Oh thank you Montrosse
you sound like a news anchor vetting a politician.
I don't give a fig if you think anything I write is
gratuitous. of course it is unnecessary, this is a blog! duh!
I am always amazed at the thin-skinned goo-goos in new York
I'm so grateful this ain't Cuba, because i would have been arrested by now for rocking the boat and using taboo words like caucasian.
You are a booster for your own selfih real estate interests and yet you act like you are one of the apostles of jesus.
you and the notoriously frumpy townhouse lady.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at September 2, 2008 9:06 PM in response to House of the Day: 139 Clifton Place

Townhouse lady:
cool your jets hon.
there is no Gary Cooper.
It's just a handle.
I'm doing this to get a rise out of you
complacent brownstone-owning bourgeoisie
who think you are God's gift to new York, when
actually. by and large, you are self-rightous, self-absorbed, hypocritical, self-interested, boring, people.
there is no Gary Cooper
He is all in your mind.
cheerio

Posted by: Gary Cooper at September 2, 2008 8:33 PM in response to House of the Day: 139 Clifton Place

Townhouse lady
you seem like a boring old scold
go screw yourself -I'm sure you have few alterntives
you write like a homely person.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at September 2, 2008 8:00 PM in response to The Luxury of the Garage

Lurker,
Really?
Everyone I knew at Yale was just like me.
Why am I racist? because I use the word "caucasian"?
- not even in caps?
Were these houses built by, or for, someone else?
Maybe you have a beef with American history?

Posted by: Gary Cooper at September 2, 2008 7:56 PM in response to House of the Day: 139 Clifton Place

I think that the mad cyclists perform a public service running over the excess number of tourists on the bridge. In the nature conservation world, it it is called "culling the herd".
It is good for the environment.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at September 2, 2008 7:18 PM in response to Closing Bell: Brooklyn Bridge as Catwalk

here's Mr. "Marx Brothers-owneship is crime" Lurker.
Why should a family be entitled to use their own property for their own selfish needs?
In North Korea, fourteen families could live in one curb cut.
What's wrong with America?

Posted by: Gary Cooper at September 2, 2008 7:09 PM in response to The Luxury of the Garage

This looks like a little dump of a house in Camden, NJ.
Is this really in Bed Stuy? I have heard that there are really nice houses there, built generations ago for well-off persons of the caucasian persuasion.
This does not look all that nice to me.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at September 2, 2008 6:57 PM in response to House of the Day: 139 Clifton Place

Oh lurker, you're such a scary old Marxist.
your just make me quake in my Ferragamos.
Get a life asshole. Your side lost the Cold War.
Sell your vintage Che Guevara T-shirts on Ebay and
make some dough for once in your life.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at August 30, 2008 9:49 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 154 South 3rd

I don't get these kinds of buildings. They seem un-american.
This is the kind of thing you see in countries that are uncomfortable with the concept of private property.
Better to live in public housing, save your dough, and buy a retirement home in Pa or NC. You know? at least by buying a real home some day, you will be followng the American, rather than the Soviet, model.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at August 29, 2008 8:26 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 154 South 3rd

Whoa Monte!
blistering condescension? Me? you're thinking of my dad, or perhaps his business associates. I bought a house in Brooklyn. I am the black sheep. I really like the idea of places like Crown Heights being taken back by the middle class. And I love the idea that affluent Black and Hispanic families opt to buy houses in Brooklyn. I think it is more the exception than rule, and I think they buy in places like Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope, but you are right to dream and to think that your neighborhood will, one day, be known for something other than Hassidic-Black antagonism. that is a positive goal. But a million three for a house? Je ne sais pas.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at August 29, 2008 8:05 PM in response to House of the Day: 1094 Park Place

I was born into and grew up amongst very affluent families.
Believe you me, they are allergic to poor people. And in my experience, the moment a family of color makes money they want to high tail it out of the inner city as fast as possible.
I like the little urban la-la land that posters on this site have created. I really do, I think it's quaint. Our Montrosse Morris (who uses the name of a notoriously anti-semetic and anti-catholic victorian architect)should be paid by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce for being such a sincere booster.
I just like to inject a little reality now and then to the threads.
cheerio!

Posted by: Gary Cooper at August 29, 2008 9:48 AM in response to House of the Day: 1094 Park Place

This is an haute bourgeoise home. It costs a fortune to heat, furnish, and maintain. Five or more years ago, the maintenance costs may have been borne by a less affluent family because the purchase price and taxes were a pittance. In other words the savings in the mortgage went into the maintenance. Now that it is an expensive property I don't see any future for it except conversion to small apartments. A family with moderate income could never afford it, and an affluent family would not want to live in this neighborhood (the rich are very sensitive about keeping their wealth and not being robbed). So it is unlikely that a rich family would live here, and I can't imagine anyone but a rich family affoding the purchase price and the upkeep. The house is a goner. whoever pays a million for it will need to recover that investemet by chopping it up or by razing it and building a quickie condo. Sad but true.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at August 28, 2008 8:54 PM in response to House of the Day: 1094 Park Place

Sam, as the executive director of the Friends of Flea Bags LLC I take offense at your crude inference.
We got the idea from Quinn.
Those guys and dolls at city hall are the slickest!

