Read 'The Schools' paragraph> the only elementary school mentioned was PS 130. Now, if I am correct, PS 154 is named 'The Windsor School'; how could this reporter miss that.....not to mention, PS 10 was no where to be found. We have always served Windsor Terrace families. We are proud to be an 'A' school for 3 straight years, which is attractive in a newspaper article. More importantly, people want to move to a neighborhood with good schools.....what are we, chopped liver?

I immediately wrote a letter to the Times Real Estate Section. If  you feel the same way, you should also write. Here's mine:

Please forward to the Real Estate Editor:

I have been a home owner in Windsor Terrace, Bklyn for the last 17 years. Not unlike other transplanted residents, I had lived in Park Slope for 18 yrs prior. I am slightly offended by the misconceptions offered by the reporter who wrote The Sunday Dec. 8th 'Living In' page about our beautiful neighborhood entitled 'Less Way Station, More Destination'. The aforementioned (and might I say lackluster) title proves to me that this reporter has little knowledge of the people or lifestyle in our quiet little enclave.

Windsor Terrace is filled with writers, artists, educators and big business New Yorkers who decided to raise children in a peaceful, residential corner of NYC. Last time I clocked the drive, it was 7 minutes to Wall Street through the nearby Battery ( Hugh L. Carey) Tunnel. Most of us own cars and can actually park on our own streets. When we city dwellers wake up in the morning, we hear the beautiful sound of Canadian Geese flocking in formation to Prospect Park. We smell Wisteria in the breeze. During summer months,neighbors offer each other raspberries, figs and peaches from their own gardens. The Vanderbilt playground was completely rebuilt and reopened last year. It's beautiful and filled with kids every day.

I am particularly offended by the schools section. PS 130 is only one of the local elementary schools. PS 154, aptly named The Windsor School, is a beautiful, clean, safe, neighborhood school...smack in the middle of  W T. Why no mention? As well as the highly considered PS 10 Magnet School, located at 17th street and 7th Ave., an 'A' school three years running, serving many Windsor Terrace families. There is also PS 230 which has the longest running 'Gifted and Talented' program in district 15.

Finally, I purchased my home in 1997 for $194,000. Just a few weeks ago, a house a few doors down, sold for 1.3 million.

Please consider printing my letter, not for me; but for those house hunters who  want  'A Great Place to Live Large in a Small Section of  NYC'.

That would be the title of my article.

Sincerely,

Madeline Seide

Proud resident of 11218