Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Hollister Hovey, a shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn is somewhat of a flagship store for this new trend. The article describes sought-after items as, ''Accoutrements of the turn-of-the-19th-century leisure class'' ''the tiny domed vignettes the Victorians were so fond of (artful arrangements of taxidermied squirrels, for example, in twiggy settings)'' and ''Taxidermy, osteological antiques like monkey skeletons and other Victoriana''

By Mary Billard, NY Times

Thursday, August 05, 2010

LOREN CRONK, a jeans designer who has worked with Levi Strauss and Ralph Lauren, is opening a boutique next week called LOREN at 82 Nassau Avenue in Greenpoint, (646) 413-4984; lorencronk.com. The store is all about denim and will sell Mr. Cronk's own brands, including Soldier and Brave ($69), and denim bow ties, guitar straps and shoes from recycled denim. Mr. Cronk makes custom jeans from $800, depending on how many fittings are required. Open Thursdays through Sundays, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

By Jed Lipinski, NY Times

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Christian Hansen NY Times

Above, a no-alcohol dance party, No Lights, No Lycra, in Brooklyn.

UPON entering a pitch-black church basement in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, on a recent Tuesday night, all that could be heard were sneakers squeaking across the cement floor and Men at Work's ''Down Under'' blaring from a pair of shoddy amplifiers.

But as one's eyes adjusted to the dark, a roomful of dancing bodies appeared. When Michael Jackson's ''Smooth Criminal'' kicked in, one could make out the silhouette of a young man as he grabbed his crotch and attempted to moonwalk.

This was No Lights, No Lycra — a weekly dance party that began last summer in Melbourne, Australia, and has since spread to Berlin and San Francisco as well as Brooklyn. Unlike the typical dance party in these and other cities, you'll find neither drugs nor alcohol as part of the mix.

''It's like dancing in your bedroom with a hairbrush,'' Joanna Zawadzka, a 27-year-old graphic designer, said of No Lights, No Lycra, which lasts from 8 to 9:30 p.m. every Tuesday.

She started the Brooklyn chapter in April with Laura O'Neill and the brothers Peter and Ben Van Leeuwen, the threesome who own the Van Leeuwen artisanal ice cream company in Greenpoint.

As the name implies, dance moves go virtually unseen, and visitors needn't bother looking cool. Talking is discouraged, a $5 donation is suggested and a ''No drugs or alcohol'' footnote appears on the event's Facebook page.

''We can't really enforce anything,'' Ms. O'Neill said. ''But people seem to respect the rules.'' She said No Lights, No Lycra regularly attracts 20 to 30 people, most in their mid to late 20s.

Without recourse to chemical substances or bar stools, the right music becomes crucial.

''We argue a lot over the set list,'' said Peter Van Leeuwen. The tunes range from hip-hop to oldies to '80s rock, he said. ''We're like, 'Can we really put 'Higher and Higher' before 'Invisible Touch'?''

Thursday, July 29, 2010

A&G Merch, the Williamsburg home-furnishings store, is discounting all floor models up to 50 percent while supplies last (the Greenpoint loveseat, originally $1,499, is $1,049; the Bedford 97 sofa, regularly $1,579, is $1,105; the Woven Chair, originally $169, is $99); 111 No. 6th St. (Berry St.) (718) 388-1779 or aandgmerch.com.

By Mary Billard, NY Times

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

THE milliner Victor Osborne, who left Brooklyn to open a store on the Lower East Side, has returned, opening a charming diminutive outpost in Williamsburg. Summer best sellers include a men's Toyo Trilby ($200) and the asymmetrical fedora ($180) inspired by Marlene Dietrich. '' 'The Devil Is a Woman'-era Dietrich,'' clarified Mr. Osborne, shown in his new store. He not only makes his hats, he also makes his hat forms, an art learned at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London. Prices are $85 to $225; custom hats start at $250. Friday to Sunday, noon to 8 p.m. Victor Osborne, 358 Grand St. (Marcy Ave.), (718) 388-8480, victorosborne.com.

By Cara Buckley, NY Times

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Kirsten Luce, NY Times

Jim Morrison, a silk screen artist, in the 1,000-square-foot loft in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, that he rents for $1,750. ''The law,'' he said, ''is a sword or a shield.''

Over the years, Michael Kronberg, a 46-year-old artist, grew to accept, if not always love, the quirks and pitfalls that came with living in his loft in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

The only thing that really bothered Mr. Kronberg was the shadowy status of the place. The building is a former factory unlawfully converted into residential lofts, and its tenants were living there illegally with no rights or protections. Until now.

Michael Kronberg, an artist, lives in a former factory in Bushwick,

Under a sweeping law passed by the State Legislature, hundreds of former factory buildings and warehouses across New York City, like the one Mr. Kronberg lives in, can become legal residential lofts. It is the first expansion of the loft laws in more than two decades and extends the classic Cinderella renter's story far beyond Lower Manhattan, where most of the city's legal lofts had been concentrated, into latter-day SoHos like Williamsburg, Brooklyn; Bushwick; and Long Island City, Queens.

The new law, which was passed last month after initial objections from City Hall, will force landlords to make upgrades to their buildings. It will make formerly illegal lofts eligible for rent stabilization and protect the tenants against evictions. And it will make rental royalty out of those prescient people who moved into illegal lofts in the former frontier and now-chic neighborhoods. They will be able to stay in their sizable, often inexpensive apartments for as long as they want, legally.

''I do believe we are lucky, given the rent situations, the rents of New York and the space,'' said Julian Lwin, 41, a product designer who moved into a 1,200-square-foot Williamsburg loft, replete with 17-foot ceilings, 10 years ago. He lives there with his wife and their toddler daughter, paying about $2,500 a month.

New York's new law is modeled on the original loft law, passed in 1982, which gave rights to illegal tenants and made their lofts subject to rent stabilization. The old law applied to people living in illegal lofts in buildings where at least three units had been residentially occupied, continuously, from April 1, 1980, through Dec. 1, 1981.

''It broadens protection to all or almost all loft residents in New York City,'' said Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez of Bushwick, who sponsored the law. ''It's quite historic. No one really has given proper recognition to the significance of this population, to New York City, to its culture.''

Once an application is approved, the landlord will be required to bring the buildings in line with fire and housing codes for residential units, as by adding sprinklers, fire-resistant doors and shatter-proof glass, and removing illegal partitions. The owner can pass those costs on to the tenants over time. But the tenants' apartments become rent stabilized, with the rents allowed to rise only a certain percentage each year, and the tenants getting the rights to renew their leases indefinitely.

