Meet the Flatbush/Nostrand Beat Cops - Next Wednesday February 20

The blue coats are coming, the blue coats are coming!

On Monday night at local crime reporter Nicole's house we met Charlie, one of the two cops who's job it is to patrol Flatbush. Joe and Charlie are our guys, and precinct head Jack Lewis will introduce them to the community next Wednesday in the lobby of 40 Lincoln, a building that itself has struggled to keep drugs, gangs and litter at bay. (Or DG&LatB as the Q just coined, for kix.) Please, everyone, make time to come and let them know how much we appreciate their appearance on the avenues.

Here's the groovy flyer:

By the way, the Q hit the streets last night to check out the massive police presence on Westbury Court. It appears that an "emotionally disturbed individual" created an emergency situation...that's all I got from Lewis and I'm sure we'll hear more as they release details. When I saw the Canine Unit packing up to go, they seemed none too concerned. Had their been a major shooting or murder they would have stayed and cordoned off the block. Let's hope it was none too serious.

At the meeting on Monday there were about 12 residents and 8 cops in a comfortable living room, and much was discussed. In particular, as I've noted here, Lewis and company know EXACTLY who the bad guys are. It's not for lack of trying that they haven't been able to keep them behind bars. Most of the worst actors have been jailed or incarcerated many times. The trick is catching them doing something serious enough to put them away for a long time. Unfortunately, this usually only happens after they attempt or succeed at murder, almost always of rivals. With the drug stuff, unless they have massive amounts on them, it's hard to get a long sentence. Parole officers stand in the way, too. Lewis is none too happy with his counterparts in that part of the system - he really has to stay on them and point out the guys we really, really want off the streets.

The D.A. That's who we should engage next. Organized Crime statutes, aggressively enforced by the district attorney's office, have helped rid other areas of gangs, most notably Franklin.

And what can WE the people do? Lighting, lighting, lighting for one. If you're concerned about the area in front of your house, or your walk home, your block association and PLGNA should focus on better lighting. As beautiful as are the street trees, they often block illumination. Bad guys like the dark. It's really quite simple, but few work to enlighten the nabe. Many complaints about crime, but few take an active role in this straight-forward time-honored technique.

More interesting and promising in my view would be a mini-version of Eric Adams TBOC (Take Back Our Community), wherein each block or block association has one captain with whom both the cops AND individuals on the block can communicate. Then these captains could get together regularly to share information, since many bad dudes move around. We'd get to know the ruffians names, their habits, and hopefully be able to lead the cops towards the right houses and apartments, and keep each other informed of goings on. I like it! I like that it involves members of the wider community getting to know each other better. This has worked in other NYC neighborhoods, and though it used to be more commonplace here in NE Flatbush, it's really died out in the last few years.

Gotta get to work...see you next Wednesday!

Truly, Twas a Time of Torrential Turnover - Landlords Looking to Levy Larger Lease Prices Putting Parkside Peddlers on Pavement

Once again vacancies are sprouting like whiskers on the scruffy face of the neighborhood. Could there be a better spot for a small store than the one just left open at Diallo Accessories, diagonal from the park and next to the sleek new McBistro?

For the restauranteur on your shopping list, how 'bout a place already set up for cookin'? People's Choice, nee Exquisite, won't set you back too terribly much, and talk about visibility and foot traffic. And that's not all.

There's actually a dozen spots that I counted just tonight, within three blocks of my beloved Q at Parkside. One cool potential development is that the deceased colorful "Flatbush Fashion" might just get my fave balloonists (Kupid's Korner) as new tenants, if the terms are sweet. [Btw, the supremely sketchy bodega at the corner of Winthrop and Flatbush is outa biz, but don't be expecting a boulangerie to sprout in its place. Workers told me it's going to be another bodega, though potentially one with actual goods to sell.]

Word to the Entrepreneurial Wise: From what I've been able to gather from merchants, you should definitely not be put off by initial price quotes from landlords and managing agents. Once negotiations begin in earnest, you can expect to extract more and more lenient terms, and if haggling isn't your strong suit you could always hire a professional haggler. (Actually, they're usually called lawyers, not hagglers, but just try getting someone to pay $50,000 per annum to go to Haggle School.) If you can't talk the owner down to something within the realm of sanity, it frankly wasn't meant to be. But one shopkeep after another that I've spoken to has bragged to me how much they were able to shave off the initial asking price, even gaining a couple months rent-free to get up to speed, for instance.

