For Sale: Cozy 234 SF Studio Apartment in historic block of Washington Heights. Development on neatly manicured grounds with grass knolls and manicured walkways. Steps to Riverside Drive, Hudson River, 1 and C trains. Asking $20,000. Oh, and you have to be dead. It may not be a high price to pay, but it's going fast. Cemetery space is at a premium in Manhattan. Trinity Cemetery in Washington Heights is the only place left to rest in peace in Manhattan.
Paging the New York Post! Parking abusers in Forest Hills don't normally interest us, but this is just too perfect. A tipster writes:
Here's a car parked on 70th Road and 108th Street in Forest Hills - a "NO PARKING ANYTIME" zone. The license plate says DIVA2YOU. The parking pass is issued by the NYPD, and made out to both MRSDIVA and DIVA2YOU. Not only does this diva have two cars with similar vanity plates, but the photocopied parking perk expired on December 31, 2007. Today is February 25, 2008. Not only are photocopied parking passes bogus, but so is the right ot have a single pass for both cars at once.
The Burg's famous purple truck in the parking lot on Bedford Avenue between N. 11 and N. 12 street is gone. The truck, and its occupants, who spent a year living in the parking lot for $200 a month, took off last week after getting the truck back in driving condition. When last heard from on Saturday, Purple 53 was in Richmond, having left New York City on Friday after spending a few days being brought back up to driving condition. Also, tolls in Jersey apparently put a dent in the budget. The truck is headed south. Georgia is mentioned, as is Louisiana. Another piece of Williamsburg affordable housing gone.
· Purple53 Blog [purple53.com]
· Burg's Hipster Parking Lot & Purple Truck Doomed [Curbed]
· $200 Can Also Get You a Hearse in Williamsburg [Curbed]
There's nothing like a cold and snowy day in February to get a New Yorker wishing for some sun and fun. And that's just what the landscape design crew from Thomas Balsley Associates have got in mind for Phase IV of Riverside Park South, which runs north from 59th Street along the Hudson River. They're bringing us some grassy play areas for the little ones and, for kids of all ages, a restored 1940s Alco S-1 switcher locomotive. Not to mention plenty of spots to get away from it all, whether gazing up at clouds, looking out across the rusty old piers or checking out the look-alike row of residentials rising in the east. All in all, not a bad place for playin' hookey.
· Waterfront Parks & Development [Thomas Balsley Associates website]
· The Collapsed Piers of Riverside Park South [figure-ground.com]
· Extell's Riverside South Will Rule the West Side [Curbed]
City Room has fun pointing out the heroin-loaded history of longtime Curbed favorite SoHa 118 in Harlem. Meanwhile, Jeremiah's Vanishing New York alerts us to something going up in Yonkers called SoYo. Can we please just call this trend SoOver? [Crazyville]
Ah, the joys of an online discussion that provokes rants about Park Slope. There's a very hot back-and-forth going on right now prompted by a journalist's question on the Park Slope Forum about the whys of Park Slope hating. It started with this question, ostensibly asked for a future story for New York Magazine:
Why has Park Slope become shorthand for all that is evil and twee? Why is the hate so virulent -- WHERE (beyond anonymous blog posts) is it coming from? Envy? Rage against the suburbanization of all of NYC, with PS as ground zero? Simple cooler-than-thou-ness? Something else?
Greenpoint may have chickens and Greenwood Heights has guinea fowl, but they're dinner for Cobble Hill's newest resident hawk. And, it's not just any hawk, but one that's hanging out and dining on other local wildlife in the lot next to 110 Amity Street, which is slated for a controversial development. The tipster who photographed the hawk writes:
The hawk was eating a dead animal. This same photographer wonders if this Hawk had anything to do with the disappearance of the rats in the backyards (for those who do not live on a ground floor apartment do not understand). Also, since the neighborhood is Landmarked, could it also become a wildlife refuge?
Our old friend, the BellTel Lofts in Downtown Brooklyn have had some favorable reviews and some questions about windowless bedrooms, and have also had an issue in terms of what one could call sluggish sales. Now, thanks to a tipster, we know that some of the buyers are parents bearing strollers. Here comes the fun:
I am a buyer at Belltel Lofts in Downtown Brooklyn. Our building has a private Google blog forum that one of the owners in the building has created to share information with each other in order for us to stay informed and know what is going on in the building. The basic idea is a good idea but it has been hi-jacked by a bunch of stay at home moms with Entitlement Complex regarding the proposed common areas and amenities.
This gloomy, wet day is as good a day any to get up to speed on the abandoned Rat-Squirrel House in Cobble Hill. It's one of those Brooklyn structures that seems to defy the forces of the real estate market and show that there are still eccentric people in possession of valuable real estate in that part of the city. The building has been chronicled by Lost City, who first noted in December that it bears the markings of condemnation it and serves as a home to many rats, squirrels and other vermin. He says "the roof is sagging, the stoop and facade are cracked, the cornice is loose and hanging, some windows are boarded over while others are open." The house is on Kane Street near Henry and has racked up a slew of violations. Apparently, the owner still lives inside the structure with her, uh, pets. Yesterday, the Department of Buildings showed up, but couldn't get inside, but the end may be approaching for 149 Kane. If the city doesn't take it down, it would appear that gravity and the elements are ready to take over. Brooklyn drama, friends.
· Rat-Squirrel House Lady Disappoints DOB [Lost City]
· Is This the End of the Rat-Squirrel House? [Lost City]
· Rat Heaven [Lost City]
Ah, the joys of an online discussion that provokes rants about Park Slope. There's a very hot back-and-forth going on right now prompted by 