Indeed, the city objected to the blanket protection that the law would give to thousands of illegal conversions. No one knows for sure which units or buildings would be covered, no matter how recklessly converted or unsafe. The Bloomberg administration and several lawmakers also argued that the law would further erode the city's manufacturing base by making fewer spaces available for industrial growth.

... buildings in 13 of the city's Industrial Business Zones were excluded from the law's reach, with the exceptions of Brooklyn's Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Bushwick neighborhoods, and parts of Long Island City, which are covered by the law.

By Melena Ryzik, NY Times

Friday, July 23, 2010

IndieScreen has already hosted a film festival in Brooklyn.

Austin, Tex., has the Alamo Drafthouse. San Francisco has Foreign Cinema. Portland, Ore., has McMenamins. And Brooklyn has — well, Brooklyn has many places where you can bring a blanket and a picnic basket and watch a film in a park or on a rooftop, but few indoor options for dinner-and-a-movie year-round.

That changes with the opening of reRun Gastropub Theater, a movie screen, bar and restaurant that is an expansion of reBar in Dumbo... A similar theater, indieScreen, is to open in Williamsburg in the fall.

Other young filmmakers — and neighborhood residents — are salivating over indieScreen, a 93-seat space in Williamsburg, which is home to not one but two hipster bowling alleys and several arcade bars, including one that specializes in Skee-Ball, but no regular movie theater. The long-gestating indieScreen, owned by Anna Pozzi-Popermhem, the restaurateur behind the nearby Planet Thailand, and Marco Ursino, founder of the Brooklyn International Film Festival, will feature tapas, flatbreads and sashimi and program new and old indie movies and host festivals. Mr. Ursino and Ms. Pozzi-Popermhem took over the space in July 2009, outfitted it with surround sound and digital projectors and are hoping to open on Sept. 3, he said.

But Mr. Stevens, the reBar owner who works so much he has been known to sleep in his car outside, is committed to making his new venture work. Not that he's one of the Dumbo locals who will benefit. ''I can't afford to live in this neighborhood,'' he said. ''I live in Bushwick.''

By Douglas Quenqua, NY Times

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

LOCAL On Roebling Street, Alma Lounge draws a young, eager crowd, many of whom grew up nearby

TO many of its Latino residents, the south side of Williamsburg was starting to feel like a modern twist on ''The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'': bars, bars everywhere, but not a place to drink.

But then came the opening this spring of Alma Lounge on Roebling Street, with its red velvet ropes, Latin dance music and gender-friendly drink specials (ladies drink free till 1 a.m.). For many of the 20- and 30-somethings who grew up in this neighborhood — known to its Puerto Rican and Dominican residents as ''Los Sures'' — Alma provided the kind of upscale nightlife they had been craving.

''It feels like home,'' said David Rodriguez, 28, who grew up on South First Street. ''The crowds are good inside, and there are a lot of women. It's a different vibe.''

Andreima Grullon, 22, standing on Alma's red carpet on a recent Friday night, put it succinctly: ''Nobody disrespects you here.''

''It's a Latin club catering to a crowd that has every right to be in the neighborhood,'' shot back one Eater.com commenter. ''Williamsburg wasn't always populated with white wannabe hipster transplant trust-funders.''

Alma is just one of several new night life options to have opened between Grand Street and Broadway in the spring, leading Eater.com, in the same blog post, to declare it the season of South Williamsburg. Also new to the area are Fatty 'Cue, an Asian-tinged barbecue restaurant from Zakary Pelaccio; Pies 'N' Thighs, a studiously scruffy Southern food restaurant; and Dram, a tiki-themed cocktail lounge.

Marvin Garcia, the 28-year-old owner of Alma, said he opened his club ''so that the neighbors from Brooklyn would not have to go that far into the city'' for night life options. Its slogan, rendered only in Spanish, is ''algo differente,'' or ''something different.''

DRAM

The scene around the corner at Dram is indeed algo differente. On a Saturday night in May, the crowd looked ''like something out of a fashion magazine,'' said John Eungdamrong, 35, a medical resident who recently moved to Williamsburg from the Upper East Side. A bartender in suspenders and rolled-up shirtsleeves mixed Old Fashioneds and specialty cocktails like the Knuck if You Buck Buck (rye, house-made ginger beer, lemon, lime and aromatic bitters), while a mix of acid jazz and indie rock played overhead.

Places like Dram may have the buzz, but it's hard to argue that they don't look out of place among the bodegas and apartment buildings draped with Puerto Rican flags. Still, ''this area has become so gentrified that people will come here now,'' said Mr. Eungdamrong, who had just finished dinner at Pies 'N' Thighs across the street.

''It's not as south as it used to be,'' he observed.

Tom Chadwick, the manager of Dram, doesn't think that the changes that have transformed North Williamsburg over the last 15 years will be easily repeated on the south side. Whereas the north side had been an industrial area before the ''artists and gentrification crowd'' arrived, South Williamsburg has an established population, he said, ''and they're not going anywhere.''

By Florence Fabricant, NY Times

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

GOODS With a reconditioned trailer as the kitchen and an empty lot as the dining room, this project from 3rd Ward, an artist center, serves Alex McCrery's pedigree burgers, hot dogs and fish and chips: Lorimer & Metropolitan, Williamsburg.

By Florence Fabricant, NY Times

Monday, June 07, 2010

At the rate things are going, Brooklyn will soon have more charming country stores than Woodstock, Vt. The latest is Radish, a prepared-food shop in Williamsburg with adequate shelf space to display products made by bakers, artisan pickle-makers and chocolatiers from the borough. Amy Marks (at right) and Laura Migliozzi, former techies who own the place, had the good sense to bring in Katy Sparks, a local professional, to work with their chef, Mike Ciardi. On any given day, you'll find several casseroles of hot dishes like macaroni and cheese, curried chicken or shepherd's pie. You could easily anchor dinner with choices from an appealing and frequently changing assortment of salads and cold dishes, like asparagus with pistachios and Manchego; orzo with sugar snap peas; roasted carrots; roasted fingerling potatoes scored so that they look like gnocchi; savory tartlets; and a few meat dishes, including lamb burgers and steak. There are also sandwiches ready to go.

Radish, 158 Bedford (No. 8th), Williamsburg, (718) 782-2744. Hours: Mon. to Sat., 11 to 9; Sun. to 7. Cold dishes are mostly $5 to $18 a pound; hot dishes, $6 to $17 a pound; sandwiches, $8; wild leek tarts, $8.50; and spicy homemade ginger ale, $3.

