Landmark Status
Hi, I’m purchasing a brownstone in the Stuyvesant Heights area of Bedstuy a block off of the historic district. I did a DOB search and it says that the landmark status is calandered. A couple of questions: 1) what does that mean? 2) is landmark designation good or more hassle due to dealing with landmark…
Hi,
I’m purchasing a brownstone in the Stuyvesant Heights area of Bedstuy a block off of the historic district. I did a DOB search and it says that the landmark status is calandered. A couple of questions:
1) what does that mean?
2) is landmark designation good or more hassle due to dealing with landmark boards for renovation?
thanks.
Landmarking can in fact be a pain in the ass because of the hoops that the homeowner has to go through to do things; however, it has been proven pretty conclusively, that over time, landmarked neighborhoods appreciate at a faster rate than non-landmarked neighborhoods. There are exception: BedStuy being one of them: landmarking plus relative poverty helped to preserve housing stock (at least on the outside!). Now that genrification, etc. is bringing up the value of the neighborhood, you’ll reap the benefits. Let me ask you: why did you buy a Brownstone in the neighborhood? Was it because it was in your old neighborhood (if I understood your post correctly), or because it was a brownstone? Would you have bought one of the Fedders crap buildings? Or a brownstone on a street where there were numerous Fedder’s crap building? On a side note, I’ve always found it interesting that relative wealth AND relative poverty can both add as preservatives to “character” in housing.
mopar, fyi, Citibank also has a Community Works type of program but there are income restrictions that HSBC does not have.
You’re welcome, mopar.
Thanks, Susan.
Hello Vinca: in response to your presumtuous and erroneous foolishness here is the exact quote from me:
“Thanks for the referral brooklyn_chicken. Acutally the house has been mine for all of 3 months and the area has been landmarked for longer than I’ve been alive. So it wasn’t a matter of skirting landmarks, it was a matter of not being informed.”
I never said I didn’t know the area was landmarked! What I WASN’T informed about was the restrictions that landmarking placed on your home and I definitely didn’t know that I couldn’t do something as (in my opinion) “minor” as replacing windows! So THAT is what I wasn’t informed of! I also didn’t know how much architects made for drawing some pictures and after I found this out due to my circumstances YES that certainly does make it clearer as to why folks either don’t get permits or don’t bother getting the work done…
Hope you still have enough time left to gain the wisdom to completely read through someone’s posts and think before judging them and jumping to conclusions 😉
B78: Yesterday you wrote that you didn’t know your neighborhood was landmarked. Today you’ve got a full-blown story of having spent most your life there, and a full-blown theory about what constitutes neighborhood pride, how landmarking turns neighborhoods homogenous, and why good people avoid bad permits. Do yourself a favor: print out a copy of your posts and store them away for 10 years. Hopefully, you’ll gain enough wisdom to enjoy a laugh and feel some humility at your scattershot foolishness.
Hello vinca,
“Landmarking was made for people like you” Exactly who are people like me? I’d be interested in knowing what I am from you since the only thing you know about be comes from two posts on this site. Please do enlighten me.
I am NOT (nor did I say I was) new to Bed-Stuy. What I said was that I am a new homeowner. So yes I have known most of my neighbors for nearly all of my life. I also know that many of the brownstones that have recently sold have had to be nearly gutted due to the poor condition. So if a resident can’t afford the price of basic upkeep then how can they be expected to front $3000 to pay an architect for drawings before they are even allowed to do maintenance? I’d be willing to bet that most people that go around the LPC do so because of exorbitant costs and not to break the law. (My theory alone of course).
Is gentrification a bad word to you? Many American communities have been created by by gentrification and its opposite. What’s the big deal about calling it what it is? Gentrification has many benefits (I am a strong proponent of cultural and economic diversity as opposed to segregated communities) yet it also has a downside.
Yes I do believe that the reason for the increased property value was a result of gentrification. The area has been landmarked for decades yet home values didn’t explode in this area until recently.
FYI…most of the younger (ie. 35 and under) residents do not have “contempt” for the “new” neighbors. But try asking one of the older Bed-Stuy residents on their thoughts of the “new” neighbors and THERE you will find the contempt!
It’s ironic that your contempt comment came out in a discussion about landmarking neighborhoods(aka forced homogeny). Do you really think that many of the older residents who support landmarking homes really draw the line at making only the homes look the same, and not the homeowners as well? (Rhetorical question of course) Maybe we should be careful at how we look at “neighborhood pride” and I for one don’t feel that it has to come from keeping everything (buildings, residents, etc.) the same.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion (I think!)
Thanks!
Bootsey78, if you’re too young to know much about landmarking, you’re surely too young to *know* the hard work of your neighbors, or what efforts have sustained and increased the value of the community you’ve moved to. You’re probably also too young to recognize the contempt you hold for many of your new neighbors, or the various ways you communicate it. Landmarking was made for people like you, and more power to it.
About rates, I haven’t found anything lower than HSBC Community Works program. And I asked everywhere (but I did not use a broker).
Stuy-Heights has been landmarked since the early seventies, and because of the community pride that organized that landmarking as well as other positive community efforts, that area has long been a stable middle-class area. I say landmarking and neighborhood pride are good for the community whether or not it effects the cost of your home immediately. Good things are worth the effort!