Chill. the imposter I was referring to was the original poster who stole my name. I thought that was obvious.

Having grown up in and lived in Sunset Park since 1981,(and having posted on this blog and other brooklyn blogs for several years with the name Sunset Parker and having run a blog for about a year, titled Sunset Parker) I sympathize with the problem. This happened across the street from the house i grew up in, in a house bought a few years ago by an immigrant Chinese family (with another ten or so extended family, friends and posse members), though in the back, which while perhaps not as bad can still be problematic. The resulting two story cinder block extension now creates serious unwanted shade in their neighbor's backyards. (they also apparently paved over the sliver of what was left of their backyard). In front, they refuse to put a tree in front of their house, to replace one that had occupied that spot and was one of three or four on the block that died a few years back despite the requests of several other homeowners on the block and they also replaced the black iron front gate with a hideously out of context and ugly orange brick wall which was promptly grafitiied which they actively refused to clean because they felt as soon it was cleaned it would be grafitiied again).

And, sadly, all that was within their "rights".

Posted by: Sunset Parker at June 22, 2009 3:38 PM in response to Neighbor Building a Monstrosity

Brownstoner could you please change this poster's username to imposter?

Posted by: Sunset Parker at June 22, 2009 1:38 PM in response to Neighbor Building a Monstrosity

The What says that someday this war will end. Well these (soon to be literally monstrously)poor SOBs are front-line casualties. Do you see them? They are lying on the sand with their guts hanging out. They're screaming pieces of meat. The rest of us can only just shake our heads and keep moving forward.

Posted by: Sunset Parker at June 9, 2009 12:28 AM in response to First Closings Recorded at the Argyle

And if Sex and the City wasn't shot here, none of you would have moved here...

Posted by: Sunset Parker at March 25, 2009 2:45 PM in response to Big Fire on 9th Street?

I bet the visitor count to this site has dropped far more precipitously than those housing numbers since you banned The What (the day of or day before his predictions seemed to be coming true).

Posted by: Sunset Parker at September 25, 2008 5:25 PM in response to Just In: New Home Sales Data Worse Than Expected

What- you're off base on this one. The poster didn't just single out race, but also listed, gender, physique, and hygeine in the description. You're crying wolf on this one. Big Time.

Posted by: Sunset Parker at August 22, 2008 12:16 PM in response to Return of the Stoop Pooper

Did St. Ann's really have a smoking room?

Posted by: Sunset Parker at July 11, 2008 3:44 PM in response to Parole Facility Planned Next Door to St. Ann's School

there is only one word for someone who would pay 2 million dollars for this: prey

Posted by: Sunset Parker at June 25, 2008 5:45 PM in response to House of the Day: 125 Willoughby Avenue

Its cool that you guys have been showcasing more sunset park listings, however this one is not the greatest. I went to an open house back when it was listing for just under a million and was underwhelmed. The layout felt cramped and weird, the yard was a dump; There is definitely a lot of woodwork, but it didn't look at all "original" to me. (These houses were built in late 1890s and early 1900's.)

I totally dispute the naysayers regarding the block. This is a full block of three story brownstones and limestones with fifty plus year old trees that is indistuingishable from any brownstone/ limestone block in Park Slope from 4th street to 8th street between 5th and 7th aves.

There is still great housing stock in Sunset for under a million (barely) and the Finnish co-ops are still a great deal: 2 bedroom pre war coops for $250,000 with maintenance under $300

Posted by: Sunset Parker at June 24, 2008 3:10 PM in response to House of the Day: 467 45th Street

This is perhaps the single most ludicrous post in the history of this blog (There are dozens of limestones and brownstones in Sunset Park for sale you could be mentioning for starters...not to mention the wood frames).

4:26, you are heartbreakingly naive to believe that anyone will ever feel the need to point out that over a decade, a handful of construction workers died erecting thousands of buildings.

When your parents visit from wherever you're from (clearly not Brooklyn), do you point at the Brooklyn Bridge and curse the needless deaths of dozens of workers killed building it? When people drive onto the "Ari Halberstam Memorial Highway" getting onto the bridge do they really care that a van load of innocent kids was shot up by terrorists? Of course not, they just want to get around that Hyundai in front of them...

NYers barely care about the deaths on 9/11 anymore. The mere concept that these deaths would even be a footnote on Bloomberg's legacy today, tomorrow or a thousand years from now is simply hysterical, ignorant and reactionary.

Posted by: Sunset Parker at June 2, 2008 7:03 PM in response to Mayor Mike's Rep Forever Soiled By Crane Tragedies?

Pretty sure the Haagen Daaz in Park Slope was operating earlier than 1976 (in its original spot on 7th ave bet 1st and 2nd)

There was a Basken Robins on the corner of Montague and Henry throughout the 80's (beneath the Fred Astaire Dance Studio and Innovative Audio) across from the Waldenbooks that is now a Washington Mutual...

