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How New York became a metropolis of stoops

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Re: How New York became a metropolis of stoops

#11

Post by whiddershins »

Stoops can have a dramatic impact on the culture of a given block.

When you have stoops, people sit on them.

This means more conversation outside in public, creating community.

When I was young, it was normal for a group of kids to sit on any stoop if the front gate was open. (This has mostly gone away)

Older people might spend hours sitting on their stoop, and basically end up being a neighborhood watch.

Neighbors get to know each other, and are more likely to quickly identify someone being violent and call the police.

Overall, I would always choose a block with stoops over one without, everything else being more or less equal.

Re: How New York became a metropolis of stoops

#12

Post by SftwreEngnr »

jpcooper wrote: post #9
maartenh wrote: post #3

Funny story. In current Dutch, the word 'stoep' means side walk, and has nothing to do with these kind of stairs. I'm the Dutch golden age, in which the inner city of Amsterdam got it's channels, they did add these stoops to the big mansions for exactly the same reason.

The Van Dale dictionary seems to list another meaning of ‘stoep’ as steps to a house. Have I understood correctly? https://www.vandale.nl/gratis-woordenboek/nederlands/beteken...

What does the dictionary say?

Re: How New York became a metropolis of stoops

#13

Post by whiddershins »

ftio wrote: post #8
PhantomGremlin wrote: post #7

Without a stoop, you wouldn't have stoop ball. And without that, what would kids do on summer afternoons? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoop_ball

Came here to make a stoop ball comment. Played it (and wiffle ball) throughout my childhood at my grandma’s house in Brooklyn. Tried playing again about 10 years ago (in my twenties). The shoulder pain didn’t go away for a week. Can’t wait to blow out my shoulder again teaching it to my kids.

We also played stick ball in the middle of the street.

That was a very different time.

Re: How New York became a metropolis of stoops

#16

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

whiddershins wrote: post #11

Stoops can have a dramatic impact on the culture of a given block. When you have stoops, people sit on them. This means more conversation outside in public, creating community. When I was young, it was normal for a group of kids to sit on any stoop if the front gate was open. (This has mostly gone away) Older people might spend hours sitting on their stoop, and basically end up being a neighborhood watch. Neighbors g…

The downside is people will smoke on them and leave their butts around.

Re: How New York became a metropolis of stoops

#18

Post by dep_b »

jpcooper wrote: post #9
maartenh wrote: post #3

Funny story. In current Dutch, the word 'stoep' means side walk, and has nothing to do with these kind of stairs. I'm the Dutch golden age, in which the inner city of Amsterdam got it's channels, they did add these stoops to the big mansions for exactly the same reason.

The Van Dale dictionary seems to list another meaning of ‘stoep’ as steps to a house. Have I understood correctly? https://www.vandale.nl/gratis-woordenboek/nederlands/beteken...

Interesting. While “op de stoep staan” is a very common expression nobody knows it’s actually about those stairs in front of a house.

Re: How New York became a metropolis of stoops

#19

Post by bobthepanda »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #16
whiddershins wrote: post #11

Stoops can have a dramatic impact on the culture of a given block. When you have stoops, people sit on them. This means more conversation outside in public, creating community. When I was young, it was normal for a group of kids to sit on any stoop if the front gate was open. (This has mostly gone away) Older people might spend hours sitting on their stoop, and basically end up being a neighborhood watch. Neighbors g…

The downside is people will smoke on them and leave their butts around.

1. Like every other surface, or the sidewalk in front of your house, you do have to maintain it. If it's not cigarette butts it's bird shit or leaves or slush or what have you. (Sidewalk cleaning is the responsibility of the property owner in NYC, or at least snow shoveling is.)

2. How much of a problem is this in 2020 NYC? The Bloomberg-era anti-smoking campaigns really did a number of smoking rates, and the very high cigarette tax also did a number. Smoking rates have declined to about 5% of girls, 7% of boys, 9% of women and 17% of men, from a 1997 baseline of 20-23% for all of these groups. [1]

[1] - https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/epi/databrief1...

Re: How New York became a metropolis of stoops

#20

Post by bobthepanda »

whiddershins wrote: post #11

Stoops can have a dramatic impact on the culture of a given block. When you have stoops, people sit on them. This means more conversation outside in public, creating community. When I was young, it was normal for a group of kids to sit on any stoop if the front gate was open. (This has mostly gone away) Older people might spend hours sitting on their stoop, and basically end up being a neighborhood watch. Neighbors g…

One downside of stoops is the existence of the stairs, which presents an additional burden if

- you are carrying anything big, bulky, or heavy, like groceries or a stroller

- it is snowing or raining or freezing, in which case the stairs become slick and quite dangerous

- you have issues with mobility; you may be old, pregnant, or have lost mobility due to either something temporary (requiring the use of crutches) or permanent

And some people deal with multiples of these issues. These are issues in most housing forms (most houses have some kind of steps) but NYC-style stoops can run much larger than a typical modern set of steps, where there are probably only two or three from the path to the door.

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