salvo007-That unit was an unrenovated one that was an artist occupied unit. So it had none of the upgrades. Bathroom, kitchen, etc.

There was another sale in the building #410 for $1.250 million. That was a new unit.

Re: Esquire, they have no doorman and no garage. The Mill has both.

Posted by: therealflyintheointment at November 3, 2009 12:00 PM in response to Condo of the Day: 85 North 3rd Street, #207

Anyone been watching the 18 wheelers attempt to turn on or off of Wythe?

What a mess. Hint, do not park near the corners if you value your car.

Does anyone in government think of the consequences of their feel good actions?

Posted by: therealflyintheointment at September 29, 2009 11:33 AM in response to Kent Traffic Shifts to Wythe

I drive on Kent every day and it is far from a highway. There is always the odd miscreant, but in general traffic is moving at a reasonable speed. The cops do stake it out from time to time on the northside.

The bigger point is that there is very little bike or foot traffic on Kent to warrant all of this.

The only time that there is a lot of pedestrian traffic is when there is a free concert in the park.

It was bad enough when they took away the parking. Kent as it is now is wide open and pleasant.

I think that it will be more chaotic and dangerous with one lane and parking close by. I predict some doors getting taken off.

Posted by: therealflyintheointment at August 25, 2009 2:50 PM in response to Kent Traffic Shifts to Wythe

Wasteful micromanging of our lives in the middle of a recession.

Is this the most pressing thing that Mayor Mike and the bike nazi Khan can think of?

Kent, the way it was was one of the great pleasures of the neighborhood.

Now Wythe will become a traffic accident waiting to happen.

Posted by: therealflyintheointment at August 25, 2009 11:30 AM in response to Kent Traffic Shifts to Wythe

Idiots.

Kent was fine the way it was.

Just wasting more precious tax dollars on yet another feel good social engineering project.

Posted by: therealflyintheointment at August 20, 2009 10:04 AM in response to Kent Avenue Make-Over Begins

It was bad enough when the took away the parking for the nearly unused bike lanes.

Now they want to ruin one of the pleasures of living in Williamsburg. Kent is quiet and perfect the way it is.

Diverting the southbound traffic to the more residentil streets is a horrible and dangerous idea.

Sadik Khan and Bloomberg should stop wasting our money on their social engineering BS.

Enough already. Leave Kent alone.

Posted by: therealflyintheointment at August 17, 2009 11:53 AM in response to Kent Ave Goes One-Way Today

Make sure you eat at Zaccaria, just outside Amalfi. No menu. The food just keeps coming. The most amazing clams you will ever have.

If you are up for the drive, go to Sorrento and the restauarnt Il Buco. One of the best anywhere.

Posted by: therealflyintheointment at May 22, 2009 10:38 AM in response to Closing Bell: Amalfi Coast, Here We Come

What ever happened to the new Italian place at 360?

Posted by: therealflyintheointment at February 17, 2009 5:54 PM in response to Streetlevel: Brick Oven Pizza for Van Brunt

Look, there are buyers of million dollar plus apartments and even $2 million apartments in Williamsburg.

But they have to be getting something for the money. That means more than they can get in the City for the same dollars. More space, views, larger outdoor space.

At the Mill Building, the apartments sold like hot cakes, because they are large, with high ceilings and like finishes. And there was a $2million sale there.

The other big dollar sales are penthouses that have the space and views: Gretsch, Bayard, etc.

Posted by: therealflyintheointment at February 16, 2009 3:06 PM in response to Toll Even More Serious Than We Thought About Price Cuts

Has anyone been there lately?

They are building the second building about six inches(OK, about 30 feet) away from the first building. Blocking the views, the light and whatever else there was.

I do not know which way these penthouses face, but unless the first bulding is significantly taller than the second, it could get a little crowded up there.

Posted by: therealflyintheointment at February 6, 2009 11:18 AM in response to Toll Even More Serious Than We Thought About Price Cuts

The problem was that the units were not special in any way.