Posted by: Sunset Parker at May 5, 2008 12:21 AM in response to Streetlevel: Ice Cream Could be Fair Game For Sun, Flies

Single best party I went to in highschool was on the tenth floor of Turner Towers. Fall of '87 (the same week STNG premiered).

Posted by: Sunset Parker at February 26, 2008 2:55 AM in response to Co-op of the Day: 135 Eastern Parkway, #10C

Sunset Park's 5th Ave BID has been pretty succesful and from what I understand from a Community Board 7 meeting I attended last year that it is a model that CB 6 was looking to emulate.

As to why the BID stops at 18th, it has to do with the same neighborhood boundaries that many of Brooklyn's new residents seem to think are so elastic. Park Slope ends at Prospect Ave. That's it. They can't legally extend it further. Prospect Ave runs diagonally, and at some points its as far south as 18th.

What to call the neighborhood south of 18th has been a recent point of minor contention. In the 70's, 80's and 90's (and most likely the '50's and '60;sit was always acknowledged to be the beginning of Sunset Park. In the late '90's and early '00's, realtors invented the term "Greenwood Heights" to appeal to whites afraid or averse to live in and identify with a neighborhood inhabited by brown immigrants. It seems to have caught on. Whatever. South Slope and Greenwood Heights are invented concepts. They are not real. There is Flatbush Avenue. The neighborhood south of it is Park Slope. The neighborhood south of that is Sunset Park. The neighborhood south of that is Bay Ridge. Then there's the Atlantic Ocean. Then there's Ireland.

Posted by: Sunset Parker at November 6, 2007 5:45 PM in response to A BID to Maintain and Improve 5th Avenue

If you're talking about the south east corner, wasn't that a cheese shop through the 80's and 90's?

Posted by: Sunset Parker at October 30, 2007 7:44 PM in response to Brooklyn Industries Outgrows 7th Ave. Digs

For about a decade and a half, (back when the vast majority of Park Slope home owners were actually born and raised in Brooklyn) that space was occupied by Comics Plus.

Correction: it's not Eurotrash; its Midwestern trash who aspire to being Eurotrash that is driving BK's economy.

Why are people still talking about Michelle Williams? Aren't there plenty of other chubby middle american dwarves who lived in Brooklyn for a year before discovering they couldn't hack it?

Posted by: Sunset Parker at October 30, 2007 5:31 PM in response to Brooklyn Industries Outgrows 7th Ave. Digs

At least the NY Times acknowledges that 23rd street is Sunset Park even if unscrupulous realtors and their deluded dupes don't...

Posted by: Sunset Parker at October 2, 2007 5:49 PM in response to Tuesday Links

This seems like a pretty good deal for a limestone less than twenty minutes from downtown manhattan. Considering wood frames ten blocks away from the 36th St station have been going for 650,000, a limestone a block away going for only 150,000 more seems like a steal. Downside is that the ground floor is half underground and is probably very very dark.

37th between 4th and 5th is a nice block. Amenities are lacking slightly as that's a nice residential peninsula of a few blocks surrounded by a few industrial blocks on two and a half sides and the cemetary on the other. Plenty of bodegas, sketchy Mexican restaurants, ghetto chinese, okay to decent pizza, old school donut shop/luncheonette. Has one of Brooklyn's four bowling alleys on corner. Also only two blocks from Cosco, Brooklyn Liquors and a pretty good Beer distributor. Nearby 4th ave restaurants are for the most part fast food (McDonalds, Dominoes) and fifth ave ones in the 30s are rumored to be sex slave fronts. Good Mexican restaurants start in low 40's on 4th ave...

The 36th St station is awesome. Once the D train comes, its 18 min to bdwy laf, and just under 30 mins to Rock Center. On the N its 20 min to Union Sq, and 25 min to Times Sq...

(and in a few yrs, it'll just be one stop/5 mins on either to the new Nets stadium!)

Posted by: Sunset Parker at September 2, 2007 6:22 PM in response to Open House of the Day: 451 37th Street

Imposter!!! I hope they build a monstrosity right next to your house (and accross) so you could "cry yourself a river"...

Posted by: fobsdelhi at June 22, 2009 2:52 PM in response to Neighbor Building a Monstrosity

Chill. the imposter I was referring to was the original poster who stole my name. I thought that was obvious.

Having grown up in and lived in Sunset Park since 1981,(and having posted on this blog and other brooklyn blogs for several years with the name Sunset Parker and having run a blog for about a year, titled Sunset Parker) I sympathize with the problem. This happened across the street from the house i grew up in, in a house bought a few years ago by an immigrant Chinese family (with another ten or so extended family, friends and posse members), though in the back, which while perhaps not as bad can still be problematic. The resulting two story cinder block extension now creates serious unwanted shade in their neighbor's backyards. (they also apparently paved over the sliver of what was left of their backyard). In front, they refuse to put a tree in front of their house, to replace one that had occupied that spot and was one of three or four on the block that died a few years back despite the requests of several other homeowners on the block and they also replaced the black iron front gate with a hideously out of context and ugly orange brick wall which was promptly grafitiied which they actively refused to clean because they felt as soon it was cleaned it would be grafitiied again).

