New Jersey Couple Opts for McCarren Views
While Williamsburg has been indelibly branded with the hipster label for the last decade or so, luckily the marketing campaigns of developers in the area have cast a much wider demographic net. To wit: When Steven Leeds and Rachel Hott, empty nesters from Montclair, started looking for a place to move in the big city,…
While Williamsburg has been indelibly branded with the hipster label for the last decade or so, luckily the marketing campaigns of developers in the area have cast a much wider demographic net. To wit: When Steven Leeds and Rachel Hott, empty nesters from Montclair, started looking for a place to move in the big city, they fell in love with a three-bedroom pad at The Aurora overlooking McCarren Park. (The 1,400-square-foot apartment was originally listed for $1,200,000, but the fifty-somethings snagged it for $999,000.) Before signing the contract, however, the couple insisted on timing the walk from the new development to the L train station. Luckily for them (and the developer), it clocked in at a commuter-friendly six minutes. They moved in last month, and can’t get enough of their new neighborhood, especially McCarren Park. I have never seen so much activity, Dr. Hott said. There is break dancing and tai chi and soccer. In case they need any tips, The Times also has a close-up this weekend on the neighborhood to the north: Greenpoint.
The Hunt: The Six-Minute Test [NY Times]
Living In: Greenpoint, Brooklyn [NY Times]
There’s only one thing that infuriates me about this article, these people, and their real estate broker.
How on earth can anyone drop a million dollars on a condo and not know where the closest L-train stop is? How can anyone sell a million-dollar condo and not know where the closest subway is?
This apartment is closer to Lorimer than Bedford — by a lot. Like, it’s half the distance.
Other than that, no surprises, I wouldn’t expect anything on MaCarren to hold its value long-term, but I’m still in shock that it all got built in the first place so maybe not the best judge.
DH, I probably know Williamsburg a whole lot more than you think. At least 15 of my friends own businesses or workshops in the area, including outskirts. I know it sucks when people bitch about your area (it used to be my area, sadly — filmore place for 5 years, among a couple other addresses!!!!!) but doesnt’ it boil your blood to see what’s happened to it? How long have you lived there?
I meant, “I can’t speak for.”
I meant, “I can’t speak for.”
“Williamsburg = Bleecker street”
I’ll give you Bedford Ave = Bleecker St, maybe.
Until you’ve explored every corner of the 2nd largest neighborhood in Brooklyn – please refrain from gross overgeneralizations.
I don’t understand why people insist on hating neighborhoods for what they aren’t, rather then appreciating them for what they are.
And if you can’t appreciate anything in Williamsburg, then you are close minded and ignorant.
Benson, the plumber lives in a mansion on the gold coast of long island and isn’t hunting for anything except maybe a new SUV.
The uniformed civil servant, I speak for.
I’ve been noticing the same DH…in Williamsburg and elsewhere around the city. I think it seems to me that fewer people are going out of town on weekends, and staying closer by and taking advantage of what the city has to offer.
Williamsburg = Bleecker street. I don’t know who ripped its soul out so quickly and violently but there’s nothing left of the scrappy entrepreneurship that gentrified it originally. It feels like a worn out, wasted, burned out frat house now, and it’s sickening to see that kind of change in such a short time. If I lived there today, I would probably try to look on the bright side too, and would probably cling to the few crumbs that still resemble the empty, ethereal beauty and smart, hardy citizenry of this once idyllic setting (woah that sentence only half makes sense, but you know what I mean). But let’s not kid ourselves. What happened to this area is deplorable, and its wholesale commodification on the cheapest, dirtiest level possible should be seen as a cautionary tale. Meatpacking district it isn’t and never will be; nothing of its originally beauty was protected, and no standards were set for the new development that was vomited (to paraphrase another commenter) onto it in the last 5 years alone.
Having said all that, it’s probably a huge improvement over suburban new jersey!
nobody did anything wrong, it’s a free country. Mr. B, I agree.
Anyway the NYT has been full of profiles of people moving back from the burbs, usually to manhattan.