Author: linked

So says the Real Deal.

You can take a few things away from this report, depending on whether your glass is half full or half empty.

Half full: Williamsburg has seen 269 condo closings for the calendar year to date (through November, I believe). That is more than the next three neighborhoods (Park Slope, Greenpoint and Prospect Heights) combined.

Half empty: Williamsburg still has 348 condo listings. And I would bet that that number dramatically undercounts the actual inventory.

Half full: The average asking price for those 348 listing is $757 per square foot, higher than every neighborhood except Fort Greene and Brooklyn Heights.

Half empty: The condos that have sold so far this year have averaged $548 per square foot, lower than every other neighborhood in the survey (including Greenpoint).

Half full: The report lists 235 signed contracts for Williamsburg condos (more than twice any of the other neighborhoods surveyed).

Still half full: The average listing price for condos with signed contracts is $736 per square foot, higher than in any other neighborhood except Brooklyn Heights.

Make of it what you will.

The team [was] told by Markowitz that he had many objections, the same as those brought forth by Community Board 1 the week before, when the project was voted down in a 31-8 vote… “They are my appointees. I appointed them, you do understand, right?” Markowitz asked, referring to CB 1 board members.

The Eagle reports that Rose Plaza’s development team may be preparing to respond those objections.

Good for him.

In six months New Yorkers will be complaining because the City is ticketing them exactly five minutes after the meter expires. What is the Council going to do then? Tack another five minutes on?

What a stupid bill.

The charges are relatively minor, and the two “self-hating Jewish hipsters” were released with desk appearance tickets.

“That unauthorized painting on New York City property is unlawful, but that is overlooked because it’s committed against the terrible Hasidim,” [neighborhood resident] Moshe Goldberger said.

Uh, no Moshe, it’s called civil disobedience, one tenet of which is taking responsibility for your acts of civil disobedience. By turning themselves in, Hechtropf and Piccochi seem to get that. Good for them.

Are businesses on Manhattan Avenue refusing to pay for Christmas decorations?!?

So says the Brooklyn Paper.

Apparently things got pretty heated at the Borough President’s hearing for Rose Plaza.

Marty, to his credit, pushed the applicant to go beyond the bare minimum of 20% affordable housing. Their response was:

‘There is no other waterfront project developed on private land that is required to provide more than 20 percent affordable housing,’ said [Rose attorney Howard] Weiss.

Fair point (though I think Schaeffer Landing would meet Weiss’s test). But on the other hand, the community has consistently advocated for more than 20%. Twice as much as 20%, in fact.

Andy Campbell eats out at the new South 4th Street tapas bar.

Bike advocates repainted the Bedford Avenue bike lane the other night.