And, sadly, all that was within their "rights".

Posted by: Sunset Parker at June 22, 2009 3:38 PM in response to Neighbor Building a Monstrosity

To expand on my stance...

I am a strong supporter of property rights. As much I would hate gaudy house beside my fictional 3 million dollar brownstone, it would offend me more that if some one will dictate how I should build my own house with my own money.

While tradition and history is nice, people must live now. And I don't want NYC turning in to a "living" museum like so many European cities.

Posted by: crimsonson at June 22, 2009 4:41 PM in response to Neighbor Building a Monstrosity

Write the community board, city council, borough president and anyone else involved in the current rezoning process and tell them to pass the plan immediately!!
the rezoning will stop things like this from happening and put the same height limits the side streets in Park Slope and Bay Ridge have on new buildings in Sunset Park!!!! It's time this neighborhood got the same treatment as those surrounding it!
The current zoning is R6 (anything goes) and the proposed is R6B for the side streets (50ft max)... It's a no brainer... Without the rezoning, these sorts of buildings you're worried about will become the norm. There are groups opposing the plan (one called the chinese staffers or something like that), so those homeowners supporting it should make their voices heard, too.

Posted by: Gregorius Maximus at June 22, 2009 7:15 PM in response to Neighbor Building a Monstrosity

Crimsonson,

While that may be true, a lot of this type of development (at least in SP) is not homeowners building/renovating for themselves. It's turning family homes into four through eight unit rentals/condos.

The people doing the building couldn't care less about the integrity (aesthetic or structural) of the buildings around them. They won't be around to see the results.

Posted by: bestviewinbrooklyn at June 23, 2009 9:23 AM in response to Neighbor Building a Monstrosity

As posted on "sunsetpark-brooklyn-matters.blogspot.com"- This sad scenario has played out on 6th Avenue & 54th Street (exact address to come). This block has now been hit twice by greedy and tasteless owners (see blue awning to stage-left/your right of new building). Unfortunately, this facade teardown & additional floor would be legal under the proposed R6A re-zoning, the commercial overlay or commercial use of the 1st floor would not be allowed. These unscrupulous owners will continue to deface block after block even if all they gain is 1 or 2 more housing units into which they'll dangerously pile up many times the allowed number of people. As to devaluing (in dollars) adjacent properties, it hasn't been the case. There are so many other morally and aesthetically-bankrupt buyers whose need to hide ill-gotten cash is so dire that property values won't suffer. Housing prices in Sunset Park (Flushing , Manhattan's Chinatown or other cash-rich enclaves, for that matter) haven't decreased as in other parts of NYC or the nation. What will suffer is the racial, ethnic, generational and economic diversity of Sunset Park that we so want to preserve. If this abuse continues, only buyers looking to hide cash from questionable sources will occupy Sunset Park. This an occupation, folks- and it's being enabled by our own governmental agencies: Buildings Dept., DEP, Dept. of City Planning, City Council, and so on. I wonder what the reaction would be if the above monstrosity was attempted on the Mayor's block or next to the homes of the City's Commissioners or Council Members. Legal or not, would it be allowed to go on? I wonder.

Posted by: Sunset Park Matters at June 23, 2009 11:38 AM in response to Neighbor Building a Monstrosity

I love Sunset Park. My parents were born here, I was born here and intend to stay here as I start my own family. What is happening on my block and others creates a rage in me and, at times, I have to avoid driving on blocks anywhere close to the China town on 8th avenue because I turn into Archie Bunker. I live between 4th and 5th aves and it seems the Chinese want to move their operation down to 4th. They currently have the right to build whatever they want, the cheapest shoddy construction they want and without regard to their neighbors. I would love to buy my house from my parents, but it seems that the neighborhood I know and love may not survive. The new homeowners do not intend to contribute anything to the community. They intend to leech anything they can out of it. Standard of living is out the window. It's sad to see and I hope the rezoning will shed some light on the illegal building/occupancy, etc. I would love to join a cause, volunteer to check on permits, file complaints, etc. because this grassroots approach seems to be the only way to protect our properties. The city isn't gonna do it. I may just end up like Archie, proven wrong and defeated at the end of every episode.

Posted by: Just around the Corner at June 24, 2009 12:05 PM in response to Neighbor Building a Monstrosity

Dear "Just around the Corner"- Check out - Sunset Park Alliance of Neighbors www.spanbrooklyn.com / spanbrooklyn@yahoo.com / (718) 853-0949, a grassroots group organizing around this issue AND also contribute photos (before/after, under construction) with URLs for Permits/Violations/Stop Work/Orders to sunsetparkmatters@gmail.com for posting on the blog- http:// SUNSETPARK-BROOKLYN-MATTERS.BLOGSPOT.COM. There's a lot each of us can do, starting with telling our neighbors what's going on.

Posted by: Sunset Park Matters at June 24, 2009 11:49 PM in response to Neighbor Building a Monstrosity