Brooklyn

Environmentally friendly performance club Galapagos Art Space opens officially tonight at 7 at 16 Main Steet in Brooklyn.

The Observer's Gillian Reagan wrote recently about the whole green nightlife movement:

...[W]ith gas prices soaring and the words “energy crisis” tumbling off even the most un-Gore-like lips, the whole project of greening up nightlife seems perfectly prescient. The typical club—with its blasting sound systems, sweat-cooling air-conditioners and lights blazing three nights a week—gobbles up 150 times more energy than a four-person family every year, according to Enviu, a Netherlands-based, environmental nonprofit group. In New York City, dance spots tend to be open five to six days a week, making their consumption that much higher.  read more »

The local economic woes are impacting not just Manhattan's faltering office market.

The Brooklyn office market vacancy rate ended the first half of 2008 slightly higher than at the same time last year and it's expected to rise more before the year is out, according to a new report. The report (PDF), from investment-sales firm Marcus & Millichap, forecasts a year-end vacancy rate of 10.5 percent, up from the 10.4 percent at the end of the second quarter on June 30.

As many as 2,000 office-based jobs in Brooklyn are expected to be eliminated this year, according to the report, mirroring the trend in Manhattan.

Meanwhile, the average asking rent for Brooklyn office space has increased in 2008. It was $27.58 a square foot by the end of the second quarter, up 5.1 percent annualy and 4.9 percent since January.

"What is so special about Brooklyn?? That's all we ever read about in this rag. Are you telling me the snotty (white) infants in Park Slope will be getting a better slice of life than the (brown/white/asian) kids in Astoria and Jackson Heights??" ["Brooklyn, The Borough: Growing Up New York"]

When Peter Eide moved to Clinton Hill, he had a "fantastical" idea.

The sculptor had spent 12 years moving around the borough after arriving from Philadelphia: Greenpoint, Williamsburg, back to Clinton Hill. But Mr. Eide, now 37, never strayed far from the G train, the only subway line in the city that doesn't travel through Manhattan. And he never stopped thinking of that idea he had: to connect his neighborhood G train stop, Fulton Street, to the Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street transit hub, effectively linking the line to almost a dozen other routes.

The fantastical part? A 660-foot tunnel buried under Fort Greene.  read more »

Decades of so-called white flight from American cities, including New York, are ending, according to a Wall Street Journal article on Saturday by Conor Dougherty. This end has spawned a fresh set of clashes and challenges:

[I]n Brooklyn, in a majority African-American section of the borough, Councilwoman Letitia James says a handful of predominantly white parents last year asked her if some of their local tax money could be steered to schools in a nearby neighborhood. The parents wanted their kids in schools with a more diverse racial mix, Ms. James says, rather than the majority-black schools in her district.

The parents felt "tax dollars should follow the children, and not the school," Ms.  read more »

• 0 comments

Home sales in Queens plunged annually from the spring of 2007, according to a new report, joining Brooklyn and Manhattan in steep year-over-year sales slides.

Queens home sales were down 23.7 percent from the second quarter of 2007 through the second quarter of 2008, to 2,363, according to the report out this week from appraisal firm Miller Samuel and brokerage Prudential Douglas Elliman. The second quarter sales amount--nearly 3,100--represents, apparently, a quarterly peak since 2004.  read more »

A report earlier this month showed Brooklyn home sales plunging 43.6 percent annually. And, in Manhattan, sales dropped 21.8 percent year over year. The reports tracked deals closed in the quarter ending June 30 (the Manhattan and Brooklyn ones are available

Most of Brooklyn's home sales are happening in South Brooklyn, a slice of the city much less traveled by Manhattanites than the increasingly mirror-image neighborhoods further north.

In the first half of 2008, over 53 percent of Brooklyn home sales closed in South Brooklyn, according to a report (PDF) from appraisal firm Miller Samuel and brokerage Douglas Elliman.

Maybe it's got something to do with the fact that South Brooklyn, unlike its condo-laden neighbors elsewhere, remains awash in houses. "One- to three-family houses account for half the sales in the entire borough," Jonathan Miller, the report's author, pointed out yesterday.

