thats a hoot rob.

that staples is among the best performining in the chain.

looks like even a fortune 500 company can't get everyone to know about them.

that being said, i go there often and dread the very thought of shopping there.

Posted by: bkn4life at October 20, 2009 9:58 AM in response to 4th Ave Pit Undergoing Slight Improvement

its deja vu...

all over again.

word leaked that con ed was going to destroy this wall about 8 or 9 years ago. there was a story in the times about it. they backed down over some public outcry.

its a shame that they dont just leave the wall alone.

Posted by: bkn4life at October 8, 2009 12:59 PM in response to Con Ed Readying Demolition of 3rd Street Warehouse

why is a landlord evil for wanting another tenant?

i suspect there is more here than meets the eye.

if you are going to out the landlord, be prepared for all the dirty laundry(if any) on this org to hit the fan.

Posted by: bkn4life at September 30, 2009 1:09 PM in response to 123 Community Space Goes Out with a Bang

i am familiar with this block as well as some of the people on it. i am sure that a careful reading of the complaints will lead a reasonable person to know who the complaining party is.

good sign though. i like it.

Posted by: bkn4life at August 31, 2009 4:48 PM in response to Development Watch: 571 Carroll Street

don't they all claim to have done the hard work already for you?

Posted by: bkn4life at August 28, 2009 3:05 PM in response to Sign of the Times on 4th Avenue

get in before the line. good deal for a quick in and out.

i disagree that toms is like every other diner. i have yet (20 years) to take someone there where they dont love the place. it is a much more pleasant atmosphere than any slope diner i have been to. and food is much more consistantly cooked than almost any diner in the slope. believe me, i have been to them all. try getting a consistant waffle at any local diner.

jury still out on the new guy though.

Posted by: bkn4life at August 17, 2009 5:58 PM in response to StreetLevel: Old Brooklyn Parlor a Thing of the Past

if the outcome was pre-ordained, they wouldn't have scheduled the game.

this one stinks enough that i wouldnt make that bet yet chris.

Posted by: bkn4life at August 10, 2009 9:43 AM in response to A Turning Point for Atlantic Yards

gus,

you have been a constant for me since 1987. sad to see you go.

jim seemed nice enough last time. he sure has some big shoes to fill.

Posted by: bkn4life at July 23, 2009 9:49 AM in response to Changing of the Guard at Tom's

par for the brooklyn papers reporting.

maybe they will do better in holland where they seem to have sent the whole reporting crew.

thats gotta be more interesting than whole foods.

Posted by: bkn4life at July 10, 2009 4:12 PM in response to Whole Foods Gowanus May Not Be Dead After All

ITM:

thing is, no property flipper here would have sold it for less than 1/2 someone else was offering. and when that half off bid came up for renegotiation, they sure wouldn't hold paper with 20% down.

other than that, your point is interesting, but not on point.

Posted by: bkn4life at June 25, 2009 3:02 PM in response to MTA Ignores Fiduciary Duty, Approves Revised Yards Plan

ITM:

yes my quick math sucks, just like my typing. in my head i was thinking 10 stories on average across the property. that gets you to $10 per buildable square foot. i think that that goes for at least $100, if not $150 nowadays.

so it is still at 7-10% of the FMV.

and how much infrastructure will be necesary to build the yards over and above what as to be necessary to build the skyscrapers?

when i see a legitimate public document that identifies this then the MTA will have information to do its job.

declaring there is no market isnt enough. again, count me in with the privately funded arena with reasonable housing/office/open space. just like the packers.

Posted by: bkn4life at June 25, 2009 12:07 PM in response to MTA Ignores Fiduciary Duty, Approves Revised Yards Plan

mr CAPITALS:

maybe thats why mr goldsteins proposal of aggregate smaller developments is worthy of more than the disdain the board showed him.

open up a legit RFP. see what you get. otherwise your piehole is spouting some form of unsubstantiated wisdom. the shortcut your "wisdom" espouses isnt worth the future of that railyards. they have been a railyard for 100 years. a few more wont hurt them.

till then, i laugh at you real estate veterans.

