As someone who doesn't own a car, i don't get any real usage out of all that real estate (expensive real estate) that is free or seriously underpriced curbside parking. I'm fine for people using it to park cars, but I really think people should be made to pay a fair price for it. Think about how much you pay in rent per square foot, and how much you pay to park at a meter. it's grossly unfair to those of us who don't have cars. I'm not sure why as a city we should be subsidizing the cost of owning a car.

Posted by: gomuppets at September 18, 2009 3:45 PM in response to Park(ing) Day on Fulton

with something like bed bugs, i feel like the adage better safe than sorry is more than appropriate. get new mattresses - from Ikea if you have too. Or if you are buying a bunch of new ones, go to Sleepys/Rockaway, etc and negotiate. Mark ups on mattresses are incredibly high.

Posted by: gomuppets at June 29, 2009 2:38 PM in response to Bed Bug Question

What:

What? I have no idea what you are saying. how does this prove brownstoner is making it up? especially when you confirm it exists?

And that second comment. Seriously? Name calling?

Someone needs to pull back on the coffee or sugar or whatever is overly stimulating...

Posted by: gomuppets at June 11, 2009 3:43 PM in response to Streetlevel: Tish James Campaign HQ Opens on Fulton

fyi - Case-Shiller tracks REsales of single-family homes in a metro area. SINGLE FAMILY HOMES. This does not include new homes, coops, condos, or even 2- and 3- family brownstones people. It is heavily impacted by what happens in the suburbs as that is where the vast majority of single family homes are in the area - Manhattan for example barely has any single family homes. So in that regard, the Case-Shiller is not exactly the best barometer of prices in brownstone brooklyn. There is however, a Case-Shiller index for NYC Metro area condos, which tends to better represent what's happening in NYC as the city's share of condos in the metro area is higher than it is for single family homes.

Posted by: gomuppets at April 28, 2009 3:37 PM in response to Values Down, Taxes Up

what got us into the mess was exotic mortgages - ones with balloon payments, readjusting rates or no income check mortgages, etc. As mopar said, FHA loans are nothing new and have been around for a while. you just have to have a steady income and decent credit score to qualify.

Posted by: gomuppets at April 20, 2009 11:50 AM in response to 111 Monroe Street: Let's Do the Time Warp Again

up until a few months ago, i lived right near by - i'd walk past franklin & lincoln pl often, earlyish (say 8 to 9am) on the weekends and even in the cold there'd be group of young kids out in front of the bodega on the NE corner of the block. Even in 20 degree weather. I even once saw a small wad of cash passed off very discretely to a much older man who appeared homeless and was talking to himself (clever disguise?).

as for dave's comment of evidence, would you like me to go up to the young men standing on that corner and ask them if i could take pictures of them? or just stand across the street and do that? can you think of a plausible explanation as to why a group of young men would decide to hang out on the corner in 20 degree weather at 8:30am on a saturday morning, every week?

Posted by: gomuppets at March 18, 2009 11:08 AM in response to Drug Dealing Hotspot in Crown Heights?

This post should have a caveat. The index cited here is the Case-Shiller, which only tracks resales of single family homes in the entire metro area (which includes Long Island, Westchester, NJ, CT and even bits of PA). So it could be heavily influenced by weakening in the suburban areas while the City itself is not as bad. It also does not reflect what is happening in the Coop/Condo markets, though obviously there will be some correlation (though even within that group there's wide variation).

