Saturday, August 30, 2008

By David W. Chen, NY Times

Friday, July 04, 2008

Robert Herman

The city is moving the Macy's Fourth of July fireworks display from Manhattan to Brooklyn this year for a simple reason: TV.

In years past, the city staged its show near the Water Club, on Manhattan's East Side. But this year, with NBC, which broadcasts the display, having long expressed a keen desire to show more of the New York City skyline, the city and Macy's decided that Kent Avenue in Brooklyn would be a better location. That means the barges that carry the fireworks — all 75,000 pounds of fireworks — will be stationed a little farther south in the East River.

Robert Herman

For New Yorkers, the new location means that more streets in Brooklyn — and fewer in Manhattan — will be closed on Friday, starting at 5:30 p.m. These include Kent Avenue from Division Avenue to North 14th Street, Franklin Street from North 14th Street to Greenpoint Avenue.

The fireworks show will be broadcast on WNBC, Channel 4, beginning at 9, with recorded patriotic music and dance tunes performed by the New York Pops, and a live performance by the ''American Idol'' finalist Katharine McPhee. A simultaneous broadcast can be heard on WINS (1010 AM).

By writerman000

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Opening night Coronation Mass in honor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, July 9

First dancing of Giglio and the Boat July 13, 1 pm

For an appetizer, here are some scenes for 2007. Dancing Giglio

By Sisario, Petrusich, NY Times

Thursday, July 03, 2008

THE CHAPIN SISTERS (Mon. 7/7) This trio, from LA, gained fleeting notoriety with a ghostly, acoustic cover of Britney Spears's 2004 single ''Toxic.'' Its debut LP, ''Lake Bottom'' (Plain Recordings), is delicate and charming, packed with frank lyrics, carefully plucked guitars and stunning three-part harmonies. With Chris Masterson (of Son Volt) & Eleanor Whitmore. At 9:30, Pete's Candy Store, 709 Lorimer, between Frost & Richardson , Williamsburg (718) 302-3770, petescandystore.com; free.

SHELBY LYNNE (Tues. 7/8) A Nashville refugee, Ms. Lynne has sometimes strayed from the rich, honest country-soul that is her great strength. But on her new album, ''Just a Little Lovin' '' (Lost Highway), she pays luscious tribute to Dusty Springfield, the paragon of the form, and it feels like a homecoming. W/ Jim Bianco. At 9, Music Hall of Williamsburg, 66 No. 6th, (718) 486-5400, musichallofwilliamsburg.com; $35.

THE WATSON TWINS, TIM FITE (Thur. 7/10) After collaborating with the Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis on her 2006 solo debut, ''Rabbit Fur Coat'' (Team Love), the Watson Twins (from Los Angeles, by way of Louisville, Ky.) have just released their debut long-player, ''Fire Songs'' (Vanguard), a collection of sweet, languid folk-rock tracks. Tim Fite, from Brooklyn, dabbles in classic acoustic folk and hip-hop, and his scrappy, defiantly lo-fi songs are difficult to classify. With Ben Weaver. At 9, Music Hall of Williamsburg, 66 No. 6th, (718) 486-5400, musichallofwilliamsburg.com; $12 in advance, $14 at the door.

By Kris Ensminger, NY Times

Sunday, June 29, 2008

For decades, two truths have held steady in Greenpoint, in Brooklyn's northwest corner: There is no direct subway route from Manhattan, and the neighborhood is heavily Polish. Well, Manhattan remains no closer by subway, and there's still a distinct Polish flavor, but the population is diversifying, as these intriguing and affordable restaurants show.

LAMB & JAFFY, (718) 389-3638; 1073 Manhattan Ave. (Eagle St.); $; $25 and Under

This simple, wood-trimmed dining room is on a sleepy stretch of Manhattan Avenue. The menu offers international crowd-pleasers like a salad of baked Brie with walnuts and pomegranate vinaigrette; bacon-wrapped dates called devils on horseback; and roasted Cornish hen with coriander spaetzle, preserved lemons and capers.

LOKAL MEDITERREANEAN BISTRO, (718) 384-6777; 905 Lorimer St. (Nassau Ave.); $

Open since last fall, Lokal bistro offers a blend of Mediterranean and Turkish specialties. Among the entrees are skate sautéed with capers and white wine served with puréed potatoes and haricot verts; and oven-cooked rainbow trout with fresh herbs served with cauliflower, kalamata olives and fresh tomato sauce.

LOMZYNIANKA (718) 389-9439; 646 Manhattan Ave. (Nassau Ave.); $; $25 and Under:

This is one of the best of the neighborhood's many Polish restaurants. Janina Grzelczak does all the cooking, offering big portions of Polish home cooking: three kinds of borscht, potato pancakes and blintzes, all for hard-to-believe prices.