By Christine Houghney, NY Times

Monday, June 07, 2010

One developer is hoping the deal he struck with the choreographer Elizabeth Streb will help the sales of his $1-million-plus town homes and apartments.

Some New Yorkers — no matter how uncreative their jobs and lives may be — love to mention how they live in neighborhoods once romantically settled by poets, painters and musicians.

Developers often talk up these histories when selling apartments.

But while many of them think of artists as place holders for lawyers and investment bankers, Douglas Steiner, one developer struggling to sell units in the vastly overbuilt Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg, is betting it pays to keep artists in the neighborhood even after wealthier buyers move in. He is hoping the deal he struck with the choreographer Elizabeth Streb will help the sales of his $1 million-plus town homes and apartments.

Kirsten Luce, NYTimes

The choreographer Elizabeth Streb and the developer Douglas Steiner in Ms. Streb's expansive studio in Williamsburg.

''She's part of what makes Williamsburg attractive,'' Mr. Steiner said while he and Ms. Streb sat in her warehouse, which was filled with dancers swinging from candy-colored curtainlike ribbons and troupe members rehearsing on a yellow steel mouse wheel contraption called the Whizzing Gizmo. ''We wanted to preserve that artistic character.''

Mr. Steiner and Ms. Streb make an unlikely pair. Mr. Steiner, the reserved heir to an industrial real estate fortune and chairman of Steiner Studios, jokes about how his father's definition of a beautiful building is property with ''positive cash flow.'' Ms. Streb speaks in bursts of enthusiasm about how ''action is a panacea'' for children and how she runs her troupe like a contrarian Lincoln Center.

Ms. Streb has plenty of reasons to dislike landlords: For more than a decade she fought to stay in her rented 3,000-square-foot SoHo loft, finally winning the right to buy it for $130,000 in 2008.

When Mr. Steiner bought the North First Street building that houses Ms. Streb's studio and performance space in 2006, she had been there for three years paying $5,000 a month in rent. A former food storage center, it was overrun by pigeons and squirrels when she moved in and smelled so strongly of tamari that Ms. Streb had the scent sandblasted from the concrete floors. The concrete walls were so porous that on some winter days she sent dancers home because it was too cold to rehearse.

Even though Ms. Streb thought her studio was doomed to become a residential development, she boldly asked Mr. Steiner to sell her the building. He refused. Then he realized he needed the backyard for a development project he was assembling, but Ms. Streb was entitled to use it for at least three more years under her lease.

So over lunch close by at Fabiane's Cafe, Ms. Streb told him she would let him have the backyard if he would sell her the building. They sealed the agreement with a handshake and a cherry Tootsie Pop that Mr. Steiner gave to Ms. Streb. In 2007, the troupe, Streb Extreme Action, closed on the purchase with financial help from the city and the borough president's office; if the troupe sells the building, it must be to another nonprofit organization.

But some local families have connected with Ms. Streb's studio. Jenny Williams, a painter who has lived in the neighborhood since 1992, has been sending her son, Whitman, 10, and daughter, Clementine, 8, to classes there since the studio opened. She said her daughter learned to do splits, and her son became more coordinated. Most of all, the family has a place to go.

By Julia Moskin, NYTimes

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

THEY carry home-grown radishes and red-cooked pork. They transport dozens of empanadas, juggling sheet pans on the G train. They pack boxes of butterscotch cupcakes, Sichuan-spiced beef jerky and grapefruit marmalade. They haul boiled peanuts, ice-grinding machines, sandwich presses and at least one toaster oven painted hot pink.

One Saturday morning each month, the vendors of the Greenpoint Food Market converge on the Church of the Messiah (129 Russell St., between Nassau & Driggs) in Brooklyn.

Kirsten Luce, NYTimes

''This is my investment in the future right now,'' said Fabiana Lee, 26, an interior designer who lost her job in 2009. She has been selling at the Greenpoint market since its inception in October. After experimenting with cookies (too much competition), she has pared her offerings down to two: gorgeously browned empanadas and irresistibly twee ''cake pops,'' golf-ball-size rounds of cake perched on lollipop sticks. At the moment, they are her main source of income.

Young, college-educated, Internet-savvy, unemployed and hoping to find a place in the food world outside the traditional route, she is typical of the city's dozens of new food entrepreneurs.

The all-food Greenpoint market, which is open to home cooks of all stripes, is one-stop shopping: Mexican-Indian tacos, artisanal soda pop, roof-grown produce, exotic chili peppers, long-brined pickles, Taiwanese street food and retro-Southern snacks under one roof.

There were almost 50 vendors. Many had been up since dawn, rolling rice balls, filling containers with waffle batter, crimping pie crusts. In headscarves, retro-chic aprons and all manner of eyewear, they skidded around the crowded basement, jockeying for electrical outlets and space.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.

By Pat Baker

Thursday, October 01, 2009

By Cara Buckley, NY Times

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Robert Stolarik, NY Times

For all the inroads made by hipsters in Greenpoint, Brooklyn's northernmost neighborhood, it has retained much of its Old World Polish character and working-class grit (probably because its subway is the much-loathed G train). It's a great place to fill up on tasty, shockingly cheap Polish food — kielbasa, pirogi and bigos, the cabbage and meat stew widely considered Poland's national dish — and to poke about the arty boutiques and bars that have sprouted on the side streets off Manhattan Avenue, the main commercial vein. To eat and explore, take the G train to Nassau Avenue or Greenpoint Avenue, and if you are really keen, print out a Polish primer from the local blog, greenpunkt.com.

1 P.M. Arrive hungry. Greenpoint is swimming in Polish restaurants, many bedecked in red and white, the country's national colors, and known for their heaping platters. Try the unobtrusive Restauracja Relax, 68A Newell Street, (718) 389-1665. Its setting is starkly fluorescent, but its offerings are delicious and cheap. Dinners are about $6.50 ($6.35 for the pig hocks platter — yum!). Most come with a side; the beets and fried cabbage are especially good. The pirogi are, too.

2 P.M. Fight post-feast torpor with caffeine and sugar at the Peter Pan Donut and Pastry Shop, 727 Manhattan Avenue, (718) 389-3676, a 58-year-old institution with a near-rabid fan base. Find a seat at the S-shaped counter, and get a $1 coffee, or a $1.95 egg cream, and a Red Velvet Cake doughnut, for 90 cents. The most popular doughnut? ''The jellies are really big,'' said one waitress, ''because they've got black raspberry filling, not just plain grape.''

