Illegal Paint Job on Landmarked Block of Clinton Hill
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….
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.
Update 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
Yeah, Mr B…I was wondering about that…
For the record, the person who is commenting as “stoner” on this thread is not Brownstoner…whoever you are, we’d appreciate it if you’d use a different moniker to avoid confusion.
I have just had the same experience as this guy, except thankfully Brownstoner didn’t get to my building with the anti-primer rant.
Basically, we just replaced our windows with new ones, which come preprimed, and we haven’t painted them yet because the facade is still being restored. Well, apparently, LPC has gotten more calls and emails about our windows than about anything else in the entire borough. The first weekend, the LPC guy assigned to our building sent me an email to the effect of: “Wow does your neighborhood have a bunch of ignorant busy bodies. It’s always the ones who haven’t heard of primer who are the quickest to complain.”
Made me laugh my ass off to see this. Shame on you, Mr. Busybody Extraordinaire. Get back to what you do best — real estate, architecture and renovation — and leave preservation to people who know something, ANYTHING, about it.
AND 4:18: You fool. We happen to be “all the new Manhattan transplants and rejects from God knows where” but instead of bringing our elitism, instead we are faced with Brooklyn’s “elitist attitudes and snobby aspirations” — a bunch of old-timer neighbors with way too much time and snobbery on their hands.
Ironic, huh.
I0bot, Welcome to Brownstoner! No, Bush doesn’t own a brownstone in Brooklyn…that was just the sacarsm from 6:59.. We don’t bite…At least most of us don’t.. 😉
No, not so much. In fact I am opposed to almost all of this historic preservation nonsense. I am a libertarian with anarchist leanings and I firmly believe that if you do not like what someone is doing with their private property then you are more than welcome to buy that property and not do that thing with it that bothers you. Maybe it stems from being a transplant whose home city has been shackled by a overzealous LPC type group (The Vieux Carre Commision in New Orleans). The Atlantic Yards Project is a different issue (that is the only Ratner project that I am familiar with, also I’m sorry but I don’t know who Scarano is and I don’t get the Bush connection, does the president own a brownstone in Brooklyn?) Your last sentence seems to imply some sort of attack on the idea of this blog; nothing could be further from the truth. While this is my first visit to your blog (I came here from a link on Gothamist), I do love the format and topic. I think it is shamefull however, that so many posters are willing to subject their neighbors to government intervention (and perhaps lawsuits and penalties) over something so inconsequential as a temporarily unfinished paint job. Especially when that hue and cry is based upon such slipshod research.
You only further prove my points by your response. Thank you.
Yes, a blog is a personal journal open to the public. This is JB’s blog so of course he is going to focus on the issues that affect him. As for the companies that choose to buy ad space, they do so mostly based on the demographic of the visitor, not on the content (as long as it isn’t too offensive).
The Daily News is a NEWSpaper, and barely one at that. They never take more that a middle of the road stance on anything (unless siding with the public) as not to alienate the consumer or its sponsers. That is why blogs are important in this day and age.
I’m also not sure what gives you the right to declare what is “Brooklyn”. Maybe you should move back to Hicksville and start the “LIRANCHER”.
here’s a question for you then, 6:32…
would you be vilifying those that support the landmarked district so much if this building were owned by ratner? or scarano? or bush? or whoever else…?
probably not. you are only pissed because it turned out to be an 82 year old man. in that case, your arguement is quite flimsy.
if you don’t want to talk about injuring, harming or also, as you say “does not affect them in ANY way whatsoever” we aren’t going to have a blog about brownstones, much less any other website for that matter.
There is no “moral dilemna” here, my issue is with the eagerness of some to report neighbors to the gestapo for something that not only does not “harm or injure” but that also does not affect them in any way whatsoever. Do we really want to live in a society where it is acceptable to run crying to the police, LPC, TSA, INS, what have you, with such flimsy reasoning as “something really destructive could have been about to happen.”? Something really destructive could have been about to happen anywhere at anytime. Even a policeman needs to have a reasonable articulable suspision before investigating; your suspision, while obviously articulable, was in no way reasonable. There is nothing “destructive” about painting sandstone, while we probably agree that unpainted stone is prettier, the lack of materials knowledge on a blog devoted to owning and maintaining buildings is laughable. 200,000,000 year old sedimentary rock does not need to “breathe” as suggested by an earlier poster (perhaps they were thinking of the long curing time for concrete.)
“If you disagree so mightily with the concept of protecting historic buildings, WTF are you doing here?” As I mentioned before…not disagreeing with the preservation itself. Anyway, I read this blog because of my unhealthy obsession with historic brownstones and NEIGHBORHOODS and LIFESTYLE they define. That lifestyle, to me, is about community. And funny you should mention it, but I AM starting my own blog. There will be lots on home restoration and nothing about Fedders or neighbor bashing. Ya damn bridge and tunnel crowd! 😉