-> daveinbedstuy

Thanks. Aside from doing errands on Court Street, I've not spent much quality time on Montague Street recently.

Your remarks and those from anyone else who spends a significant amount of time in the area are appreciated.

Posted by: starpower at March 10, 2009 9:51 AM in response to High Rents Killing Montague Street

About seven or eight years ago, I wandered into a convenience store on Montague Street and experienced a Rip Van Winkle moment. A bar with sidewalk cafe tables had been at that location for many years, and I'd asked the man behind the front counter when it had closed (and when had the convenience store opened).

The man told me that he had been the owner of the bar and that he made the transition about 12 or 15 months beforehand.

He said that the cost of living in the neighborhood had changed. The bar's clientele had moved out of the neighborhood, and a new demographic of people had moved in.

"The area used to be populated by writers and schoolteachers, and they liked to go out on weeknights," he said. (Indeed, I remembered the times that I had met Brooklyn Heights-area friends for a burger there any evening of the week but especially on weeknights.)

"Now, families and lawyers are living around here. They don't really go out. They stay at home."

Montague Street may have something in common with upper Madison Avenue, which also has many newly vacant street-level retail properties.

However, it would be interesting if someone would address the general compatibility of the retailers and the current Brooklyn Heights-area population. Are they a good match, or they ill-suited to one another?

Posted by: starpower at March 10, 2009 9:41 AM in response to High Rents Killing Montague Street

According to a news story several months ago, all of the places for kindergarten were taken up in a school district in or around TriBeCa. Imagine that, showing up to enroll your child in kindergarten and being told that there were no more seats available in the classroom? What a shame for everyone. :^(

Posted by: starpower at September 3, 2008 9:41 AM in response to Condo Growth Imperils Schools

For someone who has a garage but no curb cut, what would stop him/her from placing a portable ramp at the edge of a curb to allow his/her vehicle to go to/from the road?

Posted by: starpower at September 2, 2008 10:35 AM in response to The Luxury of the Garage

I haven't been on Clinton Street near 3rd Place lately, but, during my walks to the post office or the park in Red Hook, I remember how the stroll seemed like a tour of the odd, curious, peculiar, and banal in residential architecture.

For all of you architectural purists, it's worth considering that judging the merits of this stretch of Brooklyn to be like assessing blondes at the beach. (How many are naturally blonde? How many are blonde because of exposure to the sun? How many are bottle blondes?)

The only thing truly distinguishing the quality of the aforementioned stroll on Clinton Street was the upkeep of the sidewalks. On some blocks, tree roots caused concrete and bluestone sidewalks to be uplifted, uneven, cracked, etc. Elsewhere, overhanging tree branches required pedestrians to duck so that they don't hit their heads, prevent their eyes/nose/face/scalp from getting scratched, etc. Weeds, cracked sidewalks and curbs, banged up street lamps, etc., dominated the landscape. A few houses that were tidy and ordinary were the best that a pedestrian could hope for on this stroll.

Nevertheless, the streets and front yards were clean, and I had never had a concern for my personal safety during these strolls.

For sure, the photo that you've posted shows tall weeds growing through cracks in the sidewalk alongside this property. Otherwise, writing about this property's assets and liabilities is a peculiar exercise.

Posted by: starpower at August 7, 2008 11:35 PM in response to Carroll Gardens Atrocity For Rent

In the nytimes.com article, the following is posted:

"Another woman decried the 'hordes of people' who descend on her neighborhood every week, and said, 'It doesn’t feel like home anymore.'"

It's been so many decades since many of the outer borough neighborhoods have gone into sharp decline that many of their long-time residents don't acknowledge that their piece of paradise is built upon the remnants of a once-glorious past. Now that the outer boroughs are becoming resettled, long-time residents are in a state of shock that this stage of the life cycle of the city has arrived.

As resettlement continues to move from the city's "center" to its periphery, the cycles of gentrification are going to continue over the next 75 years. Eventually, New York City is going to resemble Tokyo, which has dozens of vibrant, highly populated residential districts located well outside the city's center.

Posted by: starpower at July 26, 2008 12:22 PM in response to Closing Bell: Brooklyn Flea + Urban Arts Festival