3 P.M. Escape Manhattan Avenue's bustle and wander a block west to Franklin Street, lined with boutiques and handsome brick homes. Check out the lovely apparel, accessories and leather goods at Hayden-Harnett, 211 Franklin Street, (718) 349-2247. Also visit Kill Devil Hill, 170 Franklin Street, (347) 534-3088, a curios and antiques shop that began a line of menswear, BS Mercantile. The specialties are items from the 1850s to the 1950s — vintage silk hosiery, a Handy Hannah hair dryer — or as Mark Straiton, a co-owner, said, ''from Industrial Revolution to industrial decline.''

4 P.M. Head to the water. Greenpoint hugs the East River, but access is sharply limited; that should change with a planned waterfront park at the west end of Greenpoint Avenue. In the meantime, the city has opened on that site the WNYC Transmitter Park, a work in progress sprinkled with wood chips and picnic benches and separated from the water by chain-link fences and razor wire. Construction of a fishing pier, gardens and a playground, and the waterfront access, are scheduled for spring. The park, which sits across from Stuyvesant Town, has one of the more underwhelming views of the Manhattan skyline, but it's worth a gander.

5 P.M. Cocktail hour! Pop into the 68 Restaurant, 68 Greenpoint Avenue, (718) 389-6868, which adjoins Coco66, a bar/pool hall/performance space; both share an airy, gorgeous former chocolate factory. 68's potent specialty drinks, half price from 5 to 8 p.m., are named after 1980s cartoons like Rainbow Brite, Thundercats and He-Man. The last involves tequila, mint, pineapple juice and fresh lime.

6 P.M. Hungry again? Slip into Karzcma, 136 Greenpoint Avenue, (718) 349-1744, where the waitresses wear dirndls. Regulars swear by it. ''Excellent,'' said one diner, as he dug into a mushroom-topped pork chop, served with potatoes and salad for $8. Round out your meal with a pint of Zywiec, a popular Polish beer.

Slide Show Greenpoint

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Linda Lenny

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Jimmy Durante said ''The Secretary of State called me''. He said, ''Jimmy, We need you for an important mission. Do you know anything about foreign relations?''

I sezs ''Foreign relations? Of course I know about foreign relations,

Why I got 15 relatives livin' in Brooklyn!''

By Joyce Cohen, NY Times

Friday, July 10, 2009

Chester Higgins Jr.The NYT

Jessica Suarez and Mark Sussman live in an owner-occupied building.FOR two uneasy years, Mark Sussman and Jessica Suarez lived in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Two years ago, after living with a roommate in Greenpoint, they moved to the place in Bushwick, a five-minute walk from the Morgan Avenue stop on the L train. The one-bedroom, with an office space, was an affordable $1,300 a month, later rising to $1,339.

Instead of renewing the lease for a third year, the couple began hunting for a well-maintained one-bedroom elsewhere in Brooklyn, preferably near a train station. Their ceiling was $1,400 a month, which they knew was low.

Their luck turned when Miss Suarez encountered a listing from Annie Santiago, an agent at Kline Realty in Williamsburg, who had two well-kept railroad apartments available in Greenpoint.

One was in a great location on Graham Avenue, for $1,375. But the floor was sloped and the tiny bathroom had a small stall shower. The other, near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, was $1,450. It had a bigger kitchen and bathroom, and a layout more dumbbell than railroad. They liked the fact that the landlord, Joseph J. Bedigian, who owned both buildings, lived downstairs.

The ground floor once housed a pharmacy, said Mr. Bedigian, who grew up next door, where his brother and his mother still live. A block nearby is named for his other brother, Carl J. Bedigian, a firefighter killed on Sept. 11.

They moved in April. The walk to the Graham Avenue L train stop clocks in at 12 minutes — longer than they intended, but it's a pleasant walk.

They are thrilled to have such a helpful landlord. Mr. Bedigian has already added bookshelves

By Jeff VanDam, NY Times

Saturday, December 20, 2008

WHERE is the Northside Williamsburg of lore?

James Meese

Various institutions in North Brooklyn's eccentric waterfront neighborhood are disappearing — even some of the recent additions to an enclave that once housed the borough's industrial giants.

And the wrinkled newspapers and Tolstoy turkey sandwiches for the literary-minded at Read Cafe on Bedford Avenue — they, too, are out of the picture.

Instead, the Northside neighborhood has firmly entered the Age of the Condo. Rising with efficiency, even in the sad reality of this economy, apartment buildings cluster in bunches, outfitted with the kind of luxury furnishings one would never find inside the neighboring vinyl-covered row houses.

The Sub-Zero refrigerator/granite countertop crowd has opened a front among the young and hip, and the result is friction.

''There's still that raw appeal,'' said Silvia Fuster, 34, an architect who moved with her husband and baby daughter, Clara, into a $741,000 1,000-square-foot loft on North Third Street this fall. ''Anyone who lived in Williamsburg 5 or 10 years ago probably thinks it's a joke for me to even say that. But it has that raw depth to it. It's not all touched up.''

KLINE REALTY'S Linda Williams

Town houses pop up occasionally, many costing less than new two-bedroom condos (though perhaps not in impeccable condition). Three-story houses start in the $900,000 range, said LINDA WILLIAMS,an agent at KLINE REALTY.

Rentals are widely available, Ms. WILLIAMS said. Large one-bedrooms rent for around $2,500 a month, two-bedrooms for about $3,000.

THE COMMUTE

Getting to Manhattan is a quick trip via the L train at Bedford and No. 7th; the next westbound stop is at 1st Ave. and 14th St. It's not uncommon for rush-hour travelers to let a train or two go by before finding one with space to stand in.

By NY Times

Friday, December 19, 2008

290 Powers St., Brooklyn

3 story, wood, 2 family; primary unit: 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, dining room; other unit 1 bedroom, 1 bath; in each: original tin ceilings. 20'X100' lot, taxes: $1,673; listed at $669,000, multiple bids. Broker: KLINE REALTY

By Drew Toal, Time Out New York

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Illustration: Ana Benaroya

TREASURE MAP EQUIPPED

''I saw a ton of places through a ton of brokers and ANNIE [SANTIAGO] from KLINE REALTY in Brooklyn was my favorite. She is the holder of the keys to the last treasures of Williamsburg.

Photograph: Christian Hartman

KLINE REALTY'S ANNIE SANTIAGO

When you walk down Graham Avenue with her, she is greeted like a head of state by all the neighborhood people. We would walk into a place and she'd tell us who had lived there and what they did. When we entered a building, she made a point of introducing us to potential neighbors, to give us a chance to suss each other out. Now that's a broker!''

—Johnny Rauberts

By Joyce Cohen, NY Times

Monday, April 21, 2008

One of our deals is on the front page of the NY Times Real Estate Section.

