Brownstoner's Profile
- Mr. B
- 2003
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Author's Posts
November 6, 2009
Closing Bell: Flea Fun In The Fall Sun
Phew. It's been a rough few weeks of dodgy weather (and weather reports) but it's finally looking like we have back-to-back dry days coming up this weekend. With the hard part out of the way, we can just step back and let The Flea vendors do their thing! Joining the usual cast of characters this weekend are the folks behind Atlantis in Red Hook, an online purveyor of curiosities, a vinyl-head known as the Record Grouch, an antiques dealer from the Chelsea Garage and a new Red Hook Food Vendor serving up arepas and chuzos. All good, baby. All good. The Brooklyn Flea is held on Saturdays from 10 to 5 at the Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Fort Greene (176 Lafayette Avenue between Clermont and Vanderbilt Avenues; take the C or G trains to Clinton-Washington) and on Sundays from 11-6 in Dumbo underneath the Brooklyn Bridge at the corner of Water and New Dock Street. Map and directions here.
Development Watch: Pratt Myrtle Gets Glassy
Pratt's new seven story academic and studio building at 524 Myrtle Avenue is moving along at a steady clip. When we checked in back in July, there were three stories on steel framing up and now all seven are up and there are some windows to boot. Sounds like a Fall 2010 opening is a lay-up.
Development Watch: Pratt Myrtle Rising [Brownstoner]
Development Watch: Rat at Pratt [Brownstoner]
Development Watch: Pratt Myrtle [Brownstoner] GMAP
Pratt Starts on New Myrtle Project [Brownstoner] P*Shark
Pratt Reveals Plans for Myrtle KFC Site [Brownstoner] DOB
Open House Picks
Boerum Hill
80 Hoyt Street
FSBO
Sunday 12:30-3:30
$1,495,00 was $1,780,000
GMAP P*Shark
Clinton Hill
147 Vanderbilt Avenue
Corcoran
Saturday 12-1:30
$995,000
GMAP P*Shark
West Midwood
735 Rugby Road
Mary Kay Gallagher
Sunday 1-2:30
$890,000
GMAP P*Shark
Stuyvesant Heights
480 Macdonough Street
Brown Harris Stevens
Sunday 11-12:30
$649,000
GMAP P*Shark
Open House Picks: Six Months Later
Comment: At least deals are getting done.
Open House Picks 5/8/09 [Brownstoner]
Previous Six Months Later Posts [Brownstoner]
Roddick Condo Hunting in Brooklyn?
Just saw this Page 6 item...Andy Roddick and wife spotted at J Condo in Dumbo!
The Albemarle Renovation Blog Launches!
We're thrilled to announce the launch of a new renovation blog which will be called the Albemarle Reno blog. As the picture above shows, the house itself is incredible but there's lots of work to be done; this is also the first non-rowhouse we've featured as well as the first house in Victorian Flatbush. So please give a warm Brownstoner welcome to the Albemarle Reno bloggers and go check out the first post which just went up!
Fulton Sports Bar Signage Revealed
There's been a lot of speculation (in a neighborhoody, chit-chatty sort of way) about the sports bar that's going to be opening soon on Fulton Street between Vanderbilt and Clinton Avenues in Clinton Hill, so we were interested to receive the photo at right yesterday of the new signage being installed. Just to make sure they we're only going to 11, we rode by this morning to regard the handiwork ourselves and, sure enough, the name's "Chance 11"—anyone have any ideas what that might be a reference to? The sign might be a little flashy for our taste but at this point we're 100% rooting for any business that can generate foot traffic and stimulate the local economy in this part of town. On a related note, this block as a whole has really come a long way in the last few years, hasn't it?
Streetlevel: Sports Bar for Fulton [Brownstoner] GMAP
Affordable Housing on Tap
It may seem like there's not any affordable housing available, but, reports The Brooklyn Eagle, there are 700 units currently up for grabs through one non-profit development company alone in Brooklyn. The Housing Partnership Development Corp. which has created 30,000 units of affordable housing over its 25-year history, is currently offering "moderate-income" apartments at the newly-developed Bergen Street Co-ops at 1509 Bergen Street in Crown Heights (at right). The Partnership is also involved in other projects like 320 Sterling Street, which is about three-quarters done, and Atlantic Terrace next to the Atlantic Center (at top), which just started making applications available.
