(for those for whom the Parkside Q is their hometrain)
News and Nonsense from the Brooklyn neighborhood of Lefferts and environs, or more specifically a neighborhood once known as Melrose Park. Sometimes called Lefferts Gardens. Or Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. Or PLG. Or North Flatbush. Or Caledonia (west of Ocean). Or West Pigtown. Across From Park Slope. Under Crown Heights. Near Drummer's Grove. The Side of the Park With the McDonalds. Jackie Robinson Town. Home of Lefferts Manor. West Wingate. Near Kings County Hospital. Or if you're coming from the airport in taxi, maybe just Flatbush is best.
“We’re going to have the food that you easily find in Mexico on the streets or when you go to the market,” said Castellanos. “It’s real food — like Grandma’s recipes.”
Menu items at the new business include tamales, tortas, guaraches, and atoles, a warm Mexican beverage made from corn dough. The team hopes to open their doors this weekend at 50 Lincoln Rd., the former site of Nagle’s Bagels.
Brenda Capplanos and Ana Price (pic, apropos, by Ben Verde)
Across from their other excellent joints Ix and El Patron. Yum.
As many of we onlookers predicted, the Bedford Armory Project has become a reality after the tweaks necessary for all elected officials to feel satisfied they'd fought the good fight. The Q doesn't mean this cynically (well, maybe a bit.) The process played out like these things do in NYC. A bold plan is announced (nearly 5 years ago). Various factions protest and maneuver for political or activist advantage only to have the finished product look very much like the opening volley.
Then, there's that odd American tradition of the Big Shovel Pic. You know, the silly looking photograph of a bunch of well-dressed professionals smiling with a shovel. These photos take a lot of work to set up, from getting the implements to creating a pile of dirt adequate for the photo op. In this case, due to the nature of the project and its potential for good recreation opportunities in the neighborhood, I give it a thumbs up. In fact, shoveling itself is an excellent exercise, is it not? I mean, have you ever seen an unfit gravedigger?
Laurie Cumbo was attacked by our friends at...well, you know...for her part in this. And for all the sturm und drang, here comes this, courtesy of the very developer (BFC Partners) that put together the proposal.
My fave quote from the Kings County Politics article, which was part of the BFC proposal from the git-go, I might add:
The project will offer affordable space for non-profits and other civic organizations that will permanently call the Armory home. Ten organizations, including New Heights Youth, Imagine Swimming, Globall Sports Concepts, Ifetayo Cultural Arts Academy, Digital Girl, Inc., Brooklyn Community Pride Center, West Indian American Day Carnival Association, James E. Davis Foundation, Carey Gabay Foundation, and Brooklyn Medical Plaza Center will have space for offices and programming in the Armory.
Such a wild story you'd think the Daily News would've bothered to get the details right. When a dollar van hit a B41, then sped off, it left part of its chassis wrapped around the back of the MTA bus.
Makes for an interesting moment in the lives of all involved. But the article? Get your facts straight y'all. Dollar Vans are licensed, the drivers insured, unLESS (and it's a big distinction) they're so-called "cowboys" who drive without registration or parent company. These have become few and far between since the DV companies upgraded to the much-larger 20-40 person mini-busses. It's much harder to ride bareback with a $100K vehicle. Bottom line, the dollar vans are a treasured facet of Flatbush life, and even though there's a rogue now and again, it's not worth bashing the whole lot.
When the nursing home at 123 Linden, and its beautiful front-facing former home to Council-Dud Mathieu Eugene's offices, sold property and aerial rights for the giant 23-story tower now nearing completion, the question on the minds of some (like me for instance) was...what's going to go into the huge "community space?"
Now we know.
It'll be an Ascend Charter School. Whatever your opinion of charter schools, it's a fact that Ascend serves a predominantly black population across its 15 schools in Brooklyn. Families give it high marks, and students achieve at well above the district standards. And so, in the spirit of civil open dialogue, the Q welcomes your thoughts on Ascend, on charter schools generally, and on the inclusion of one into an all market-rate building on Linden Boulevard. I know the zeitgeist scuttlebutt around integration, G&T, charter...but when you include the families of those attending charters like Ascend, sometimes the conversation becomes less one-sided. That's been my experience. How about you?