After all, we've covered ALL Real Estate in the area since 1981. That's why they call KLINE REALTY, The PROFESSIONALS.

By Joyce Cohen, NY Times

Sunday, April 20, 2008

ZEB STEWART wasn't interested in finding a new home. He was happy where he was, on the parlor floor of a two-family row house in Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn, with two fireplaces and a backyard. It was ''like a little French country home,'' he said, renting for $1,800 a month.

Mr. Stewart, 36, who does sculpture, metalwork and furniture design, was interested in studio space. For several years, he had put his artistic inclinations aside to focus on work. (He and his business partners own two bars in Williamsburg.)

Mr. Stewart, a native of Petaluma, in Northern California, had come to New York in 1995, following his girlfriend at the time. He worked as a cameraman, but missed working with his hands.

'I felt it was time to get back to the language of materials,'' he said.

He became a carpenter, working on the construction of high-end restaurants, but found himself disagreeing with his employers. He wanted to do things his way. ''I realized I had an opinion and an aesthetic,'' he said.

So he and a business partner built UNION POOL, a bar in Williamsburg. In January, he opened HOTEL DELMANO, with its handcrafted interior.

While finishing up HOTEL DELMANO, Mr. Stewart began hunting for studio space or, better still, a live-work space suited to his needs.

In winter, surfing the Web site Craigslist, he saw an advertisement that seemed odd, yet intriguing — a 2,500-square-foot apartment in Bushwick, plus a studio, renting for $3,500 a month. The price seemed high for the neighborhood.

But, digging into the Web site of KLINE REALTY, he was hypnotized by the picture of the property, a little Italianate castle of brick and terra cotta. The agent, LINDA WILLIAMS, took him to see it. The moment he walked in, he knew he had tripped on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Mr. Stewart had lived in Bushwick before, shortly after his arrival in New York, in a Thames Street loft near a coffin manufacturer and a meat-processing plant. When he left, he told himself, ''I am never coming back to Bushwick.''

And yet, ''believe it or not, Bushwick lured me back,'' he said. ''The Bushwick lure.''

This area, however, was somewhat more developed. The castle was tucked away on one-block-long Belvidere Street. It had a front apartment, a cobblestone walkway and a stable in back.

The owner, Jay Swift, a stone sculptor and marble worker, said he had bought the building, the former office of the William Ulmer Brewery, in the late 1980s. At that time, the lamp factory next door was using it for storage.

Other potential tenants were groups of roommates who ''wanted to put in walls and really change it, and the owner didn't want that,'' said Ms. WiILLIAMS of KLINE REALTY.

''Zeb is the man I knew I wanted there,'' Mr. Swift said. ''I could tell when he said: 'You know, after dinner you are really tired and want to work on a project or generate a drawing? I have to get in my car and park the car. Now, I can walk to the back and work.' ''

Mr. Swift lowered the rent to $3,000 a month.

Zeb said ''The timing wasn't great''. But he said he knew he would never find such a great place again, ''so I just added it to the huge pile of stuff I was doing at the time.''

In January, Mr. Stewart moved to his new home. Taking over such a huge space by himself, he said he found himself wondering: ''Who cleans up back here; who is in charge of all this stuff? And it's all me. Doesn't this place come with a bunch of elves that take care of the courtyard and stuff?''

His new home seems to demand a name. His friends have taken to calling it the Bushwick Castle or the Belvidere Estate. Mr. Stewart likes to refer to it as ''the office,'' which is chiseled on the facade in big block letters.

His monthly outlay is slightly higher than before. ''I knew the impact on my quality of life would make up for the financial side of it,'' he said.

Though he couldn't imagine he would ever return to Bushwick, ''there are still incredible places available in the middle of nowhere,'' he said.

''In real estate they say location, location, location,'' he said, ''but maybe there is an alternative or another reality, which is if the place is truly amazing, you can overcome the location.''

By NY Times

Thursday, January 24, 2008

22 Judge Street 3-bedroom, 1-bath, prewar, 2-story wood-sided house; dining room, renovated kitchen and bath, original tin ceilings and wide-plank pine floors, antique slate patio, full basement; 16-by-64-ft. lot; taxes $1,650; listed at $695,000, 1 week on market (broker: Kline Realty)

By NY Times

Thursday, January 10, 2008

476 Union Avenue

3-family, 3-story, prewar brick house; 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, eat-in kitchen, high ceilings, oak floors in each unit; full basement; 25-by-100-ft. lot; taxes $4,580; listed at $1.2 million, 6 weeks on market (broker: Kline Realty)

By Participation Marketing UK

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Participation Marketing UK

Posted: August 29th, 2007 under User Experience, Creative, Quality.

By NY Times

Thursday, December 20, 2007

GREENPOINT $749,000

113 Beadel Street

5-bedroom, 2-bath, legal 2-family prewar brick row house; finished basement; 20-by-90-ft. lot; taxes $2,272; listed at $849,000, 10 weeks on market (broker: Kline Realty)

Sunday, December 02, 2007

2007

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Jimmy Durante said ''The Secretary of State called me''. He said, ''Jimmy, We need you for an important mission. Do you know anything about foreign relations?''

I sezs ''Foreign relations? Of course I know about foreign relations,

Why I got 15 relatives livin' in Brooklyn!''

By thisisbroken.com website

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

A reader submits an advertisement seen in Brooklyn, New York:

I saw this ad for Kline Realty posted around the neighborhood which made me laugh.

My favorite part of the ad is - ''Just type in klinerealestate.com and when it comes on, turn up the volume and fasten your seat belt or you'll jump up and start dancing.'' Posted in Advertising , Just for Fun

Comments:

Actually, a web site with a noisy flash movie without mute or pause button IS broken. Definitely. Posted by: Cimddwc at Feb 23, 2007 3:16:03 AM

Wow. This ad scares me. Using the word sexy to describe a real estate company's website. I never saw it coming.

This must be some site, as I've never found myself wanting to dance over a website. I have to check this out. Posted by: Haggai at Feb 23, 2007 8:03:40 AM

Very interesting website. Although if I hadn't already known it was an ad for a real estate company I would have thought it was an ad for Brooklyn. I liked the Bond-esque silhouette of the woman dancing halfway through the video. Totally not in keeping with the tone of the rest of the video. Anyway, I'm glad it's posted in just for fun. I would hate to think that this was meant to be taken seriously. Posted by: lefty-chef at Feb 23, 2007 9:26:52 AM

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I don't know, I rather enjoyed the film. While I'm not sure I would call it ''sexy'' there was nothing really wrong with it. And besides, I suspect that there is no shortage of real estate brokers in New York City so it isn't unreasonable to have a gimmick.... in short, Not Broken.Posted by: VHoratio at Feb 23, 2007 9:27:26 AM

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*coughjustforfuncough* Posted by: Fuzzy at Feb 23, 2007 1:42:22 PM

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Yeah any website that has sound on the homepage is Broken, or unsolicited sound... really irritating when researching products/software at work and having the computer all of a sudden talking or playing music, when I forget to mute the speaker… Posted by: Infinity306 at Feb 23, 2007 9:25:33 PM

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The 'hood? That is one of the worst places to put slang in.

