This is an interesting thread. I got a chuckle, which is rare.

11217: you know what you need asap? You need to get laid!
Sex is important to clear out all those backed-up negative feelings about America and consumers and people who live in Phoenix (I loved that!).
Good luck!
remember our motto here at Brownstoner:
Get the best bang for your buck!

Posted by: Inigo at January 15, 2009 11:21 PM in response to Quote of the Day

I was interrupted, let me finish my thought:

Brooklyn used to be known as the Boro of churches before it became known as the boro of condos.

Happy New Year to all.

Posted by: Inigo at December 30, 2008 4:20 PM in response to Going for the Gold on 9th Street

well Dave, we church types are fighting an uphill battle in terms of the cost of maintaining these old places of worship. They are huge caverns that are really expensive to maintain. If you can get a restaurant in there to pay you some rent, go for it! Even the low-church Methodists would not begrudge the Episcopalians their rental income to maintain that enormous Byzantine pile on Park Avenue.
I think many of the huge old churches are doomed. There just are not enough folks around to support them. Brooklyn used to be known as the Boro of churches.

Posted by: Inigo at December 30, 2008 4:14 PM in response to Going for the Gold on 9th Street

The Lutherans can knock'em back, if you get my meaning.
The original Puritans in Brooklyn turned into either Congregationlists or Unitarians. They are the true heart of WASPNESS. The Episcopaleans may as well be Catholic for heavens sake, especially the high church crowd. And now this controversy about gay Episcopal priests has them in a simmer. Wasps never boil, they only simmer. Like a good stew.

Posted by: Inigo at December 30, 2008 3:48 PM in response to Going for the Gold on 9th Street

We're a laugh riot compared to the Unitarians.

Posted by: Inigo at December 30, 2008 3:31 PM in response to Going for the Gold on 9th Street

Please note: No exposed joists!

Posted by: Inigo at December 30, 2008 2:42 PM in response to Inside This Old House Brooklyn

It would be hard to prove that it wasn't an SRO if it was an SRO, regardless whether there is a C of O.

Posted by: Inigo at December 30, 2008 2:31 PM in response to House of the Day: 189 6th Avenue

"Embrace your inner gay, Inigo!"

I don't think so. I'm Presbyterian.

Posted by: Inigo at December 30, 2008 2:26 PM in response to Going for the Gold on 9th Street

Dave, here's your chance! A white, blank slate!
I say chartreuse for the walls, aquamarine for the window surrounds, maybe red sash to set off the aqua and a little gilding on the cornice!

Posted by: Inigo at December 30, 2008 1:26 PM in response to House of the Day: 189 6th Avenue

dave,
you're not really suggesting that brownstones be painted gay colors like the gingerbread houses in San Francisco or Cape May?

From what I have read, the original colors of those houses were pretty subdued. Moss green, mustard, brown, maroon trim. Not real "happy" colors.

Posted by: Inigo at December 30, 2008 1:23 PM in response to Going for the Gold on 9th Street

Who couldn't love a vintage frame house with pink clapboards, lavender cornice, turquoise windows and hot pink barge boards?

Me!

I think those psychodelic color schemes were a preposterous and dated product of the 1960's. Fortunately, when those houses were being painted in San Francisco, most of Brooklyn was so depressed and poor that no one could afford a can of purple paint.

Posted by: Inigo at December 30, 2008 1:14 PM in response to Going for the Gold on 9th Street

something will have to hit the fan sooner or later. do we really think that new york is some oz-like fairy tale place that is immune from a real estate bust of the first order? I sense one is coming.
On the plus side it will lengthen marry marriages.

Posted by: Inigo at December 30, 2008 12:27 PM in response to Open Thread

"painted ladies" ugh!
Don't give people any more ideas.

Posted by: Inigo at December 30, 2008 12:21 PM in response to Going for the Gold on 9th Street

heterosexual marriage has always been about property. It is property that truly binds people "til death do us part". Divorce makes sense when one of the partners either meets up with someone richer, or becomes richer themselves and can leave behind the old property. Or if neither partner has any significant property.

Posted by: Inigo at December 30, 2008 12:20 PM in response to Housing Downturn Throwing a Wrench in Divorce Plans

Will this be a bordello? It has that look.

Cornices should be black to match the windows and ironwork.

Posted by: Inigo at December 30, 2008 11:39 AM in response to Going for the Gold on 9th Street

I would be very surprised if this sold for anything near asking. Although I appreciate that the weird interiors may appeal to guys with dough, I just can't see a lady falling in love with this. I mean a lady who is in the position of choosing a 2.2 million dollar estate for her family. This is a barn. The best thing about it is the garage, if this were Brooklyn Heights that alone would justify the price but this is not Brooklyn Heights. It is next to an elementary school near Fort Greene Park. Nice for young kids looking to be coolish, but for 2.2 million you need a little gravitas.

Posted by: Inigo at December 29, 2008 6:57 PM in response to House of the Day: 433 Waverly Avenue

ghb, my comments were not hateful but yours are.