Did you know that mantling means to spread over a surface? That's actually kind of what's happening to our neighborhood. Dismantling is happening everywhere, of woodframes and townhouses and old "taxpayer" cinder-block commercial buildings. But a new surface arises, a vastly different veneer of new construction, much of it ugly, some it less so, all of it remarkably efficient to the task of gentrification. There is no plan - just outdated zoning laws and the whims of the marketplace.
Case in point. One by one, parcels that the Q identified years ago as "soft spots," properties perfectly suited for developers, have been snapped up. Sometimes it's for the better. Take the enormous building rising where the old Caton Market was. That building will bring hundreds of truly affordable units to the area, with priorities to current residents. Since the large parcel was City owned, it was possible to create an all-affordable building with relatively little pushback.
However, catty-corner/kitty-korner to that, the once dignified bank building (I opened an account when it was an HSBC back in 2003) will come down, along with the furniture store that was a Blockbuster Video when I first moved in. I spent oh-so-many hours wandering up and down the aisles, trying desperately to find something worthy of a watch-see. This was a time before Netflix, before Hulu, before Prime Video or anything on-demand. It's hard to remember what a big part of our lives these video stores became, once we all had VCR's or DVD players. My how the world changes and the wee ones grow. To those who wonder what we did before smartphones, I'd say "a lot looking for stuff to watch," because the modern world has become mostly about finding things, anythings, to deny the realities of the modern world.
Now, 815 Flatbush has gotten even bigger. So imagine this rendering but with considerably more apartments. Read all about it in the NY Yimby, of course. The corner in question, as currently mantled, below said smaller-than-it-will-be rendering.
Honestly, now, is this something you want to see on the regular? Cause I get these things, you know, and I'm happy to share but I just don't know, you know, whether anyone thinks this sort of bulletin board stuff is useful. I love it for the kooky designs and occasionally the actual info. But it's up to you, Q-sters. Q-tips, or no Q-tips?
Tired of watching people tear each other apart for not saying things the right way or being aggressive enough about criticising others for their less-than-woke views? Damn that shit's annoying, and yes it happens right here in Flatbush.
Maybe it's just cause I'm (basically) of his generation, but forever-MY-president said this and I hope it takes off. Maybe he has the authority to get the message through the muck:
What, it's like 60 shopping days to Christmas? Or forget Christmas (actually that's hard to do but whatevs.) Get one for yourself, like I did.
I get it. Maybe you don't look good in t's. Maybe no matter how hard you try with the bench press you can't get rid of those man-boobs. Why not replace that jiggling with neighborhood jingoism?
And anyway, everyone, he-she-they, looks sexier when wearing a bit of their own life on their chest. You live where? Why not WEAR where you live? Wear here, hear?
AND HERE'S THE KICKER. PROCEEDS FROM THESE SETH KAPLAN DESIGNED SHIRTS SUPPORT YOUR VERY OWN NEIGHBOR-CREATED-AND-RUN Parkside Plaza!! How do you get one? Send an email request to:
shirtsplg@gmail.com Sizes S-XXL for Men and Women ($20) and XS-XL for children ($20). Of course, my personal favorite is the Q. But there's a Prospect Q/B/S, a Catbush shirt and now for a limited time only, street artist Shmotchsky is in on the fun. Those shirts are going for $35. Read about "famous" Shmotchsky here. I'm thinking I know who it is, and you do too, but shhhhhhh, don't tell anyone but Banksy.
Long after many of us gave up on the Quixotic attempt to work with the City to plan the neighborhood's future, she keeps harassing, lying, manipulating, disrupting and most of all, suing.
The Q chose to keep this one closer to the chest as he really didn't want undue publicity to cause more attention to the issue than it was worth. But now that the lawsuit has been decided, I think it's worth sharing some of the gory details. The story, as short as I can, goes like this.
