QOTD
December 2, 2008
Quote of the Day
There is a difference between a preservationist and an obstructionist althought to many the terms are interchangeable. The bottom line is that the commission does something very few government agencies do, they make controversial decisions and they accept the fact that not everyone can be made happy all the time. All the more remarkable considering ten of the eleven commissioners are not paid and the agency's budget is a tiny fraction of its sister agencies like the City Plannng Commission (whose commissioners get paid handsomely).
November 19, 2008
Quote of the Day
you know, park slope doesn't really have great subway access, yet somehow people continue to survive. personally i don't see quincy & franklin as the middle of nowhere. it's not that far from the subway (okay, the C), i lived near there for many years; friends of mine still live there. it's not the middle of nowhere to the people who live there. anyway, to his point of luxury condos in desolate areas, i'm all for it! who better to live in no-mans land but the affluent, who not only can afford sparklin new condos, but also probably have cars and the means to go out and get the groceries, or freshdirect, or vases or whatever rich people go out to buy. let's build some luxury hi-rises in the Flatlands. put in underground parking and rake it in!
— by Jimmy Legs in Dolkart Down on Prospects for "Fringe Areas"
November 18, 2008
Quote of the Day
Doesn't it seem like prices have only dropped on places you don't want? Or, the places you want haven't seen price drops anywhere near what you expect? It's possible that the desirable places will never be "cheap". Barring divorce, death, relocation, unemployment, etc... the people who own these "better" places may just decide to stay where they are. Of course, there will always be crap for sale, but in NYC, even that's expensive. Still. There may be "buyers" renting for 10+ years looking for a good deal.
November 17, 2008
Quote of the Day
I've lived in Bklyn all my 54 years, attended public school, etc, etc. When the face of Brooklyn becomes Chase; Rite Aid; CVS; Bank of America, etc., you're right, "it's not what I think it should be". Change is great, but when Gage and Tollners becomes TGIF Fridays, it's not for the better. When Applebee's is packed across the street from Juniors which is empty, Brooklyn's narrative is becoming as bland as the suburbs. I've seen lots of great change in Bklyn. The Heights of my youth had boarded up brownstones and dangerous welfare hotels, but it also had a vibrant Montague Street with local usefull businesses. So, let's all put our i-pods on, go to an ATM on every corner and look at our cell phone screens while we cross the street.
November 14, 2008
Quote of the Day
Prices will come down. How much depends on what happens with the economy in the next months. Most shops I know still have work from the overhang of a very busy summer. But everyone is looking to fill in scedules for the beginning of next year and there are fewer jobs out there. You should expect to negotiate a good discount if you're starting now, but I would be careful of huge price cuts as these are the companies that disapear and go out of business.
November 13, 2008
Quote of the Day
You know it's a HORRIBLE sports bar when the only thing people praise is the Veggie Burger!!!
— by IrieMan in ROTD: Downtown Bar and Grill
November 12, 2008
Quote of the Day
If wanting to pay a reasonable price for a home somewhere within a 40 minute commute to my place of employment makes me a loser and a "tool bag", then I'm happy to be a loser and a tool bag. I'm sorry for all the people who are losing money on their home values right now, but those of us in careers other than banking, medicine and law would like to own our homes, too.
— by cwbuecheler in Has the Buyers' Market Come to Brooklyn? Duh.
November 11, 2008
Quote of the Day
Deadbeats are deadbeats, and I have no sympathy at all for people who borrowed money they could not reasonably expect to afford to repay -- especially because they are largely responsible for driving up MY housing costs the last few years as the end of the housing bubble coincided with me reaching a point in my life when I was tired of living in a crappy rent stabilized apartment. In fact, my gut feeling is just to let all of these places get foreclosed as it will drive down property values so that when I eventually do buy a place it will be even cheaper yet. But I feel more and more like this is a case where my neighbors have built a poorly designed dam upriver from me, and while I may think they are irresponsible, selfish, and stupid, it doesn't change the fact that the bursting of the dam will drown me too, so it has become in my best interest to see their problems fixed.
— by northsloperenter in Citigroup Puts the Kibosh on Foreclosures
November 10, 2008
Quote of the Day
this is how to deal with a legspreader [on a subway] if you ever find yourself next to one: place your leg that's furthest from him [i say him because this is almost always a male] on top of and across your leg that is closest to him so the bottom of your shoe is right next to his leg and if he gets any closer he will have a nice treadmark from the bottom of your shoe. unless they have filthy clothing [ie construction workers] they don't like this one bit. i never move my leg if they ask me to or say excuse me. i will only move my leg if they de-spread. if they re-spread, i respond in kind. works for me every time.