Posted by: Gary Cooper at August 19, 2008 7:56 PM in response to The Battle Between Landlords and Tenants Begins

Are you kidding me?
Who are you the seller?
A fifth floor walkup is not universally known in
New York as the loser's penthouse?

Listen you can own a five story house and never go up to the upper floors but if you live in a goddam fifth floor walkup you're dog meat. you're stuck.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at August 19, 2008 7:47 PM in response to Co-op Condo of the Day: 338 Prospect Place, #5E

Stoner,
did you ask your photographer to pick the very ugliest building in the Navy Yard?

Posted by: Gary Cooper at August 19, 2008 7:19 PM in response to Closing Bell: Spiffing Up the Navy Yard

buying an apartment on the fifth floor in a building with no elevator is like buying a condo with no hot water. I mean old-timey can be quaint, but no hot water or no elevator is just retarded. To veteran New Yorkers, a fifth floor walkup = slumville.
harsh but true.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at August 19, 2008 7:16 PM in response to Co-op Condo of the Day: 338 Prospect Place, #5E

dave, you really are a nasty piece of work,
other posters are right.
who is pretending here if not you?

Posted by: Gary Cooper at August 18, 2008 5:17 PM in response to House of the Day: 105 Willow Street

Dave, aussie, etc.
thanks for killing this thread.

You all should get a room.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at August 18, 2008 4:50 PM in response to House of the Day: 105 Willow Street

speaking as an excellent driver whose car did once blow up and burst into flames, one has nothing to do with the other.
conflagrations happen even to the most careful chauffers.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at August 15, 2008 8:27 PM in response to Access-A-Ride Van Burns Up on 8th Avenue

to me, a danish commune consists of like-minded people bound together by their love for breakfast pastry. that is a workable concept. the labor can be shared for making those cinamon rolls and cherry streudel, and omigod, the cheese and apple turnovers. beam me up.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at August 15, 2008 8:06 PM in response to Brooklyn Co-Housing Moving Closer to Reality?

why do people chop up nice houses like this into apartments? It's not like it's a vast mansion. it's a family house. where else in the US do decent, even affluent people buy bits and pieces of a house? It's retarded, I'm sorry.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at August 14, 2008 8:02 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 110 Hicks Street

it is not just the money, it is also the effort that has to go into something like this. it is basically replicating a second empire style wood frame house from scratch -believe me, the more layers you remove the more rotten crap you reveal- it ends up being a new house following the old pattern, which is fine if you really like the old pattern and if you really love the block. the lpc will ok hardyplank but you will need to use natural slate on the mansard and all wooden windows and trim, which means a fortune in copper flashing or it all turns to shit in two years. I have been there, I have done it, I have the divorce papers to prove it. it is no easy thing.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at August 14, 2008 7:56 PM in response to House of the Day: 132 Cambridge Place

My father was a quaker and a mason. he would have been rather surprised to hear that a masonic temple was a religious institution. believe me, the masons do not talk about theology. it is mostly business and philanthropy.
basically they are the rotarians with more decor. so american, so good hearted. really.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at August 13, 2008 10:22 PM in response to An Inside Look at the Masonic Temple

this is a beautiful home. congrats to the lucky buyer.
perfectly lovely.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at August 13, 2008 10:15 PM in response to 30 Orange Street Sells for $2,775,000

just tacky and third world.
why do some of the windows slant one way and the others slant another way?
is that modern?
or is it arbritary and stupid?

Posted by: Gary Cooper at August 13, 2008 10:11 PM in response to Going Modern on Fifth Avenue

One of the real worries about living here is that in case of a health emergency, you will be taken to Down State/Kings County hospital, one of the worst hospitals in the city. Like Thunderdome, "two go in, one comes out"
It is an indictment of the racist american health care system.

beware.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at August 13, 2008 9:54 PM in response to House of the Day: 280 Lefferts Avenue

This is ridiculous, the idea that a firm like MK would be hawking this property without coming out and saying on the top line "owner's duplex occupied by rent-regulated tenant" is sleazy.
The money that would be needed to bring this exploited and mistreated little building up to First World standards, and the money (and also wear and tear on one's arteries) that would be required to remove tenants without leases, is one of those weird throw-back to the Soviet system that survives only in NYC.
This is a good investment for someone like Tony Soprano, who could make a "convincing argument" to the tenants to leave forthwith or sleep with the fishes. Alas that is what the NYC rent laws encourage.
Shameful, but what can one do? I steer clear and live my good life away from housing court and rent control court and the Brooklyn version of the Kremlin and the Cosa Nostra. I learned that sometime after my curriculum at St.Paul's and Yale.
Cheers!