700 Affordable Homes, Apartments in B'klyn Now Available [Brooklyn Eagle]
New Kosciuszko Bridge Won't Come Cheap
In October, a Department of Transportation panel narrowed the list of potential designs for the new Kosciuszko Bridge down to three finalists, including what The Brooklyn Paper calls the front runner, above. In addition to a new look, the bridge of the future will have nine lanes instead of six (yay!) as well as a bike and pedestrian lane; the whole thing will be set at less of an incline than the current structure because tall boats no longer go underneath. All this good stuff won't come cheap though: We're looking at a $1 billion price tag. Sounds like a lot of dough to us, but apparently that's what it takes to get bridge builders out of bed these days. “For a bridge that is a mile long in New York City, $1 billion is the going rate,” said DOT spokesman Adam Levine. The Feds will pay 80% of the freight, leaving the state with the rest. But the state is now talking about slashing its transportation spending, so it remains to be seen of the bridge, over which 160,000 vehicles pass every day, makes the cut.
The Billion-Dollar Bridge! [Brooklyn Paper]
Author's Comments
BSD, Mrs. B chased him for a couple of blocks honking her horn so we're pretty sure he was aware!
Posted by: brownstoner at November 5, 2009 5:01 PM in response to Mrs. B Side-Swiped In The Heights
Yeah, we're not really interested in insurance--wouldn't mind the guy getting a slap on the wrist and being forced to apologize to the wife though!
Posted by: brownstoner at November 5, 2009 4:11 PM in response to Mrs. B Side-Swiped In The Heights
Denton hit the nail on the head. You could just go google general contractors in brooklyn but the theory (besides helping to pay our mortgage) is that you weed out some of the fly-by-night operations that would show up in a free data-dump type of list; and frankly a list of 8 or 10 electricians that have some connection to Brownstoner is more of a manageable starting point than a completely barrier-less list of 200. $300 a year is only $25 a month, which is hardly a high hurdle to get over. It does mean that the service provider needs to place some value on reaching the Brownstoner community, which it should; in theory word-of-mouth from the community will on balance recruit higher quality list members than the freebie option. We shall see.
Posted by: brownstoner at November 5, 2009 3:01 PM in response to Brownstoner Directory Reaches Milestone of 50 Listings
thanks. permanent.
Posted by: brownstoner at November 5, 2009 1:41 PM in response to Brownstoner Directory Reaches Milestone of 50 Listings
Take a chill pill, there bxgrl. We were not denigrating St. Barts in the slightest. We think it's an incredible place; the fact is we've spoken to people their about their financial situation and they could use every bit of help they can get. That Tiffany window alone is reason enough to root for the church's survival! Sorry but you're not going to get us cheering for the creation of an ugly new church for some fringe sect on a block with a bunch of beautiful old houses.
Posted by: brownstoner at November 4, 2009 11:59 AM in response to Church Reboot on Clinton Avenue
Our main point was that it's a poor allocation of resources since presumably these folks are all worshipping the same entity; so a gem like St. Bartholomew's (http://bk.ly/VF) in Crown Heights slowly crumbles while a couple of million bucks gets blown on this POS. Of course, judging from the description above, this particular organization doesn't sound like one that a traditional church would want to climb into bed with but still...
Posted by: brownstoner at November 4, 2009 11:35 AM in response to Church Reboot on Clinton Avenue
It's not the slightest bit snarky. It's critical but perfectly earnest.
Posted by: brownstoner at November 4, 2009 11:15 AM in response to Church Reboot on Clinton Avenue
Standard widget markup would have put this at around $350K...
Posted by: brownstoner at November 2, 2009 11:01 AM in response to Widget Falls Way Short on South Oxford
As master plumber said, there aren't any electricians in the directory yet; when the first one signs up, the category will appear.
Posted by: brownstoner at November 2, 2009 6:08 AM in response to Where Are the Electricians?
American Apparel shafted us.
Posted by: brownstoner at October 29, 2009 11:47 AM in response to Brownstoner 2009 Survey Results
846 respondents
Posted by: brownstoner at October 29, 2009 11:11 AM in response to Brownstoner 2009 Survey Results
Bankers and lawyers combined made up less than a quarter of respondents though...
