When a giant cockroach climbs up your pant leg and tickles your inner thigh: Spring has arrived.
ROUND 1: Cockroach attacks elbow; runs away.
ROUND 2: Cockroach mounts leg; pants removed; cockroach escapes.
ROUND 3: Cockroach taken out with targeted blast of RAID Ant & Roach Killer (Aroma a Aire Fresco).
[IMAGE: Action Pest Control]
In response to Quig’s post about the mystery Pacific St. lot going up for auction, Tom wrote in with some tips:
*These auctions happen all the time at 360 Adams Street in downtown Brooklyn. You can subscribe to the listings and get a weekly flyer of all the properties.
*This is not the best way of buying real estate. Most properties have leins you must pay off, and they are in very bad condition. Also, it is rare to find one in a good neighborhood. If it is of any value, bidding is fierce. These autions are so crowded they do them on the steps outside the building.
*You must have a check for a down payment if you win the bid. You must then secure financing to buy the property within a couple of months. Banks may be wary of these properties and you will have a hard time getting a loan.
*Each year, the city has yearly auctions for properties left to the state when no heir can claim the property. These houses are usually looted by the city first, and its contents auctioned off.
*VERY ODD: The city also sells each year at auction Odd Lots and Lots. These are empty lots and sometimes partial lots: “I have seen lots 2 feet wide by 100 foot deep. They are lots that exist between buildings that no one owns.”
Brownstoner picked up on Quig’s find and asked, “does anyone know the best way to stay abreast of both private and public auctions? We’d like to be able to keep an eye on them.”
Helpful and anonymous Brownstoner readers responded that, besides the New York Lawyer website where this listing was found, you can also check with JER Revenue Services Of course, you can also pay Property Shark a subscription fee for their listings, which they collate from various legal publications.
Finally, another anonymous Brownstoner reader noted that, if the lien is small in comparison to the property value (lien of $183K for the Pacific Street lot), “the debtor will find some way to stave off foreclosure by the auction date. Unlikely that the property will actually go to auction.”
Details awaited.
Details FOUND: TIVOs ready? As dirtgirl notes in the Comments below, Biscuit will be on “Roker on the Road” Episode #AR0302, airing again April 12, 2005 12:00 PM ET.:
Cereal & Cakes
“…Al digs in to some mouth-watering Carolina barbeque, by way of Brooklyn…”
Biscuit | 367 Flatbush Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11238. 718-398-2227.
Did anyone go/is anyone planning to go to this? The numbers almost work, and when the numbers almost work, that invariably means there is something wrong with the building, the location or the deal.
Thanks to Brownstoner for calling this to our attention.
Prospect Heights
596 Franklin Ave.
Park Terrace Properties
Sat 3:30-5, Sun 3:30-5pm
$625,000
“Legal two famiy house with 3 rental units. 4 story brownstone with 4 bedroom duplex and 2 one-bedroom rental units. Needs some cosmetic TLC. Priced to sell.”
So much for the mythical Boymelgreen Roadblock. Anyone who actually believed Shaya Boymelgreen earnestly intended to build a hotel near Pacific and Vanderbilt should read today’s New York Times (thanks sje for the tip): Developer Bruce Ratner is going to buy those two buildings (800 Pacific Street and 546 Vanderbilt Avenue) in the footprint of the Atlantic Yards project. Rival developer Boymelgreen had bought the buildings in August–August–and had “vowed to block” Ratner’s plans for the Atlantic Yards project, according to NYT.
So, let’s recap: Boymelgreen bought the property in August 2004, for $20 million, for no other reason than he thought it might be a nice place for a hotel. Eight months later, Ratner’s Forest City Ratner Companies agrees buy the buildings and pay $44 million to Boymelgreen’s development company. So, a difference of $22 million in 8 months, or a selling price 120% higher than the buying price.
BOYMELGREEN, the team player: “I’m not the one to block a big project that everybody wants to see going on.”
