Someday, these sites are going to be subpoenaed by the Ministry of Mental Health and Hygiene such that the respective posters can be identified and committed to an appropriate institution

Posted by: Polemicist at February 9, 2010 2:16 PM in response to Vermeil Inching Towards The Finish Line

I might find your provincial attitude inane at times Montrose Morris, but this is a very interesting article. As well, you are a good writer.

Posted by: Polemicist at February 2, 2010 11:28 AM in response to Walkabout: The Crescent Athletic Club

Dave: you're a has-been who has succeeded only due to the strength of the American Empire during your lifetime. I'm sorry you believe the finances of this city, state, and nation are strong. Historically, you have seemed like a reasonable fellow, but it's clear the events of 2009 have gotten to you. Enjoy your freedom while you have it.

Kensingtonian: Thank you for reminding me how Brownstoner is populated by the most amateurish trolls.

lossforwords: I was referring to China, not Hong Kong. The unemployed here are living in tents in much of the country, so I'm not sure what your point is about Japan. London is a different story.

Killer: I am actually using the terminology preferred by city planners. That said, this "smart" person is not the one you should be concerned about. You should be focusing on the "smart" people who are going to determining how to cut government assistance to as many people as possible.

Posted by: Polemicist at January 25, 2010 5:08 PM in response to Luxury Rentals Abound

Dave:

The city and state are bankrupt. The nation is nearly bankrupt. You live in a ghetto neighborhood in a county where half the population is on government assistance. That sounds like lunacy to me.

Posted by: Polemicist at January 25, 2010 4:05 PM in response to Luxury Rentals Abound

Dave, you need to start hanging out with some Chinese. Even they are surprised at how expensive housing is in New York City, considering its inferior quality. Housing in Tokyo is also much cheaper. Single people in their 20s and 30s easily can afford their own homes and are not sharing apartments in the ghetto.

Posted by: Polemicist at January 25, 2010 4:01 PM in response to Luxury Rentals Abound

bkre:

Actually, I rarely post on this site these days. After Lehman collapsed, it became clear this city is doomed, particularly Brooklyn. I left the Borough of Housing Projects and Welfare Queens over a year ago as I am certain it will become a crime ridden hellhole.

There is also the issue that for the most part, this site caters to the strange and insular. Most are also completely ignorant of economics, especially the "finance" people like you who talk about demand curves as if real estate economics ever can follow such simplistic models.

In any event, history is clear. The past 20 years has been an extremely prosperous time for New York City, yet the rate of new construction is a fraction of what it was in say the 1920s. And that was a time when most homes were relatively new.

What is different between then and now?

Posted by: Polemicist at January 25, 2010 3:57 PM in response to Luxury Rentals Abound

daveinbedstuy:

Public policy has everything to do with real estate value. Real estate taxes dictate how much residual income can service debt or provide cash flow. Zoning laws regulate what you can build and how much of it. Building regulations add cost. Corruption can deter investment. Crime has a similar effect. Rent ceilings shift costs from renters who receive a public benefit to those who do not. The list goes on.

Real estate economics follow the same principles of supply and demand.

New York City has an insufficient supply of housing. This is evident due to the fact housing is, in relation to household income, much more expensive than the rest of the country.

I have claimed constantly on this site for several years that the primary reason for this is misguided public policy. While I will be the first to say that usury also affects prices, it is not relevant to the discussion at hand. It has had no impact on the lives of New Yorkers.

Over the past 20 years, less than 300,000 new housing units were built in this city despite the fact the population increased by over 1,000,000 citizens. Much of this new construction replaced dilapidated and antiquated housing stock that had to be replaced anyway.

It really doesn't matter what price these housing units were offered at. They could have all been sold for free and it wouldn't change the fact that several hundred thousand people couldn't get a home if they wanted one.

The question is why?

Posted by: Polemicist at January 25, 2010 3:41 PM in response to Luxury Rentals Abound

hannible:

Well, unfortunately, you're wrong. A simple way to understand why you are wrong is to consider how the factors you describe apply to the entirety of the United States. Apartments are very cheap all over the country, ESPECIALLY in Florida.