Posted by: brownstoner at October 29, 2009 10:43 AM in response to Brownstoner 2009 Survey Results
Interestingly, half of those with no college degrees make $100K or more and 62% own. And 43% of them are 40 or older. The sample size is only 35 though.
Posted by: brownstoner at October 29, 2009 10:28 AM in response to Brownstoner 2009 Survey Results
Speaking on a panel about the future of local media tonight in Soho fyi: http://bk.ly/Sn
Posted by: brownstoner at October 27, 2009 11:20 AM in response to Open Thread
There are no dogs allowed in Fort Greene as per school policy; they are allowed in Dumbo because it's park property.
Posted by: brownstoner at October 26, 2009 12:04 PM in response to Martha Does The Flea
Would probably cost a few extra bucks, but don't see why you couldn't get your screen names on the back :)
Posted by: brownstoner at October 26, 2009 10:05 AM in response to Open Thread
DIBS asked about the Brownstoner sweatshirt in the Martha video. A couple of years ago we took some orders and got a batch made, so there are 10 or 12 floating around out there, though we've never seen anyone sporting one on the street. If peeps are interested, we can do another batch. Think they were about $50, because they are American Apparel sweatshirts with the lettering actually sewn on.
Posted by: brownstoner at October 26, 2009 9:53 AM in response to Open Thread
zero comments, as well.
Posted by: brownstoner at October 23, 2009 1:14 PM in response to Open House Picks: Six Months Later
Bivouac,
Those changes are underway. Programmer's been a little swamped, that's all...
Posted by: brownstoner at October 23, 2009 10:21 AM in response to 20 Clifton Place Sells, Kicks Widget's Ass
Taking it up a notch...from one day a week to five...
Posted by: brownstoner at October 22, 2009 1:51 PM in response to Ho! Ho! Ho! The Flea Takes Manhattan (For a Month)
Well played, benson ;)
Posted by: brownstoner at October 22, 2009 12:00 PM in response to Kudos, Sorta, from The Village Voice
Yes, hardly the Nobel prize...
Posted by: brownstoner at October 22, 2009 11:34 AM in response to Kudos, Sorta, from The Village Voice
If the bad weekend weather continues, we might take you up on it, Tybur6!
Posted by: brownstoner at October 22, 2009 11:21 AM in response to Ho! Ho! Ho! The Flea Takes Manhattan (For a Month)
Nope. They didn't even want to have the conversation. Dismissed the idea out of hand.
Posted by: brownstoner at October 22, 2009 11:15 AM in response to Ho! Ho! Ho! The Flea Takes Manhattan (For a Month)
Not cheaper, that's for sure. It's more a matter of finding the right landlord that "gets it" and likes the idea of activating an otherwise empty space. The folks who own the space at the corner of Smith and Atlantic underneath the Nu Hotel, for example, dismissed the idea out of hand, even though they're currently earning nothing on the space and we would have brought thousands of people, along with a few potential tenants no doubt, through the space. Small-minded and short-sighted in our humble opinion.
Posted by: brownstoner at October 22, 2009 10:50 AM in response to Ho! Ho! Ho! The Flea Takes Manhattan (For a Month)
We don't have any problem with recessed lighting in a store. Just brownstone parlor floors!
Posted by: brownstoner at October 19, 2009 12:27 PM in response to Getting Close on Grand?
stand-alone post on both house tours scheduled for later in the day
Posted by: brownstoner at October 16, 2009 10:37 AM in response to Weekend Events
And here's a bullish sign: More than half of the renters are planning to buy within the next two years...
Posted by: brownstoner at October 14, 2009 3:40 PM in response to Open Thread
Finance is the most popular profession and two-thirds of you commute to Manhattan for work...
Posted by: brownstoner at October 14, 2009 3:39 PM in response to Open Thread
Sorry, turns out we can't change the content of the questions once the survey has begun :(
Posted by: brownstoner at October 14, 2009 2:34 PM in response to Brownstoner Reader Survey
Something like this, TD? http://bk.ly/M8
Posted by: brownstoner at October 14, 2009 10:16 AM in response to 2 Lefferts Comes Into Focus, Exceeds Expectations
Park Slope way out in the lead for neighborhood residence...