A couple years ago, a group of homeowners on Fenimore btw Bedford and Rogers (just the sort of side street the Q has been clamoring to protect) became alarmed that their block might be on the chopping block, and that soon homeowners would be tempted to sell to developers who would then cut up the lots, like so many other blocks in Central Brooklyn. BUT, they had a plan and some leverage. Deep in the deeds of these south-side of the street homes was the same covenant that led to the creation of the Lefferts Gardens Historic district, a distinction that led to a lowest density R2 zoning that in effect prevents any other uses than single homes. 50 years ago, their side of the street was inexplicably left off the Historic District application.
To achieve R2 for themselves, today, they would have to apply to the Dept of City Planning. With help from a capable consultant - Paul Graziano - they put together a proposal and went to the Community Board for help. CB9 was and is besieged by protests from Alicia Boyd and MTOPP, but the committee managed to offer its support of the Fenimore Block Association's request to co-sponsor the application, despite shout-downs and tantrums. By having a CB co-apply, the FBA was allowed to waive onerous fees in applying. All CB9 had to do, essentially, was sign off on the IDEA of downzoning that one block. Simple. Elegant. Everybody's happy, right?
Wrong. AB and co. concocted a twisted conspiracy theory that somehow your neighbors on Fenimore were in cahoots with DCP to turn this simple request into a district-wide planning study that they believe would lead to massive towers along Empire Blvd. I won't go into how ridiculous that is...if you haven't been paying attention til now, let me simplify. A zoning study would have LIMITED building size and downzoned inner blocks to prevent teardowns in exchange for reasonable sized buildings that are made with mandatory set-asides for affordable units. But it has NOTHING to do with this modest request, and DCP made clear that it is impossible to turn a straighforward spot downzoning request into a neighborhood-wide rezoning.
So what does she do? What she always does. Protest and sue. Sue, sue, sue. Sue me, sue you. (Lionel Richie?) Sue CB9, sue your neighbors, sue the CB9 chairperson and the head of Brooklyn DCP. Sue the way the board runs its meetings, or keeps records, or follows or doesn't follow rules. Why does she do this? To wear you down. To demoralize you. To make you question why you got civically involved in the first place. She sues for power, for supremacy, and to make up for the fact that no one in their right mind would appoint her to anything, ask her official advice on anything, elect her to anything. I've wasted plenty of time trying to figure her out. But like #45 she's simply too mysteriously deranged to be lumped into a category. The issues are deep, and while she frequently raises good points, she drowns the good with the bad every time out. It's fascinating, unless you're in her cross-hairs, then look out! It's hunting season!
If you want the whole 12-page decision it's fascinating and incredibly well-researched - just email me. One finding in particular of note - Community Boards are not required to provide Open Discussion time. That's not what Open Meetings mean. You're allowed to BE there when public business is being discussed to be decided, and to CB meetings generally, but you're not entitled to a soap box. And Open Meeting laws don't apply when it's just informational for members or when internal information is being shared. If de Blasio calls a bunch of his advisors into his office the public is not entitled to show up. But if a vote is being held or discussed, and it doesn't involve private personnel issues, then yes the press and public are entitled to reasonable access.
So CB9. Cut her off at the mic. No more speeches and disruptions. And if she gets up to make a scene, have her thrown out. The courts have made clear that you have legal standing to take her out of the room when she keeps you from your business. For me, I prefer to save my sanity. I wish you well, new chair Fred Baptiste and company. Enjoy your last Tuesdays of the month!
If you want to be safe while you walk, be sure to keep your center of gravity low and make certain your forward foot is firmly planted before lifting up your back foot. A cane helps, but shouldn't be used to lean on, but rather to add balance and to provide support in an emergency. If you find yourself needing to lean on something, a walker is a better alternative. Nearly 90% of elderly people who fall do so as the direct result of a fall. Don't be foolish. Falling is serious business. In fact, my aunt in Tucson fell and is now in hospice. Here's a billion dollar idea for you - airbags for seniors. They open up as you teeter providing a cushion, perhaps even righting your loved one after impact.
However, if you're looking for a great place to Trick or Treat, look no further. Right here in Lefferts, Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York up in the Historic District. Just strap on an outfit and join the throngs for a SAFEPATHWALK, brought to you by the 71st Precinct once again. The route is below on this, the exact same flyer that's been used for the past dozen or so years, updated with the correct year of course.
as you can see, policeman, cat and pirate are already taken.
