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The Brooklyn Paper / Sam Ferri

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Take that, Slope-haters: for the second time in as many years, the neighborhood you love to hate has been named one of the best in the country.

Like it or not, the American Planning Association honored Park Slope for its greatness two weeks ago and Natural Home magazine named it one of America’s 10 best neighborhoods last year.

“Park Slope is a testament to the value of economic, architectural and cultural diversity,” said APA Executive Director Paul Farmer.

The APA identified the cream of the crop by using criteria including “architectural features, accessibility, functionality, and community involvement.” Natural Living looked at indicators such as parks, farmers markets, community gardens, access to mass transit, locally owned businesses and liberal activism when it pointed to Park Slope as a great place to live and work.

Of course, awards always wind up tasting a bit like sour grapes for the contenders who don’t win them.

Community leaders in other Brooklyn neighborhoods were gracious when discussing Park Slope’s honor with The Brooklyn Paper. But they were also eager to describe why the quality of life in their neighborhoods deserves recognition as well.

“I think Park Slope is wonderful, but Clinton Hill is fantastic, too,” said Sharon Barnes, chair of the landmarks committee for the Society for Clinton Hill. “We have a strong representation of artists, writers and entrepreneurs that gives us an atmosphere of creativity.

“We have gorgeous brownstones, fantastic stand-alone mansions and some wonderful industrial buildings that are architecturally interesting.”

Fort Greene ain’t chopped liver either, said Ursula Hegewisch, chair of the Fort Greene Association.

“I hope the APA comes back next year and takes a closer look at Fort Greene,” Hegewisch said.

The association should visit The Smoke Joint on South Elliott Place for some barbecue then bop over to Frank’s Lounge for some live jazz, and head over to Cake Man Raven’s for dessert, she said. They might also consider Fort Greene’s great schools like Brooklyn Tech and The Brooklyn Music and Arts Program, Hegewisch added. Fort Greene’s cultural institutions like BAM and the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporian Arts also can’t be overlooked, she said.

But no matter how many national magazines and associations point out the superiority of the Slope over other neighborhoods, there will always be critics who aren’t as kind. In fact, the more honors it receives, the more haters it attracts. Examples include:

• The Brooklyn Rail recently ran a column, “Invasion of the Stroller-Fiends,” by a former Manhattanite who had been in the neighborhood for one day when he decided that all those breeders have ruined the Tea Lounge, which he described as his “Beautiful new café-office.”

• Gothamist gave plenty of space to a woman whose “beef” with Park Slope seemed limited to her concern that members of the neighborhood’s members-only food co-op are “cut off” from “the truly urban experience of going to the deli.”

• Gawker, a bastion of Slope-hating, recently puzzled over why locals weren’t thrilled with the idea of more condos in the neighborhood, even if they will replace a former hot sheet hotel. “Can’t figure these Slopers out,” the Web site whined. “Neighborhood hookers trigger nostalgia?”

• In another Gawker post titled, “Why Hating Park Slope Just Makes Us Look Bad,” one writer confessed that the obsession is really rooted in jealousy. “Brownstone Brooklyn is pretentious and prohibitively expensive and full of self-righteous smug NPR-listening ultraliberals who are willing to get into a war over a gender pronoun. But deep down, is there any other place you can imagine being an adult in this city? The only reason left to hate Park Slope is that you’re jealous of the people who can afford to live there.”

• Curbed.com gleefully recounted a story “from the land of the upscale stroller” involving a mother who got cut off by a car and then hurled a can of beans at its rear window.

“So, were they organic vegetarian beans from the Food Co-op?” Curbed commented.

There it was, the tired old canard linking organic food and elitism, said Roslyn Huebener who has been selling real estate for 20 years.

“Blogs are snarky, hateful and cruel just because they can be. Park Slopers are just carving out the best lifestyles they can for themselves. I’ve never seen a smug parent coming out of the health-food store on Seventh Avenue.”

©2007 Community Newspaper Group