Clearly, New York City public policy is a major factor - what else makes it so special?

Posted by: Polemicist at January 25, 2010 11:49 AM in response to Luxury Rentals Abound

tybur6:

The problem is not real estate owners/developers per se, but several very wealthy families that have colluded over decades to support rent stabilization and restrictive zoning laws.

Prices are high because demand is high and supply is low.

A simple solution is to put a moratorium on all density restrictions until housing prices in New York City become at least somewhat similar to the national average. With any luck, we might even get to return to how it was even during the Depression - landlords had to compete even on style, not simply on size and amenities.

Posted by: Polemicist at January 25, 2010 10:44 AM in response to Luxury Rentals Abound

development site!

Posted by: Polemicist at January 7, 2010 7:40 PM in response to House of the Day: 115 Fenimore Street

Thank the gods.

Soon, our city, state, and nation will be bankrupt and the 50% of the people in Brooklyn who are on welfare will hopefully flee for greener pastures. Soon, Brooklyn will become a thriving city again rather than a huge housing project with museum areas reserved for usurious banksters!

Posted by: Polemicist at December 23, 2009 4:29 PM in response to Atlantic Yards Signed, Sealed, Delivered

fsrq:

The same communists who oppose AY undoubtedly support commercial rent control. If that passes, NYC and especially Brooklyn will be finished. Property tax revenue and values will plummet.

On a side note - why are these bonds being downgraded? It isn't due to lack of demand for housing, it is due to political uncertainty. Why would anyone risk investing in a city ruled by communists?

Posted by: Polemicist at December 2, 2009 10:43 AM in response to Ratner's Yards Bonds Rated 'Barely' Investment Grade

Why on earth would anyone pay those kind of prices for a place like that. Madness.

I can't wait until commercial rent stabilization is passed so this city can REALLY go down the drain.

Posted by: Polemicist at December 1, 2009 11:31 AM in response to Checking in on the Argyle

Houses were once replaced by apartment buildings? That's impossible!

Posted by: Polemicist at November 19, 2009 1:12 PM in response to Walkabout: Montrose Morris - Full Circle

I'm sure when the revolutionary war was fought in 1776 and the constitution was ratified in 1789, no one with a mind would have thought 1) being an American citizen would mean you are born into debt bondage for your entire life or 2) people wouldn't be allowed to do whatever they wanted with their property.

The constitution is a meaningless document, especially in the People's Republic of Nueva York. Why that is brought up here with respect to this singular issue, I will never know. No one would have ever died to create this mess we call the United States, and no one will certainly die to save it as we descend into the abyss.

Posted by: Polemicist at November 16, 2009 9:52 AM in response to Goldstein Offered Less Than What He Paid for Condo

The property is priced as land. It's on New York Avenue, a major street, a few feet from Atlantic Avenue and it's a short walk from the subway. Oh, and the block is filled with garages and the property is across the street from a large income restricted apartment building.

Anyway $133/FAR considering the demolition costs seems high for this area. It is possible it is easy to get financing for low income housing in this area, especially considering what is located across the street.

Posted by: Polemicist at November 11, 2009 2:39 PM in response to House of the Day: 75 New York Avenue

That south slope house must be a development site. No one would pay that much for that hovel, especially in that god awful location.

Posted by: Polemicist at November 5, 2009 12:01 PM in response to Brooklyn Sales: Under a Million

I used to care about such things, but at least now that the city will be plunging into chaos, I can rest easy at night knowing the residents of CG will have their neighborhood go back to being hell in short order.

The city is bankrupt, Wall Street is never coming back, and the 50,000 residents of the Red Hook houses will soon be getting hungry.

Posted by: Polemicist at October 29, 2009 2:04 PM in response to Carroll Gardens Downzoning Sails Through Council

Yeah, very unimpressive. The only thing special about it is the clock faces.

Posted by: Polemicist at October 21, 2009 10:23 AM in response to All About the Clocktower

I've always sort of liked the floating ads from blade runner.

