373GrandAvePaint.jpg
We just got a tip that someone just started painting one of the brownstones on Grand Avenue between Gates and Putnam white this morning. (Yes, a certain blogger does live on this block.) Something tells us the Landmarks Preservation Commission didn’t sign off on this. If any readers are nearby, we’d appreciate a photo asap. If anyone from LPC is reading, please get on the stick! Update 7/27: Here’s the photo from about 11:20 this morning. The address is 373 Grand Avenue. LPC confirms that there are no permits out on this.

dailynews373grand.jpgUpdate 7/29: As the Daily News article reports, it turns out that—luckily—the owner was only repainting the area around the door. While we understand that some people feel it was an overreaction on our part to post about this before all the facts were known, here’s why we think it was warranted: First of all, had the painters been intending to paint the entire facade, every second counted when we got the tip (we were in fact in Dumbo, and not just across the street, when the tip came in, so popping over for a friendly chat was not an option); secondly, we were on the phone with LPC within five minutes of getting the tip, and LPC told us that (1) the owner had no permit for the painting and (2) that he had racked up, and failed to cure, several other landmark violations over the years. All these factors led us to conclude that, on balance, it was not worth taking the risk that something really destructive might happen. You know, better safe than sorry. With 20/20 hindsight, this was clearly the wrong call. Apologies to the owner—our obsession with historic brownstones may have gotten the better of us on this one.
Bottom photo by Rosier for the Daily News


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  1. first of all…patrice…will you adopt me?

    seriously though, i enjoy reading your posts. very eloquent.

    secondly, unless you all plan to each hand over a gift basket that includes a rolex, range rover and first born son to ratner in 10 years when that project is completed and potentially a success, i suggest you shut your traps.

    your gift basket idea is about as smart as britney shaving her head.

    he’s a grumpy old man. if you REALLY wanna get him something, how bout one of those lovely ladies i’ve seen hangin out down near hotel le bleu.

  2. My2cents…you are a poster after my own heart….

    And will they post a photo of him and maybe ‘stoner’, too, delivering the gift basket? Oh sweet joy, such a moment, now that would be justice!

  3. Brownstoner owes nobody an apology. He was absolutely right to raise the alarm about somebody who to all appearances was f—–g up a great block by stupidly painting a house that can’t legally be painted *any* color. It’s just a happy turn of events that the place was already painted, and that the guy was priming it to freshen the place up with an appropriate color. Anybody who can’t grasp that must be posting here more than they’re reading. All in all, it turned out nicely.

    That said, it does merit a follow-up picture.

  4. 1:48PM…Perhaps he’s drafting a big apology that he’s going to post on tomorrow’s site… And, he should top it off with some sort of “gift basket” to the 82 year old neighbor..

  5. Remember the old man is a millionaire after all. And many of you irate posters here might ask yourselves one simple question; what have I done to make my community a better place to live? 1:25pm

    Regardless if he’s a millionaire already or not, has nothing to do with knowing your facts before you start assuming…especially b/c the one that started the post lives on the block… You know the old saying “When you assume, you make an ass out of you and me..”:-)

    No pitchforks and etc…just common courtesy. Not everyting is measured by who’s a millionaire or who’s not, is completely irrelevant…Just plain ole fashioned “COMMON NEIGHBORLY COURTESY”

  6. Checking in again, I can see that there are a myriad of posters who have simply missed the point altogether. They continue to act like this single posting on a website specific to brownstone sales and renovations is the front page of the NYTimes. lol. They have wasted no time in taking the simple alert that a landmarked brownstone was in the process of being altered, and turned the posting into a referendum on class struggle in NYC and an indictment of all those who dare to take pride in ownership. They waste no time in namecalling and vitriol against people who take an active interest in what’s going on in their neighborhoods. Even that marginally readable Michael Daly at the daily news has used this simple posting as the predictable springboard for a one sided story about how the evil brownstone preservationists are persecuting an old guy who lives in a brownstone. Give us a break. Perhaps it was a breathable paint material and primer as I posted two days ago, even still we have all seen how unscrupulous contractors will ignore law and chop down two hundred year old trees just to get a dumpster in and act with a total disregard for the community and history of a place. All I saw was a concerned post on Brownstoner about the possibility of damage to a landmarked property, I didn’t see a crowd gathering with pitchforks and clubs. Stop the hyperbole folks and realize once again that preservationists, community activists and those who are simply intersted in maintaining a good quality of life are not the enemy here. If people were a little more civic minded years ago we wouldn’t be dealing with things like a giant oil/kerosene and toxin filled blob beneath the streets of Greenpoint, or we would still have the now destroyed architectural gem once known as Pennsylvania station, we might even have saved the Bronx from the decades long decline that followed the ill-conceived highway that Robert Moses ramed through the heart of that great borough.
    A good reporter might have placed the website posting in context to the community and not sought to make it another one of those old timers being pushed out sort of stories. Remember the old man is a millionaire after all. And many of you irate posters here might ask yourselves one simple question; what have I done to make my community a better place to live?

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