Despite all my goofiness, I'm not being facetious in the least when I say that I was heartbroken to learn that Don's hardware store is no more (Glenn was the store's actual name, and oddly Peter was Don's OTHER name, which is apparently typical in Jamaica, the having of more than one name). Since moving to Clarkson ten years ago, I've counted on Don to give me advice on a million little home repair problems. I'm just not that handy, see, and he was always quick with a smile and patient lesson in how to screw this and screw that. He was my bike guy, my lock guy, my shovel and salt and winterizer guy, my main man in all things home-sweet-home. Don, er, Peter, I'll miss you, and I only hope you're going to retire and lay on the beach in your native Jamaica. But something tells me you've just moved on to your next gig, working your ass off, whatever and wherever that may be. Godspeed, sir! You were always good to me, and I'll never forget that.

R.I.P.

Are Lack of "Amenities" Keeping OUR Outrageous Prices Less Than Those of Our Neighbors?

It's one of the most telling reports around. I hear a lot of talk about this nabe being cheaper than that blah blah blah. But the proof is in the numbers, and numbers look nice in a chart, and the chart looks like this:

I know that home prices don't correlate completely to these rental figures. Differences in housing stock and a characteristic I like to call "leafiness" can't necessarily be quantified. And the cool factor, an elusive target, but you know what they say. If you have to ask...

I prefer to ignore the outliers, DUMBO and Williamsburg. If you ask me the rental prices in those areas reflect...actually I don't know what they reflect. You'll find better deals on the Upper East Side, so it must have to do with that elusive cool factor. But you know what they say, if you have to ask...

But why does MNS leave out whole neighborhoods like Sunset Park and Windsor Terrace and Carrol Gardens? Nice of them to include Bed-Stuy, though, an area that wouldn't have even made the chart a few years back. And whatsabout Flatbush and...well, I guess we should feel lucky to be included. Still, $1200 a month just to have your own bathroom seems like a lot to me.

I get why they don't include Brownsville and East New York and Gravesend and Mill Basin...too far our or too culturally "undesirable" for the powers that be.  It's kinda weird though to see that chauvinism reflected so blatantly here. Frankly, I'd LOVE to see what a studio goes for in East New York. Might be a great reality check.

Can it really continue to climb like this? Brooklyn's great and all...but that toilet is getting awfully expensive.


Thoughts?

Meeting This Tuesday Night If You're Upset About Local Quality of Life Issues

The Q has been hearing that things are pretty out of control up at the old Rhythm Splash/Lime/Handyman's bar at 673 Flatbush. Volumes are earth-shattering on weekends, and fights have been breaking out. Someone noted a bullet hole on the sign. Concurrently, there are some pretty serious ruffian doings up on Fenimore. I've seen and heard tell of a hooligan patch on Winthrop, serious shenanigans in front of JJ's and all along the east side of Flatbush Parkside to Winthrop, plus evidence of serious drug trade on Parkside near Flatbush, and the corner of Clarkson/Flatbush has an ongoing war between rival crews, and having spoken with a woman who is super to a number of local buildings there's definitely some bud-nipping to do. All of this seems to be brewing in the southwestern portion of the 71st precinct, even as a brutal murder happened up on Sterling. Local crime reporter Nicole F. has set up a meeting with Deputy Inspector Lewis at a home. If you're concerned about these issues and perhaps have others to introduce, please come to this informal gathering at a private home on Tuesday night on Parkside near Bedford. Email me for the particulars. From Nicole:

The 71st Precinct is interested in working with the community regarding noise
and disorderly conduct outside of the bar on Flatbush, Rhythm Splash. The
precinct is also interested in hearing complaints regarding fights and
disorderly conduct on Fennimore Street. If you have other issues you'd like to
bring up to the police, this is a good time to have their ear.

Captain Lewis of the 71st is going to be meeting with residents regarding these
issues on Tuesday night February 12, at 8PM, at a home in PLG. - Nicole

Again, email me here to RSVP.