Posted by: Polemicist at October 20, 2009 12:51 PM in response to What Could Have Been on Flatbush

I would expect the price of practically everything will double over the next 10 years.

I would like to remind everyone about the several trillion dollars the Federal Government has created over the past year. Let's not forget the serious decline in the value of the dollar just this week. Or the fact no one buys long term treasury debt anymore.

The US Dollar is toast, and 10 years from now we'll be lucky if it still exists.

Posted by: Polemicist at October 8, 2009 2:36 PM in response to Omissions and Lies in Atlantic Yards Study

Brooklyn: The City that Doesn't Work. Nothing has changed forty years and nothing ever will!

Posted by: Polemicist at September 14, 2009 4:54 PM in response to Another Snag for Marty's Amphitheatre

denton: DDDB types want all development to be contextual, i.e. they want all development to be exactly the same size as any building that abuts the site. When it comes to the AY site, the nearby NYCHA towers and the Williamsburg Savings Bank are excluded from this analysis.

Posted by: Polemicist at September 9, 2009 3:35 PM in response to New Barclay's Center Design Revealed

Another example of how the city's zoning laws are slowing destroying what is left here. At least Wall Street is now done so the collapse will be quick.

Posted by: Polemicist at September 3, 2009 5:03 PM in response to Development Watch: 4th Avenue Best Western

I used these guys when I ditched Brooklyn for the second time in my life.

http://www.rabbitmovers.com/

Not too cheap, but they were fast and did the work as agreed. Cool kids too.

Posted by: Polemicist at August 25, 2009 3:26 PM in response to Closing Bell: Woman Vs. Truck

They've been talking about this for nearly my entire adult life.

If the Second Avenue subway can't even get built, this will never happen. It's a great idea, and would do wonders to turn Red Hook into an accessible and thriving residential community (high rises!) but it's just a pipe dream.

Posted by: Polemicist at August 18, 2009 12:08 PM in response to Resurrecting Red Hook's Trolley Tracks

All of these 13' wide houses should be demolished and replaced with more functional housing.

Posted by: Polemicist at August 10, 2009 5:23 PM in response to 360 Grand Avenue Goes Into Contract

Leffertslodger:

You are proof as to why democracy is, always has been, and will continue to be a failure. The uncomfortable truth is the majority of the residents of your "community" exist entirely as paid voters supporting a plutocratic political class bent on your enslavement. The vast majority of your community residents contributes nothing to society, just as these elderly people contribute nothing due to their age.

None of you has any right to claim any influence over your "community" as none of you built it, and the majority of its residents produce nothing of value in exchange for the money that presently maintains it. Authority does not come from existence despite whatever indoctrination you have received to the contrary.

In any event, it is a moot point. When the welfare checks stop coming and the government can no longer pay their employees to do nothing, and the housing projects crumble before your eyes - the prosperity you have enjoyed due to 3 decades of usurious bubble economics will rapidly crumble. Grandma will be the least of your troubles.

Posted by: Polemicist at July 28, 2009 8:26 PM in response to Lefferts Place Threatened by Healthcare Developer

And brokestone:

Dude, read the zoning text before you bellow out such BS about a 14-story building being constructed on this site. It's on the internet!

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/zone/zh_r7a.shtml

Posted by: Polemicist at July 28, 2009 6:49 PM in response to Lefferts Place Threatened by Healthcare Developer

This thread is filled with more brownstoner madness. I normally don't bother with the rabble on this site, but when you provincial know nothings pick on grandma...

1) The R6B zoning designation, with a 2.0 FAR, should be federally illegal throughout the entire country. Nothing Practically every building that is not a house in Brooklyn is built to a density that exceeds this FAR. Such a ridiculously low density smacks in the face of progress, freedom, and sound economic policy. People were knocking down townhouses left and right 100 years ago to build larger buildings than this. Practically every fancy mansion townhouse exceeded this FAR when built, especially those humdingers on Prospect Park West.

