באראפארק האט די ווייניגסטע שיכורים
Haves are having more
By MELISSA GRACE
The wealthiest Brooklyn neighborhoods are home to the borough's heaviest drinkers, a new Health Department study has found.
Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Fort Greene and downtown have more than their fair share of excessive drinkers - although many residents didn't quite believe the study's findings.
"It seems absurd," said Gary Gottlieb, a retired math professor who lives in Brooklyn Heights. "I never see anyone drunk. None of my friends drink, and there aren't very many bars."
Twenty-two percent of those surveyed in the four brownstone neighborhoods described themselves as heavy drinkers. It was the highest percentage in the borough and well above the citywide average of 15%.
That Brooklyn's gentrified neighborhoods are home to the biggest drinkers didn't surprise one bar owner.
"These are people who lived in the city 10 years ago," said Seamus O'Toole, owner of Eamonn's on Montague St. "They brought their habits with them."
The study showed that across Brooklyn, 13% of people said they were excessive drinkers, compared to Manhattan, where 22% ranked in that category.
Moderate drinking is defined in the study as two drinks a day for men and one for women. Excessive drinking is anything more than that.
Bensonhurst and Bay Ridge came in second, with 18% of survey respondents admitting to drinking heavily.
Borough Park had the fewest admitted excessive drinkers in Brooklyn - 8%.
"There is no going to bars," said Sarah Weinstock, 25, of her Orthodox Jewish community's drinking habits. "It's not forbidden, but religious people usually don't drink."
Most of the 10 Brooklyn areas contacted for the Community Health Survey - 300 people were reached in each zone in 2003 - came in below the city average of 15%.
Across the board, young, white men reported drinking the most, according to the Health Department survey.
It also found that more than 20% of New Yorkers with household incomes of more than $50,000 drink excessively, compared with 12% in lower-income homes.
"People who have more money tend to go out more," concluded Tina McVeigh, the study's lead author.
McVeigh, a Health Department epidemiologist, said the study shatters some common beliefs - including that poor and unemployed people drink more than the well-off.
"It paints a different picture from the myths of where standard drinking occurs," she said.
In Fort Greene, bartender Butch Johnson at Moe's bar on Lafayette Ave. wasn't arguing.
"I believe it," said Johnson, 38. "I've seen people get 10 to 12 beers. They'll have shots in between."
He noted that the area is full of middle-class college students from Pratt, Polytechnic University and Brooklyn Law School.
But the study has its critics.
CUNY sociology professor William Helmreich said that heavily Jewish Crown Heights should not have been lumped with neighboring Bedford-Stuyvesant, a solidly African-American community.
While the two communities have different drinking histories, the study simply labeled 12% of all respondents as excessive drinkers.
Helmreich believes people in Bedford-Stuyvesant drink as much as people in Park Slope - and said that studies have shown that African-Americans are less comfortable answering questions over the telephone than whites.
"People in more upscale neighborhoods probably don't feel as self-conscious about acknowledging they drink in excess," he said. "They don't feel as insecure about their status or feel targeted in any racial way."
Percentage of survey responders who said they drank excessively:
Downtown, Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope and Fort Greene: 22%
Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights: 12%
East New York: 13%
Sunset Park: 12%
Borough Park: 8%
Flatbush and East Flatbush: 10%
Canarsie and Flatlands: 13%
Bensonhurst and Bay Ridge: 18%
Coney Island: 12%
Williamsburg and Bushwick: 13%
Source: City Health Department
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