THE QUEEN'S HIDEAWAY, (718) 383-2355; 222 Franklin (Green St.); $; $25 and Under

The dining room has a country-punk vibe and a culinary design motif (shelves full of cookbooks, a framed ode to Jacques Pépin).

Liza Queen, the chef and owner, offers a seasonal, handwritten menu that changes daily, mixing American and international cuisine with unfussy, bold flavors and a strong, seasonal bent. Dishes have included ''chili/lime BBQ pork'' and coconut-milk-soaked scallops served with a dusting of cocoa powder.

UNCLE PAULIE'S, (718) 383-2411; 408 Greenpoint Ave. (Monitor St.); $

Uncle Paulie's is the only restaurant in a neighborhood full of hard-labor businesses, but the hearty Italian fare is a cut above most lunch-counter fodder, much of it cooked fresh by the owner, Paul Pedro. He prepares his own veal Marsala, lemon chicken and grilled, roasted pork chops.

By Sam Howe & Friends, Brooklyn Eagle

Thursday, June 26, 2008

WHEN LOCAL ARTIST Daniel Michalik was asked to create furniture from alternative materials for his graduate thesis, he started experimenting, looking for something new, in large-enough dimensions for a chair. He struck proverbial gold with cork, an unconventional material that he — like most people — knew almost nothing about.

What he learned about cork is exciting and promising. Cork is waterproof, shows a high tolerance to heat and wears long-term without showing distress. It is resistant to mold and mildew, ideal for outdoor furniture. Most importantly, as Michalik says, cork is a sustainable, recyclable and plentiful environmentally responsible material.

Moreover, Michalik has a way of making it beautiful. He continued to explore the potential of cork after leaving the Rhode Island School of Design and moving to New York in the fall of 2006, now based in the growing amalgamation of art and commerce that is East Williamsburg. His studio, DMFD (Daniel Michalik Furniture Design), proudly partnered with Swarovski Crystal in the company's ''Crystallized'' exhibit at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair at the Javits Center last month.

Howe's People

To see the extent of Michalik's cork creations, visit www.danielmichalik.com.

By Michael Wilson, NY Times The Brooklyn Paper

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

A rendering of the New Domino design includes a multiple-story glass addition on the former sugar refinery's roof.

The Domino Sugar sign that announced the mill on the East River in Brooklyn for generations will be displayed atop new apartments being built at the site under a plan approved on Tuesday by the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission.

A rendering of the New Domino design includes a multiple-story glass addition on the former sugar refinery's roof.

In February and March, the developers approached the commission with a proposal for a glass addition planned for the roof of the former Williamsburg refinery that was criticized by both the commissioners and the public. The plan depicted a five-story structure atop the old building, made taller by bulkheads holding motors for the elevators and cooling system on the roof. Opponents called the addition too bulky and incongruous with the refinery, which was built in 1884.

Commissioners asked the developers to rework the addition, and to try to include a place for the Domino sign, which is atop a nearby building that will be torn down. Though the commission designated the refinery a landmark last year, protecting it from destruction, the sign was not included in that designation, and its future had been uncertain.

Sugar processing largely shut down at the plant in 2003.

The plan that was released on Tuesday reduced the size of the addition — from five stories to four and, in some places, three stories — with the bulkheads hidden inside the glass structure. The Domino sign will be attached to the glass addition.

Commissioners approved the design by a vote of 7 to 1.

The plan for the refinery and new buildings calls for shops, open space and 2,200 apartments to be built on an 11.5-acre site surrounding the refinery, in buildings of 30 and 40 stories. Thirty percent of the apartments

By Crain's NY Business

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

(AP) - Rite Aid Corp. has agreed to pay New Jersey up to $650,000 to settle a lawsuit charging that dozens of its stores in the state sold expired infant formula, baby food, and over-the-counter medications.

''Expired products have no place on the shelves of New Jersey stores, and as this settlement makes clear, the law requires Rite Aid to make sure product dates are checked and requires that out-of-date products are not offered for sale,'' state Attorney General Anne Milgram said Monday in announcing the deal.

Rite Aid, based in Camp Hill, Pa., admitted no wrongdoing, her office said. New Jersey sued in October 2006, charging that its inspectors not only found expired products, but determined that STORES HAD DEFRAUDED CONSUMERS BY CHARGING MORE THAN THE SHELF PRICE FOR SOME GOODS.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo accused RITE AID and CVS stores of similar infractions earlier this month and threatened legal action. Investigators found that 60% of the CVS stores and 43% of the Rite Aid stores they visited had expired merchandise, including medicines, milk and eggs. Mr. Cuomo could not be reached for immediate comment.

(When Rite Aid took oiver other stores it had purchased, they took away benefits from the current employees, including all sick days. Remember, Corporations have no morals. And CEOs hide behind the corporate image, as though ''The Company did it, I'm just an employee.'')