As Jack Krohn infamously remarked, “it’s a pretty rare occasion that a man as rich as Ratner does not get his way.” This latest “win-win” transaction shows that when two rich men square off, nobody actually has to lose. It’s a great day to be a multi-millionaire in New York!
Lucky for you. Happy Weekend, Prospect Heights.
Namaskar, Inc. | 643 Vanderbilt Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11238. 718-636-1967.
That’s pretty much the headline Elon James White of Brooklyn Comedy Company suggested, and that works for Daily Heights. Not as in, “oh, because she’s on TV, she must be good.” But as in, “I haven’t heard of her, but somebody actually thought she was funny enough to have a mass audience, so maybe it will be worthwhile to walk 5 minutes to Washington Avenue THIS MONDAY NIGHT and NOT PAY A COVER to see her. And if she bombs, there are four others on the bill, so that’s good odds, right?”
Here’s a not-bad video clip of Rachel Feinstein on Comedy Central’s official Premium Blend website (click “Watch Now” below her photo).
NOTE: They are actually taking table reservations for this one, so if it sounds like fun, you may want to e-mail Brooklyn Comedy Company.
UPCOMING on April 11th: Another “all star” lineup featuring Christian Finnegan, probably best known for playing “Chad” the white roommate in “The Mad Real World” sketch Chappelle’s Show.
Ripple Bar | 769 Washington Ave. (btw. St. John’s and Lincoln Pl.), Brooklyn, NY 11238. 718-230-4514.
Thank sje for calling to your attention the terrible, just terrible, the way New York Press just railed on Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Borough President:
“Once upon a time, when the Board of Estimate ruled graft and contracts in New York, the five borough presidents had power. Today, it’s a no-show job. The bad news with Markowitz is that he shows up, and so do his 116 employees, his multi-million-dollar budget and his four SUVs equipped with police sirens. Not content with doing nothing, Markowitz finds time to advocate for the downtrodden, such as Ikea, Home Depot and developer Bruce Ratner in their noble quest to cannibalize mom-and-pop neighborhoods. The porcine oaf is also known for racing around the city in HOV lanes with police lights flashing, en route to handing out a plaque. Markowitz is up for reelection next year. Instead, he should save taxpayers millions of dollars and fire himself, fire his employees and turn Borough Hall into a methadone clinic. At least then we’d have a better class of people hanging around the place.”
PICTURED: Marty Markowitz and “AB2IZ”
OF NOTE: Markowitz narrowly edged out Weblogs, Inc. chairman Jason Calacanis, who is #23 on the list: “His is a blog company that will make money from advertising while allegedly paying his army of typers a pittance in a ‘partnership’ that promises a payday from future earnings. Hmm, where’ve we heard that before? … it’ll be tough to find talent out there when all of the naive bloggers holding their breath for their big breaks will have long since reconciled themselves to temping.”
Cash only. And bring a lot of cash. A quick stop in Natural Land/Sea Land can easily go overbudget. But how much is too much? On a recent Chowhound Outer Boroughs thread there was some griping that they “often overcharge for even the cheapest products … They know they offer the best produce and groceries in the area and they abuse it.”
I may be wrong, but I think the price of these nuts just went up by $1 a pound… And just out of frame (click here for full image) you can see they are charging $12 for what looks like a pound of hazelnut-flavored coffee. Growing up, I was always told they’re called convenience stores, so you’re paying for the convenience. But too many times I walk away from the register, shaking my head…
Could the news get any worse today? Terry Schiavo dies. Gasoline and Home Heating Oil prices surge to record levels (did I call it? I called it.) And now, we find out that Diane Boisvert has closed her Vanderbilt Ave. gallery: “The gallery has closed its doors but it will remain online,” Diane says in a tersely worded statement on her website.
Diane opened the gallery in September 2002: “What charmed me most about the place was the storefront. It used to be an old antiques store, but I decided to use it as my studio and to open the doors to fellow artists and the public … I realized that this wonderful space had too much potential to keep it just to myself.”
She had dedicated the space to showcasing contemporary artists with “individual” and “intense” works: “People who move me and give me a punch in the heart, head and spirit.”