And if you're bemoaning the loss of Flatbush Ave's longtime Chinese not-so-Great takeout place Great Wall, cheer up. A new pan-Asian food place is opening up soon in its place at 719 Flatbush tween Clarkson and Parkside. As you can see the food will be both Delicious AND Ready. Plus you can get Bubble Tea.
Finally if you're looking for an $800 STODIO you're in luck. Stodios are perfect for rodeo clowns and bronco busters.
Thursday night, a neighbor was shot dead, this time inside the old-skool KHF bodega on Flatbush near the remarkable Risbo and not-so-remarkable Parkside pizza bistro. I mention the restaurants because by the time the sun went down on Friday, the block from Parkside to Winthrop was shoulder to shoulder with people, and the busy restaurants provided a stark backdrop for a scene of overwhelming sorrow, anger and contemplation, mixed with shots from plastic cups. "First Class" liquors was doing a mighty business. Actually, First Class liquors is always doing a mighty business, but this night the line was especially long.
Dwayne Smith. If you lived here awhile you'd probably recognize him, unless you're the sort that chooses not to look men in the eyes. It's a weird thing, right? You want to be friendly, a good neighbor, but you also don't want to start nothing. Like the code that says "don't engage the schizophrenic when they're in the middle of a meltdown," these self-protective behaviors become perpetuating, and still when I actively engage, say, black men walking alone on my block it's if I've broken some Flatbush commandment. I do it anyway, hoping I'll break through to the other side, like the Jim Morrison I once wished I were. These are dances we long-timers do without thinking, but sometimes we do think, and this is what I've been thinking.
Dwayne lived on Lenox, the first block off Flatbush. The newspapers quoted family and friends saying he was a good father to his seven kids. He was an aspiring filmmaker, having made the video you can watch below for his friend the rapper Marz Money, another Lenoxonian. The shooting happened Thursday night, and by Friday the candles came out, dozens of them, each a remembrance of a relationship deep or distant, but the sheer number of candles and mourners suggested Dwayne was a longtimer too. Someone with deep roots, friends from school and life. And clearly at least one person, the murderer, was not a friend at all, or maybe had been once. He hated Dwayne, or his crew did at least, enough to shoot him in cold blood, assassin-style. These are the sorts of killings that used to be so much more common, even around here, even just 5 to 10 years ago. And certainly through the late '80s and '90s, this area saw more than its share of the bloodshed that overwhelmed the City. It was brutal back then, and apparently for some, it still is.
Rather than pretend to know Dwayne well, perhaps it's worth sharing some of his artistry as video maker, since I really do think the track and video say a lot, and besides this is an excellent portrait of the neighborhood you and I share, and if your demographic matches mine, it's not OUR neighborhood anymore than the one you see here, which, if you weren't told was right on top of you, you probably wouldn't even recognize. Amiright?
For better or worse, the Q's set down roots here too. I have friends (and not a few enemies), some deep some shallower. I walk down the street and share hellos along the way. I smile as often as I can, recognizing that even those I don't know may know me, or may THINK they know me, and I give them no reason to reinforce their worst suspicions. I've been here 16 years and more than ever I'm aware that my presence is both threatening and annoying to many people of color, though in all fairness the vast majority of people couldn't care less. Like all of us, Dwayne had his enemies, exes, resentments, fears. He wasn't so much younger than me that we could have been friendly, had the stars aligned. Maybe I'd have seen him in one of those "church basements" I go to, trudging the happy road of destiny.
Walking through the makeshift wake on the Flatbush sidewalk outside the crime scene - a Brooklyn ritual that would blow the friggin' minds of those in the suburbs or on the backroads. I heard laughter and tears. I recognized a few faces too...from my block, some whom I haven't seen in quite some time. Either priced out, grown out, or merely moved out, these were folks that clearly knew Dwayne from his earliest days. Stories were told. Liquor flowed. A parked police car kept its lights on, and the cops told me they were keeping an "eye on things." They weren't there to stop the open containers or force people to move along. They recognized the scene, one of way too many, of a low-rent ceremony, and seemingly even the NYPD realize how cruel it would be to stop the DIY wake. Cruel, and foolish.