Posted by: Inigo at December 28, 2008 10:48 PM in response to Closing Bell: Working on Christmas

the muslims I know respect christmas, jesus is a prophet in islam. the hassids don't give a rat's ass about anything or anyone outside their community. they are mean people. sorry, that's how I feel. actuallly they mistreat people even within their own community, especially women and -god forbid- gays.

Posted by: Inigo at December 27, 2008 7:36 PM in response to Closing Bell: Working on Christmas

owning a pit bull should be illegal. they are dangerous animals. they appeal to the most violent and anti-social fringe elements of our society. these people could buy a Lab and train it to be vicious, but it would be more work. pit bulls are born vicious.

Posted by: Inigo at December 27, 2008 7:32 PM in response to A Christmas Tale

hassidic ownwers + christian undocumented workers = work on christmas.

Posted by: Inigo at December 26, 2008 11:12 PM in response to Closing Bell: Working on Christmas

The dogs are pitbulls. The man is a brainless asshole. What's the next question?

Posted by: Inigo at December 26, 2008 8:55 PM in response to A Christmas Tale

Rich White folks, "art connoisseurs" no less, moving to a Black neighborhood composed mostly of poor people with a few "Daves" thrown in, and seeking to impress the locals by ripping every stich of fabric out of their house and replacing it with, what else? Whiteness! Love it!

Posted by: Inigo at December 22, 2008 10:20 PM in response to Brownstone Interior Destroyed Modernized by Artist Couple

Nice doors, probably from the basquiat house.

Posted by: Inigo at December 22, 2008 10:05 PM in response to Today on the Forum

Will they preserve the barbed wire? It is very regional.

Posted by: Inigo at December 22, 2008 10:00 PM in response to CB2 Says Dock Street Design is "Too Tall"

I think Brooklyn is like Paris and the South Seas island paradises combined. Never has mankind produced such beauty and harmony in an urban landscape. This is why our little shithole apartments in slummy waterbug-infested buildings sell for over $600,000.

Posted by: Inigo at December 22, 2008 9:57 PM in response to Atlanta All The Way

This is a great apartment. Compare it to the tinder-box walk-ups in Park slope with views of the brick alleyway and rubber-tread wooden stairs and "take down your own garbage policy" Are you kidding me? If those dumps sell for $300,000. This place is worth $600,000!

Posted by: Inigo at December 22, 2008 9:43 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 209 Lincoln Place, #9D

Sam is right, this couple should have hired an srchitect to design a loft for them in some unfinished industrial building. I think they just wanted to show off to their neighbors. Dave, for one, is impressed down to his argyles.
They destroyed a house. What is there to pass on to future generations? Sheetrock and hollow-core doors? Those interiors are horrifying when you realize they are in a lovely, lovely, turn-of-the-last-century rowhouse.

Posted by: Inigo at December 22, 2008 9:29 PM in response to Brownstone Interior Destroyed Modernized by Artist Couple

it's easy as pie to buy gold coin and bullion, but you need cash sweetie, they will not let you put in on plastic.

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 9:51 PM in response to Fed Funds Rate Cut to Lowest Level Ever

sebb is obviously about thirteen years old, let him be.
The important news today is that Gov. Paterson (recently impersonated so brilliantly on SNL) has just raised taxes and fees on about eighty common consumer items from soda to ipods to cable and cabs.
This will sink NY faster than an iceberg.
People with know-how will leave.
That will leave the old, the young, the poor, and the over-taxed who are a step away from being poor.
Good night New York, it was swell while it lasted.

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 9:40 PM in response to Quote of the Day

gkw
that would only work alongside a campaign of mass executions to thin out the human population so as to let you and your friends enjoy more open countryside.

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 9:28 PM in response to Housing Starts Continue to Suck

people are such sissies on this blog. and they call themselves brooklynites? Ha! they are displaced cos cob- ites.

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 9:19 PM in response to Tuesday Blogwrap

The million dollar homes in Cobble Hill in 1997 were $335,000 in 1992.

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 9:13 PM in response to Quote of the Day

I don't want to beat a dead horse but there is no way this building was built as a single-family house. Houses did not have that pop-up piece in the center of the cornice. That is a commercial device used to advertise the building's name or builder. A large house would have had a grander entrance. There is not a single fragment of the interior that looks like it could have ever been a house. The private houses built in the area looked like the ones next door. This building was probably built as a walk-up tenement with two apartments per floor with a shared bath. later, it was changed to one apartment per floor and later someone decided to combine the lower two apartments to make an owner's unit.

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 8:46 PM in response to House of the Day: 37 Wolcott Street

sebb, i think you are humorous, and I think you have not been out of brooklyn much. Miami beach is fabulous, if you haven't been you should go. In your first posting you called it South Beach, but you know South Beach is just the relatively small historic district there. It has all those incredible Art Deco buildings as well as the mediterreanean style villas like the one Versace owned. Maybe you are confusing that with the greater city of Miami beach, not to mention the enormous Metropolis of Miami. Anyway, north of the two-mile strip that is the "Art Deco District" is the modern city with highrises along the beachfront and beautiful homes facing the bay. Compared to Brooklyn, which I love, but you know, is Brooklyn, MB is OZ. really it is just beautiful and the beach is beautiful and the folks on the bay have their yachts parked in their back yards, it really isn't poor and squalid if that is what you mean by Third World (there are loads of very wealthy people and exquisite communities in the Third World but that is another lesson).