The biggest one was 1700 sq.feet.

If they supersized the units, they would have sold like hotcakes, even in this market.

Just look at the Mill Building. The SMALLEST are 1700 sq feet.

That is a really interesting buidling. They should build really interesting HUGE apartments.

Posted by: therealflyintheointment at December 8, 2008 3:14 PM in response to Sales Halted at Steelworks Loft

LOL-few, decades, centuries. Can you top this?

Posted by: therealflyintheointment at September 25, 2007 5:04 PM in response to Market Slump? Not At The Mill Building

"Sounds like you equate "better" with soul-less."

Hardly. Maybe its just that you have a very narrow definition of soul.

Do you have to be a poor starving artist to have soul?

Or can you be a successful one with a enough bucks to but a condo? One of my new neighbors is a successful photographer that moved out from the city for more space. He is very artistic.

I collect art and bought for the space to display it. Are all of the new galleries hurting the neighborhood? Come on now, I think not.

I consider myself one of the people that helped make it what is by patronizing the area for years, before moving there. And encouraging friends to make the trip for the art scene and restaurants.

I agree that neighborhoods can get ruined, it happened to West Broadway in SOHO. But the new residents love it, so good for them.

Williamsburg has a few good years left in it.

The biggest threat is guys like Badillo and Quadraid that are trying to game the system for their own profit. The current zoning should stay. Tall at the water, short everywhere else. I am a big believer in renovating and preserving existing buidlings as much as possible. That is why the Mill stands out.

Toll has no idea what they are doing. Their buidlings are completely out of character with the nighborhood. It is that type of development that maybe we can agree is hurting the area and soul-less.

Posted by: therealflyintheointment at September 25, 2007 4:28 PM in response to Market Slump? Not At The Mill Building

"and yes, crime is going up. why else would the cops be -everywhere - in the neighborhood now? Everyone who lives here knows things are starting to get bad. I get pushed around now, and all my friends know at least one person who's been jumped recently."

So the cops are suppressing the truth. I see.

That flies in the face of classic gentrification theories. As more and more of the neighborhood gets "fixed up" crime typically gets pushed out. The 90th Precint stats seem to bear that out. If there were only 14 more robberies commmitted, I can kind see the Willy Sutton theory at work. Criminals will go were the money is and with more street traffic in that can make sense. But still it is no epidemic.

I just find all the negative comments ammusing. I was at Galapagos when it opened and have been going out to Williams burg for years before that. The neighborhood has done nothing but improve and has exploded since the zoning change. Anyone that denies this or cannot see it, I am sorry to say has some other agenda.

Posted by: therealflyintheointment at September 25, 2007 4:04 PM in response to Market Slump? Not At The Mill Building

With all due respect even if that were true, I doubt that there is a rash of UNREPORTED beatings. The ratio of reported crime to unreported is a pretty constant thing, so I highly doubt that there is some epidemic that is going unreported.

Maybe you should stop taping signs to your buddy's back that says "Kick Me".

Posted by: therealflyintheointment at September 25, 2007 2:28 PM in response to Market Slump? Not At The Mill Building

Funny, you must know something the NYPD does not.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/crime_statistics/cs090pct.pdf

Crime is down significantly in every category save one and robberes are up 4.8%, but in absolute numbers that is exactly 14, year to date.

Sorry, but you are completely wrong.

Posted by: therealflyintheointment at September 25, 2007 2:07 PM in response to Market Slump? Not At The Mill Building

But that is one of the things that is easy to change.

I am moving into the Mill Building.

Either petitioning the City to plant trees or putting them in planters in not a big deal.

I think that with all of the development going on, all of the new owners/residents will push to beautify their blocks.

They would have to be crazy not to.

Posted by: therealflyintheointment at September 25, 2007 1:19 PM in response to Market Slump? Not At The Mill Building