They are really trying to hard to sound street-like. Way to hard. Posted by: st33med at Feb 23, 2007 9:59:59 PM

By Pat Baker

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

By Brownstoner, Forgotten NY

Thursday, April 12, 2007

My Web Site

By Nicholas D. Kristof, NY Times

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

For those readers who ask me what they can do to help fight poverty, one option is to sit down at your computer and become a microfinancier.

That's what I did recently. From my laptop in New York, I lent $25 each to the owner of a TV repair shop in Afghanistan, a baker in Afghanistan, and a single mother running a clothing shop in the Dominican Republic. I did this through www.kiva.org, a Web site that provides information about entrepreneurs in poor countries — their photos, loan proposals and credit history — and allows people to make direct loans to them.

Mr. Abdul Satar had borrowed a total of $425 from a variety of lenders on Kiva.org, who besides me included Nathan in San Francisco, David in Rochester, N.Y., Sarah in Waltham, Mass., Nate in Fort Collins, Colo.; Cindy in Houston, and ''Emily's family'' in Santa Barbara, Calif.

With the loan, Mr. Abdul Satar opened a second bakery nearby, with four employees, and he now benefits from economies of scale when he buys flour and firewood for his oven. ''If you come back in 10 years, maybe I will have six more bakeries,'' he said.

Mr. Abdul Satar said he didn't know what the Internet was, and he had certainly never been online. But Kiva works with a local lender affiliated with Mercy Corps, and that group finds borrowers and vets them.

The local group, Ariana Financial Services, has only Afghan employees and is run by Storai Sadat, a dynamic young woman who was in her second year of medical school when the Taliban came to power and ended education for women. She ended up working for Mercy Corps and becoming a first-rate financier; some day she may take over Citigroup.

''Being a finance person is better than being a doctor,'' Ms. Sadat said. ''You can cure the whole family, not just one person. And it's good medicine — you can see them get better day by day.''

Small loans to entrepreneurs are now widely recognized as an important tool against poverty. Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his pioneering work with microfinance in Bangladesh.

Web sites like Kiva are useful partly because they connect the donor directly to the beneficiary, without going through a bureaucratic and expensive layer of aid groups in between. Another terrific Web site in this area is www.globalgiving.com, which connects donors to would-be recipients. The main difference is that GlobalGiving is for donations, while Kiva is for loans.

A young American couple, Matthew and Jessica Flannery, founded Kiva after they worked in Africa and realized that a major impediment to economic development was the unavailability of credit at any reasonable cost.

''I believe the real solutions to poverty alleviation hinge on bringing capitalism and business to areas where there wasn't business or where it wasn't efficient,'' Mr. Flannery said. He added: ''This doesn't have to be charity. You can partner with someone who's halfway around the world.''

By Brownstoner

Monday, February 26, 2007

329 Manhattan Avenue, Brooklyn

2-story 2-family limestone; primary unit; 3 bedrooms, 1 bath; othr unit 2 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths; in each: dining room, high ceilings, h/w floors; 25 by 75 ft. lot; taxes $1536; listed at $879,000. Broker; KLINE REALTY

By Mike Lupica

Saturday, February 10, 2007

NYC Apt. hunting woes for the 21st Century

excerpt...Contrary to this unbridled spew of vitriol, I'm not here just to badmouth my experience with Realtors, even though only one of the 10+ brokers we eventually did the dance with wasn't completely ineffectual. (Her name is ANNIE, (at KLINE REALTY) and she shows buildings in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. She didn't actually find us an apartment, but she returned our calls, she didn't lie to us, and she snapped her gum like a champ, so ANNIE was a-ok by us.)

The more I've replayed those weeks over in my head, the more clearly I've realized that I might not even have minded the trauma so much if the brokerage system didn't seem so eerily structured to purposely waste my time. Our must-haves really weren't unreasonable: a clean apartment with a decent-sized kitchen in seven possible neighborhoods scattered across multiple boroughs.

''What's this, now? You say you don't have anything like that to show me today? It's OK, really. Maybe we can try again tomorrow. Here, have a Snapple. Maybe call ANNIE for some help understanding this.'' The true culprits aren't the Realtors anyway, it's the horrific housing market and the hopeless jumble of machinations that feed into it.

Hey Mike, was it Annie at Kline Realty?

Posted by: MuRT!? | February 05, 2007 at 06:01 PM

Saturday, January 20, 2007

View of New York looking Southwest from Green Point

In 1638, the Dutch West India Company secured a deed from the Canarsie Indians for the Bushwick area, and Peter Stuyvesant, chartered the area in 1661, naming it ''Boswijck,'' meaning ''little town in the woods'' or ''heavy woods.'' [2] Its area included the modern day communities of Williamsburg in 1827 and Greenpoint. Bushwick was the last of the original six Dutch towns of Brooklyn to be established within New Netherland.

The community was settled, though unchartered, on Feb. 16, 1660 by fourteen French and Huguenot settlers, a Dutch translator named Peter Jan De Witt[3], and Franciscus the Negro, one of the original eleven slaves brought to New Netherland who had worked his way to freedom. The group centered their settlement around a church located near today's Bushwick and Metropolitan Avenues. The major thouroughfare was Woodpoint Road, which allowed farmers to bring their goods to the town dock. [6] This original settlement came to be known as Het Dorp by the Dutch, and, later, Bushwick Green by the British.

At the turn of the 19th century, Bushwick consisted of four villages, Green Point, Bushwick Shore, later to be known as Williamsburg, Bushwick Green, and Bushwick Crossroads, at the spot today's Bushwick Avenue turns southeast at Flushing Avenue. The English would take over the six towns three years later and unite the towns under Kings County in 1683.

By NY Times

Thursday, January 11, 2007

WILLIAMSBURG $1.35 million

122 South First Street

4-family, 4-story prewar wood-frame house; 3 bedrooms in two units; 1 bedroom in others; eat-in kitchen, renovated bath, wide plank floors, original molding and detail in each; full basement, new plumbing and electric systems in building; 25-by-100-ft. lot; taxes $503; listed at $1.4 million, 10 weeks on market broker: KLINE REALTY

By The New York Times

Monday, December 18, 2006

1985

2005

178-180 Woodpoint Road, Brooklyn

Number of bedrooms: 3

Number of full bathrooms: 1

Weeks on market: 4 weeks

Legal 2-family, 126-year-old 2-story wood-frame house being used as a 1-family; 2 fireplaces, original moldings and detail, 25-by-49-ft. lot and adjacent 25-by-64-ft. lot; taxes $950; listed at $999,000. Broker: KLINE REALTY.

By NY TIMES

Friday, November 03, 2006

EAST WILLIAMSBURG $837,500

855 Grand Street

2-family, 3-story, brick and woodsided house; 1 bedroom, 2 baths, dining room, hardwood floors in each unit; 1,200 square feet of commercial space on first floor; full basement, 22-by-100-ft. lot; taxes $1,952; listed at $875,000, 2 weeks on market. Broker: KLINE REALTY.

By Brooklyn Access Cable tv

Monday, October 30, 2006

Suzy gets interviewed by Brooklyn Community Access Television as an authority in the Williamsburg Greenpoint area. CLICK HERE

By The Brownstoner

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Buyers agent in Williamsburg/Greepoint?

hi, I'm looking to purchase a 2-3 family home in the greenpoint/williamsburg area. Can anyone recommend a good agent?

Thank you, Kevin, kevin@velourmusic.com

Posted by: Brownstoner at February 1, 2006 8:47 AM

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I had a wonderful experience with a broker named PAUL at KLINE REALTY. I bought a home in Williamsburg about 4 years ago. The market was a little kinder and gentler back then in terms of pricing.

PAUL from KLINE was straight forward, patient, very professional and very knowledgeable. KLINE REALTY knows Williamsburg and Greenpoint inside and out because they have been in this area for many many years - way before it was sexy to do so. They have a unique historical perspective that I appreciated.

I also use KLINE REALTY to find tenants when I have a rental unit available in my 4 family home and the tenants that they have matched us with have also been a dream - no kidding.

Honestly, I don't work at KLINE REALTY or have any sort of association with them other than being a very satisfied customer. Good luck in your search for a home.

Posted by: ainslie at February 19, 2006 11:14 AM

By Melanie Neilson Junceau, Greenpoint Gazette

Sunday, May 15, 2005

Christmas at Kline Realty

KLINE REALTY is celebrating its first fifteen years of doing business in the area. Visitors to the office at 599 Lorimer St., are greeted by the quietly exotic decor, paintings, antique kimonos, and a congenial, businesslike atmosphere. The KLINE REALTY office is also home to an impressive archive of local maps and historical photos of the area.

In every way, KLINE REALTY is a neighborhood institution, poised and ready to embark on the next fifteen years.

In 1990, Suzy Kline opened the office with two assistants and a strategy: to concentrate on properties in one geographic location, Williamsburg and Greenpoint. She already had ten years experience as an industrial broker, and was the first woman industrial broker in the region. As a longtime resident with a genuine love of the area, her decision to locate the business here was a natural decision. It was a struggle at first, but Suzy and her staff pursued available commercial and residential spaces in the area and went on to find customers for these properties.

Suzy Kline was determined to follow her dream: ''I combined two loves, the independence and freedom of having my own business, and a lifelong love of buildings and their histories.''

This was once upon a time, when Williamsburg and Greenpoint were home to a solid, residential neighborhood where Italian, Latino, Polish and Hasidic communities thrived, not the center of frenzied real estate activity it is today. Despite all the construction, these communities continue to maintain their unique identities.

KLINE Brokers appreciate the depth of culture here and genuinely care about the community. The entire KLINE team boasts a long-term relationship with the neighborhood and most are long-time residents.

KLINE REALTY at fifteen is a firm which has truly come into it's own. When people ask what's great about the neighborhood, they hear about the great food, safe streets, good neighbors, and they also hear about the older businesses and small town feel. KLINE REALTY gets a lot of credit for fostering good relations between the long time residents and the newcomers. An appreciation of the neighborhood and respect for what's always been here have been strongly held values at Kline since the beginning.

With this anniversary, KLINE REALTY turns a big corner, ready to embark on the next fifteen years.

By Shelley Preston, 11211 Magazine

Friday, October 01, 2004

Suzy Kline has never been in the military but beneath a white blouse appropriate for the owner of her own real estate business she wears a dog tag. Dog Tags were issued to her and her fellow classmates in the eighth grade to acknowledge that atomic bombs were being tested 75 miles away from their Las Vegas school. She used to sit on her front steps to watch the mushroom shaped clouds laced with uranium incinerate the Nevada sky. Kline has worn the tags ever since.

''I figure that if a disaster occurs, at least they will know my blood type,'' she jokes.

Now 40 years later, the tag is a symbol of survival. Kline has spent a lifetime waging battles in the name of autonomy. She chose to remain single and pursue life on her own while many women of her generation felt uncomfortable setting aside husband and kids to follow their independence. As the first women to sell industrial real estate in Brooklyn and Queens, and after a stint as a locksmith, she has fought to prove that she can do a man's job in a man's world, while retaining every bit of her femininity.

Kline can now claim victory, for she is exactly where she wants to be. She has owned and managed her own business, Kline Realty in Williamsburg, for eleven years. The ornate tin ceiling and the wooden floors in her office reflect the original modest designs commonly found throughout Williamsburg. In two neat rows, mismatched antique desks and a hodge-podge of leather chairs accommodate her staff.

Kline's office in the back is decorated with ornate Asian kimonos and photos she took in Costa Rica. On the walls of the conference room, antique photographs of people rescued from thrift stores in the area; portraits of couples and families in period dress stare absently from the photos as nameless members of history.

''I have no idea who they are. Some day I would like to find out,'' Kline muses. She likes the mystery and romance of the pictures, and the warm nostalgia they offer for the way things were.

As Kline sits behind her desk, the smoke from her Marlboro Red curls up from her fingers and disappears near her head where the thin gray plumes blend into the color of her hair. When she stands to shake hands, it is surprising how tall she is: six feet, in fact. Relaxing back down in her chair she lets her cigarette smolder into ash as she begins to talk.

In 1990, Kline opened Kline Real Estate with two assistants and began aggressively marketing real estate in Brooklyn. Kline's strategy was to concentrate in one geographic location. She considered Williamsburg and Greenpoint her turf, and insistently pursued both industrial and residential spaces in the area. It was ''a total struggle at first, but I hustled. No one was as aggressive,'' Kline says with a throaty laugh. ''I'm just a bulldog.''