At one point I heard someone say "Dwayne would've wanted it this way." Indeed.
So what to make of it? We live in a phenomenally diverse neighborhood, but we often live on top of or beside each other. Dwayne would not have described his neighborhood the same way I do. The physical markers might be the same, but the hangouts, the people, the culture would read very different. Looking at the video that he made with his friend (I'm making assumptions, since the video is mentioned in the Daily News piece and it's clearly Marz Money's "big" video, those quotes used in the News piece to transmit a certain smugness that's hard to miss) I'm struck by the artistry (it's really quite good) of the lyrics, delivery and content. In the narrative, a young man, perhaps Marz himself, has spent time locked up, and he's returned to Lenox Road to friends and family, with big plans to remake his life. This part of the American experience - the return from prison - reflects some deep shit.
Confession time. When I moved here after making the gypsy rounds of gentrifying Brooklyn, I thought that I was the ideal person to move to a mostly black neighborhood. Why? Because I don't spend a minute of my brain thinking black folks are less than, or to be feared, nor do I think my mere presence needs to signify anything other than a willingness to hop into the present day Flatbsh olio. I was going to be, and continue to try to be, though it's getting harder, myself. Treating people of color with dignity and respect, to me, meant treating them no different. It meant calling out jerks for jerks, and elevating small-town heroes and hanging out on stoops and shooting the shit. It meant neither patronizing nor ass-kissing. It meant recognizing that no two people are alike (we're all the same? what bullshit!) and that until I'd heard someone's story I had no business making assumptions.
I've always believed, and never as much as now, that it's those assumptions that are killing us. As a country, for sure. Assumptions about immigrants, blacks, whites, asians, republicans, fly-over folks, celebrities, elites...it's a recipe for disaster. Like Sarajevo before us, the world-class city on the verge of greatness, we too can descend into hatred, chaos and who knows maybe ethnic cleansing. There is no rule that we will survive the current moment, that our nation will somehow continue some inexorable path towards a more perfect union.
And now I pose the hypothetical Emotional Experiment. Had the person killed been white, a parent you know from the playground, someone you know from the occasional party or through gossip at school...would it feel more close, scary, tragic and perhaps even "too close to home?" as I've sometimes heard these violences described?
Dwayne's death made me think this stuff. It all makes a sad sense in my mind, and I offer no solutions. The old yarn about treat your neighbor as you would yourself? Makes sense if we're all the same. But the differences are what make us Flatbush.
Ever been to AmThai on Church Ave? No need to hike ALL THAT WAY. Now you gotcher own AmThai, and now...now the truth comes out. The Am isn't for American. It's for Amy!
Amy Thai Bistro. Same lovely family, same good home cooking, if your home were Bangkok. Don't miss it. 545 Flatbush. And if you want it delivered, call the shop directly so they don't get gouged by the Seamlesses of the world? It's actually QUICKER. Ever noticed that? It's quicker to call, plus you get to chat and ask questions. Just call. (718) 462-1555
Oy. One assault is ten too many. But is it possible the bar hasn't taken safety seriously? Obviously any booze joint can be a breeding ground for creeps. But it takes vigilance and skill to make sure things don't get out of hand.
Following this story...if there's nothing to be ashamed of, why close down when the media shows up? Answer the questions. Show you're a good neighbor and that you refer any and everything to the police.
There is little need these days to leave the neighborhood. Go local whenever possible. Drink local. Get your hair did local. Go to school local. And of course eat. Eat local. Taste the Flabenue.
So without further a-chew, here's what you need to know to support local bizzes and kid-centric non-profit Seeds in the Middle. Sunday. BUY TICKETS HERE or at Awesome gifts. My understanding is you can buy either 4 or 11 taste bunches of tickets then walk around to any of the businesses and get your taste, hang, get a feel for the joint then be able to honestly write a google review which, if positive, will help draw even more people to the place. So I hear. Apparently Google is really taking off. You heard it here first.
Tickets are on sale at Awesome Brooklyn, 617 Flatbush Avenue near Fenimore Street, or online.
doesn't El Jefe mean "the boss?" did i make my first spanglish joke with the headline?