(btw - i'm not sure how they count the brownstones that have a rental unit - they are classed as 2 or 3 family homes by the tax class, but still grouped with 1 families. Anyone have any idea?)

more info on Case-Shiller: http://www2.standardandpoors.com/portal/site/sp/en/us/page.topic/indices_csmahp/0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2,1,0,0,0,0,0.html

Posted by: gomuppets at February 25, 2009 9:50 AM in response to U.S. Housing Prices Down 18.5%, NYC Almost 10%

tybur6:

the issue is that class 4 (commercial prop) & class 3 (regulated utilities, read: ConEd) and rental buildings are paying a much higher share of taxes than most Coop/Condos and 1-3 Fam homes. to get parity, you'd need to either cut taxes for the first group (which then costs the city money) or raise it for the second group (which would be hard to do - some people might be able to afford it, others, especially those on fixed incomes would not be able to afford it). and more importantly, homeowners tend to vote at a much higher rate than renters, so it is something like a third rail in politics in NYC.

Posted by: gomuppets at February 3, 2009 11:45 AM in response to S#!t Outta Luck: Values Down, Taxes Up

if any of you has a bunch of time on their hands and wants a better grasp of what's going on with the city's prop tax, the IBO put out a great report that is dead on with describing how it works, why it works & why it doesn't.
http://www.ibo.nyc.ny.us/iboreports/propertytax120506.pdf
(really interesting table on the bottom of page 19 shows the effective tax rates for various property types in the City).

the problem with trying to fix the system is it would require a number of class 1 (1-3 family homes) and some coop/condos to pay much higher rates than they have been paying, which really would not be feasible. So really, it would most likely cost the City a lot of money to implement. it's basically a mess.

Posted by: gomuppets at February 3, 2009 11:18 AM in response to S#!t Outta Luck: Values Down, Taxes Up

"this way my low-income project peeps can keep me in office by voting for me. I can just see it now...half-eaten chicken wing bones left all over the lobby."

does anyone else find this comment slightly racist?

Posted by: gomuppets at January 29, 2009 3:27 PM in response to 470 Vanderbilt Cleared for ULURP Take-Off

this one is a converted studio/ jr 1 bedroom, which i did not know existed in these coops (looks like it's missing what would normally be the bedroom and the dining area got converted to the bedroom). so part of the price difference (beyond the lack of high end appliances is that it's smaller than the $400K one.

Posted by: gomuppets at November 26, 2008 12:48 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: Another 1BR at 193 Clinton Avenue

it is a good time to buy - several months from now would be a better time to buy. you can bet your pretty penny the Fed is going to lower rates. The bailout is only helping the financial markets, but the growing recession needs something more to kick it out and it begins to appear that inflation is less of an issue (hello Oil dropping below $90/barrel), the door is wide open for the Fed to cut rates. i bet by 2009, we will have some real low rates.

(granted this is only a good time to buy if your job is secure)

Posted by: gomuppets at October 6, 2008 5:26 PM in response to Price Cuts at Be@Schermerhorn

Bedbugs move from apartment to apartment - if they are in your building then there's very little chance that an uninfested apartment won't be infested before long.

Listen to Act 2 of this podcast of This American Life...
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1255

Posted by: parkplacer at June 29, 2009 2:57 PM in response to Bed Bug Question

I am the owner of a small apt. building and I can add a couple of things:

Bedbugs are very difficult to get rid of. Even an apartment that has been vacant and fumigated can still become reinfested. Bedbugs are often resistent to the chemicals that are used to kill them and they can hide in places that chemicals just can not reach.

Using a sealed mattress cover is a good idea - if the bedbugs are in the mattress, and they are sealed withing the mattress cover, they will ultimately die and while they are alive (up to a year) they can not escape and infest your new home. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, bedbugs can hide in an amazing number of places but the exterminator is correct that if you only have a minor infestation, they are likely to remain near the bed, i.e. the source of food.

Especially if this is an old building, with lots of cracks and crevices, I suggest that you consider moving to another building. Bedbugs are not life threatening, not really all that dangerous but they are a nuisance and very difficult to eliminate.

