Co-op of the Day: 154 Bergen Street, #2
We’re not sure it’s quite worth $850,000, but this floor-through apartment at 154 Bergen Street in Boerum Hill sure is nice looking. It helps that the two-bedroom co-op is located in a 25-foot-wide house. It’s also one of those pretty rare examples of where an owner has managed to managed to create a clean, modern…
We’re not sure it’s quite worth $850,000, but this floor-through apartment at 154 Bergen Street in Boerum Hill sure is nice looking. It helps that the two-bedroom co-op is located in a 25-foot-wide house. It’s also one of those pretty rare examples of where an owner has managed to managed to create a clean, modern vibe without sacrificing the essence of an old townhouse. What do you think it’ll end up going for?
154 Bergen Street, #2 [Douglas Elliman] GMAP P*Shark
Went to see this apartment today (third Sunday in a row Ms Naini has held an open house). They had a LOT of walk throughs…and the previous week they had people waiting outside because it was so crowded (per a friendly neighbor I have known for years). To address a couple posts:
typical cramped, downtown-Tokyo style “unit” that passes for luxury housing in this burg.
This building should not have been chopped up into floor-through apartments. Its such a nasty way to create housing units.
Posted by: Minard Lafever at February 18, 2010 12:44 PM
Not cramped at all. Having been to Tokyo, not even close. There is nothing about this place that feels chopped up (its 25 feet wide) or nasty (its nicely done).
…first glance nice looking, but second glance, clearly a cheapo or old reno…
so way too expensive
Posted by: sender9999 at February 18, 2010 12:59 PM
What an odd comment. Neither cheapo or old reno. Way off.
In doing a quick search of Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Park Slope and Boreum Hill, there are about 50 other apartments as nice (or nicer than this) and priced lower.
I don’t know what this will sell for, but based on what I’m seeing, it should start with a 6 and not an 8.
Posted by: 11217 at February 18, 2010 1:08 PM
It must have been a quick search. I bet I’ve been in 1/4 to 1/3 of the apartments you think are as nice – presumably the only criteria being price.
All I can say is you won’t be missed.
11217 was such a typical poster. Renting out a studio, bitter he’ll never be able to buy, no interest in connecting with anyone on Brownstoner IRL. Just come on here everyday, bitch about prices, whine about the rich, moan that the market will keep dropping – but without any intention or wherewithal to actually enter into a transaction.
Its very well done. I can see going for 875K. I don’t think it too aggressively priced. Ms Naini sold an apt of ours years ago and got very very close to asking.
This is only anecdotal, but in total I’ve paid for 23 years of private school tuition for my kids, one of whom is in public high school now. We are very happy with the puplic high school and there are some great options. Only problem is you really have to work the system to get into a good public high school.
As for the Bergen St. property, it’s a nice looking apartment, but I don’t know why anyone with a family would think about paying $850K for a floor through coop. The rental income on a brownstone garden apartment can cover about $400K of mortgage. If you can get a 2-family brownstone for $1.25 million (like today’s listed sale on President St.) the cost to you will be the same but you’ll have a much bigger apartment for yourself.
Ringo, I dislike some teachers’ rigid adherence to “level” books just as much as you do and had similar issues with it. Fortunately, not all teachers are like that. However, my point was that the curriculum certainly was about as far from “test prep” as you can imagine. You wrote that kids were tested all the time, but in fact, in public schools there’s no objective reading test until the standardized tests in 3rd grade. Instead, teachers meet with the child once every few months to evaluate their reading via some subjective oral discussion. Except for the occasional math quiz, kids never take written tests. I know many parents like yourself who repeat the “all test prep all the time” in schools, but while there may be many things about the curriculum to criticize, that just isn’t the case.
I also wish the schools taught cursive. They make some lame attempt in 3rd and 4th grade, but I agree it’s a problem. Do all privates do a better job? On the other hand, my kids’ public school has art, science (real hands on lab work), chess, ballroom dancing, Shakespeare, instrumental music instruction, and drama as part of the regular school day curriculum. I’m not sure which one I’d give up to have time for a foreign language (and many privates start that in middle school, also, just like the good public middle schools).
The public schools can’t compete with privates in terms of class sizes, and they do offer some other advantages. But our public is filled with very smart kids, and the few who apply to private for middle school are accepted and do extremely well there. I know it’s a small sample size, but my point is that a smart kid isn’t disadvantaged because he didn’t get the same extra special education that the kids who were at the privates since K received. Although I do think private school in elementary is more likely to make a difference for an “average” kid who gets alot of attention and may really improve academically as a result. That’s something less likely to happen in a public school.
While I don’t think it’s important to write cursive per se — actually I do — BUT if you can’t read cursive you’re in trouble.
(And I never buy into anecdata about what a person was taught and used. Just because you don’t write in cursive doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be taught. I learned a second language in school and I dont use it. And so.. a second language is a waste of time? I don’t think so.)
The books you talk about are on a level. A kid can choose books within a level or range of levels. Sometimes they’re numbered. Sometimes they’re color-coded. But my kid can go to school reading working at a grade level above, and you are not encouraged to do that. My child was actually told they couldn’t read certain books bcs they were too hard. For a year! Oy. And this was in a “good” school.
Also, you’re talking about very early grades. I’m not ignorant about these issues. I wish I were.
Note to self: private/public debate touches many nerves, proceed with caution.
Thanks CGfan (and others), very interesting and insightful points.
FWIW, I was a public school kid (and later a state school university grad), and it was a great experience for me. We had extended family affiliated with Friends for decades, and have friends with children enrolled there now. My oldest (now 11) was a Montessori method kid. So I have a positive bias for both schools, but it doesn’t stem from any dislike of the p.s. option.
154 Bergen is beyond our reach because of that choice. If we went the p.s. route we might find a way to pull it off (30 yr instead of 15 yr, 12% – not 20% – down, jumbo in lieu of conventional, 36% vs. 28%). But being house poor is simply not our priority. So we’ll keep searching for something around 3/5ths of this range.
Hey, the kids who went to privates in Philly were just as messed up. At least this was true back in the stone age when I was a lass. I don’t think education is worth paying for when there’s so many free alternatives that don’t involve cowering in a bunker with the other rich kids.
It’s the kids who go to private school IN NEW YORK who are messed up. But I don’t think it’s the schools. It’s the milieu.
Ringo, I’m sorry but you can’t just say things like “the entire curriculum is geared to the tests” — It just demonstrates that you don’t know anything about the public school curriculum. First of all, the reading and writing is all about Columbia Teachers’ College, which means kids choose their own books and spend alot of time reading to themselves. What kids in public school NEVER do under that system is actually read a passage and answer multiple choice questions about them, except for a very brief time during test prep. I actually find it refreshing that finally in 3rd grade my kid got to learn that skill, which is something I learned back in 1st grade more than 30 years ago when the reading curriculum from first grade through 5th was all about workbooks. So the fact that for 3 weeks, kids spend an hour or 2 each day doesn’t horrify me the way it does you, especially since it adds up to about 1% of the school year and actually teaches a very useful skill. Even private school kids take standardized tests, by the way. They may not “prep” the students for the tests, but I can tell you that no school passes out a multiple choice test to 3rd graders without explaining to them the process of filling in bubbles and answering multiple choice questions — they just don’t call it “test prep”.
But look, it’s become fashionable to complain about “test prep” by parents who have no idea what that means. The public school curriculum is far from perfect, but even the smart kids are learning new things. If you read your original post, you’d think that they all languished in public elementary schools doing nothing but “test prep” (whatever you think that is) all day long and learning nothing. It’s just silly.