Flipping the Bird at Williamsburg Developers
Al Goldstein used to have a segment on Midnight Blue in which he would ceremoniously give the finger to a person or entity that had particularly raised his ire in the previous week. We couldn’t help recalling this last weekend as we strolled around South Williamsburg. Although we complain constantly about all the bureaucracy we…
Al Goldstein used to have a segment on Midnight Blue in which he would ceremoniously give the finger to a person or entity that had particularly raised his ire in the previous week. We couldn’t help recalling this last weekend as we strolled around South Williamsburg. Although we complain constantly about all the bureaucracy we are having to deal with to renovate and change the C of O on our own house, surveying the eyesores that developers have been putting up between Grand and Broadway on the South Side made us thankful that our brownstone is in a landmarked district and reminded us that there is a role for government regulation. We honestly don’t think we could design uglier buildings than these if we tried. We also wonder whether this crap that is getting built ultimately will be the neighborhood’s own undoing. Who wants to pay $700 to $900 a foot to live next door to one of these things? Not us–we’re off to Clinton Hill where prices are half that. As for the tasteless developers, we hope the market votes with its feet and refuses to inhabit these soulless spaces. If we had a television show instead of a blog, you can guess what kind of a gesture we’d be giving them.
MORE PHOTOS BELOW
Williamsburg Hall of Shame
Are you FREAKIN kidding me??? Original inhabitants of Williamsburg were NOT the hasidics, they were working class Irish, Italians, and Puerto Rican people who dominated the South Side/North Side scene way before the housing projects were put up and most definitely way before the Hasids came in. Not to be a bigot, but I have a BORN right to complain about my birth home being sold out from under my family and then us having to move around like gypsies trying to find a home that A)if owned by a Hasid, would allow us to move into-rare, you try it, they are exclusive and discriminating and it is allowed even under the non-discrimination acts put in place for housing, or B)that was affordable and livable. Williamsburg in the 60’s and 70’s was crime ridden and most buildings were abandoned drug dens. So while the hasids may have improved life there it is mostly for their own, and they got favorable consideration when it came to new housing being built, and even more so in public housing. I hold Williamsburg dear to my heart, my abuelo still lives in Taylor-Wythe, but I ask myself why after so many years was I placed in East New York housing while the hasids get preferential treatment and move into public housing in WillyB faster than you can say WillyB??? It isnt fair, and now with the hipsters, more of us long time dwellers here are being pushed out due to high risng rents and new ugly horribly wrong developments. Out of all you, my family has the longest history here, and we KNOW we can complain. The working class, as we know it yesterday and today, will no longer exist in Willy B for long. SHAME!!!
From the pictures posted here I would certainly say they are hideous developments. They are slapping up anything they can as fast as they can because there is great demand. As for the yuppies pouring into the area, well they have to have a home too and it will certainly attract more businesses. I think a lot of the negative comments posted here are from artisits who live an “alternative” lifestyle they don’t want disrupted. I can sympathize since there is hardly a neighborhood left in the city that artists haven’t been pushed out of. But, as one other poster said, you should be eyeing those yuppies as your potential customers not just as the people who are displacing you. Bed-Sty anyone?
I agree! Who are we to say a building is ugly just because it is new qand bigger than anything around it?
The funny thing is, with regards to the new building at 78 Ten Eyck, that the developers dig their own grave: they should show the building from the other direction so that everyone can see that they are across the street from the 12-story projects, which are, by far, the ugliest thing around (oh — but is that bad for sales?)
Have you considered the fact that there are eager buyers for all these new buildings you hate? Has it occured to you that you are only defending the neighborhood because your rents are about to go up, if they haven’t already? How can it be that the American Institute of Architects, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, and other such organizations have seen it fit to award architect Robert Scarano so many awards if the buildings are ugly? Are you saying that all the architects in the united states are so called “morons”? And who is buying these horrible, ugly developments? Morons? Well, they seem to have more money than you do!!! think about it!! Then get a life.
Have you considered the fact that there are eager buyers for all these new buildings you hate? Has it occured to you that you are only defending the neighborhood because your rents are about to go up, if they haven’t already? How can it be that the American Institute of Architects, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, and other such organizations have seen it fit to award architect Robert Scarano so many awards if the buildings are ugly? Are you saying that all the architects in the united states are so called “morons”? And who is buying these horrible, ugly developments? Morons? Well, they seem to have more moey than you do!!! think about it!! Then get a life.
I love Tower 78. what’s wrong with the developers group? I never dealt with them before. Any Williamsburg brokers you like?
Wow that’s funny every one I know hates Tower 78!!! At least those morons at Developers Group are not marketing it!!!
Tower 78 is the latest Williamsburg development that’s generating tons of interest. Everyone I know is talking about it. I love the architecture–the materials, the windows, the design… A nice feast for the eyes. Sure beats all the siding. Are there any new Williamsburg developments that you like?
Are there any recommendations here as to what architects are out there that have great style and can build multi-family new construction condos???