November 6, 2008
Quote of the Day
I remember walking from Park Slope to Pratt once, about 10 years ago. It was desolate and empty. I remember passing a huge empty red brick building on the corner of Gates and I forget what, thinking, this is a beauty, but who's gonna want to live here. Look at the neighborhood now...it's come a long way.
— by bayridgegirl in The Big Draw in Clinton Hill: Architecture
November 4, 2008
Quote of the Day
unless the city's economy completely falls apart in a way that's vastly disproportional to the rest of the country, you won't see prices tank in "central" brooklyn as they have nationally. these neighborhoods improved in a sustainable way through renovations, through new businesses, through improved schools, and, yes, through quality new construction - all of which forces have less to do with speculation and a lot more to do with professionals and other middle- and upper-middle class people wanting to stay in the city and wanting to invest in their neighborhoods. unless things get really bad, i don't see those people changing course drastically. especially now - most can't afford to. yes, prices will continue to drop, until credit loosens up again and prices have come more in line with incomes and rentals. but expecting prices to return to pre-2000 prices, when brooklyn was a very different place, is evidence perhaps of having partaken of the smoke of ye olde crack pipe.
— by i disagree in Last Week's Biggest Sales
October 29, 2008
Quote of the Day
W'burg - I don't understand the attraction to that place. I went to the area for the first time in many years. Although the commercial area (Bedford) was full of lively buisnesses and young people walking around...it only stretched for a short distance. Past those few streets Bedford was dead. Venture away from Bedford and the area is industrial and cold. The dinner that my guests and I had was very good. However, they all agreed that Park Slope was a better place to visit.
— by troll in Streetlevel: New French Restaurant Coming to W'burg
October 27, 2008
Quote of the Day
I had two condo developers call me over the weekend, leaving messages that they had drastic price reductions and that I should come and look at their places again. They had my number from one of those sign up sheets. I'm going to go look. But, man, I can feel the desperation and fear...
October 23, 2008
Quote of the Day
I just gave in and turned my furnace on. I try to wait util Nov. 1, but I seldom make it. BTW, I've had cock-a-leekie soup AND haggis, even though I have absolutely no Scottish connection :-)
— by Bob Marvin in Streetlevel: Adjusting for the Cold Weather
October 21, 2008
Quote of the Day
How is it that so many of these "high-end renovations" manage to make a house look cold and uninviting.
October 20, 2008
Quote of the Day
I will confess to the impulse toward gleeful What-like rantings at seeing Park Slope and Cobble Hill in the murder zone, and Bed Stuy--where I keep urging cash-strained friends in the whiter parts of town to move and being told they can't because it's not a safe place to raise kids--outside of it.
— by MiceElfAgain in North Brooklyn Safer Than South Brooklyn?
October 16, 2008
Quote of the Day
As much as I'd like to be generous about this and say "But the homeless need a place too" I'd like to point out the difference in day to day quality of life which occcurred in Fort Greene as SOON as the previous residential hotel for homeless men opposite BAM (the parking lot adjacent to Mark Morris is there now) was closed and then demolished. Before - when there were hundreds of beds there - Fort Greene had our garbage cans stolen almost weekly, plants stolen, other petty crime, agressive squeegee guys and radios stolen. In a famous rant Garrison Keillor - who briefly broadcast from BAM back then - talked about walking up Flatbush Ave. to BAM and noting all of the "No Radio" signs in the windows of almost every car asked "When I'm recording a radio show, it kind of makes me wonder 'why bother?'." In those days I'd have my battery stolen then I'd walk down to Park Ave. to a place that sold re-habbed batteries and buy back the one they'd stolen the week before. As soon as the building was demolished and services moved elsewhere, this constant background of petty crime stopped. Given the current financial turmoil, I'd want homeless New Yorkers to be given the best treatment possible. I think they deserve Manhattan condos.
— by Stonergut in Shelter Woes Spread From Crown Heights to Bed Stuy
October 14, 2008
Quote of the Day
Brooklyn can support a wide variety of retail because it has the population and household income to do so, and is underserved by retail. The idea that big boxes drive out small retail is a myth that mistakes correlation for causation. Small retail suffers in areas where population and income are declining: aging rust belt areas or rural areas where automation in agriculture is eliminating jobs. It doesn't happen in areas that are growing. In economically healthy areas, like Brooklyn or the New Jersey suburbs, small retail thrives in proximity to big boxes, like remoras alongside a shark. Mall owners in Jersey don't have any problem renting out their smaller spaces when they have Wal-Mart or Target as an anchor.