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 8:22 PM in response to Quote of the Day

But Nokilissa shill's point was perfectly inane. He was being critical of a wonderful co-op apartment on PPW because it was not a brownstone in the mibblock. that is just narrowness. It reminds me of the suburbanites near my mother's house who wonder how we can "live" without driveways, or without backyard pools. I mean everybody has their preference but to reject the worth of a lovely apartment because you could look out the window and see a bus, is just anti-urban, anti-city. why oh why do all these closet suburbanites want to live in Brooklyn? Brooklyn is nothing like the real suburbs and never will be, even if you live in a leafy midblock.

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 8:04 PM in response to Tuesday Blogwrap

Semantically speaking, I think it is perfectly acceptable to say that one's house in Clinton Hill or Brooklyn Heights is "Landmarked". Individual landmarks like the Chrysler Building or the Seagram Building are just stand alone structures, they are not fortunate enough to be landmarked as part of a district. It is a matter of geographical placement not quality.

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 7:48 PM in response to Help on the Way for 173 St. James Place?

I agree that Miami Beach is not exactly comparable to Brooklyn, in many ways MB has a lot more going for it than Brooklyn. First of all, most of the product there is A-grade, no tacky flammable walkups, secondly, many people from all over the country were interested in buying a vacation property there, thirdly there was also a strong demand from European and Latin American buyers. Face it MB was OZ, Brooklyn is Kansas. If the RE market tanked there, what hope do we have in our homely little traffic-choked "outer Boro"? Real Estate is about dreams and aspirations, maybe SEBB is a little weak on the subject.

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 7:26 PM in response to Quote of the Day

Oh my gosh, what a blight. No wonder shillstoned does not want to live anywhere near it.

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 4:59 PM in response to Tuesday Blogwrap

What happened in Miami Beach can definitely happen here too.
Miami Beach was, and is, hot. But the bubble burst.

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 4:53 PM in response to Quote of the Day

Not many cars or people in Park Slope?
Ha!
Park Slope, Vermont maybe.
Ever been on a sidestreet when the garbage truck is collecting garbage and thirty impatient drivers are inching their way forward? Or when a delivery truck parks and stops the flow for about fifteen minutes? There are advantages to wider streets. Prospect Park West is not exactly an undesirable street.

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 4:17 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 195 Prospect Park West

I don't think prices are going to go up for a while. They have been going up up up for over fifteen years now. This is he down cycle. Gotta give it 'til 2011.

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 4:00 PM in response to Quote of the Day

Shill,
There are restaurants and buses in Brooklyn too. It is part of the scene. Being too squeamish about seeing buses outside your windows is kind of anti-urban.
If you really want tree-lined streets with no traffic what the heck are you doing in an over-crowded city like Brooklyn? You can't escape city life if you live in the city no matter where you are. Especailly in Brownstone Brooklyn, this is central casting city life.

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 3:57 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 195 Prospect Park West

no inigo - tenement buildings have staircases up the middle with two windows on each side of the door.

...It ain't necessarily so....

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 3:51 PM in response to House of the Day: 37 Wolcott Street

If you do not wish to live near buses and restaurants I don't think you are really a city person.

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 3:23 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 195 Prospect Park West

what's the difference between being landmarked or being in a historic district? It is the same thing.

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 2:58 PM in response to Help on the Way for 173 St. James Place?

Some buildings have steam, some have hot water, my understanding is that there are modern baseboard units that can work off either one. I would replace these with smaller units on the market now. To my eye, they are way better than radiators.
In terms of the maintenance, condo people may not know that in a co-op, the maintenance includes real estate taxes.

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 2:53 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 195 Prospect Park West

I doubt those are electric baseboard units. When people renovate in pre-war apartments like this they remove the old radiators and install modern fin-coil units that operate off the building's steam.
What is unusual is that the partment has central air. There is nothing grosser than window a.c.'s.
This is a beauty.

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 2:16 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 195 Prospect Park West

This looks like a classic tenement building to me, not a house. This was never a house. It was probably always a four unit apartment building, don't you think?

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 1:40 PM in response to House of the Day: 37 Wolcott Street

Nice apartment but there are streets nearby, plus a big noisy park, and the airplanes, there may even be a subway somewhere nearby.

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 1:34 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 195 Prospect Park West

Ditmas Park and Prospect Park South are nice leafy neighborhoods. They were designed from the begining to look different than the rest of Brooklyn. They look more like a Suburban town like Garden City, or Rye, or Morristown. The thing I find disturbing about it is the "apartheid" nature of it. Mostly all White in the big houses, surrounded by mostly all Black in the apartment building districts on all sides. The phenomenon of the wealthy living in their enclave surrounded by poor is one I associate with Latin American Cities. La Paz comes to mind. The wealthy live in beautiful, huge homes in the center of town, and then in all directions are poor and very poor districts. I don't like the invisible boundary. Creepy. But the houses are of course, very nice.

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 12:25 PM in response to San Francisco of the East Coast