Posted by: JoeBushwick at June 29, 2009 3:01 PM in response to Bed Bug Question

We survived a major infestation of bedbugs. We found them mostly in the seams of a box spring but continued to find them for weeks even though we threw out the boxspring and had an exterminator treat the apt twice. We did continue to live in the apt...dogs were out of apt overnight after the spraying. Fortunately we were moving and in the few weeks before we moved the bedbug sitings tapered off. They can be in your books, files, computer.....not just beds so unless you are getting rid of everything you own I'd say look at everything very carefully...especially seams of mattresses and boxsprings and then move and hope you don't take any with you. We moved 2 years ago and have not found any bedbugs. I also had the exterminator at the new place use the spray that works on bedbugs when we first moved. Good luck!

Posted by: parklp at June 29, 2009 3:06 PM in response to Bed Bug Question

Stern Environment Group does non-toxic treatment. They have hot boxes, which kill bugs by heat. It works on books, CDs, etc. They also use cryogenic devices to freeze out bugs on furniture. I will definitely pay them money so they will check every single item you about to move. You even might want to hire a man with sniffing dog, which will check if there any smell of bugs.

As other people mentioned, you cannot be too cautious with this pests.

On the other side - your move is the blessing since you can check every item separately.

ah the phone: 732-780-0805. I am not associated with them, but other people from this forum mentioned and recommended them.

Posted by: bobjohn at June 29, 2009 3:10 PM in response to Bed Bug Question

My friend told me there is a big import of bed-bugs into the country. I'd Google this and find out exactly what is going on.

Posted by: BklynSoFar at June 29, 2009 3:39 PM in response to Bed Bug Question

call a GOOD exterminator. I recommend PEst2Kill. Found them after messing around with idiots first. they were amazing. Make sure they spray powder into all the outlets and walls incase the bed bugs are traveling in the walls and coming out the outlets. (I sealed up almost all unused outlets with child-potective outlet covers and caulking. ) Have the exterminator also spray around all places the bedbugs may be- where the wall meets the floor, along the mouldings on the walls. Make sure the apartment is TOTALLY SEALED. around radiator pipes, floor boards. In our place they were coming up through the holes in the floor around the radiator pipes. I poured a ton of bedbug powder into the holes and then filled the holes with insulation foam. Also get really good mattress covers. I suggest protect-a-bed. Clean well, too. use murphy's oil soap on the floor to kill any eggs. if your floor has lots of cracks get it refinished and use lots of resin. IF THEY CANT GET IN YOUR PROBLEM IS SOLVED!!! they are getting in somehow and that is what you need to figure out.

Posted by: xico at June 29, 2009 9:11 PM in response to Bed Bug Question

Way back in college I rented an apt that became infested w/ bedbugs. Lucky for me, I didn't have very many posessions at the time besides clothes and a crapola of books.
All clothes and linens were laundered and drycleaned, and kept in storage until I found a new apartment.
Mattress and pillows were tossed and new ones purchased from Ikea, delivered to new apartment and promptly sealed in those handy protect a bed thingies just to be sure.
All books should be shaken out and vaccummed and make sure to check the dust covers if you have a lot of hardcovers- bedbugs are so thin they can squeeze between the pages of a closed book.
Everything you own should be cleaned/inspected and then moved out of the infested apt as soon as possible.

I would be highly cautious about staying in a building that has bedbugs. From our experience, we found out we had bedbugs and bombed, sprayed, etc which pushed the critters into our neighbor's apartment. They then bombed,etc... pushing them right back through the walls into our apartment. Apparently it is very difficult to get rid of them entirely unless the landlord does bomb the entire building at the same time and all your neighbors take the same measures you do.

After they came back the 2nd time is when I took the above action. In fact, that was the last apt. I rented in Queens. I figure I'll just avoid the entire boro from now on, just in case. Haha.

Posted by: ennuiater at June 29, 2009 10:30 PM in response to Bed Bug Question

ive got a product that is chemical and pesticide free. it monitors bedbugs and stops them from getting into the bed...check this website out...www.Insect-Interceptor.com

Posted by: bedbug101 at July 14, 2009 11:33 AM in response to Bed Bug Question