Archive | August, 2007

Post Some Bills


Flickr photo by …neene….

 

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Clinton Erection Deflated

Brooklyn Paper: City Blocks Clinton Street Tower: Brooklyn Heights preservationists hailed a decision by the Department of Buildings to block a developer from adding six stories onto an already nine-story building at the corner of Clinton and Montague street.

Buildings officials would not comment on why they rejected the proposed addition, which would create a 185-foot tower within the footprint of the city’s first historic district.

The district’s zoning restrictions don’t apply to the commercial block of Clinton Street, but preservationists objected because the resulting building would dwarf nearby historic structures such as the old Spencer Church building and the landmark headquarters of Brooklyn Historical Association on the corner of Clinton and Pierrepont streets.

“It would be much too tall for that corner and would cast dark shadows into the historic district and onto very important structures” said Judy Stanton, president of the Brooklyn Heights Association.

A spokesperson for the Department of Buildings said the developer, Clinton Realty Holdings LLC, was free to resubmit new plans. Neither the New Jersey-based corporation, nor the project architect Edgar Rawlings, returned calls from The Brooklyn Paper.

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Brooklyn Bridge a Bellwether?

According to this story in AOL News today, what happened on the Brooklyn Bridge 26 years ago may have prefigured the recent catastrophic bridge collapse in Minnesota.

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Watchtower Deal on Clark Street

Brownstoner reports today on the purchase of 6-10 Clark Street by Glory Capital. The deal closed in late April (as we noted back in May) and there are now many rental listings on the Awaye Realty website:

Brownstoner: Fund Buys Watchtower…: We’re hearing that real estate investment fund Glory Capital purchased a 43-unit apartment building in Brooklyn Heights from the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. No word on what the property, at 6-10 Clark Street, went for. It also remains to be seen whether Glory Capital—which also bought 67 Livingston from Watchtower in May—is looking to acquire any of the other Heights properties the religious group recently put on the market. Any rumor mill buzz about the other Jehovah's buildings that are up for sale?
Update: The Property Shark entry on 6-10 Clark shows that the Glory Capital deal closed in late April, and that the building went for $12.5 million.

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Nice Path

 

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Brooklyn Heights Green Thumb

At least now we know who to call to resurrect our window boxes:

The Street.com: Find Your Green Thumb…: New Yorker Erin Combs managed to get the latter without the former — and if you're an urbanite who wants to add some natural beauty to your concrete existence, you'd do well to follow her example.

Combs, 32, is the founder of Jardiniere, a three-year-old urban gardening company run from her Brooklyn Heights brownstone apartment.

Growing up in Farmington, Maine, or as she calls it, "the middle of nowhere," everything was potential garden space, and her parents started her digging in the dirt at an early age. "Mom and Dad were escaped Long Islanders," she says, "and I think they just ran out of gas in Farmington."

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Swingin’ Brooklyn Heights

Who says Brooklyn Heights is uptight?

Bartender needed for cocktail party:

Looking for handsome bartender for cocktail party in apartment on Sunday, September 23rd. Duties: serve wine and beer and occasionally pass hors d'oeurves. May require bartender to be shirtless with bow tie.Please send picture–experience–and hourly rate. Hours will be from 4-9PM.

Sadly, it appears our invitation was lost in the mail for this soiree (the post is dated 8/7):

Looking to hire 3 sexy, uninhibited young ladies to hire as Nude Cocktail Waitresses/Bartendresses. Event is this coming Saturday. You will serve drinks, mingle, chat and otherwise have a great time with a group of mixed gender party guests in my Brooklyn Home. Nothing sleazy, just good clean fun. Please be very attractive, with a great body and an attitude to match. If two or three friends want to do this together all the better. We have hosted parties like this in the past and a great time was had by all. Please tell me a little about yourself and send a photo if you have one.

 

Are key parties just around the corner?

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Gossip Girl Films in Nabe

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This photo, snapped by Flickr photog Urch, shows a film crew set up near Packer shooting the new CW series Gossip Girl.

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Flier Flap

The Brooklyn Eagle reports today on a very "First World Problem" facing residents of Brooklyn Heights and the rest of New York state — unwanted advertising fliers in your doorway.

Brooklyn Eagle: Fliers Legislation…: Most homeowners are quick to toss away those mounds of unsolicited fliers and advertisements that gather at their doorsteps. But homeowner Vlad Svetlov makes a point to the contrary. “I go through every single one,” he said.

A new state law signed by the governor this week could curb those slush piles. The Lawn Litter Law, introduced by Sen. Frank Padavan, R-Bellerose, and Assemblyman Mark S. Weprin, D-Little Neck, prohibits the distribution of unsolicited circulars, such as menus, to private property where signs rejecting them are posted. Distributors could face fines from $250 to $1,000 for each violation.

