Open House Picks

well done 4:53. I almost find it hard to believe that this is the same person that bragged about how he is a high powered midtown lawyer and ended particularly taunting sentences with, “ha” on earlier posts. Oops. I guess that was snarky.

I still think you are selling your neighborhood short. There are plenty of roads in New York City that have as much truck traffic as Van Brundt and still manage to offer a smooth modern day road experience. If Van Brundt has always had pot holes it is because it has not been maintained properly or the road was never built properly in the first place. If the city after spending how many millions of dollars on the reconstruction of Columbia Street cannot build a road that can handle the truck traffic then the city needs to be called to task because is it certainly is capable of building such a road and I don’t think the people who live in this neighborhood (that I love) have to put up with that. Funny, that your attitude is to say that this is just the way it is, because you don’t seem like the type to just roll over.

Vinnie Barbarino. Yes, walk to the F is ten minutes but you can hop in a car/taxi and be in manhattan via the battery tunnel or brooklyn bridge in five minutes, which is a real convenient for anyone who works downtown.

I don’t know, Lurker, I hate them all equally myself. Oh wait, is that part of the problem…?

Okay, look. It’s all way overpriced. You can’t consistently expect 50% appreciations on your property every year, and you can’t tell me that the fact that houses in all neighborhoods of Brooklyn, regardless of how awful, decrepit and inconvenient they may be are now worth at least $700,000. The article in the Times yesterday about middle-class couples scrimping and saving to buy things they really couldn’t afford spoke volumes. Is anyone listening? Perhaps not yet in Brooklyn, but they will.

Now after saying that, I am trying to think of something helpful to add… eh, Carroll Street house is the best deal. Smaller and crappier houses in Williamsburg are going for more than that. At the end of the day, proximity to Manhattan still matters and when the crash does come, anything an hour away by subway isn’t going to be worth it.

4:13pm,

Let’s pause the mutual animosity for the moment (ridiculous idea on Brownstoner, I know…), and focus just on the substance of arguments here.

Suffice it to say that, if you remain anywhere near the area long enough, you will note the following:

– No matter how many times Van Brunt is repaved, the ruts and holes will appear almost immediately, as it is a primary conduit for large trucks and takes more wear and tear than nearly any other street in the neighborhood. This is merely a fact observed over time, and as stated in 4:19pm yesterday, merely comes with the territory.

– No matter how many new initiatives over the decades have come up to change the waterfront or the BQE trench or whatever, there will always be huge opposition of the political machine and well-funded industrial interests, the end product will be but a mere shadow of the original idea (after huge carve-outs and questionable/sleazy “budget over-runs” (witness current Columbia Street promises unfulfilled) an election coming (for there always is..), and some other project (like just salvaging Brooklyn Bridge Park plan) that suddenly takes priority.

As I said before, the pendulum swung almost all the way to the changes you were looking for in recent years (and many considered ASI and others to be on their last legs), but the last year in particular and especially recent months of above-stated events have clearly indicated that the pendulum is now swinging back the other way, ASI’s (and others’) bare-nails grip and aggressive political funding and influence has helped it back from the brink and actually into greater strength for it’s part in having killed the Imlay projects, influenced strict re-affirmation of mostly industrial zoning in the larger area, and with their man Yassky out there with more than enough support now to pass a resolution to force a new ASI long-term lease, despite whatever Port Authority thinks its options are.

Lets go back to this issue being superceded by other, larger priorities. Port Authority needs local officials, industrial and political machines to curry support for other, far larger city-wide projects.

Again, if you live here long enough, you will just see that Port Authority is just posturing here with those statements, so they will have this card to play (and cede) in negotiations for support on other larger projects.

If you live here long enough, you will see all this play out over and over, on different issues, with similar results: the machines in play retreat to other priorities, and just use these things to curry favor or avoid resistance elsewhere.

Case and point: Bloomberg’s supposed recent crackdown on Ratner’s huge windfall abuse of 421-a carve-out resulted in Ratner losing nothing, and carve-out preserved. Ratner maneuvered the discussion to give the city that money back by cheating new owners of longer (initially intended) tax breaks, and city accepted that, opting not to wage further battles there.

Heck, even the West Side Rail Yards Jets stadium project was railroaded, spearheaded by the Dolans who had everything to lose with their MSG venue nearby.

Live around here long enough, and you will see that events behind the scenes dictate everything.

And I just don’t see this waterfront conversion as something on which anyone will ever venture to stake their career, relative to other battles.

So all I am adding here is the perspective of time, having seen all this play out endlessly before.

Animosity here apparently made for some amusing diversion for both sides here, but at the base of the conversation, regarding the actual issues, all that is being said here is that the window for what you propose seems to have passed for the near term, tide of gentrification in favor or no, merely due to the larger issues present behind the scenes.

This thread is sickeningly snarky. I doubt you all speak with this bravado in real life.

where’s brooklyn?