2) The R7A zoning district by contrast has a pretty meager FAR of 4.0. We are not talking about a skyscraper here, we are talking about an 80-foot tall building maximally. How can this possibly outrage anyone with a brain? oh I know, everyone like leffertsgirl seems to think that these poor elderly people are going to be parking on her street! Get a grip.

3) The woeful ignorance of this 50-year HUD program is astounding for such pretentious busybodies who seem to profess mastery of economics and social planning. Profit is CAPPED for Section 202 developments. Why do you think they are all built by non-profit developers? I mean, my god, you can go on the nyc.gov website and see for yourself 95% of them are clearly operated by religious charitable organizations and probably 75% in Brooklyn are owned by the catholic church. Brokestone seems to think the folks at Catholic Charities are living large. What a joke. Why do they need the density? There are minimum size requirements and the programs are highly competitive, especially today when the government is maxed out paying for the 750,000 non-elderly poor people in Brooklyn living on a check from uncle sam.

I have to say, I am very grateful the collapse of our economy is continuing at a pace far worse than I ever imagined. You people are so astoundingly selfish, I can say with certainty building housing for elderly people with truly nothing is going to be the least of your troubles. You all will reap what you sow and I have no sympathy for any of you.

Anyway, good troll Brownstoner. You really riled everyone up tonight!

Posted by: Polemicist at July 28, 2009 6:47 PM in response to Lefferts Place Threatened by Healthcare Developer

Priced as if each apartment would rent for $2K a month.

Forget that.

Posted by: Polemicist at July 28, 2009 4:13 PM in response to House of the Day: 226 Cumberland Street

Bob:

Do you reall think it's dishonesty and not incompetence?

Posted by: Polemicist at July 17, 2009 12:06 PM in response to Meter Maids Jump the Gun in Fort Greene

You looked sharp brownstoner man. Wish you could have spoken a bit longer.

Posted by: Polemicist at July 17, 2009 11:28 AM in response to Municipal Art Society Honors The Brooklyn Flea

MM:

This is hardly my own unique idea. Most cities in this country are pursuing just what I suggested and it is generally supported by everyone who studies the matter.

No one would be displaced. Look at Chicago, they have successfully done just what I described with infamous projects like Cabrini Green. The Coney Island projects are just a bit more unique in that there is a LOT of land, like Cabrini had, so that you could replace the towers with new development with minimal impact. My thinking is simply that if the area is going to be going under such a change, why not try to do that too?

And, by the way - towers does not equal density. The density of those towers on an FAR basis is much lower than the average block in most of the more urban parts of the city, even someplace like Park Slope. I do like towers, but it's a separate notion from density.

Posted by: Polemicist at July 16, 2009 5:17 PM in response to Historians Line Up Against City's Coney Plan

If anyone does contact the local political folks, try to reference the MAS plan. It really is the best plan put forward, has been endorsed by many authoratative folk such as the New York Times, and would just be all around real cool.

I am sad however that removing the public housing towers was not part of any plan. With so much underdeveloped land, Coney Island could have been the perfect place to get rid of those prisons and create a mixed-income development. Nowhere else in the city would be politically tenable to do this.

Posted by: Polemicist at July 16, 2009 11:13 AM in response to Historians Line Up Against City's Coney Plan

$200,000 for a 1-bedroom condo? That is cheap!

Posted by: Polemicist at July 15, 2009 6:22 PM in response to More Price Cuts at The Satori

I've always this was one of the most interesting new condo buildings to go up in Brooklyn. I wouldn't say the block is hideous, but it's certainly not th best in the area.

Anyway, I'm just glad one developer decided to do something a bit different.

Posted by: Polemicist at July 15, 2009 2:40 PM in response to More Price Cuts at The Satori

It's like Grace Under Fire on 7th Avenue back in 2003.

Posted by: Polemicist at July 15, 2009 9:51 AM in response to F. Martinella Closes After Less Than Nine Months

Hey Brownstoner. You looked good at the Chelsea Art Museum last night. Very humble receipt of your award.

