Cards Against Humanity, the irreverent party game, offers different themed expansion packs, and the latest internet trend is for people to create packs for their cities. (See D.C.'s here). So of course, someone made one for Brooklyn and is trying to fund it on Kickstarter. Phrase include things like "I grabbed this hipster by his handlebar mustache and shoved ______ in his mouth," while answers include "Gentrification" and "The Ghost of Biggie Smalls." [DNAinfo; official]Mapping Brooklyn's 1940 Rents, When $100 Was Expensive
In New York City right now, the rent is too damn high, especially in Brooklyn. But what about in Kings County in 1940? An incredible map from the Brooklyn Historical Society offers some perspective. Drawn from census data for average monthly rent, most of the borough's housing ranged from $20 to $49 per month (where the blocks are orange, green and light blue). Where was living the most expensive? Look for the darker colors. Around the waterfront between the Navy Yard and Fulton Terminal, and then, surprisingly (!), in Bay Ridge. It cost more to reside around Prospect Park, which makes sense—but there are also parts of southern Brooklyn, as well as swaths of Coney Island, where rents were an extremely pricey $50-$100 back then, but aren't nearly so prized today. One hundred dollars in 1940, by the by, comes out to $1,677.22 today.
The print is on display as part of an exhibition called Mapping Brooklyn, on view till May 3 at BRIC House. Go ahead, get lost in the halcyon days when rents didn't even come close to the thousand-dollar mark.
9 Vintage New York City Postcards and the Same Views Today
[Rockefeller Center as pictured in a 1930s postcard, and today.]
Few things serve as better time capsules than vintage postcards. They render a location—idealistically, of course, given that they're sent to far-off friends and relatives with notes about how wonderfully things are going on holiday—and freeze it in time. The folks that created ScenePast (which captured and mapped movie locations) have come up with a new app called Americana Road Trip, which contains more than 600 historic cards of various landmarks across the U.S. It allows users to compare a given vista with today's view of the same spot, as well as (somewhat ironically) electronically send someone a missive straight out of the olden days. So go ahead, see how much Columbus Circle has changed in eight decades, and how much Rockefeller Centerhasn't.
Looking Back at the Blizzard of 1888; MCNY Landmarks Show
[Image via MCNY.]
THE PAST—New Yorkers have been toughing out snowstorms in their hidey-holes for at least the past 150 years, and have managed to not completely lose it. But so far that's proving untrue for Blizzard Juno, which has at the very least set a Lord of the Flies-esque scenario upon each of the city's grocery stores. It's time to recall the Great Blizzard of 1888 which, despite the daunting snow walls it brought to Brooklyn sidewalks pictured above (h/t tipster), humanity managed to pull through. Let's all take a cue from it. Now, some pleasant-looking snowfor your viewing pleasure. [CurbedWire inbox]
UPPER EAST SIDE—To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Landmarks Law, the Museum of the City of New York will be hosting "Saving Place: 50 Years of New York City Landmarks", an exhibition that will explore how the law "underscores how civic and business leaders, grass roots activists, and design professionals have come together to create a contemporary New York City that blends old and new in a dynamic urbanism." The exhibition, which will show from April 21 through September 13, will put on display original documents, drawings, paintings, photographs, building pieces, and more to highlight the achievements of the law as well as how it may affect the city in years to come. [CurbedWire inbox; previously]
Bay-Front Mill Basin Home With Bamboo Garden Wants $8M
Our semi-regular feature, Monday Mansion, examines the most interesting mega homes on the market in the far reaches of New York. Have a listing in mind that we're missing? Tell us about it. To the outer boroughs we go!
Mill Basin, that stronghold of wannabe Miami architecture, has bequeathed another interesting home to the market. The limestone, glass and bronze bay-front abode at 2387 56th Drive has a second-floor bamboo garden, a rooftop kitchen, and three bedrooms with full baths and balconies. The home with Manhattan skyline views is asking $8 million; a modest sum compared to its ostentatious neighbor that has, for the past two years, been asking in the neighborhood of $30 million.
