Wednesday Links

Took the F shuttle bus this past weekend and it was tons better than the train actually. There were shuttles almost every 5 minutes throughout the day. I think I will kind of miss the shuttle.

Sorry if this has been discussed before, but I’ve got a question. RE: the city buying failed/stalled condo developments and converting them into affordable housing – How is this supposed to be worked out? Is it being proposed that the city pay these developers their current asking price for the condos that are finished and not selling and then the city sells them to folks at a discounted rate? If so, is there any concern about the city essentially losing money here? (I know, I know, affordable housing is important and money isn’t always the primary focus, but everything is a business.) Or, is the city to buy these finished units at a (relatively) deep discount and then sell them off as affordable units? If the latter is the case, what about that ‘price floor’ I’ve heard some of you talking about (what the banks will allow the developer to sell for)? With regard to the stalled developments that remain unfinished, is the proposal for the city to step in and make a loan for the $$$ necessary to complete the projects and then as a condition of the loan make the developers sell all or some of the units as affordable? If so, where is the city to get this $$$? Selling bonds?
(To anyone who is kind enough to answer my questions, I beg of you to do so in *plain* English and not technical terms…I am so not a finance/numbers person. If I were a man I’d have to get naked to count to 21!)

BrooklynGreene, Holy moley!

I am seriously loving those cut-out pieces of art. They would make a phenomenal gift for someone deeply loved (given they aren’t exactly inexpensive!)

Thanks for that.

“10/25: Woman, 53, said she left a wallet on the counter of a McDonald’s on the Flatbush Avenue extension when she went outside to see if a bus was coming. When she came back inside, she said the wallet, with $640 inside it, was gone.”

Shouldn’t this lady be awarded some sort of prize?

And the crime blog is on a Fort Greene – Clinton Hill blog, so kinda interesting that Clinton Hill was omitted…granted I didn’t review each crime to see which hood it fell in.