Here's a breakdown by Brooklyn region of home sales in the second and first quarters of 2008, and in the second quarter of 2007.

Sales dropped just about everywhere--and by double-digit percentages boroughwide--according to the new statistics from appraisal firm Miller Samuel and brokerage Prudential Douglas Elliman.  read more »

The Miller Samuel-Douglas Elliman second-quarter Brooklyn market report is now online as a PDF.

Earlier summary here.

Here's a breakdown of Manhattan and Brooklyn housing prices in the second quarter of 2008, according to reports from Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman.

Average sales price

• Manhattan: $1,669,729
• Brooklyn: $588,441

Median sales price

• Manhattan: $1,025,000
• Brooklyn: $525,000

Average condo sales price

• Manhattan: $1,937,090
• Brooklyn: $601,280

Median condo sales price

• Manhattan: $1,267,000
• Brooklyn: $514,725

Average co-op sales price

• Manhattan: $1,280,201
• Brooklyn: $332,250

Median co-op sales price

• Manhattan: $755,000
• Brooklyn: $255,000

Home prices in Williamsburg and Greenpoint grew more in the last 12 months than prices in any other Brooklyn area, according to a new report.

The average sales price in the two neighborhoods increased 12.7 percent from the second quarter of 2007 through the second quarter of 2008 to $663,946; and the average sales price per foot increased 20.3 percent over the same period to $445.

These annual increases were greater than those in other Brooklyn neighborhoods. The Williamsburg-Greenpoint median price also increased annually, though by a relatively small 9 percent.  read more »

The report, an inaugural Brooklyn market report from brokerage

Coney Island merchant Dianna Carlin continues her quest to reopen her Lola Staar Dreamland Roller Rink in the abandoned Childs Restaurant building with the first of two fund-raisers tonight.

Ms. Carlin is trying to raise the necessary funds for an assembly permit to cover the whole 60,000-square-foot building -- the cost of which is considerable.  read more »

Regarding this morning's Brooklyn, The Borough: A Tree Salad Grows in Brooklyn: "Uh, I've lived in Crown Heights for six years, and this ain't a restaurant row: It's base-level sustenance. No one in their right mind would travel to Washington Avenue to go to that Thai place."

Brownstoner breaks down the number of Brooklyn condo and co-op offering plans filed with the state Attorney General over the last few years (1,393 plans for 28,499 new units since 2004) and quizzes developers on what's to come.

Not much, apparently:  read more »

The Observer has a package this week (map included!) about Williamsburg College. Learn all you need to know about campus eats, dorm life and beer blasts. Plus, get advice from a Williamsburg alum.

Brooklyn Brewery co-founder and current president Steve Hindy has been elected to the board of directors of The Beer Institute (yup, that would be the national trade association representing the brewing industry, God bless 'em).

My colleague Chris Shott profiled Mr. Hindy last May as an unlikely real estate power broker in Brooklyn, which includes his involvement with Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner and with Mayor Bloomberg's sweeping rezoning of parts of the borough:  read more »

"How about making some noise for opening the beach?" Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said from the podium, as brightly dressed protesters standing behind a police line chanted, "Thor no more! Thor no more!"

So began another politically charged season at Coney Island under appropriately gloomy skies on Thursday morning.  read more »

"The four-car G train is just like one step above the horse and buggy days," State Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn told the crowd at Wednesday night's Save the G rally at Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Fort Greene.

Almost 100 G riders kicked off a monthlong campaign to increase service on the "forgotten stepchild" of the New York subway system, as Mr. Jeffries and others have called it.

"It's important to increase the intensity of the public campaign," Mr. Jeffries said, "to stress to the M.T.A. that G train service enhancements are absolutely necessary."

On June 25, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board will meet to discuss systemwide service improvements. Mr. Jeffries, who organized the rally, intends to make sure the G is a top priority. In the coming weeks, G advocates will be writing letters, sending e-mails and corralling the support of elected officials in an effort to "convince the M.T.A. to do the right thing," as Mr. Jeffries put it.  read more »

A couple of months ago, we wrote about the reality of twenty-something Brooklynites returning to live with their parents in the brownstones and apartments they grew up in, and feeling no shame about the decision. The evidence was largely anecdotal.