Svetlov, who is also the owner of Heights Car and Limo at 78 Henry St., is disgruntled by the news of the new legislation, which would hinder his taxi service from distributing advertisements to homes in the neighborhood. The law would be enforced once the Legislature reconvenes in September and considers an amendment that will allow the mayor to designate an enforcing agency.

And don't fear! The BHA is on the case:

The Brooklyn Heights Association has also been watching homeowners’ backs. “We have for years been calling for this and have been giving our members signs to put up on their properties,” said staff member Irene Janner. “We are all for this, 100 percent."

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Nabe Associations Gang Up on Walentas

New York Post: Dumbo Towers Foes Team Up: The DUMBO Neighborhood, Brooklyn Heights and Fulton Ferry Landing associations issued a joint statement in opposition of David and Jed Walentas' proposed $200 million, 400-apartment, middle-school and retail project that would run seven- to 17-stories high along Water, Dock and Front streets.

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Open Thread Wednesday 8/22/07

Cranberry House

Plenty to discuss this week –

North Heights food "scene"… en fuego? (Call it NoHe, Northe, NoBro…)

NYUber Alles

Boccelism cured in FloydNY summer league… will teams quit whinin'? 

Don't forget it's another edition of Dick Swizzle's Sudden Death Game Show tonight at Magnetic Field

Laundromat…. need a laundromat. 

And from around the interweb: Blue Pig now pink, stink at dog park and car thefts on Willow Street covered by the Brooklyn Eagle.

Comment away! 

BHB Photo Club pic by Josh Derr on Flickr

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Eagle – NoHe Food Scene is Hot

The Brooklyn Eagle reports that the North Heights food scene is booming (just like we did in March).  The paper focuses its piece mostly on the reinvented "Corner of Cranberry" ventures, notably the recently opened Oven.  It touches briefly upon the real drivers of this renaissance — Jack the Horse Tavern and Le Petit Marche as well as nabe mainstays Henry's End and Noodle Pudding (which is enjoying a bump thanks to a new chef).

Brooklyn Eagle: Henry Street Becomes a New Restaurant Row: The area has seen a proliferation of new food establishments recently starting with The Blue Pig ice cream parlor, which opened a year and a half ago.

Chris Fehlinger, owner and manager of Oven, which occupies one of three storefronts at 60 Henry St., says the area is “the most vibrant I’ve seen it in 10 years.” Based on his success, Fehlinger already wants to expand Oven before the five-year lease runs out.

Fehlinger credits the success of his restaurant, and the overall improvement of the area, to this end of Henry Street becoming something of “a destination” and the increase in the number of young couples. Two restaurants, Henry’s End and Noodle Pudding, have been successful there for several years, and they were joined in the past year by the French bistro, Le Petit Marché.

A person identified as "Alex" (no last name) from Uncommon Grounds sheds some light on the cafe's decision this week to renovate:

“Uncommon Grounds hasn’t found its identity, some kinks are being worked out,” he said. Uncommon Grounds, which gained popularity with nighttime music shows, is undergoing renovations and switching to an after-work wine bar.

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Fall Out, Boy

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Flickr Photo by imali03
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Stirred, Not Shaken

Despite the fact that some "regular" folks have been completely screwed by over extended banks pulling their mortgages at the last minute recently, the IHT reports that in the Hamptons, it's business as usual. Sure a broker or two may be crying in his Cristal over the bumpy market — one shrink tells the paper that "You lose half of what you've got in the bank and, to them, they've lost half their ego. The volatility in their mood tracks pretty evenly with the volatility in the market. There is a sense of things falling apart." And of course there's a local angle to all of this:

International Herald Tribune: Despite Market Turmoil, Wall Street Playground Still Flourishes: Janet Finkel, a Brooklyn Heights resident who owns V2K, a window treatment company, said she was selling her home in East Hampton for $1.7 million. The sale had been supposed to close in October, but Finkel said the buyers wanted to close this week because they were concerned that their financing might fall through if they waited.

"Banks have changed the criteria for lending," Finkel said while relaxing on the beach in Southampton. "This is the end of the easy-money boom."

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“Another Day on Willow Street” Proves Rewarding

Another Day on Willow Street, a play set in the Heights and written by Park Slope resident Frank Anthony Polito (read Mtierney's interview with "FranQ," as his friends call him, here), is now part of the New York Fringe Festival, and being staged at the Players Theater, 115 Macdougal Street, in Greenwich Village. There are three remaining performances: this Wednesday, August 22, at 3 P.M.; Thursday, August 23, at 10:45 P.M. (for you nighthawks); and the final on Saturday, August 25 at 4:30 P.M. It's an intense, fast-paced drama: ninety minutes with no intermission. For me, it was ninety minutes well spent. Continue Reading →

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