Crown Heights Gentrification Watch: Franklin Avenue Gets a Blog

It is, perhaps, the ultimate sign of entry into the exclusive club of Brooklyn neighborhoods attractive to New York's self-consciously creative class: a neighborhood blog.

Now that Crown Heights' main drag Franklin Avenue has its own blog, the neighborhood, it would seem, has finally arrived. Said blog, at ilovefranklinave.blogspot.com, is the handiwork of University of Chicago and Oxford grad Nick Juravich, 24, who moved to the corner of Dean Street and Franklin Avenue this August.

"It’s mostly a vanity project," Mr. Juravich said. "I was a history and economic and social history major, and I see a lot of stuff walking around."

Mr. Juravich is no amateur stroller. As the regional coordinator for the New York Road Runner Foundation's Mighty Milers program, Mr. Juravich spends his days walking between 27 different Brooklyn sites implementing running programs for New York City kids, allowing him plenty of time to observe his surroundings. He thought that the process of writing a blog would allow him to better polish his ideas.

Even so, Mr. Juravich readily concedes that on some level, his blogging about Franklin Avenue reflects a fundamental change in the neighborhood.

"It’s indicative that someone is living in the neighborhood with the time and energy to blog and with the cultural background who would blog," he said. "It’s indicative of change, certainly."

That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's not like Mr. Juravich is lobbying Starbucks to open a storefront in the neighborhood or anything. (He probably doesn't need to. The Seattle-based coffee company is no slouch in recognizing changing neighborhoods on its own.)

"I don't think I'd change anything about the neighborhood right now," he said.