Not anymore.  read more »

From Lynn Harris' essay on Park Slope in the Sunday New York Times, quoting John Mollenkopf, director of the Center for Urban Research:

"There is all this class resentment in New York, and it's very tied up in real estate. People who are well-housed are the envy of others."

It's an anti-yuppification backlash in Brooklyn!

About 20 Brooklyn families are looking to share a house in a Brownstone Brooklyn neighborhood, where they can engage in communal behavior like shared meals and communal relaxation activities, according to the Brooklyn Paper.

Like much else in Brooklyn, this urban kibbutz lifestyle won't come cheap.  read more »

On a recent Saturday night, I did a little experiment: I broke the rules of youthful social engagement and went to a bar by myself. I sat in the dimly lit courtyard behind Union Pool in Williamsburg. I made myself available, quietly sipping a pint of Blue Moon.

By 11, small groups had perched themselves all around me on wooden benches chatting about their lives, jobs and families. A group of three pretty ladies gossiped vehemently about their film industry jobs. I sat nearby in my frilly dress eavesdropping. After an hour of enjoying the warm weather, and having not made any new acquaintances, I made my way to sit at the bar. Again, no luck. Rarely are Brooklyn's local watering holes a place to meet new people these days. The age-old complaint of post-college social isolation was now fresh in my mind.

While advising me about my love life, my mother always likes to tell stories about her youthful evenings spent at her local singles bar. The rules of engagement are much different now. It's been a long time since there were social mores about which gender approaches the other, pays for dates or makes the first move on a first date. A cursory glance at Craigslist's missed connections section proves that many 25- to 35-year-olds, especially recent transplants, don't necessarily have the stones to introduce themselves in person.  read more »

For those of us of a certain age, MTV's The Real World was, like, the coolest thing ever: Pedro vs. Puck, that Irish guy Dom from the second season, the year it took place in London with the, like, 16-year-old dating the 14-year-old. Fascinating slice-of-life stuff when viewed from the suburbs.

And, then, for a long, long time, it was the stupidest thing on cable TV. And still is, probably. We don't know. We stopped watching around voting age.

But! Today, MTV announces that the 21st season of The Real World will be filmed in Brooklyn.

Release after the jump, and expert commentary here regarding possible spots in the borough for filming.  read more »

In an inevitable, perhaps even overdue collision of reality and lifestyle, this morning MTV announced it has green-lighted the 21st season of The Real World. It will be filmed in Brooklyn, the reigning home turf of post-teen drama, and broadcast in 13 one-hour episodes in early 2009. No word yet regarding in which neighborhood the attention-seeking hopefuls will reside and manufacture identity-based conflict. We are hoping for the corner of Smith and Carroll but will also settle for Bedford and North Sixth. We would also like to see The Real World: East New York, where things start getting really real, and surely City Councilman Charles Barron of that neighborhood would assist with locations. God speed, young funny-haired applicants.  read more »

Is a sustainably designed Argington Picchu Dresser (above) just the thing your tyke needs to make her room complete? Have you been jonesing for a Lotta Jansdotter hand tote?

If so, you've got exquisite timing. Friday through Sunday, "Bklyn Designs" will take over Dumbo (itself home to Bo Concept and West Elm) for the fifth year running.  read more »

If there's anything more symbolic of a neighborhood's gentrification, well, we can' t think of it: Nam's grocery on Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights is going organic, according to Brooklynian.com.  read more »

Humans aren't the only mammals fighting for real estate in Brownstone Brooklyn. Now, even dogs are joining the fray!

Apparently, the number of canines vying for space in Fort Greene Park has increased to the point that owners are concerned about a corresponding rise in dust-ups between mutts.  read more »

Nearly five years in the making (and just a few years off its originally-planned 2005 opening), Swedish retailer IKEA's 346,000-square-foot store on the Brooklyn waterfront will finally open on June 18, the company announced today.

"We made excellent progress on construction last year and so far this spring, so we are confident the remaining construction milestones and interior build-up process will be complete by mid-June," said store manager Mike Baker in a statement.  read more »

Another scene from Thursday evening's protest outside the Brooklyn Museum of Art against Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner.