UPDATE: A succession of in-the-know commenters claim that the $8 million dollar home was previously being marketed as part of the neighboring compound at 2458 National Drive. Considering that the bonkers abode recently cut its ask from $30 million to $17 million, this new addition to the Mill Basin market makes sense.
10 of the Cheapest Brooklyn Townhouses Available Right Now
Brooklyn townhouses don't come cheap. In fact, they often come with $3 million price tags, according to the latest market reports, but even that is a lot less than many mint condition homes. So in search of the best bargains (once again), we scoured StreetEasy to find 10 of the best (mostly) move-in ready single-family homes* in Brownstone Brooklyn (plus the neighboring areas) and North Brooklyn for less than $2 million.
*It should be noted that there are dozens of good-looking two- and three-family homes in prime areas for less than $2 million, but we wanted a challenge.
*It should be noted that there are dozens of good-looking two- and three-family homes in prime areas for less than $2 million, but we wanted a challenge.
Five Reasons Why Brooklyn Is Bursting With New Hotels
Undisputedly, Manhattan is the borough of hotels, but it might not be long before Brooklyn is bringing up the rear. While some may still conflate the borough's short-term stay scene with reviews from its most wanting hotels, like Red Hook's Brooklyn Motor Inn whose TripAdvisor reviewers snub it as "very simple, filthy, and loud," and a "rathole," hotels like Williamsburg's lauded Wythe are becoming more and more common throughout the borough. The Observer took a look atwhy this is happening, and it isn't just because of the borough's residential popularity. Here are a few reasons:
1) Hotels are not coming to the borough because of its residential surge. Why, then? Hotelier Richard Born passed on investing in the Wythe when Williamsburg was still, well, Williamsburg, but is now developing a Pod Hotel on nearby North 4th Street. Behind Born's change of heart? Born noticed that guests at his Manhattan Pod's were using the hotels' iPads to look up how to get to, and what to do in Brooklyn. In short, Brooklyn became a tourist destination.
There Are So Many $3M Townhouses in Brooklyn These Days
In 2009, 11 townhouses sold in Brooklyn for more than $3 million. In 2014, there were 98.
Post-recession, the townhouse market in Brownstone Brooklyn and North Brooklyn has exploded, to an astonishing degree, a new report from Ideal Properties Group shows. The number of $3 million townhouses sold in those areas has basically doubled every year since 2009, increasing 579 percent over that time span. The percentage of the Brownstone/North Brooklyn market that $3 million houses takes up has also skyrocketed, up to 9.5 percent in 2014, from 4.7 percent in 2013. (In '09, it was 1.4 percent.) None of this should really come as a shock to anyone who has been paying attention, but when you see the numbers laid out like that... oh man. Brooklyn townhouses are very expensive.
In 2013, actor Ethan Hawkeditched Chelsea for Boerum Hill, and now, thanks to an interview with Manhattan magazine (and re-reported in the Post) we know why: "The whole city's changing, while Brooklyn feels to me the way New York was a while ago," he told the magazine. "Brooklyn is about the barometric pressure of New York turned down about 20 points." [NYP; previously]
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Live in New York's Christmas Lights Mecca, With Pool, For $6M
Our semi-regular feature, Monday Mansion, examines the most interesting mega homes on the market in the far reaches of New York. Have a listing in mind that we're missing? Tell us about it. To the outer boroughs we go!
'Tis definitely not the season to think about floating around in a chlorinated tub surrounded by lush flora... but that's what this new-to-market Brooklyn house makes us want to do. (Because a 2,000-square-foot backyard with a heated pool, hot tub, and waterfall just sound so good right about now.) Wedged in between Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst, the neighborhood of Dyker Heights is best known for its over-the-top Christmas-light displays. Just imagine how this six-bedroom, five-bath home—with a lovely kitchen featuring a stained-glass light fixture and a brick hearth surrounding the range—would look absolutely covered in LED lights. Or, if the buyer doesn't swing that way, then bathed in their reflective glow. A house for all seasons, this is; it wants $6.45 million.
