If you’re looking for a man, Bay Ridge is a buyer’s market.
The neighborhood once famous for its swinging discos and vibrant party scene is also a veritable meat market of young eligible bachelors with one of the city’s highest ratios of single men to single ladies, according to a new study.
For each single woman between the ages of 20 and 34, there’s somewhere between 1.26 and 1.73 men vying for her attention, according to the number crunchers at the city’s Economic Development Corporation.
Those numbers are great for women, but for men, the highly competitive sausage party that is Bay Ridge nightlife means only the strong survive (and find a nice young lady to bring home to mom).
“It’s like Darwinism — you’re fighting two other guys just to get a girl,” said Mike Nelson, whose dating woes forced him to seek love on the distant shores of Staten Island. “It’s hard to date because it’s a fairly big neighborhood, but everybody knows each other. You’re hard pressed to date someone that your high school friend hasn’t already dated. You’re outnumbered three to one.”
When we stopped by the Third Avenue watering hole the Salty Dog on Saturday night, we found a crush of dudes fighting for the affection of a limited number of women.
“There’s too many guys around,” said Paul Browne, a 26-year-old math teacher who drives a Toyota Corolla. “They get in my way.”
Others said that they had actually given up on the Ridge, looking for love in all the wrong places — like in that other borough, Manhattan.
“This is not an area where a lot of new people can jump into dating,” said Kyle Campion, a 24-year-old financial analyst. “I tend to go out in the city instead where there’s more [single ladies] to choose from.”
The outlook is rosier for women, who say it’s easy to find the right guy — or three or four.
For Krystina Macca, a Bensonhurst speech pathologist who says she’s dating “a few people,” the biggest problem with Bay Ridge men is that they’re just too arrogant and aggressive.
“When guys are very cocky and into themselves that’s big turn off,” she said. “When you go into a bar in Bay Ridge, they kind of attack you. Their eyes are glued to you and they rush over to you to buy you drinks. It’s annoying.”
Macca says guys can stand out from the pack by just toning it down a little.
“[Just] be nice and sweet and genuine — sometimes it’s nice to just have a conversation with another person,” she said.
To win a Bay Ridge woman’s heart, suitors can avoid crowded spots like Trace Restaurant or Cebu Bar & Bistro, choosing quieter lounges like Delia’s on Third Avenue between 92nd and 93rd streets, or Fushimi on Third Avenue between 93rd and 94th streets, she suggested.
Times might be tough for Bay Ridge men, but it’s a different world just a few subway stations away. Single women outnumber single men in neighborhoods including Park Slope, Red Hook, Downtown, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights and Flatbush — and in Brownsville and East New York, the ratio is nearly inverted, according to Census data analyzed by the city.
Reach reporter Dan MacLeod at dmacleod@cnglocal.com or by calling him at (718) 260-4507. You can also follow his Tweets at twitter.com/dsmacleod.