The big protest against Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner went off Thursday evening outside of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, which was honoring Mr. Ratner inside for his philanthropy. Above is a nattily dressed protestor (it was black-tie inside and outside--get it?!) snapped by Observer photo editor Nicole Brydson. More to come.

Condo and co-op prices dropped in brownstone Brooklyn neighborhoods like Carroll Gardens and Park Slope in the first quarter of 2008, according to a new report from the Corcoran Group. Manhattan owners—and those who can afford to be some day—should take note.

The average sales price of Brooklyn condos and co-ops combined dropped 10 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007 through the first of 2008 to $615,000. The median price dropped as well, 7 percent to $549,000.  read more »

Brooklyn is the seventh-largest county in the United States, according to new census estimates. The County of Kings has 2,528,050 residents. Queens was No. 10 with 2,270,338; and Manhattan was No. 19 with 1,620,867 residents. The census' estimates run through July 1, 2007.

Although all three experienced population gains over previous years' estimates going back to 2000, none were among the nation's 100 fastest-growing counties; nor were the Bronx or Staten Island. The Bronx was No.  read more »

A group of neighborhood and business groups opposed to the reopening and expansion of the House of Detention at the edge of Downtown Brooklyn are expanding their opposition as the city moves closer to expanding the now-shuttered jail.

A group calling itself the Brooklyn House of Detention Community Stakeholders Group has launched a Web site for the issue, announcing their labors today with their very first press release.  read more »

The city is looking for developers to renovate and operate the landmarked, long-derelict Loew’s Kings Theater—“the Kings” as locals called it back in the day—on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. Designed in 1929 by Rapp and Rapp Architects, the 3,769-seat movie palace modeled after the Paris Opera House is the only one of the five “Wonder Theaters” Loew’s built in the city that has not been renovated or converted into a church.

Rehabilitating the majestic, rotting Art Deco building will not be cheap. It has remained shuttered since 1978—the city took it over in 1983—and the city's Economic Development Corporation estimated that the project would cost a minimum of $70 million in the request for proposals it issued this week.  read more »

Biggie is coming to the big screen, according to Reuters. Jamal Woolard, a Brooklyn-based rapper, will play the late rap icon Biggie Smalls, a.k.a. the Notorious B.I.G., in the upcoming biopic Notorious. He passed the open casting call last fall. Like Biggie, Mr. Woolard was a drug dealer before he became a rapper. Also known as Gravy, he has released a number of albums, though he's perhaps best known for being shot before a radio appearance outside the New York hip-hop station Hot 97 two years ago, after which he proceeded with the interview and became a part of hip-hop lore. Biggie's mom, Voletta Wallace, cited "Jamal's charming personality, warm spirit, wonderful sense of humor and beautiful smile" as reasons for the casting. "He is a talented and charismatic actor, and I am excited that he will bring Christopher's character to life." Derek Luke will play P. Diddy and Anthony Mackie will play Tupac Shakur. Angela Basset is set to play Biggie's mom. The movie is set for release next January.

We’ve always dismissed the hordes of young hipsters tapping away on their laptops in Williamsburg and Park Slope cafes in the middle of a Wednesday afternoon as trust-fund babies or dilettantes. But it just so happens they might be part of the burgeoning population the Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation calls “self-employed creative professionals.”

This broad category of workers encompassing everyone from freelance sound mixers and graphic designers to independent artists, performers, and performance artists living in Brooklyn increased in number 33 percent between 2002 and 2005 to 22,000, according to the BEDC, compared to an increase of only 6.5 percent in Manhattan.