By William Neuman, NY Times

Friday, June 13, 2008

The architect, Robert M. Scarano Jr., is accused of flouting zoning rules in putting up two buildings in Greenpoint, Brooklyn — an allegation that has been leveled against him in the past. But this time, the stakes are much higher: the city is threatening to bar him from filing construction plans; such a sanction could potentially put him out of business in the city.

In this case, building officials contend, Mr. Scarano designed two rental apartment buildings on properties that were big enough to hold only one of them.

The case against Mr. Scarano came out of an inquiry by the Department of Investigation and the Buildings Department's Special Enforcement Team.

It is the second administrative case against Mr. Scarano in two years. In 2006, the Buildings Department brought charges against him, alleging that he violated zoning rules or building codes in the design of more than two dozen apartment buildings, many of them in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

To read the full story, copy & paste http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/nyregion/13architect.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail0=y&oref=slogin

By Linda Collins, Brooklyn Eagle

Friday, June 13, 2008

WILLIAMSBURG — A sculpture estimated to weigh eight tons was recently hoisted over the East River and onto a new 400-foot pier that's being constructed at Northside Piers, a mixed-use development on the Williamsburg waterfront.

A joint project of Toll Brothers, RD Management and L&M Equities, the development will ultimately feature 800 residential units, retail and a public esplanade, in addition to the pier.

A shade structure was required for the pier, under the zoning, according to Shirley Jaffe, vice president of development for RD and the project's coordinator.

''It could have been a very utilitarian kind of shade structure, but we decided it could also be some type of unique public art,'' Jaffe said.

The development team talked with several groups about commissioning the art, according to Jaffe, including the Art Commission, Percent for Public Art and the Hudson River Park Trust, and Mark Gibian was recommended.

''There aren't that many people doing art that's appropriate for being out in the weather,'' she pointed out. ''And he was a longterm resident of Williamsburg, so that was just perfect.''

Gibian, who has lived and worked in Williamsburg for 28 years, is also doing two-three sculptures for the Hudson River Park Trust and has completed and installed one for the Brooklyn Bridge train station in the Municipal Building in Downtown Manhattan.

His Williamsburg sculpture is made of stainless steel with a mesh covering. Underneath it sits a sweeping bench of the same material.

''It looks great and it provides an amazing amount of shade,'' Jaffe said. Shade Sculpture

By Alison Gendar NY Daily News

Friday, June 13, 2008

New York's safe, but not this safe: There are nine big cities in the United States where not a single murder happened last year

While New York City can't make that claim, its 2007 homicide tally of fewer than 500 meant it was the safest of the nation's 25 largest cities - and safer than some small cities.

New York ranked 129th out of the nation's 252 cities with populations of more than 100,000.

''The numbers continue to go in the right direction, and it's because of the impressive efforts of the men and women of the NYPD, as well as our innovative policing strategies and efforts to keep illegal guns out of the hands of criminals,'' Mayor Bloomberg said.

Murders in New York City declined 16.8%, compared with 2.7% nationally. In addition, the FBI's report showed that violent crime in New York City decreased 3.1% last year, outpacing a national drop of 1.4%.

By Lauren Johnston, AM New York

Friday, June 13, 2008

McCarren Park Dog Run + Events at McCarren Park Pool, 5/20/08

It's easy to make a day of it in Williamsburg. Head out for the shopping and hipster-watching on Bedford Avenue and continue north to McCarren Park Dog Run. It's big and friendly and coated with a paw-friendly covering of fresh mulch. Grab sandwiches and a fresh-squeezed juice at the nearby Urban Rustic café. It's all earthy, organic and there's a convenient dog corral outside where your pup can wait while you order. Finally, amble over to McCarren Park Pool, where there's sure to be something arty going on, usually an outdoor movie or concert. So far the summer line-up includes: M.I.A., Death Cab for Cutie and Ween. (For full park event listings, go to: www.mccarrenpark.com All in the vicinity of Driggs Ave. at N. 12th St.)

By Samantha Storey, NY Times

Thursday, June 05, 2008

MICHELE SPADARO once made a sofa from garbage, not because she was enamored of refuse, but because as a set designer on a small budget, she needed one for a play. She had to buy only tubing for the frame; the foam, fabric and plywood were all found on the street.

For almost two decades, Ms. Spadaro has designed and built sets in New York and Los Angeles. Recently she built the furniture and props for ''Adding Machine,'' a musical running at the Minetta Lane Theater in Greenwich Village until Aug. 31.

To demonstrate how she finds and refinishes pieces, she looked for an old chair to revamp. Her idea was to create an accent piece, perhaps for a new college graduate furnishing a first apartment.

For her work, she typically turns to the Internet, visiting Craigslist and eBay, because, she said, it is ''cheaper to pay for shipping from the middle of the country'' than to buy something in New York, where prices are high.