The Story of 2014: Brooklyn Rents Rose 10% Since January
Because there can't be enough coverage of rising rents, listings siteZumper has crunched the numbers on rents in Manhattan and Brooklyn neighborhoods for the entirety of 2014 to date—and the stats reflect the high-rent reality that New Yorkers have been experiencing for quite some time. In Brooklyn, rents rose more than 10 percent, although the green spots in certain neighborhoods like Brooklyn Heights and Windsor Terrace reveal that not all prices are on the up-and-up. (Though in the former, they're already pretty darn high.) The areas that saw the highest rent increases are, unsurprisingly, the fastest-gentrifying ones, including Bushwick and Crown Heights. Zumper outlines some trends behind the numbers: people fleeing Manhattan in search of cheaper rents in Brooklyn (though that gap is shrinking); people looking for bigger apartments, which Kings County also has; and existing Brooklyn residents moving eastward in search of better deals.
Manhattan and Brooklyn Rents Continue to Rise; Queens Dips
Manhattan rents are up year-over-year for the ninth consecutive month, with the median rent up 4.4 percent to $3,235, which should come as a surprise to no one. Along the same lines, the use of concessions by landlords fell, as did the average number of days that a unit spent on the market and negotiability (i.e. discounts), per the Elliman report (PDF), because trying to rent in Manhattan remains a virtual nightmare. Things are not much different in Brooklyn, where, following a two-month decline in year-over-year rents, rents are now up for the second straight month to $2,948 (a 3.1 percent year-over-year-increase). Landlord concessions remain low and a surge of new rentals in the borough indicates that many tenants are getting priced out when it comes time for lease renewals.
Brooklyn Has the Least Affordable Housing In the Country
Well, this is depressing: a new study by RealtyTrac shows that Brooklyn is the least affordable housing market not in the state, or even on the east coast, but in the entire country. That's right, Kings County is the least affordable place to live in the United States. Bloomberg says that the findings are based on the "median household income required to make a monthly payment for a median-priced home from the beginning of 2000 through October." Brace for this: the study says a Brooklyn buyer needs to fork over 98-percent of the borough's median income to afford the payment on a median priced home of $615,000. No wonder almost 70-percent of people living in the borough are renters. And even with that, the median rental has increased 6-percent over the last year to $2,858. Renters, time to buddy-up. Buyers looking for a deal, maybe it's time to look elsewhere.
· Brooklyn Worst in U.S. For Home Affordability [Bloomberg]
· Park Slope House Sells For $10.8 Million, Sets Neighborhood Record[Curbed]
· Market Reports archives [Curbed]
· Brooklyn Worst in U.S. For Home Affordability [Bloomberg]
· Park Slope House Sells For $10.8 Million, Sets Neighborhood Record[Curbed]
· Market Reports archives [Curbed]
Borough President Wants Housing at Brooklyn Army Terminal
- Brooklyn Army Terminal photos by Evan Bindelglass
3 IMAGES
Mayor de Blasio's ambitious affordable housing plan has Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams thinking creatively. "Brooklyn no longer has any area that is undesirable," Adams said, possibly overstating his case a little, in a new report that proposes new residential construction at sites like Sunset Park's Brooklyn Army Terminal (which the city is already invested in turning into a manufacturing hub), Broadway Triangle (tied up in litigation), and Gowanus Green (terrifyingly polluted). Adams also wants to turn city-owned parking lots in southern Brooklyn (Brighton Beach, Bensonhurst and Midwood) into housing. "We have to stop walking by stones and start overturning stones," he said.
Residents of southeast Brooklyn have voted to endorse funding a coastal protection study and stormwater retention system, although it's ultimately New York Rising's Southeast Brooklyn Waterfront Planning Committee that gets to call the shots with the $4.38 million allocated to Bergen Beach, Mill Basin, Mill Island, and Marine Park. The coastal protection study, with help from the Army Corps of Engineers, will help determine how to protect the neighborhoods from the next big storm while the stormwater retention system will convert Parks Department land into wetland. Both projects will cost the committee $500,000. [BP]SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER
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