hah, that's hilarious

Posted by: brownstoner at November 17, 2009 12:02 PM in response to Johnson Gourmet Deli Revealed

Only when they're posted by somebody who has been banned for repeated profanity, threats of violence and unauthorized self-promotion finds a way to worm his way back into the site...or for obvious reasons like hate speech or racism.

Posted by: brownstoner at November 10, 2009 1:15 PM in response to Martha's Brooklyn Show Wrap

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

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