By Kim Velsey 5/09 4:16pm

Mysteries of Brooklyn

Brooklyn: Nice place, but the food is terrible

Quintessential Upper East Sider Elizabeth Stribling May Have Moved To Brooklyn, But Still Grocery Shops in Manhattan

It’s good to change with the times, move to new neighborhoods (boroughs even!), expand one’s client-base. But, you know, nothing too wild, like buying groceries in Brooklyn.

In a Real Deal profile, Brooklynite Elizabeth Stribling talks about how she and her brokerage firm have changed, expanding their focus beyond the most elite and elitist precincts of Manhattan, but reveals that she still does her grocery shopping on the Upper East Side. Read More

By Kim Velsey 4/27 8:59pm

Manhattan Transfers

A lot easier to get into than the Kingdom of God

Praise God! Another Watchtower Property Sells

End times are near for the Jehovah’s Witnesses… as the largest landlords in Brooklyn Heights, that is. The charming, historic townhouse at 105 Willow Street—one of the religious group’s many charming, historic neighborhood properties—has sold for $3.3 million, city records show.

We’d say God must be smiling down upon the Watchtower properties, with this sale Read More

By Matt Chaban 3/21 2:09am

Manhattan Transfers

10 Photos

From Capote to GTA.

A Rockstar Record! Grand Theft Auto Creator Dan Houser Buys Truman Capote Mansion for $12.5 M.

It has been said in our screen-addled age that video games are the new fiction. If that is truly the case, Grand Theft Auto would be our Moby Dick, which would make Dan Houser modern America’s Herman Melville. Or maybe it’s Dickens—Mr. Houser is British and his work is equally gritty.

How fitting, then, that the Rockstar Games co-founder is the new owner of an illustrious Brooklyn Heights mansion at 70 Willow Street where Truman Capote, along with some of the borough’s richest men, once lived. The sale, at exactly $12.5 million according to city records, is the most expensive in Brooklyn history, and, by extension, anywhere outside of Manhattan. It surpasses the previous record by a full $1.5 million.

If there was any question that video games had surpassed films, music and books for cultural—to say nothing of economic—primacy, this should bring it to an end. In Cold Blood has been replaced by Red Dead Redemption. Read More

By Matt Chaban 1/13 10:47am

Brooklyn State of Mind

Not in my backyard? Why not! (Ochinko/Flickr)

Brooklyn Heights Hated the Promenade Almost as Much at the B.Q.E

Oh, the ironies of the rich.

When Robert Moses proposed a plan for the Brooklyn Queens Expressway to cut right through Brooklyn Heights, the local noblesse were in a rage. The solution was wrapping the highway around the tony neighborhood. Moses was even thoughtful enough to add the world-famous Promenade, beloved location of so many cinematographers, and still the locals were not happy. Read More