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The Mysteries of Brooklyn

By David Freedlander 4/06/12 12:48pm

The Mysteries of Brooklyn

Ice-cream-cart-FurLined

Park Slope Parents Ban Talk of Ice Cream Ban

After a Park Slope mother complained on a local listserv about the ice cream vendors that are befouling a local playground, her lament went ’round the world with a slew of mostly mocking news stories about the dust-up.

This reaction did not go appreciated by Park Slope parents, and now, the keepers of the listserv have put a kibosh on any more discussion of the frozen dairy treats and their interloping purveyors:

“We are calling a HALT to all discussion of the ice cream thread and the responses it has received,” reads a message sent out by the list’s moderator. “For me the best news is that clearly there isn’t any REAL news to cover or this wouldn’t have received the coverage it did. It is time to focus on spring, holidays, vacations, and the great things our neighborhood has to offer.” Read More

By Kim Velsey 4/05/12 11:40am

The Mysteries of Brooklyn

It's Not a Brownstone, but... (Brownstoner

Mr. Brownstoner’s Crown Heights Creative Hub is But the First of Goldman Sach’s Investments in the Hood

Over the years, Jonathan Butler has covered countless Brooklyn real estate deals and developments—and by extension, the delights and absurdities of living in the borough—for his blog Brownstoner.

Now, he can finally write about his own. Mr. Butler and his partners have paid $11 million for a former Studebaker Service Station on Dean Street in Crown Heights. They plan to convert the 155,000 square-feet of space into a commercial mixed-use development that will house artists and assorted creative types as well as a food hall—a $30 million project, to which Goldman Sachs’ Urban Investment Group will contribute $25.5 million. BFC Partners, the developer behind Toren, is also involved in the deal, which was first written about in The Journal and then, of course blogged about by Mr. Butler on Brownstoner.

A promising first step—bringing Selldorf Architects on board to design the space, which should be interesting given Selldorf’s success with high/low projects in the past: Manhattan galleries and penthouses, a renovation of the Plaza’s famed Oak Room and designing a Brooklyn recycling plant. Read More

By Kim Velsey 4/04/12 1:35pm

The Mysteries of Brooklyn

The beginning of the end?

Will Whole Foods Be As Bad for Brooklyn as Ikea—or Worse? [Video]

There is something about big box stores that brings out irrational hatred. Especially in Brooklyn.

Now that plans for a 52,000-square foot Whole Foods store are hurtling toward groundbreaking, Brooklynites have been forced to confront their fears that without dogged opposition, the borough might come to resemble the kind of suburban hellhole found in the southern or central U.S. Or the Upper West Side, even. Read More

By Matt Chaban 3/14/12 10:34am

The Mysteries of Brooklyn

Goodbye Burg, hello Manhattan: 242 Bedford today and an earlier rendering of a Marshall's complex.

Whole Foods Finally Lands in Williamsburg—Where Else?—on Bedford Avenue

As Williamsburg has transformed from derelict industrial district to artists’ bohemia to ground zero for Brooklyn gentrification, one eyesore has remained on Bedford Avenue. No, not the ugly condos on all sides, but a hulking burned out warehouse at the corner of North Fourth Street. Well, it will now become the holy grail of BroBo living: a Whole Foods. Read More

By Michael Ewing 2/23/12 11:15am

The Mysteries of Brooklyn

Babies on board in Brooklyn... (New York Shitty

Strollers Clogging Brooklyn Apartments, Mass Hysteria Seizes Market

Williamsburg daddies are having a hard time finding space for both their fedora collections and their toddlers. The market, that once blossomed as a studio, one- and two-bedroom artist haven, is struggling to adjust to new family-orientated demands, the Journal notes.

Only 13 percent of the apartments on the market in Williamsburg are above 1500 square feet. The rate is even worse in Fort Greene, at 7 percent. Across the river and through the forest of Central Park, a staggering 65% of apartments are larger than 1500 square feet on the Upper West Side. Read More