Posted by: Gary Cooper at July 17, 2008 11:04 PM in response to House of the Day: 228 Washington Avenue

Am I missing something? Aren't the streets full of children and felons all the time? I could do without either myself but unless you live in a cloister somewhere you have to deal with it.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at July 16, 2008 8:24 PM in response to Federal Probation Officer Defends Proximity to St. Ann's

I think Dave is a rascal.

Nooners?

what would Mrs. Dave think?

Posted by: Gary Cooper at July 16, 2008 8:18 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 130 8th Avenue, #3H

so if an alien from another solar system took a look at this picture which of the two buildings would they think was the product of the more advanced stage in the evolution of human society?
The simplistic facade composed of child-like brightly colored squares, or the finely wrought facade composed of a multitude of carefully sculpted and proportioned elements creating a unified whole?

Posted by: Gary Cooper at July 16, 2008 8:17 PM in response to Wednesday Blogwrap

bxgirl,
get over yourself. You are being way too defensive.
Sam is right. these houses are money pits and Pratt has its own problems, including its own row of vacant and abandoned historic houses, formerly for faculty, now empty.
Maybe the Mayor's billions could fund a philanthropy that could run a trade school at the officers' row, but he and his deputies are the ones pressing the hardest for their demolition.
Wishful thinking is fine, but not all of us live in la-la land.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at July 16, 2008 7:59 PM in response to James Opens Door to (Partial) Admiral's Row Preservation

Noklissa,
Be honest, you loved the house, it had the toil-in kitchen your heart desires, why didn't you buy it? ...really?
as I recall, the Gatsby reference was made in connection with the much more expensive house, a mansion really, in Park Slope. Was that the place you really want but can't afford?
Why is poor little Washington Avenue so not in keeping with your druthers? You can tell us.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at July 15, 2008 9:20 PM in response to House of the Day: 219 Washington Avenue

also guest:

Oh, touche!
what excellent NYC public school taught
you such clever repartee?

Posted by: Gary Cooper at July 15, 2008 9:01 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 15 Clark Street, #2C

Call me Gary.
Hey don't get me wrong, I love the subways, I think everyone should use them -it leaves more room for me and the BMW above ground, y'know?
zoom zoom zoom.....

Posted by: Gary Cooper at July 15, 2008 8:27 PM in response to House of the Day: 219 Washington Avenue

I knew someone at Yale from Midwood, Nebraska. Is there another Midwood?

Posted by: Gary Cooper at July 15, 2008 8:14 PM in response to Last Week's Biggest Sales

I have to concur that it is kind of boring.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at July 15, 2008 8:03 PM in response to User Registration

If the G train does not stop nearby I have no interest in it.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at July 15, 2008 8:00 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 15 Clark Street, #2C

I only take the subways rarely and never in summer and certainly never on weekends, what do the subways have to do with properties like these?
Is it true that the G train does not go into Manhattan? What's the point?

Posted by: Gary Cooper at July 15, 2008 7:52 PM in response to House of the Day: 219 Washington Avenue

The new no-guest format has reduced the number of postings enormously but as 5:16 attests, the comments are still as utterly clueless as ever.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at July 15, 2008 7:49 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 15 Clark Street, #2C

paluka, I think you are full of meatloaf.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at July 14, 2008 9:38 PM in response to House of the Day: 615 2nd Street

denton you should know by now that if you marry for money, you end up earning every cent.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at July 14, 2008 9:34 PM in response to House of the Day: 615 2nd Street

splitting hairs between the really rich and the really really rich is a fool's errand. The bottom line is that the upper classes in NY, it may be a little different in foreign places like California, are not interested in kitchens or in cooking, that is something the upper middle class is in to. I am hedging my bets in this case because it is Park Slope, which is only very lately a hangout of the really rich.
It goes without saying that a 30 million dollar place in the UES would have a hideous kitchen, I think it is de rigueur.
Do you know what Bloomberg serves his dinner guests? meatloaf.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at July 14, 2008 8:28 PM in response to House of the Day: 615 2nd Street

The house is fantastic. the kitchen doesn't matter, Sam is right. But the master bedroom is sub par. That may lower the sale price. But not by much.
Nokilissa, it is, I suppose, possible that someone who buys a 3.5 million dollar mansion may be interested in cooking and hanging out in the kitchen, but it is a remote possibilty. These guys and gals are different from you and me. This was true back in Gatsby's day and it is true today.
If the house has a star quality to it it will sell for ask. If it feels too much like a DUMBO loft, it will not.

Posted by: Gary Cooper at July 14, 2008 7:55 PM in response to House of the Day: 615 2nd Street