Al Goldstein used to have a segment on Midnight Blue in which he would ceremoniously give the finger to a person or entity that had particularly raised his ire in the previous week. We couldn’t help recalling this last weekend as we strolled around South Williamsburg. Although we complain constantly about all the bureaucracy we are having to deal with to renovate and change the C of O on our own house, surveying the eyesores that developers have been putting up between Grand and Broadway on the South Side made us thankful that our brownstone is in a landmarked district and reminded us that there is a role for government regulation. We honestly don’t think we could design uglier buildings than these if we tried. We also wonder whether this crap that is getting built ultimately will be the neighborhood’s own undoing. Who wants to pay $700 to $900 a foot to live next door to one of these things? Not us–we’re off to Clinton Hill where prices are half that. As for the tasteless developers, we hope the market votes with its feet and refuses to inhabit these soulless spaces. If we had a television show instead of a blog, you can guess what kind of a gesture we’d be giving them.

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Williamsburg Hall of Shame