The other location gets some pretty serious rave reviews for its Mexican-Panamanian fusion. Read about owner Onishka Camarena here. Look you can get your computer fixed with my man Abdo next door than saddle over to El Jeffe for some killer nachos.
Speaking of which...were you aware that nachos were invented in 1943? By someone named Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya?
Despite the fact that private citizen Alicia Boyd is neither elected nor appointed to any public office or position, she will now be negotiating with the Department of City Planning, developers and (potentially, if she shows up) Councilperson Laurie Cumbo, on the fate of the neighborhood just east of the beloved Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.
To the Q, this is such a stunning and undemocratic turn of events that I fail to understand how any sitting judge would see fit to offer Boyd and her cronies such enormous bargaining power ON OUR BEHALF and without scrutiny. (Story in Brooklyn Eagle)
Check this insanity out. For a crew who spends most of their time decrying a lack of transparency in civic matters, this "private session" crap takes the crumbcake:
Boyd agreed to participate in the settlement talks, which will take place in a private session in the judge’s chambers, and will include lawyers for the entities they are suing. Boyd, Ellis and Hollingsworth are suing City Councilmember Laurie Cumbo, the Department of City Planning and its Director Marisa Lago, plus Winston Von Engel, who is the department’s Brooklyn director. The City Planning Commission and the city Buildings Department are also targeted in the suit.
Think about it...the Community Board by law has a role to play in the ULURP (zoning changes) process. Those 50 members of the community represent many walks of life and mindsets. Their job is to deliberate and make recommendations. The elected Borough President weighs in. The duly elected Councilperson decides, follows by a full-Council vote, again consisting of elected officials. Also in the mix are the landowners and developers and the Department of City Planning, beholden to the (elected) Mayor and his housing and job and economic growth initiatives.
And then, there's un-elected, un-expert and un-civil Ms. Alicia Boyd (with Janine Nichols and Nichola Cox and LaShaun Ellis among others). The scorched-earth Boyd continues to pummel all things deliberative and decent, sitting in a room with the powers that be, deciding your fate through supposed "good faith" negotiations. She's entitle to sue, though god knows it's gotten her (and us) nothing. But negotiating on our behalf?
Don't get me wrong. The Q argued for height limits long before Boyd became Queen of Empire Boulevard. Had we negotiated the zoning changes years ago we would not be here today, vainly attacking one building projects at a time. She'll tell you she's a hero, but it's crucial to remember she got us into this mess to begin with.
At bottom, the movement to protect you (the people) had things to say in their latest missive to supporters. Hey, they're entitled to their opinion. And apparently, they're entitled to YOURS too, in a private session in judge's chambers.
Here's your heroes, and the actual renderings, rather than the hyperbole put forward by Boyd and co. And remember, this isn't even the REALLY big buildings being proposed, the ones that even the garden is pissed about. Though, after Boyd's mistreatment, the BBG wants nothing to do with what otherwise would be a natural ally. I'm betting the Garden will come out okay, albeit with more buildings in the horizon. Democracy and civility however, will continue to take hits on the regular.
photo by Lore Croghan of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Judge Requests Councilwoman’s Laurie Cumbo Presence at Negotiations
On September 17, 2019 at the oral arguments hearing, Judge Boddie, stated that a win/win could happen if settlement talks were considered and requested Councilwoman majority leader for the City Council, Laurie Cumbo, to attend these talks. The reason she might be involved is not only was she the deciding vote on this rezoning, but she made public statements on the record that her vote was based upon a “miracle” community benefit agreement, that the City conceded does not exist.
Negotiations Talks have been scheduled in private in the Judges chambers on Monday, September 23, 2019 at 2:30 pm.
Motion to Dismiss on this case is still scheduled for October 7, 2019, at 9:30 am, if the negotiations fall through.
Image above: Janine and Nichola, members of FLAC at Court House hearing.
Oral arguments for the case went on for about an hour and a half and a few things became crystal clear to the community; the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) hearing contained lying testimony both by Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo and the developers under oath.
