The proud, stately brownstones of Brooklyn are the stuff of residential dreams for many New Yorkers. But that doesn’t mean everyone wants to live in one.
When Chiwoniso Kaitano and Andrew Sabl began looking for a home to buy in Park Slope, Brooklyn, in 2019, for instance, they sought to break from the crowd of brownstone buyers to find something different.
“It’s so funny because we live in ‘brownstone Brooklyn,’ and Park Slope is the neighborhood that is known for its brownstones,” said Ms. Kaitano, 51, the executive director of MacDowell, an artist residency program. “But neither of us really love the brownstone vibe.”
Dr. Sabl, 57, a political theorist and professor at the University of Toronto, was born and raised in Los Angeles, where he lived in sunny houses. And even in New York, he had lived in a sun-drenched Greenwich Village apartment. That made the brownstone the couple previously rented in Park Slope feel dark and stuffy.
“Having lived in L.A. houses with lots of windows and in New York apartments with lots of light, it was a huge thing,” Dr. Sabl said. “We really wanted to bring in more light than the brownstone setup usually allows.”
