It's been an action packed final weekend for Magnetic Field [97 Atlantic Avenue] with many local faves playing their final shows at the venue including a surprise appearance by indie legends Yo La Tengo on Friday night. Who knows what hijinx await at tonight's farewell bash. Check out Jay Lajoie's photos of the weekend's debauchery. Photo: Magnetic Field's William and Lee yuck it up with photog Jay Lajoie original partner Stephen Freeman.

In the meantime we're kinda feeling like this: Continue Reading →

Retired Wall Street investor/Brooklyn Heights resident Ted Shen is spending his golden years as an angel investor in, of all things, musical theater. Bloomberg interviewed him at his Columbia Heights townhouse: Continue Reading →

The New York Times reports today on how real estate agents are having to go that extra mile to earn their 6% commission. Joan Goldberg, a Brooklyn Heights based broker at Brown Harris Stevens, is featured in the article. Goldberg's current nabe properties include 135 Joralemon and 30 Orange Street (where's she's pictured placing new garbage bins, below): 

New York Times: Brokers Facing Stiffer Competition: “People are often overwhelmed by the prospect of selling, and it’s my job to get them to see that their home will show better and sell for more if we can just take away some of the layers and layers of personal items and grime they’ve accumulated,” Ms. Goldberg said.

For the most part, she does the hiring and scheduling, and she said that she tries to get each client as fair and economical a deal as possible. Sometimes, she winds up paying for some work herself or simply doing it herself.

“I like to plant flower boxes, and I change them weekly and water them if the owner forgets to,” she said. “I often go to the flower district early in the mornings or out to the big nurseries on Long Island to get just the right thing to put in a pot on a brownstone stoop. But, then, I’m a bit of a perfectionist.”

Photo: New York Times

This week's Time Out New York features the parents of its writers speaking out on what they like to do in New York City.  Heights resident Jan Rust, mother of TONY's Katherine Rust says:

TONY: Parents Talk Back…: I love going to eat brunch at the Clark Street Diner in Brooklyn because I love Mark, the owner. It’s like visiting family when we go. Getting a cup of Sahadi’s coffee on Atlantic Ave early in the morning and walking to the promenade in Brooklyn Heights, sitting down on a bench and looking at the view of the tip of Manhattan.

Instaputz tells us that NBC's 30 Rock starring Tina Fey was filming this morning on Joralemon Street. Anyone get a photo?

bkyn_eurotrash writes: So, here's a bizarre dream I had:I was in an old flophouse, or small hotel or roominghouse of some kind. I knew that I was in Brooklyn Heights in the era of Truman Capote and Norman Mailer etc. etc.I arrived in the middle of a dark and stormy night. They had an arrangement where writers and artists could rent a room out for blocks of a few hours as a kind of "studio space." I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do with it, but it sounded like a great idea. My own little retreat. I paid $16 or something and got the space for a 2 or 3 hours.
But there was a psychopathic man upstairs on a mattress on the floor, and he forced me at knifepoint to compose flowery prose out loud for him. As I spoke I understood that my distressed ramblings were, in fact, the works of William Shakespeare, being composed as I said them. Once he demanded too much of me and I began to back away, so he dug the knife into my side, making a shallow cut near my right kidney or so, and I had to beg him not to plunge the knife in and disembowel me, please sir, thanks.

Brownstoner riffs on the newly listed 265 Hick Street today:

Brownstoner: 265 Hicks Street: Hicks and Joralemon is a great location, that's for sure, but this four-story house at 265 Hicks is definitely sub-par for the neighborhood. The victim of a stoop castration and a not-so-hot re-bricking of the facade, the building was also divided into eight units at some point. The listing doesn't provide any interior photos, suggesting that there ain't much to show (a likely scenario given the subdivision in to multiple units.) The good news? The property will be delivered vacant. The listing for the corner lot also promotes the fact that approvals are already in place for a curb cut. That's sure to endear the new owner to the neighbors!

The NY Daily News continues the drama that is the Riverside Apartments Courtyard Parking Lot Plan with comments from residents.  The bottom line – not many own cars as many BHB commenters mentioned earlier this week: Continue Reading →

Since everyone is commenting on individual stories regularly, we can use OTW for what we originally intended it to be: an open forum.  What would you like us to cover? Any issues you'd like the BHB Community to discuss? Comment away!

Flickr photo by amysahba