The most stunning point in the case was when Ms. Boyd who was acting as a prose litigant in this case produced the transcript of the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) hearing, where again Cornell’s attorney stated on the record that Cornell owned property and described in detail the work that Cornell was conducting on the land, including environmental clean ups,working with the government entities to get permits and their fear of not getting financing for the project if a TRO was signed.
However, once the lawsuit itself was served on Cornell all of a sudden Cornell does not own anything! Never had in fact! When it was pointed out that Cornell's lawyers and representatives stated otherwise at ULURP public hearings and at court hearings, Cornell current attorney, the fifth in this case, stated that the lawyers were not under oath. She was Implying that attorneys, who are officers of the court, are not obligated or don’t have to tell the truth at public hearings! Of course that answer got a response, not only from the Judge, but from the overflowing crowd of residents who had attended the hearing and were privy first hand to the amount of corruption and lies this rezoning has endured, so far.
We've noticed the girls' favorite Youtube indie-stars like the phrase "life hack," and we've decided the Q needs to take a stab. In this case, things that we adults can do that bring an element of excitement, style or freedom to the otherwise dreary reality of middle-age. A recurring segment begins.
Q's Life Hack #1: Do you like homemade nachos? Do you enjoy a leisurely hot bath? Why not combine them? After the kids were in bed, and as the Mrs. was reading, I made a plate of delicious nachos, brought it up to the bathroom and enjoyed two of life's simple pleasures, simultaneously.
Life Hack Score: 8 1/2 Nachos in the Bath
Oh, and it appears Lefferts and Crown Heights are "daycare" deserts, according to this report from Scott Stringer, who I just emailed to suggest Life Hack #1. The guy always seemed a bit overworked and could use a little "me" time. prospect-lefferts-gardens-childcare-desert-study-finds
Did Queer-Eye get a-hold of our local subway entrance? Cuz dang it's lookin' good! (it's not much more than a paint job and new light bulbs, but we'll take it!) For 15 years I've fantasized about heading out there at 3am with a buck of paint. You know how it is...every day you see the same dilapidated crapola and you start to feel like crapola. A lesson there perhaps for the power of upkeep and appearances when dealing with city strife.
You've all seen it. You've wondered WTF is that tumor on the head of 715 Flatbush? Two more-incongruous surfaces one cannot imagine. And yet, here we are. What was once Nelson's barbershop and a combination driving school/money order/real estate//fax/email and legal beagle has become 242 Flatbush (the upscale market rate apartment building) and 715 Flatbush the soon-to-be something that nearly everyone has opined will be either a Starbucks or Hungry Ghost or Ramen Place or Red Lobster, depending on your outlook and/or hubris at rumor-mongering.
This rendering makes it look almost passable. You, dear reader, know the ugly truth.
Like many other buildings nearby, including the gorge mansions along Parkside Avenue, 715 Flatbush was designed by the prolific architect Louis Gold. More on his story by Susan De Vries from B-stoner. Given the current zoning, this sort of thing may become much more common along Flatbush Avenue, where some beautiful old buildings could get taller without necessarily coming down altogether. I expect a canyon of 5-7 story new construction, particularly in all the tax-payer and boarded up buildings south of Empire, of which there are still many.
I think it's worth noting that the asking price for the commercial space is not really affordable by many mom-and-pops. The $70/sq/ft/yr means you'll need nearly $100,000 a year to sign a lease. High-end retail, chain stores, maybe restaurants and bars etc. tend to fall into this category. With the location being a commuter goldmine, it's hard to see how this sort of stall could become anything-like the funky hodge-podge currently renting along the Flabenue.
And the apartments? Well, about what you'd expect. At a price considerably higher than my mortgage you could get a rare 3-bedroom that actually looks kinda nice. It'll set you back $3,300 a month, but it does have newness and size, 2 bathrooms and 7 rooms. I can't really tell whether this is a "deal" or not, because there's not a lot that's comparable. If you're in the hunt you could always start here. It's hard to imagine it doesn't shoot up past $4K a month soon, but what the hell do I know. I couldn't afford it even if I wanted it.
l will say that any place with a staircase gets a bump up in my view, even if it goes nowhere. The place is actually quite cheap if this is a Stairway to Heaven, though I suspect it's more of a Stairway to Futon.