Posted by: bkn4life at June 25, 2009 11:46 AM in response to MTA Ignores Fiduciary Duty, Approves Revised Yards Plan

ITM:

i would be on the same page as you if they paid Fair Market Vaue the first time around. they are getting 22 acres. thats 1,000,000 square feet(give or take). At 100,000,000 they were paying $10 per square foot.

If you want to take that tack that the $100,000,000 is just for the yards, that 8 acres or 350,000 square feet.

that works out to $30/square foot.

if they put out an RFP that said, build us a contemporary railyard and keep 350,000 square feet to develop as you see fit i bet goldstein et al could come up with $30/square foot. i might even buy in.

and if the 100,000,000 is just for the railyards, how much is he paying for pacific and dean street? i havent seen that anywhere.

what this is is a blatant siphoning off of public assets to connected private companies/individuals/interests. the only reason they havent really started is this pesky thing called the internet. 20 years ago how much outcry would this have gotten. its a perfect storm approaching i tell ya.

Posted by: bkn4life at June 25, 2009 11:18 AM in response to MTA Ignores Fiduciary Duty, Approves Revised Yards Plan

i forgot about the two sets of books.

maybe we should start a 3rd set of books as a wiki project to see what an arms length run system would be like.

also:

looks like it was 555 5th avenue. not madison. my bad. same logic though. maybe more so.

Posted by: bkn4life at June 25, 2009 10:16 AM in response to MTA Ignores Fiduciary Duty, Approves Revised Yards Plan

DIBS:

You are being much more direct than me. It just adds to the smell.

I have been in 555 Madison Avenue countless times. Anyone controlling Real Estate in that neck of the woods is flat out lying if they claim that you should sell for what you can right now. And maybe take pennies on the dollar for the property like he is accused of trying to force his relatives to do in what looks to be an orchestrated capital call.

Would he sell his property for 25 cents on the dollar? Hell no, he'd plow through anyone and anything that kept him from his almighty dollar. But when it comes to serving a public board...not quite the same math.

The next one i hope to have some time to noodle...

Board Member Doreen M. Frasca made some interesting comments on 30 years of structuring deals like this.

How many do you think went this way?

Posted by: bkn4life at June 25, 2009 9:43 AM in response to MTA Ignores Fiduciary Duty, Approves Revised Yards Plan

MTA BOARD CHAIRMAN : Hemmerdinger

From AYR:

“I’ve been in the real estate business a whole long time and I agree with Doreen no deal is ever perfect,” Hemmerdinger said.

“You get what you can when you can. And I think, in this economy, jobs and an arena in Brooklyn is a public good.”

From CRAINS:

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090601/FREE/906019946/1058

Looks like he gets what he can when he can. If he does that to family, what can Brooklyn expect?

And, since when are jobs a public good?

Posted by: bkn4life at June 25, 2009 9:21 AM in response to MTA Ignores Fiduciary Duty, Approves Revised Yards Plan

ftgreenecorey:

the devil is in the details.

so many things that should have been public from the start are now and will continue to come to light. as they do things become available that were not available when the suit was filed. if its good stuff, they can file something new/again either because the original claim was not ripe (all the actions that the suit is based on had not yet happened) or that substantive information was withheld from the public/complainants and as such that decision will not be held as a res judicata bar.

in short, it aint over till dddb quits or until all the information is made public.

as for the federal decision.... they dont want any part of it. it is up to daniel, and those like him, to force the judiciary in this state to do its job. or the elected official. or the unelected officials. you should thank him for exposing the cancers he has exposed.

at this point i have yet to see that any issue has been decided on the merits. or if they purport to be on the merits, withheld information will not allow ratner to escape scrutiny.

rail against the guys taking a philosphical stance all you want. they are the only ones not asleep at the wheel.

Posted by: bkn4life at June 23, 2009 3:26 PM in response to MTA Finance Committee Approves New Ratner Deal

ftgreenecorey:

the unanimous decision with the opinion that seemed like a dissent was all you need to see. wasnt that also the one where a judge begged off beacause they had "received a mailing" and couldnt be objective because of the pretty pictures and all?

this stinks to high heaven. even the press is starting to notice the stench. no, the judges are not all on the take. but if you think that all the judges on the nys supreme court/nyc civil court are even competent, well, there is a bridge out there somewhere to buy. sit in on a case that involves a nuanced concept. or one where someone tries to show that although there is a general rule to follow for a certain situation, that there are some clearly defined exceptions. they just dont get or dont want to get uncommon situations. it makes their brains hurt to actually think. and it shows in their decisions.

there are only a couple of options for these decisions...

lazy
incompetent
corrupt
stupid

i mostly vote for lazy. cant get that law degree by being stupid.
and a little bit corrupt. in that patronage kind of way. i used to live in chicago. brooklyn is closing in fast on the back-room deal factor.

Posted by: bkn4life at June 23, 2009 2:41 PM in response to MTA Finance Committee Approves New Ratner Deal

was at the meeting (ESDC) today.

charade is the only term that comes to mind. to all those loud ant-dddb folks, get a clue. there has not been one single analysis of what ratner stands to make for what he is "giving" brooklyn.

what else should the ESDC do but see/evaluate if ratner can do it cheaper or more effectively than the public sector and if so, then approve it. if not, send him back to cleveland. when i see some real numbers i'll make a decision. till then stall, bleed, chop, eradicate the parties that are keeping this project from meaningfull public review.

and as long as more tidbits come out about private agreements between the connected developer(ratner) and the mta/city/state/what i dont see the stream of lawsuits ending. nor should they. litigate on dan, litigate on.

i took the name of most of the people testifying. the pro-ratner people were nearly all compensated by ratner or those who will make money on more traffic(hotels/unions).

a partial list

-ACORN(CBA)
-BUILD(CBA)
-REBUILD(CCBA)
-BAM(Board Member/Donations)
-POLYTECH("co-developer metrotech")
-SIDS HARDWARE(sweetheart deal at Metrotech when he was displaced)
-NU HOTEL
-NEW YORK MARRIOTT AT BROOKLYN BRIDGE(Note that they are proud of brooklyn, but dont carry that as lead name of the hotel because no one would find it if it were called the Brooklyn Marriott)
-ABOUT 15 UNION WONKS - turned my stomach
-DAUGHTRY

note that marty markowitz had two other engagements and send a flack to yap about jobs and housing.

bam sent a flack

liu sent a flack

i find myself conflicted. a stadium would be great for brooklyn. but not under these conditions.

and dont get me started on the union thugsters. the same vest wearing bumpcap sporting morons who were at the state hearings last month. just how much money does ratner stand to make that he can afford to bailout acorn and send droves of morons to these meetings and put the bam/liu/polytech in his back pocket.

this will all end when the information is laid bare and public officials are on the hook for the tales they have been telling. till then, enjoy the show.

Posted by: bkn4life at June 23, 2009 2:03 PM in response to MTA Finance Committee Approves New Ratner Deal

jpd:

if you put something the scale of stuytown with its open space ratio and put it on the table, i am pretty sure goldstein et al would jump at it.

ratnervile is a few orders of magnitude larger. not the same animal at all.

Posted by: bkn4life at June 11, 2009 10:14 AM in response to Ratner Cans Gehry For Good

8,000,000*2=$16,000,000

not $165,000,000

make it a twenty and your on.

Posted by: bkn4life at June 11, 2009 9:37 AM in response to Sitt Says Thor's Coney Land No Longer for Sale

loved your pies mario.

sorry to see you go. brooklyn will be a lesser place without you.

and for what its worth, i'd want to go too....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ischia

Posted by: bkn4life at June 9, 2009 11:24 AM in response to Sam's Pizza Maestro Hangs Up Apron

full disclosure: i am against the ratner project.

that being said:

this design has me wondering....

what is so bad about a warehouse arena?

nothing in my book. its an arena, not a cathedral.

now why it costs $800,000,000, thats a good question.

that number divided by the number of seats is $800,000,000/17,000=$47,000 a seat. i call b.s. there is no way brooklyn needs an arena where each seat costs $47,000.

now what number it should cost?

there has to be a good costruction person out there who can do better estimates than i.