Posted by: Polemicist at July 14, 2009 11:24 AM in response to Open Thread

This is why Brooklyn is finished. It takes a decade to build a simple free standing grocery store and parking lot on a piece of land that has been vacant since not longer after World War II ended. Hitler, the favorite historical figure of many brownstoner readers, conquered most of the European continent in three years. We in Brooklyn, a county with a population 5% that of Germany in 1939, can't even build a grocery store in five years!

Posted by: Polemicist at July 10, 2009 4:58 PM in response to Whole Foods Gowanus May Not Be Dead After All

I guess, by the comments of the previous open house bit, the WT house is pretty nice. It looks very small and plain. I'm not going to bother looking up the zoning, but my first impression is it was priced as a knock down, especially considering the moderately sized apartment building next door.

Posted by: Polemicist at July 10, 2009 1:48 PM in response to Brooklyn Sales: Under a Million

Yeah, Montrose. Sturmtruppen! Sieg Heil!

I actually was just trying to test how the brownstoner cast of characters is these days, i.e. their reactionary and illogical statements. I am happy to report that it took not even 30 minutes for you to think "Nazi!"

Good work, this place is as nutty as ever.

Posted by: Polemicist at June 29, 2009 12:23 PM in response to Slope Armory on Track to Open in September

Race is an issue because moderately wealthy liberals like those who predominate in Park Slope have a distorted view of how children should be raised. Less well off people of color have a very different idea of what discipline means and why children need it.

Posted by: Polemicist at June 29, 2009 12:08 PM in response to Race, Class and P.S. 20's Controversial Principal

I really wish the armories were utilized for their original purpose: housing a military garrison.

Especially in more dangerous neighborhoods, perhaps a standing army could provide real security that the police are unable or unwilling to provide.

Then there is the issue of our declining economy. The probability of serious civil unrest in the near future is much greater than most believe.

Posted by: Polemicist at June 29, 2009 11:47 AM in response to Slope Armory on Track to Open in September

This is of course the primary aesthetic criticism of usury. It is no coincidence that aesthetic value of real estate rapidly declined after 1929. This house, and all the beautiful houses in Brooklyn, were built in the days when homes cost one man's annual income or perhaps twice, and mortgages were never more than 50% of the value. The buyer, with money from his own sweat and brow, had much greater say regarding what he spent his money on.

Posted by: Polemicist at June 15, 2009 4:18 PM in response to Quote of the Day

Once again, the media and community activists prove they know nothing of economics. How can anyone not understand that lowered income and higher financing costs means there is less money for interesting architectural details?

I cringe when I think how these types will react to the coming maelstrom this fall when the realities of our precarious economic state will become too great to ignore or for the media to spin.

Posted by: Polemicist at June 11, 2009 9:53 AM in response to Ratner Cans Gehry For Good

Didn't this building used to be a hotel?

Posted by: Polemicist at June 3, 2009 5:35 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 41 Eastern Parkway, #5C

Boerum Hill:

The cluster is due to antiquated city zoning laws written in the days when hotels catered to transient vagrants and prostitutes. Sadly, despite the fact Brooklyn is very much in need of more hotels in residential neighborhoods, they are mostly restricted to Downtown Brooklyn and industrial districts.

Land values downtown only really justify new residential development or higher end hotels, so hotels like this can't be built anywhere else. Personally, I'd love to see a fine new hotel near Prospect Park on Eastern Parkway. It would really do wonders for the neighborhood and turn the area into the major destination it should be.

Posted by: Polemicist at May 28, 2009 10:48 AM in response to Development Watch: 3rd Avenue Fairfield Inn

They will never get the money to rehab these places, and they aren't particularly special. There are tens of thousands of houses not radically different from these all over the country and especially the northeast.

While I personally wouldn't donate money to this cause, I would place a bet that the MAS won't be able to raise money for them either.

I'm a big fan of a lot of the work MAS has done, particularly on Coney Island... but I this particular effort just seems like a waste of time and money. I really wish they'd move away from focusing so much on preservation and instead encourage better development along the lines of the City Beautiful movement of which the MAS was the major sponsor over a century ago.

Posted by: Polemicist at May 27, 2009 2:31 PM in response to MAS Continues to Push for Admiral's Row Preservation