October 13, 2008
Quote of the Day
I know I'm going to get jumped on by the usual financial pundits here, but as someone who doesn't even know what all of those strange court reporter type keyboard terminals on the stock market floor are for, let alone understand the intricate maneuvering of market forces, let me just say this - isn't this all a cyclical (albeit harsh) period of correction? As an educated and halfway intelligent and informed person, whose only dealings with the market are in the form of my miniscule and shrinking 401K, I can see why where we are, and understand the fear, but it only makes sense that what rises must eventually fall.
October 10, 2008
Quote of the Day
Each day as I read The What’s explanations and referenced articles I could see the unthinkable WAS occurring. And let’s face it, who else on this blog was predicting the catastrophic collapse of the US banking system and the economy? The optimists were thoroughly delusional, eyes and brains neutralized by their own dreams and desires. Here’s a toast to the grand tradition of skepticism…and perhaps a well-informed logical pessimism as well.
— by Oxygen in I Told You So...
October 9, 2008
Quote of the Day
Asking prices are currently irrelevant. As I have pointed out many times, the top of any asset bubble is typically characterized by decreasing supply and barely increasing prices. Prices start to decline, and some sellers hold out thinking things will get better. They don't. Prices decrease some more, and the weakest sellers give in. Inventory increases, sales volume increases and prices decrease. The cycle continues until everyone who thought that holding out was a good idea kicks themselves for not selling at a mere 15% discount when they had the chance. Sellers capitulate. The market bottoms.
October 8, 2008
Quote of the Day
While home owners just need to keep their own heads above water to survive, in a co-op, one also has to worry about the corporation keeping up on its payments. If the corporation defaults on its underlying mortgage, the shares become worthless, but shareholders still have co-op loans to pay off. It is a bad scenario. Particularly vulnerable are the small, three-and-four unit coops, or the ones with a large percentage of rent-control tenants. Defaults like this happened all over the City in the 1930's and to a lesser extent, in the late 1980's.
October 7, 2008
Quote of the Day
For every person crying that the sky is falling I know of another person (you and myself included) sitting on a pile of cash. Ask yourself how many people you know who are hoping to purchase a distressed property in the next year or two. I don't understand why so many of you are so negative on NYC market when in reality I'm sure many of you also know people who have a lot of money right now they don't know what to do with. These people = demand. Nothing is trading right now because everyone is in wait and see mode, but don't confuse wait and see mode with the preamble to a cataclysmic decline in prices. It might not happen. I am much more bearish on the financial markets and the national real estate market than on NYC market.
— by setancre in Front Page Forum: Walk Away from Downpayment?
October 6, 2008
Quote of the Day
I had two really hard core Manhattanites out to Park Slope for brunch yesterday. ALL they talked about was how they wanted to move out here...they commented that the men are hotter, the stores were cuter, the people were nicer and that it was greener and prettier. Even though the economy is in the toilet, it doesn't change the fact that there are some really spectacular things about Brooklyn, and some people as they tire of Manhattan will consider it more and more, I believe.
— by 11217 in Sales: Turner Towers Spread Gets Full Asking Price
October 3, 2008
Quote of the Day
Not only that, the foreclosures in Brooklyn are concentrated in areas that most of you have probably never set foot in. That doesn't mean prices aren't going to take a hit everywhere, but that doesn't mean there's going to be urban blight on South Portland Avenue.
— by itsagas in Third Quarter Report: Foreclosures Down in Brooklyn
Latest Restaurant Additions
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Superfine
added December 2, 2008 11:59 AM in Dumbo -
Tillie's of Brooklyn
added December 1, 2008 12:00 PM in Fort Greene -
Provence en Boite
added November 26, 2008 11:58 AM in Boerum Hill -
Melt
added November 25, 2008 12:02 PM in Park Slope -
The Farm on Adderley
added November 24, 2008 12:00 PM in Ditmas Park -
Chez Lola
added November 21, 2008 12:02 PM in Clinton Hill -
Nana
added November 20, 2008 12:02 PM in Park Slope -
Pomme de Terre
added November 19, 2008 12:01 PM in Ditmas Park -
Scopello
added November 18, 2008 12:01 PM in Fort Greene -
DiFara
added November 17, 2008 11:59 AM in Midwood