Kline doesn't exactly look like a bulldog, with her long and lanky limbs and neat, dutch-boy haircut, but her presence is bold. Because of Kline's height, she can meet eye to eye with most grown men (if she's not indeed looking down on them). Along with her wide grin and hearty laugh, Kline would never be called a wallflower.

Kenn Firpo, who has sold real estate in the area since 1983, and has known Kline for 20 years, describes a determined professional mien, ''She gets her commission because she knows her sellers and she knows the area.''

Before Williamsburg and Greenpoint became the center of hip-dom, Kline planted herself here years ago because she's always had a genuine love of the area. Remove the newer, shinier veneer from Williamsburg and you are left with a solid, residential neighborhood where Italian, Latino, Polish and Hasidic communities thrive. Kline, who has lived in the area for 40 years, understands and appreciates the depth of culture and community, and eyes the recent bustle on Bedford Avenue with wry acceptance.

Kenneth Cory, who owns the Orlando Funeral Home next door to Kline's office, credits the good relations between the old residents and the new ones in the area to Kline.

''She is a neighborhood person. She wants to do right and gets the right kind of people in the neighborhood,'' he said, ''ones who respect what's always been here.''

Cory adds that he enjoys seeing the influx of younger people in the neighborhood, although, he jokes ''it doesn't exactly help my business.''

Although Kline's s success is solidified, she wasn't always at the top of the heap. For years, she went about trying to find ways to make a living without compromising her independence.

Originally from Duchess County in upstate New York, Kline's mother divorced her father and began to roam around the country taking young Suzy with her. Kline had already been in eight different grammar schools when her mother, ending a second marriage, remarried Suzy's father and they settled down in Las Vegas.

After spending the longest stretch of time of being in one place, the family left Las Vegas and Suzy finished high school in New Hampshire. It was there that she was enticed by a girlfriend to move to Park Slope in Brooklyn. She soon found work as a secretary, but didn't like being under someone else's thumb and longed to be her own boss.

In 1964, after years of hopping from job to job, Kline found herself in a recruiting office looking for the next gig. She was offered a choice between working as a typist for the non-profit organization Big Brothers or working at MetLife.

''Someone told me that at MetLife, they would ring a bell letting you know you could go on coffee break,'' says Kline with a look of exaggerated horror on her face, ''so Big Brothers it was.''

Kline enjoyed working as a liaison between kids and community volunteers and moved her way up to Recreation Director for the organization. Although the work was rewarding, she was having a difficult time making ends meet. That's when a friend named Lenny Osser offered to teach her locksmithing. Osser told her, ''I just trained my first Chinese, so I might as well train a woman,'' she recalls.

Being a locksmith was physically demanding work, but Kline managed to lug the sixty pounds of tools that were required for the job and learned how to drill into steel doors and concrete doorframes. ''It wasn't easy, but if the drill flew out of my hand I would catch it by the cord and keep going.''

She made up her own flyers and would distribute them to high-rise buildings throughout the city. She never mentioned that a woman would execute the service. ''When people called, they just thought I was the secretary, and I let them think that until I came and knocked on their door.'' Although Kline proved she was capable of the job, she grew bored with a business where she never saw the same person twice

After a brief stint selling jewelry in Texas and Louisiana, she moved back to New York City where she received a B.S. in Human Services Administration. Three years later Kline switched gears in an effort to make a more substantial living and began working for Brachocki Real Estate.

It was there that she met John Belo, a customer of hers, who also happened to be one of the owners of the industrial real estate firm Kaplon-Belo. In 1981, industrial real estate was still a male only field. Kline remembers Belo calling over at Brachocki and asking to speak with one of her male co-workers. When she learned that Belo was trying to gauge his interest in selling industrial real estate, Kline told him that she was interested. ''He told me, 'not a woman, not a woman!,' but I pressed him and he said (reluctantly), 'well, talk to [Dick] Kaplon, he's in charge of hiring.'''

Kaplon was more receptive to the idea and asked Kline if she had a car with air-conditioning. Replying that she did, Kline gained the honor of becoming the first woman in Brooklyn to sell industrial real estate in the New York area.

Despite Belo's apprehension, Suzy proved that she could do more than just hold her own. By the time she left the company, she was responsible for selling and renting many industrial properties in Brooklyn.

After more than eight years of working for Kaplon-Belo, she made the last step towards true independence when she opened Kline Real Estate. Now with her own office and six employees working for her, it seems that most of Kline's battles have been won.

There is a picture hanging near Kline's desk that shows her standing in the middle of a huge warehouse. Here, her six-foot stature is not out of place framed between the industrial size vent ducts and the concrete floor.

She seems oblivious to the photographer, who captures her clutching paperwork to her chest and looking up into the vast ceiling with a small private smile. She seems completely at home.

By Suzy Kline

Friday, March 01, 2002

When I moved to Greenpoint in the late 1960s, I lived in a top floor apartment over Sisters & Brothers Store on Manhattan Ave; a 5 room railroad flat with a magnificent view of the East River and Manhattan. It only had two electrical outlets, two tiny closets and I had to brush my teeth in the kitchen sink, but for $44.40 a month I put up with the inconvenience.

My Saturday morning ritual was to go up the west side of Manhattan Avenue, stopping at George's Variety Store (founded 1938 and still there), and all the discount stores ending at John's Bargain Store by St. Anthony's Church. Than I would come back down the east side of the street, picking up my groceries at Associated, my butter at Dutch Dairies, where they still cut it off the slab to order, and my meat at Sperling Butchers, (3 pounds of chopped meat for $1).

One thing you couldn't get was decent women's clothes, though Aron's had lots of dusty peek-a-boo bras, crotchless panties and garter belts in their window.

When I started my Real Estate business in 1990, I opened my office in what we call ''The Italian section'' near the L train where the boundary between Greenpoint & Williamsburg is blurred. I decided to specialize in the Greenpoint/Williamsburg area, and to answer all of the neighborhood needs, from industrial through residential. It was a particular pleasure to encourage the artists to come over here and fill all the empty lofts we had. I always gave them a tour of Manhattan Ave. which would include the Polish Restaurants, where you can still get a big dinner for $4.00. And I always bragged about this being the safest neighborhood in Brooklyn.

Now the neighborhood which we always called ''The Garden Spot of the World'' and a ''Pocket of Polonia'' is even more interesting and you can buy decent clothes. But I miss seeing the sexy underwear.

Suzy Kline

KLINE REALTY

599 Lorimer St.

Greenpoint/Williamsburg

Tuesday, January 01, 2002