Posted by: bkn4life at June 9, 2009 10:09 AM in response to Ouroussoff, Tell Us How You Really Feel

what a load.

kudos for dddb for having a longer term vision for brooklyn than the "just build it already" contingent.

this was a sham from the start. it was an absurd development considering the area. zoning a sliver to be huge while adjacent areas are short is folly. i am just glad now that brooklyn has a few people who will take a look under the hood before agreeing to let somone develop because that person might be able to broker money.

ratnervilles everywhere are withering up and blowing away. lets not let this be the one place stupid enough to not see through the veil of obfuscation and misdirection.

that being said, build the damn deck already, move the lirr terminal to under that deck, tear down the most recent rat-crap on top of the current lirr terminal and put the stadium there where it belongs.

Posted by: bkn4life at June 5, 2009 10:24 AM in response to Gehry Officially Off Yards Project

hey brownstner,

you had a thread about instituting moderation of trolls.

(what)ever became of it?

take a look at slashdot. and get a good coder to create something similar.

we wouldnt feed the trolls so much if they were quickly buried.

Posted by: bkn4life at June 1, 2009 2:25 PM in response to Teen-on-Teen Shooting on Downing Street

petunia:

as i recall from the hearing, no one knows about the changes in ratner payments because they are part of "sensitive negotiations."

wanna bet norman oder will get body-slammed when he files FOILs for the documents relating to the negotiations?

i almost think that the FOIL shenanigans are as big a news as this smelly project.

Posted by: bkn4life at June 1, 2009 12:15 PM in response to Recapping the State Senate Hearing on Atlantic Yards

methinks this whole area will end up like laguardia. always under meaningless pathetically slow construction. sure wouldnt want this crew working on anythng actually important.

Posted by: bkn4life at May 28, 2009 3:02 PM in response to Development Watch: Atlantic Terminal Station

i think the one who will laugh last is the chain.

200,000 people in walking distance, broadway in 25-30 minutes and all anyone here can do is dredge up gowanus circa 1987 references.

anyone who yaps about an SRO hasnt been paying attention.

Posted by: bkn4life at May 26, 2009 11:25 AM in response to Gowanus Super 8 Opening Soon

slick:

maybe you ught to read "the geography of nowhere".

the atlantic center is now, and was from the start, an abomnation in an urban envrironment. it is even an abomination in a suburban environment.

hailing it as a transformative event for brooklyn is more than a little sad.

Posted by: bkn4life at May 18, 2009 3:16 PM in response to Appellate Court Rules Against Atlantic Yards Opponents

brownstoner:

dont get your knickers in a bunch.

take your shots while the feeling out of the new world order is in play.

everyone is entitled to take their own shot. let the complainers take theirs(fat chance). seems to me you are paying more than nothing. its a free market. let the old guard complain and die. its not like the CB meetings were getting covered anyways.

Posted by: bkn4life at May 12, 2009 12:30 PM in response to Call For Community Board Bloggers

hey what,

i think brownstoner is addressing an issue better than your trolling does.

but thats not news here, is it?

good luck brownstoner. more viewpoints than the politicians give us is a good thing. even if done by amateurs. and since you have a non-trivial number of readers/trolls it should be more interesting than the local rags.

Posted by: bkn4life at May 12, 2009 10:43 AM in response to Call For Community Board Bloggers

i don't usually agree with rob.

but this time i do.

you are being a self-important ass if your dog is off leash.

no ifs, ands or buts.

your dog is a dog. it is not a special dog. it is not a person. it chases things. sometimes kids. sometimes people. sometimes its own tail. dont pretend that your dog is unique in that it is always well behaved. you have just tolerated your own dog's version of social behavior into your lives.

leash it.

p.s. i have had dogs and i love dogs. they should be leashed in an urban environment.

