1) In this week's article about how luxurious amenities are getting out of control, we get the scoop on the Element on West 59th Street. It has 12,000 square feet of exterior landscaping with a lawn, a meditation garden, an interior party space and private gardens. And then there's the indoor children's playroom furnished by F. A. O. Schwarz. Not too shabby, but the 27-story condo building at 205 East 59th Street (right) has a mosaic garden (we don't even know what that is) and a dog park fancier than Per Se. Now we're talking! [NYTimes]
2) The Post puts the Dyker Heights section of Brooklyn under the microscope. With low rents, lots of room and a new express bus to lower Manhattan, the area is diversifying. Take it from a local realtor: "Used to be 20 sets of cousins on two blocks. Now it's people from all over the world fighting for houses. We got pizza men, lawyers, doctors, CPAs. Russians, Poles, Czechs." If there were ever to be a Czech CPA, his mind would officially be blown. [NYPost]
3) Couple sues the co-op board of Sherman Square, at 201 West 70th Street, for being?basically?a stingy co-op board. They say their unmarried status ultimately led to their rejection. We say they probably just smelled bad at their interview. [NYTimes]
4) A rundown of all the new developments popping up around the refurbished McCarren Park, Williamsburg's green zone. So this is what the 'Burg is gonna look like? Dang that's gonna be funny. [NYPost]
5) You've read the phrase in countless real estate articles: "according to property records filed with the city." We always pictured our newspaper sleuths rifling through dusty file cabinets in poor lighting at City Hall all night to get the scoop on how much Leonardo DiCaprio payed for a condo, but apparently that's not true. The Times' William Neuman offers up some tips for finding apartment information online. His must-visit destinations include Oasis, PropShark and the dreaded ACRIS. There goes the fantasy. [William Neuman/NYTimes]
6) According to The Hunt, there's a place called "Jackson Heights" where the apartments are huge and cost less than $300,000. And young newlywed couples move there to begin their new lives of bliss and joy. We're not sure that this wonderland exists, but we do know one thing: there ain't no mosaic gardens, so we're not biting. [Joyce Cohen/The Hunt]
Filed under: