[Photo via Pardon Me For Asking]
1) Writer Lynn Harris, a self-loathing Park Slopeian, sizes up the reasons for all the "Slope Rage" burning up the the Internet in what is a very long-awaited take on Brooklyn's favorite punching bag: "Today, Park Slope is a brand, a concept. Fourth Avenue — the Champs-Élysées of auto parts! — is home to the vile Novo Park Slope condo-monstrosity and the ridiculous boutique Hotel Le Bleu, whose Web site reveals its high prices (up to $369), but not its location on a bleak slip between a taxi garage and a Staples. (What are the odds that its cocktail bar will serve as the gin joint of choice for the fabulous fictional Slopers in the drama about the neighborhood that is being developed, seriously, by Darren Star of “Sex and the City”?)" ["Park Slope: Where Is the Love?"/Lynn Harris]
2) Much like Williamsburg's La Marqueta, East Harlem's own classic La Marqueta is twisting in the wind, and the future of this once-bustling community fixture isn't very clear. The latest plan is to create a permanent open-air market with an eight-block stretch of kiosks filled with local vendors, but every plan to save the complex over the years has fallen apart. [The City/Alex Mindlin]
3) A look into the trend of building residents coming together online to network, complain and order window treatments as a group. The Gantry in LIC has a tight-knit little group, and Stuy Town is about to go digital. ['They're All Connected'/Lisa Keys]
4) To limit development on West End Avenue?we're looking at you, 535 WEA!?a group of residents have come together to ask the Landmarks Preservation Commission to create a West End Avenue historic district from 70th to 107th Streets. A similar proposal was rejected two years ago, but now there's more community support. [The City/Alex Mindlin]
5) New column alert! The Sell is a reverse of The Hunt, chronicling the exploits of people trying to unload an apartment. In the inaugural effort, a couple lists their two-bedroom co-op on 56th Street between Lexington and Park Avenue for $819,00, and six-and-a-half months and 24 open houses later, they find an all-cash taker for $760,000. [The Sell/Keith Mulvihill]
6) One of the cooler remaining original High Line buildings, 463 West Street, is now a subsidized housing complex for artists, but was a factory where early live television experiments were held. The building pretty much looks the same as it did then, and a piece of the High Live survives under it. [Streetscapes/Christopher Gray]
7) Wow, who knew that landlords in Astoria hated dogs? A young married couple wants to find a cheap rental in the 'hood, but the dog thing keeps coming back to, um, bite them. Must they settle on a crappy place just so Iggy will be welcomed? Yes. We thought Queens was supposed to be chill? [The Hunt/Joyce Cohen]
Loading comments...