Posted by: bkn4life at May 11, 2009 10:12 AM in response to Prospect Park Vigilante Wages Canine Campaign

this is a great, although unlikely idea.

if the city is able to remove the "privilege" from the cold dead hands of the car owners and dedicate lanes for this purpose it would be a huge win. economically, ecologicially, societally.

but that may be difficult.

when they reopened the girard line in philly recently it was stalled almost a year because some neighborhood at the end didnt want to give up 7 parking spots for a turnaround. and like most of west philly the neighborihood was, by the standards of this board, a shithole.

dont get me wrong, i love philly, but the end of the line there was truly "the end of the line."

Posted by: bkn4life at May 8, 2009 10:25 AM in response to Could Streetcars Return to Brooklyn?

bayridgegirl...

dont bet on it. as has been rehashed many times here, underserved neighborhoods with burgeoning middle classes have lots of weddings, bar mitzvahs,tourists. all will lead to business.

it is more likely that the new sunset park hotel(s) will be busier than you expect. and it will remain a quasi secret as the shrinking mainstream presss will ignore it till everyone already knows it.

Posted by: bkn4life at May 5, 2009 10:35 AM in response to Mixed News on Brooklyn Hotels

isnt most of brooklyn a parking lot already?

Posted by: bkn4life at April 29, 2009 3:06 PM in response to StreetLevel: Gowanus Warehouse Rocks On

i think i remember that the wallentas drove out artist types form the lofts in dumbo. no value judgement here, just a vague recollection.

anyone care to confirm or deny???

Posted by: bkn4life at April 29, 2009 12:08 PM in response to Inside the New Issue Project Room Space at 110 Livingston

ENY:

aint that a b----!

trust me there are entities working on that one.

some are chasing techno-bits. they are wasting time with eye candy.

others are digging deep into the social value proposition. like npr.

what you have never seen is any deep analysis of the cost breakdowns of running the news business. once you see those numbers (a billion dollars for the globe, union contracts for lifetime jobs(daily news), leveraging the employee pension funds(tribune), building buildings instead of doing the news(the times)) you understand that value can be had for less. a lot less. a whole lot less. and since print is dead the cost of entry is low. competition will be high.

when dinosaurs like pete hamill finally get it the damn is about to burst :

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090426/NEWS/904260319

this aint no evolution. everything big and overleveraged IS going to die first. everyone else is going on a diet.

cant wait to see the the lean survivors. there will be some hope for them then.

and shimmi: the brooklyn papers the NYTimes of anything???? HA!

/end rant

Posted by: bkn4life at April 27, 2009 5:45 PM in response to Brooklyn Paper and Courier Begin Sharing Content

right on the money rob.

i am curious to see just how short our attention spans can become.

Posted by: bkn4life at April 27, 2009 4:45 PM in response to Brooklyn Flea: Overheard on Twitter

problem is,

its quite the quandary.

any new voice will most likely come in when there is no competition from remaining main stream media. so, in one sense, its better that the brooklyn papers/courier beast fall under its own weight.

then people will not be so dismissive when a limited general interest entity(be it paper/web or web only) sprouts up. there will be nothing to snark against when there is no "establishment" left.

hopefully something will be ready to fill the vacuum when this happens.

Posted by: bkn4life at April 27, 2009 4:18 PM in response to Brooklyn Paper and Courier Begin Sharing Content

altervoice:

and why should we not examine the decline of unrelated voices about issues impacting brooklyn in general?

your sideswipe against norman aside, do you really think brooklyn doesnt deserve more than these ad-rags?

i was at a conference in phladelphia over the weekend dealing with many of these same issues ( http://bcniphilly.com ).

many people other than norman are questioning these issues of larger press entities. you should applaud any effort to shine some light on a process as flawed as atlantic yards. no matter how long it has gone on. if its a war of attrition that ratner thinks will win, well, lets see about that.

Posted by: bkn4life at April 27, 2009 2:35 PM in response to Brooklyn Paper and Courier Begin Sharing Content

the race to the bottom is picking up speed.

aggregation for eyeballs under the murdoch clan. yuck.

i, for one, welcome our untrained, blogging, twittering overlords.

they may suck for quite a while, but its medicine the industry needs.

the net result of al the twitter traffic is that public events cant be hidden. but private(governmental) actions/meetings will hold out a bit longer.

Posted by: bkn4life at April 27, 2009 11:51 AM in response to Brooklyn Paper and Courier Begin Sharing Content

a "flea market"???

Posted by: bkn4life at April 23, 2009 10:16 AM in response to From Parking to What on Old Fulton?

i vote for tracking those who stole and those who killed someone while dui.

i have a hard time imagining that you are hurting society by knowing where the thieves and drunks with cars live.

now, as for those who prostitute themselves out....

that seems to be a slippery slope definitionally.

Posted by: bkn4life at April 22, 2009 10:26 AM in response to The Sex Offenders Amongst Us

heather...

unique=newsworthy

unique <> good

same problem exists in theater and dance as well as art.

Posted by: bkn4life at April 20, 2009 8:40 PM in response to House of the Day: 743 Eastern Parkway

they announced it under cover of night during the year end holidays.

i agree its a crime.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/arts/design/16muse.html?_r=1

there is a bit about a sham partnership. no discussion with the general public. no request for donations to care for it. abdication of resposibility. its like they dont work for us.

but is gone now. bastards.

bxgirl: i remember that exhibit. sticks with me today. still.

Posted by: bkn4life at April 20, 2009 7:23 PM in response to House of the Day: 743 Eastern Parkway

"The B'klyn Museum's collections rival those of the Met."

even for the collection they sold to the met this year. awful long hike to manhattan now for the costume collection.

Posted by: bkn4life at April 20, 2009 6:51 PM in response to House of the Day: 743 Eastern Parkway

just to throw more water on the fire.

if you own a building and get a hazardous violation and you challenge it in court you will find:

a) the inspectors are not architects or engineers.

b) hazardous does not have the same meaning to the building department as you and i. that is hazardous isnt really all that bad. it means solely that the moron inspector couldnt get to the spot he thinks "might" be dangerous to perform an inspection he is incompetent to perform. as such the burden, expensive, falls on you to prove your building safe. not the building department proving it unsafe.

in a city that generates violations from complaints it means you can get a pile of violations based on shitheads like the OP who want to game the system both ways.

so dont go screaming like chicken little cause a building has violations. its a very common thing for building to get violations because the newbie doesnt like the coffee roaster that has been in the neighborhood for 100 years.

Posted by: bkn4life at April 16, 2009 6:20 PM in response to Effect of Not Paying Rent?

hmm...

someone rents "cool bushwick loft space."

that someone is an innocent rube unaware of any improprieties of living in an industrial building. an innocent artist type i bet.

same someone wants out cause the "cool" doesnt mean "safe."

same someone incapable of putting a lock on their own door. rather blame landlord.

same someone now looks for any hook to evade contract terms.

now all the other someones on this site waive their hands and say, bad, evil landlord.

i call b.s.

we all understand this situation.

no sympathy here.

Posted by: bkn4life at April 16, 2009 12:07 PM in response to Effect of Not Paying Rent?

years ago, when the port authority owned the property, i arranged an inspection.

first floor was easy enough. the port authority had a key.

but in order to get to the top floor you needed to take some seriously stupid(hindsight and all) risks.

it was worth it. the top floor has the absolute best 360 degree view i have ever seen. water, city, industry, nature.

the breeze up there was quite unsettling though. strong enough to make you lose your balance.

when we came back down about two hours later the port authority people were about to call a search team in.

as with anything, the whole grain terminal property cries out for some special investment/activity. wont happen though.

Posted by: bkn4life at April 16, 2009 10:55 AM in response to Inside the Red Hook Grain Terminal