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October 11, 2006

Wednesday Links

boat
Street Boat, Red Hook. Photo by Joseph O. Holmes
City to Incentivize Low-Cost Housing [NY Times]
Corcoran Accused of Racial Steering in Brooklyn [NY Times]
Workers Injured in Lift Accident in Red Hook [NY Times]
Queens House Oldest Private House in NYC [NY Times]
Freak Fire at Fallen Angel [NY Daily News]
Herb Engler Back in Business in G'point [NY Daily News]
Big Drop in Winter Heating Bills [CNN/Money]
How To Fix Your Doorbell [Charles & Hudson]
City Foundry on Atlantic Avenue [Apartment Therapy]
Old Dutch Mustard Being Demolished [Curbed]
Construction Accident At Red Hook Ikea [NY1]
Free Shutters on Carroll Street [Brooklynian]




Posted by Brownstoner at 8:32 AM | Comments (17)
Categories: Daily Links

Comments

I think the NYT article about Corcoran's discriminatory sales practice deserves a bit more attention than a Wednesday link. It is disturbing, if true, that Corcoran agents have been steering people to neighborhoods they deem appropriate for us to live in. What brownstone owner has not had some sort of contact with a Corcoran agent? The are everywhere, which means this practice was probably pervasive.

Posted by: Anon at October 11, 2006 10:18 AM

i don't know which is more irritating, corcoran's racial shenannigans, or the idea that people have actually called the DOB and complained about Broken Angel.

Posted by: Jimmy Legs at October 11, 2006 10:21 AM

I agree with anon 10:18. I almost missed the link to that article. I'm in the market for a property right now, and although I'm still in the early stage--- browsing listings--- it would be nice to hear from other people who have dealt with Corcoran. Has anyone had experienced the tactics described in the NYT article? With Corcoran or another broker?

Posted by: Anonymuse at October 11, 2006 10:47 AM

I bought my brownstone through Corcoran and experienced nothing like that. I have, however, had a white cop from Long Island tell me I'm crazy to live here.

Posted by: Amy at October 11, 2006 10:53 AM

Strange how Curbed posted the article seperately, while Browstoner slipped it in with 12 other links.

Posted by: Anon at October 11, 2006 10:56 AM

very very surprised this link was buried. this is an important article. it's important for people to realize stuff like this still happens... similar to the "stop all Black men" police story at the F train stop in Park Slope.

Posted by: ab at October 11, 2006 11:03 AM

Call me crazy but Corcoran seems like a bunch of money hungry agents just the rest of the bunch. Why would the company at large encourage practices that would reduce the # of sales they make?

I can understand it happening in a rare instance b/c a particular is a racist in spite of it being against his better intrest. But to imply corcoran as a firm does anything but try to make money for itself and its agent is a stretch.

Posted by: Anonymous at October 11, 2006 11:27 AM

11:27,

Why pretend that housing discrimination that has been documented is "a stretch" ?Housing, Church, and Schools are still very much segregated. Historically, common sense and even profit are still trumped by racism. Reverse redlining I guess we might call it.

Posted by: Anonymous at October 11, 2006 12:01 PM

If anon 10:56 is going to start in with loopy-lou insinuations, he/she can at least bother to spell "brownstoner" correctly.

Though I too am curious to hear if anyone who's dealt with Corcoran has had any experiences like those described in the article.

Posted by: petunia at October 11, 2006 12:13 PM

I'm a white person who recently bought a house in Bed Stuy from a black Corcoran realtor. I looked at several Corcoran listings in the area and never had a problem. I did experience something weird with a realtor from another large agency. He was trying to steer us towards Clinton Hill because he thought we would feel more "comfortable" there. He was black. I don't want to mention his firm, because I believe it was coming from this agent, not his company.

Posted by: Anonymous at October 11, 2006 1:35 PM

10:53,

How do you know that the cop was from Long Island? Or are you engaging in your own form of discrimination...

Posted by: Anonymous at October 11, 2006 4:58 PM

I'm a brownstone owner in an interracial marriage and I've had various strange experiences, not just with Corcoran, but with any number of brokers over the years. Bottom-line, I think money wins over racism. But, from time to time, you encounter somebody who is just too dumb to understand that their racism is actually harming their own self-interest.

One of the stranger experiences was with a broker who tried to steer us to Clinton Hill several years ago, presumably because I'm black and he felt we'd feel more comfortable over there, despite the fact that we could afford Park Slope and expressed a clear preference for Park Slope.

We eventually just got fed up with him and asked the office mgr to assign another broker to us. I think it was more that the broker in question was responsible for developing their Clinton Hill business, rather than any overt racism. Still, he could not get past his own agenda and my skin color.


Posted by: Anonymous at October 11, 2006 5:02 PM

Also, if you don't think steering and racism in housing are still big issues, just ask any black person who's looked for a rental apt or co-op lately.

Posted by: Anonymous at October 11, 2006 5:06 PM

And, while I applaud bstoner's including the link to the article, I smell a bit of commercialism in the fact that this was not featured as a headline topic.

Bstoner? Are you going to be part of the problem? Or part of the solution?

Posted by: Anonymous at October 11, 2006 5:09 PM

Oooh, you really got us! We're part of the problem...Yeeesh.

Here's how it went down. We saw this article at 8:20 when we were getting Daily Links ready for 8:30 publishing. We had an 8:30 meeting at our day job that we knew was going to last a couple of hours so we knew we wouldn't have time to write anything up for the first part of the day. So we included it in the links until we could get to it later. Big conspiracy theory!

Posted by: brownstoner at October 11, 2006 5:45 PM

Bstoner, FWIW, I wasn't so much implicating conspiracy, so much as complicity. Most steering happens because brokers assume LL's and owners will be upset if they do otherwise. It's not like the brokers and owners meet in a smoke-filled backroom and agree to keep the darkies out.

Likewise, I did not so much feel that you & Babs were in bed together, just that you might be afraid of biting the habd that feeds. And that would be part of the problem.

But, hey, I take your excuse at face value. We're all human.


Posted by: Anonymous at October 11, 2006 11:04 PM

What about that farmhouse in Queens that's the oldest occupied house in NYC? I love it that they have their own cemetery on the property. The owner, Mrs. Smith does not look 66! I want to look like that at 66.

Posted by: Anonymous at October 12, 2006 10:28 PM

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