The Q OWNS the Times

Reader Rina pointed out that the Times ran a piece two days after the Q's post on the overwhelming advantage to going contract-less and prepaid with your cell phone. To those whose link-clicker is broken, here's the meat of the deal:

A Consumer Reports article in January on cellphones compared the two-year cost under various plans of an iPhone 5 with 16 gigabytes. Straight Talk came out the cheapest, even though the upfront cost for the phone, $650, was the highest. With a monthly cost of $45 for unlimited data), the total came to $1,730 after two years.At Verizon, the cost of the same iPhone was $200, but a similar monthly plan — with a data allowance of two gigabytes — was $100 a month, bringing the cost up to $2,600 for two years. AT&T was even more expensive — although it offered a data plan of four gigabytes — at $2,840.And, of course, if you don’t need the newest, hottest phone, cheaper ones are available. Cricket offers a Samsung Android smartphone for $159, with plans that cost $25 to $60 a month.

The Q adds: I've got the android Samsung Reverb, and at $199 upfront has proven to have all the nifty iPhone apps w/out the break-bank price. Actually, it resembles the iPhone to such a degree that I'm surprised Apple hasn't sued Samsung for patent infringement! What, you say? They did? Good for them! I sure as heck like my phone though...

But more crucially, the Times finally ran a piece on something I've been actually begging them to cover (by email, I didn't actually go there in knee pads), an issue I would have titled Scummy Slumlords Running Homeless Shelters. If you didn't catch my bit about the awful situation at the homeless shelter at 60 Clarkson, the Scandal Down the Block, and you have more than a minute to kill, I'd be grateful for as many eyes and thoughts on this issue as possible. The disgraceful policy that enriches slumlords at taxpayer expense while at the same time providing nothing in the way of meaningful, long-term rental assistance, while at the even samer time converting rent-stabilized buildings into homeless shelters overnight without community review or even notification, and at the samest time ostensibly forces out rent-paying tenants who may themselves become homeless as a result and could conceivably end up in the same apartment they were kicked out of but without rights or a lease...wow. It's really mind-blowing. Meanwhile, the dealers on my block have a nearly endless steady stream of vulnerable clients with whom to hawk their wares.

Now THAT'S policy.

Murder on Sterling One

Oy. On Spotcrime and Twitter comes word of man shot and killed in his car at 102 Sterling. Anyone have more info? Grisly.

UPDATE FROM VINNY:  Yesterday, Thursday, February 7, 2013 at approximately 7PM a 911 call was placed for a man bleeding in front of 102 Sterling Street. When NYPD arrived they found one male black with a gunshot wound to his head sitting in the driver seat of a 2004 Lexus sedan. The victim was taken to KCH in critical condition and is not expected to recover. Anyone with information please call the 71 Precinct Detectives at 718-735-0501.      

UPDATE FROM LEWIS: Victim lived at 201 Linden, between Rogers and Nostrand. Sterling 1 is not a block associated with crime in the view of the precinct.  Two experienced homicide detectives are on the case, though it may be hard to uncover the evidence needed.

Would appear this was very much an assassination, gangland style. And as we all know, it's hard to get people involved in this world to talk. Folks, we have to do something about these guys, many of whom have rap sheets longer than the dead sea scrolls. Other nabes have chased the gangs away...we can too.

About That Tower to Be

As reported just hours ago here (see below), Hudson Inc. filed plans to build a 23-story tower at 626 Flatbush w/the firm Rogers Marvel doing the design. No reason for histrionics or pulled muscles yet, but needless to say this would be a massive change to the Flabenue and environs. I suspect they're throwing out the number 23 in an effort to arrive at a compromise that still gives them lots of units. 23 stories may one day be the norm along Flatbush (could the farms of 19th Century Breukelen ever have imagined today's 100 unit apartment buildings?), but for now it would be too tall too soon, in this blogger's opinion. It would tower over everything in an uncomfortable manner, like Shaq next to Prince. Something a bit taller than Patio Gardens would be more reasonable. How big is 23 stories? Well, another building by the same developers down in Dumbo looks like this:

That apartment building, J Condominiums, also exists among lower rise structures as along Flatbush. You can see the contrast.

As to the architect, I certainly hope he can come up with something similar to the below, from their portfolio:

New bizzes opening all the time?