Posted by: brownstoner at October 14, 2009 10:12 AM in response to Open Thread
59/60 so far have a college degree...
Posted by: brownstoner at October 14, 2009 10:10 AM in response to Open Thread
After 60 responses, 50/50 male-female split...
Posted by: brownstoner at October 14, 2009 10:08 AM in response to Open Thread
Oh, crap, sorry. Will add...
Posted by: brownstoner at October 14, 2009 10:05 AM in response to Brownstoner Reader Survey
Update: 1 out of 40 respondents so far makes over $500,000. Less than 30% making under $100K though...developing...
Posted by: brownstoner at October 14, 2009 10:04 AM in response to Open Thread
Okay, anyone who makes over $100k go take the survey! Just joshin'...
Posted by: brownstoner at October 14, 2009 9:55 AM in response to Open Thread
Sorry, folks. As always, it was set up for 9:15-ish but was left in draft form so it didn't automatically publish. More detail than you probably need but bottom line it was a simple clerical oversight, not a conspiracy to derail the OT.
Posted by: brownstoner at October 8, 2009 9:55 AM in response to Open Thread
Arkady/Noklissa,
Agree that the tabs in the upper right looked a little better, but we're all coming at it from the perspective of heavy users. Can't tell you how many regular but not diehard users have told us over the years that they'd never even noticed the tabs! Seems crazy, but would rather err on the side of hitting people over the head than going unnoticed in this case...
Posted by: brownstoner at October 7, 2009 3:23 PM in response to Brownstoner Directory Launches
We would respectfully disagree that it's useless without user reviews. It's meant as a starting point to create a short list of service providers at the beginning of a search; in the case of service providers who have mini-sites with photos, etc. it's quite a reasonable way to begin finding a contractor. And because it's paid, it should avoid the "noise" of Craigslist, which is cluttered with fly-by-nights. As we found out with Brokerate (and we've seen to a certain extent on the Forum), user reviews are also quite prone to competitors filing false negative reviews--and discerning the "real" ones from the fakes is an almost impossible task.
Posted by: brownstoner at October 7, 2009 3:20 PM in response to Brownstoner Directory Launches
You probably need to refresh your browser or clear your cache. It's definitely a caching issue. The layout, size, etc. have not changed!
Posted by: brownstoner at October 7, 2009 11:26 AM in response to Brownstoner Directory Launches
DIBS,
859 Smax already was HOTD: http://bk.ly/Jc
Posted by: brownstoner at October 5, 2009 9:41 AM in response to Open Thread
Joe the Bummer,
That's also a good idea. Probably better than the multiplier actually....
Posted by: brownstoner at October 1, 2009 1:37 PM in response to
Chicken, we've also got that in the spreadsheet. Agree that it's useful to try to measure impact of pricing on psychology...
Posted by: brownstoner at October 1, 2009 11:31 AM in response to
Antidope, we've got that column in the spreadsheet just didn't want to cram too much in here for visibility's sake. That's also the important number because it's what we'll have to multiply the widget average by to get the proprietary Brownstoner predicted price!
Posted by: brownstoner at October 1, 2009 11:27 AM in response to
Given OP's username, we're not so sure this ain't a hoax of a post...
Posted by: brownstoner at October 1, 2009 9:33 AM in response to Exposed Brick Blues
Here's an older post about Hakeem Jeffries and Tish James calling the clinics to task: http://bk.ly/GN
Posted by: brownstoner at September 29, 2009 12:56 PM in response to 925 Fulton In Turnaround
Littering, loitering and upon occasion acting irrational and menacing, none of which is good for business. This stretch of Fulton needs all the help it can get.
Posted by: brownstoner at September 29, 2009 12:53 PM in response to 925 Fulton In Turnaround
What a predictable bunch of knee-jerk responses. It's well documented that this area has WAY more than its fair share of methadone clinics and that this particular one is one of the major reasons that retail on this stretch of Fulton Street has had such a difficult time. If the folks visiting and running the methadone clinic were better neighbors we might feel inclined to cut them some more slack, but that ain't the case.
Posted by: brownstoner at September 29, 2009 12:39 PM in response to 925 Fulton In Turnaround
thanks for the well-wishes
Posted by: brownstoner at November 5, 2009 5:36 PM in response to Mrs. B Side-Swiped In The Heights