Most of them are clustered in Williamsburg, Dumbo, BoCoCa, Red Hook, and Park Slope in the swathe of northern and eastern Brooklyn the BEDC has labeled the “Creative Crescent.”  read more »

Stereogum, the gossipy music blog, will have more pop culture punditry for its readers to chew on: Videogum, a new entertainment blog focusing on television, movies, web shorts, and video games will launch this spring.  read more »

>> The National, Feb. 22-23, Brooklyn Academy of Music (sold out)

"No way! A 2,500 seat theater!" said The National’s Bryce Dessner, sounding more like one his band’s teenage fans than a well-traveled 34-year-old guitarist. He was calling from Ditmas Park—a few neighborhoods south of the Brooklyn Academy of Music where his brooding hometown band will take the stage for two sold-out nights tonight and tomorrow night. "It's just not something we would have considered."  read more »

Though I spent three years living in Greenpoint, I often found myself shunning the local nightlife—aside from a few restaurants and my local watering hole the Pencil Factory—for cozy nights in on my quiet residential street. Especially during this time of year. But despite no longer residing there, I've recently found myself traveling north to Williamsburg and Greenpoint for a night out more often and apparently, I'm not alone!

On a recent Thursday, I headed to the Music Hall of Williamsburg to catch a few bands play. On my walk toward the venue, which stands just short of the East River, I bypassed the Thai restaurant Sea, now North 6th Street's bridge-and-tunnel capital. Patrons were falling out of the doors, the line for a table immense, while a DJ boomed hip hop to a crowd donning their Sunday (or Thursday) best. Similarly, up the street, Planet Thai was packed to the brim with people seeking a lounge, restaurant and bar feel all in one.  read more »

I got an email this morning from the Center for an Urban Future. They will host a forum on March 5 entitled, "Harnessing Brooklyn's Creative Capital: The Impact of Self-Employed Creative Professionals on the Borough's Economy." So, come one, come all, ye playwrights and graphic designers, ye aspiring novelists and copywriters. Admission's free, but space is limited. More here (PDF).

One of the major differences, generally speaking, between Manhattan and Brooklyn is the proximity you have to your neighbor. In Manhattan, residents may feel piled on top of each other in shoeboxes or filing cabinets, depending on your metaphor preference, but rarely will they ever get to know one another. In Brooklyn, residents tend to have more space and fewer neighbors, yet the proximity seems closer.

Brooklynites exist closer to the urban frontier.  read more »

Apparently it's quite controversial to discuss the experience of living in Brooklyn when it comes to the topic of race. A few weeks back, I dared to talk about it and received a lot of flack. But in my hood, Prospect Heights, and anywhere really, race, class and gentrification are heavy topics, and I'm not going to shy away from them.

After graduating college, I spent close to two years working in central Brooklyn politics, commuting south every morning from my apartment in Greenpoint to a state senator's office on Flatbush Avenue near Lincoln Place. I worked with families whose homes were in disrepair, mediating fights with landlords over HPD cases; and with community groups, landlords and community affairs police officers over drug-related crime. All the work merely put band-aids on a broken system. I often returned home in utter shock. Perhaps you've seen The Wire.  read more »

Rachel Eisner, an Obama supporter from Brooklyn with “much admiration for Hillary,” emailed this:

My polling place at p.s. 9 in Prospect Heights was very organized and ran smoothly, as it tends to based on my experiences there. However, the machine for my district was out of order and I was required to fill out a paper ballot with no privacy. And then insert it into a cardboard box that was sealed with one strip of masking tape. Yikes. The volunteers were all very helpful and cheery...but still....that scared me.

A source with Obama's New York campaign claims there are problems with voting in parts of Brooklyn.

"There are a substantial amount of problems in a limited location," the source says, citing at at least eight polling locations that are having problems, concentrated in Bed Stuy, Fort Greene, East New York and East Flatbush.

These are also the areas where Obama's support in New York is strongest.

A Williamsburg reader emails:

Voting this morning was a slightly more confusing and anticlimactic experience than I had expected. I stopped by the school on North 5th between Roebling and Driggs on my way into work, guided by a smattering of scotch-taped signs and several Obama canvassers (I didn't actually count 500 steps from them to the polling booth itself, but I was slightly suspicious).

 read more »

Former City Councilwoman Una Clarke, a Clinton supporter, is organizing a major event tonight in Flatbush, in part as a counter-demonstration of the strong support Barack Obama seems to have in that part of Brooklyn.

Clarke, who said that the details are not finalized for the event, tried explaining to me Obama’s local appeal.  read more »