Exactly who, might I ask, is fooled by this nonsense promulgated by the ever-deceptive Corcoran?

"This lovely home is close to it all and new establishments are opening daily in hip Lefferts Gardens." 

I love the nabe for being decidedly un-hip thank you. You want hip, Brooklyn's got hip. But not on Caton.

Over here where I work in Ft. Greene, or perhaps DUMBO, or downtown Brooklyn, over on 4th Avenue or Franklin or Vanderbilt or Williamsburg or Bushwick, such hyperbole could be fairly asserted. The only thing true in this ad is that the apartment is in fact for sale and near Prospect Park. But why stop there? Tell the whole story...

It's near the colorful Caton Market, and the now-vacant historic building HSBC. And an early morning hooch shack where you can get a pint and play lotto before 9am. And the delightful Mango Seed or deliciously utilitarian Dominican joint Melany. As to "new," I believe a new bullet proof liquor store opened on Bedford in the last year. Zen Vegetarian Chinese opened in the last 5 years. And "Pancakes in Hell" bodega (check the signage) at Flatbush and Woodruff opened a couple years ago. And Abdo of ICH went from coffee to computers-only in the last couple months. Oh, yes, the Gyro place on Parkside. And the McDonald's remodeled. That must be what they're referring to.

That's the tooth, Mr. Real Estate Agent. Come visit sometime. We'd love to show you around!

Breaking News: 23-story 200+ unit Building Coming to Flatbush?

In what will surely go down as the single greatest day in the life of the Associated Supermarket's owner, plans have been submitted to build a 23 (count 'em) story building on Flatbush near Hawthorne, that sort of orangey stucco medical plaza building that seems to be an edificial lost soul. Here's the story: The Real Deal. The architect's name is Marvel.

Remember, permits haven't yet been granted. There will undoubtedly be some sort of ULURP timeline. But it's safe to say that this would be a monumental change to the neighborhood. And you'd see this building from half of Prospect Park. Heck you'd probably see it from space.

What think? A good idea? It's certainly a tall idea...

The Insane Phone Store That Skooled Me

The Q is curious like a cat. When he doesn't understand something, something that actually affects his life, he gets metaphorical hives. For years now, I've been totally flummoxed by the way cell phones operate, and the byzantine world of plans and networks and providers all the way down to the very phones themselves. Has it not struck you as absurd that every time you lose or change a phone you end up signing for an additional two years with a single company? That harkens back to Ma Bell stuff. How is that competitive, or even legal? Why is it that my otherwise genius friends shrug when I ask them why or how they chose their current carrier and plan? I've heard so many things said and repeated through the years that just don't sound right. I just HAD to get a handle on it. And the best way to do that was to become a free agent. Ditch my plan, which I can't even remember why I got in the first place. Oh, something about sharing a plan with my wife. But even though we're a "family plan," our bills are more than twice what other people were paying for individual plans. (It's like the "marriage tax" all over again.)

What I found shocked me. And it all started with a visit to that little shop Wireless R Us on Flatbush between Parkside and Woodruff next to the ridiculously entertaining Closeout Heaven. Here's how it went down. I was in Closeout Heaven one day bargaining with the Algerian brothers about how much to pay for a gargantuan box of wet Swiffer sheets when I happened to pull out my phone and complain out loud that it was busted. "Take it next door, they're amazing, they can do anything." Well by gum that's exactly what I did. The Lebanese guy (the one missing a bunch of fingers, but who is incredibly nimble with the stubs) was able to fix it no problem and didn't charge me. A few weeks later I went in there because his cell store was selling $99 air conditioners. During the course of that sale, he walked me down to the T-Mobile store just north of Popeyes. "Huh?" I said. "You own this place too?" "No, I just manage it." But he had other air conditioners there. This was getting interesting. Over the next year or so, Mrs. Q and I would take our Blackberries in there for routine problems. They even managed to find me an outdated replacement model just like the one I'd had before dropping it in the toilet, all so I wouldn't have to learn any of this new iPhone/Android technology. (I've always been a proud late adapter to new digital stuff, but this particular bit of obstinacy was ridiculous...everyone else was snapping great pictures, listening to music, surfin' le web, and downloading these annoyingly named "killer apps" while I was busy forcing my fat fingers into silly bendy shapes to type on a Lilliputian keyboard.) So my sitch was thitch: I was on the T-Mobile, hating them for not having service up in North Adams, MA where I go each July for work, hating the "Blackberry surcharge" and generally feeling like an idiot for not understanding the first thing about any of it.

