House of the Day: 1232 Dean Street
This four-story house at 1232 Dean Street in Crown Heights just hit the market and, like so many houses in the area, has some killer architectural details. (In this case, it’s the wood paneling and built-ins that really impress.) Hopefully for the seller, this place will attract more interest than the next-door neighbor at 1230…
This four-story house at 1232 Dean Street in Crown Heights just hit the market and, like so many houses in the area, has some killer architectural details. (In this case, it’s the wood paneling and built-ins that really impress.) Hopefully for the seller, this place will attract more interest than the next-door neighbor at 1230 Dean Street, which we featured a year ago and is still on the market for $1,250,000. While we suspect there will be plenty of people who dig the house, we suspect that the price tag of $999,000 for a house in this neighborhood may be a tough sell in this economic environment.
1232 Dean Street [Halstead] GMAP P*Shark
NOP, the way the MTA is run is a discussion all its own, which would run well past a couple hundred comments.
There really is no good time to be unemployed, or to start a new business. Harder times just mean more ingenious ways of getting it done. I’m embracing that this coming year, and WILL be successful. I know bxgrl and cobblehiller will as well.
Biff, it wouldn’t be the same without you! I can only imagine life on the Death Star is ulcer giving.
Montrose Morris, PBA
Brownstoner:
Well, the What’s late post yesterday really opened a new vein of conversation here. Clicked in and discovered the number of comments more than doubled!
There’s a somber tone to the thread, too. Brownstone Brooklyn, like the rest of the country (and globe) is facing a very changed economic landscape. (Regrets about your job, BxGrl. I hope things turn your way soon.)
Perhaps some of the energy expended here should be exerted on the President-Elect. Notice how his jobs program is about roads, not mass transit? His reference is Eisenhower’s federal highway building program, which helped nearly kill Brooklyn when I was growing up in Crown Heights in the 1950’s!
Poor New York. Every year we send more than $15 billion in taxes to the Feds than we get back (it goes to all those “Red” states that scream about our “welfare queens”), and it looks like we’re still not getting any respect! (At least FDR’s public works built urban housing, schools and parks together with backwoods dams and electrical systems –again with New York and other industrial states’ money.)
So, argue with the What, but e-mail the White House and Congress, too.
(My thoughts turned to mass transit because I recently, after several years, took the subway, the “Sixth Avenue” line between 34th and 4th Streets. This was part of the “Independent” subway system, the city’s newest line, built during the 1930’s as a public, not private venture, unlike all the prior lines. My grade-school civic books bleated proudly about the “I-N-D,” with its spacious rolling stock and stations with gleaming white tiles, and their photographs swelled our little kids’ hearts with pride. And what did I find now? The grimmest, shabbiest public environment imagineable, from leaking walls to gum-smeared floors. During this recent bubble of ours, it seems we’ve abandoned the public sphere. Now with that the bubble’s burst, maybe it’s time to get back to basics.)
Nostalgic on Park Avenue
bxgrl, I know it sounds cliche, but most people I’ve known over the last few years to lose their jobs ended up so much happier than they were. It’s definitely not an easy time now to find something, but you will eventually end up like those other friends of mine too. You’re too smart and creative not to.
MM, things got crazy, or rather even crazier, for me at the Death Star this month (why did I choose to go into financial services again?) and I just didn’t have the energy or time to organize a gathering. I’ll be away for the second half of the month, so I can’t organize another soiree until 2009 (doesn’t mean others can’t get together before that).
cobblehiller, thanks. I hope Mario and his wife are ok. I’ll have to try late afternoon (will call first to be sure). I hear Lucali’s is excellent and super-busy, like you said. Maybe the cold weather will discourage the crowds. I’m going to try to get there too. I also want to try Le Petit Cafe in Carroll Gardens. Didn’t mean to turn this into a restaurant discussion, but your mentioning local businesses had me thinking of well regarded restaurants in your ‘hood.
Hmm, not sure why they were closed? Mario’s wife hasn’t been too well recently, and Mario is pretty elderly himself at this point. I know they are closed on Mondays, but beyond that I’d say try calling again – late afternoon.
I haven’t tried Lucali either, supposed to be good but we never think of it when it’s not a Fri./Sat. night and super busy. (Hate crowds).
MM & Bxgrl: This just in…http://catrecipes.com/
Cobblehiller, some people just like to hear the sound of their own voices. He sounds like an arrogant idiot, and I’m sure there are plenty of people around you who would agree.
I hope we all get together sometime in this holiday season. You are all great people.
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year.”
Montrose Morris, PBA
cobblehiller- er…I’m not sure. haven’t tried it yet but it seems MM has (otherwise how would she know it’s tough and gristley. I ask you?) I was thinking that a few of mine, based on personality, would taste like ham 🙂
You did, biff- I’m pleased to hear you actually don’t own the Andy Williams boxed set- I had just recovered my respect for you after the TOTO thread :-).
I think in a way I’m relieved about leaving this particular job- my boss and his wife were great, I had all the creativity I wanted in designing the programs and presentations, but working with first responders and doing the whole PTSD thing is really emotionally a beat down. I only wish I had their fortitude- I can do something else, those guys will just soldier through, no matter how hard it gets.
I’m scared- very much so. But I still have this feeling that , like Biff says, change can bring good things too. Maybe I’m nuts, but I really believe we needed to change. The financial collapse just showed us how much. I hope it’ll will be for the better- people seem to be energized in ways I never thought would be possible in this country anymore. I’m thinking christmas is the new thanksgiving 🙂
cobblehiller, slightly off-topic, but not too much. After Sam’s in Cobble Hill was featured as the ROTD, I went there on the weekend to try it, but it was closed. I couldn’t get through on the phone to find out the hours. Is it just open in the evenings? I haven’t tried Lucali’s either yet…
MM, thank you for spelling out some of the key points. I agree with you.
“To be a gentrifier in my neighborhood should mean more than just getting some great real estate for less than in Park Slope.”
Central concept, but with all the ‘trading up’ for that Crown Heights Townhouse…it’s a real dilemma. And truly, not just in CrH, but in CoH too. I have a super wealthy neighbor who doesn’t even shop in the neighborhood! I almost told him to go back to Manhattan once…it was pretty irritating to hear him crap on CoH because there was a particular type of store in a 3 block radius.
Bx – doesn’t cat taste just like chicken?
“he probably isn’t even reading this thread anymore anyway so if you want to retract its easy enough.”
wasder, we all know, for better or for worse, that once one hits the dreaded “Post” button, there is NO turning back. Our rapprochement (great word you threw out there!) has been forever recorded on this blog.
“I dunno, cobblehiller- I’d have a tough time forgiving someone who actually owns a boxed set of Andy Williams.”
Did I really just welcome you back, bxgrl? 🙂 Ok, ok, I don’t really own any Andy Williams DVDs (or CDs or albums…remember those?)….not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’m so sorry too about the job situation. I think most people, job or no job, are bracing for a long recovery and being creative about the holiday season. At least there is a positive to be gained; we all have a chance to take stock of what we are most thankful for, our friends and families who can support us and whom we can support during very tough times like this.