But something the guy's bright eyed partner said really stuck with me one day. "Why do you want to pay more money just so they can tease you with a cheaper phone? None of my customers would be stupid enough to sign a contract." Really? You mean all these cats bouncing in and out of his store, some with wads of cash mind you,  had a secret that I just didn't get? I immediately asked for a tutorial in all things cell, and instead of shooing me out the door, to my surprise he explained it to me in much clearer Cellular English than I'd ever heard before. This was about a year ago, and my life has COMPLETELY changed since. Well, at least the cell part of my life, which you must admit in this day and age is a pretty big part of ALL of our lives.

So it turns out that all the while we "contract" phone people have been resignedly paying the big networks half our paychecks to keep up with the Phone Joneses, smart, often poor, urban folks have been squeezing great deals out of the providers by going prepaid. Frankly I didn't understand what prepaid even meant...I assumed it had something to do with all that cash that people were coming into the store with. And yes, that's part of it. I sort of assumed I was supposed to feel sorry for the prepaid crowd. But what was really happening was that the major networks AND a whole host of new Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) were allowing people to pay exactly what they wanted for exactly what they needed WITHOUT a contract and its stiff penalties for early departure. In most cases, they weren't even paying taxes and surcharges and those ridiculous little numbers at the back of your bill. In order to keep growing, the networks started customizing plans to fit the needs and pocketbooks of all manner of folk. (Haven't you ever wondered how EVERYONE in the world has a cell phone, even in countries where average wages are like a buck a day? SOMEone must be subsidizing that, right? Maybe cell service really IS that cheap in reality, and like pharmaceuticals, Americans just get reamed.)

What I discovered (and of course plenty of you are screaming "duh" at your iPlaids) is that there are really only four big cell networks, and that all these other companies (I'm now on Virgin Mobile, my wife on Simple Mobile) buy time on THEIR networks. There are literally dozens of companies doing this now. Check out this list.This is because after building hundreds of thousands of cell towers all across the country, the biggies have extra bandwidth beyond what they use with their own customers. So they wholesale those data nuggets to these virtual operators who can then seriously discount to prepaid customers. This became so popular that even the big boys had to start doing it to compete, though usually at higher rates.

Who are the big boyz? You already know them...Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint. There's a couple smaller ones, but the point is that nearly all those companies you see advertised are really EXACTLY the same as V,A,T and S, or VATS as I just coined them. Even more interesting is that everyone I talk to claims that there's is the BEST of VATS, fastest, less droppage, more complete, though studies have been done showing that none of the four is a head and shoulders best. As I've found out traveling through the NE, certain networks don't get where you need them to go. End of story. But all VATS have their adherents, and it's just plain wrong to say that one is the best in all circumstances. They all work pretty okay wherever there are a fair number of people living. With annoying exceptions to each.

My Virgin Wireless? Folks, it's $35 a month. I don't talk anywhere near the 300 minutes I'm allowed. Who talks on the phone except to customer service people? And for $45 a month I could talk a blue streak. That whole unlimited data nonsense? Most people simply don't need it. You'd have to be downloading TONS of music, TV and/or games directly onto your very own phone to need a data plan at all. Web surfing and email and most apps take up next to nada in data. $35. And I'm fine. I'm living to tell the tale. Nothing has changed, and I've more than halved my monthly bill.

The catch? You gotta pay full price for a phone. But think about it. Even if they tease you a FREE brand spanking new iPhone, you'd still save money over two years. I bought a great $200 Samsung Androidy thingy and I've already paid for it in savings. Plus I can cancel anytime, change plans, change phones. Maybe even try the awesomely named Ting mobile. You can get used phones for cheap, or take your great aunt's when she passes. You could swipe someone's RIGHT OUT OF THEIR HAND!! Wait, don't do that...

Love to hear your phone stories. I'm just giddy with freedom. I pass by the Wireless R Us guys now and nod a knowing kind of nod, and they nod back, now that I'm not quite so much of a clueless sucker anymore.

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