But sometimes New York thrift stores are useful. She went first to the Salvation Army at 536 W 46th St., but its furniture inventory was exhausted. Next she tried GREEN VILLAGE USED FURNITURE & CLOTHING in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The 10,000-square-foot building had countless shelves of dining sets, credenzas and bed frames. Two prospects had potential but were dismissed: a white ladder-back chair had several wood plugs, and a beat-up wood-frame chair was too wobbly.

But she saw promise in a rusty wrought-iron chair with a hairpin back, its seat covered in a stained orange fabric. She said she liked simple and sturdy frames with strong lines, but that she rejects some pieces, no matter how sturdy. She never takes upholstered pieces from the street for fear of bedbugs. ''In a thrift store, I ask how long it has been on the floor,'' she said, explaining that the longer a piece has been in the store, the better. ''This is not scientific, but obviously, if it's not been in human contact,'' she said, there is less chance of an infestation.

After settling on the wrought-iron chair, she looked through the store's clothing for fabric to cover the seat. A striped wool sweater was deemed perfect. Ms. Spadaro liked the bold pattern and the way the lines in the sweater and the chair played off each other. She paid $25 for the chair and $12 for the sweater.

Later she took it out to the street (for ventilation), put down some cardboard and began painting, cutting and stapling. For about $40 Ms. Spadaro created a one-of-a-kind chair. So could anyone, with a bit of luck, and maybe some garbage. additional photos

GREEN VILLAGE USED FURNITURE & CLOTHING. M-Th 9:30-6, F 9:30-2, Sun 10-6. 276 Starr Street, between Wycoff & St. Nicholas, Ridgewood/Bushwick. SUBWAY: L Train to Jefferson St. Station (Starr Street exit)

By Pat Baker

Monday, May 26, 2008

I wonder if they come in different colors?

I wonder about the fragrance?

I wonder if it would help to put those preservative packets in the water?

I wonder if they bloom?

I wonder whether they would look better on the kitchen table or in the entry?

I wonder if they're cheaper by the dozen?

I wonder if they come long-stemmed?

Captured at 115th and Allisonville Rd. in Fishers (Indianapolis). The sign is real and was up for two hours before someone stopped and told them how to spell PEONIES!

By Democracy Now

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

AMY GOODMAN: And what about ''Dreaming War''?

GORE VIDAL: Well, same thing. They were dreaming war. You can see little Bush all along was just dreaming of war, and also Cheney dreaming about oil wells and how you knock apart a country like Iraq and of course their oil will pay for the damage you do. For that alone, he should have been put in front of a firing squad.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you believe in the death penalty?

GORE VIDAL: No. But in their case, yes.

AMY GOODMAN: And so, here we are, moved into the sixth year of the war with Iraq, longer than the US was involved in World War II.

GORE VIDAL: Yes, incredible. That was such a huge operation on two great continents against two modern enemies. And we're fighting little jungle wars for no reason, because we have a president who knows nothing about anything. He's just blank. But he wants to show off: 'I'm a wartime president! I'm a wartime president!' He goes yap, yap, yap. He's like a crazed terrier. And look where he got us.

I didn't realize—I think I've always had a good idea about my native land, but I didn't think that institutionally we were so easy to overthrow, because it was a coup d'etat, 9/11.....

AMY GOODMAN: Persian Gulf War.

GORE VIDAL: Yeah. So the coup d'etat comes out of this. They saw their chance. They—Cheney, Bush—they wanted the war. They're oilmen. They want a war to get more oil... So they latched onto that. I guess Mr. Gonzales was already in place by then. And that was the coup d'etat. They seized the state. And from that moment on, they were appointing all the judges, they were doing this, they were doing that, they got rid of Magna Carta—I will not explain what that is a second time—and they broke the republic....

Now, any dum-dum president—this is a guy who could not be a freshman at Swarthmore. His brain's too feeble. There's no information in his head. To take him seriously is the biggest insult to the American people. He should not have been president. It's fascinating. You remember when his father broke down in tears on television?

AMY GOODMAN: Yes.

GORE VIDAL: Well, it was guilt. It was intended by that not-particularly-royal family that Jeb, Governor—by then Governor of Florida, would run for president in that slot when W. ran. And Jeb would be easily elected. He's an intelligent person and a source of pride for the Bush family. Then little—the black prince breaks out of order and goes after it and gets it. And that's what you saw the father weeping. This was Shakespearean, this collision. And old Bush was hysterical. I've never seen a grown man so out of control, and one who's used to television. And there he was, and they couldn't stop him, because he was praising Jeb for all of his good qualities, and as he was doing it, it was all coming back to him, ironically, and he's the one who should be president. Let's hope one of my atavars will make a play out of that.....

AMY GOODMAN: For people who say there needs to be a New Deal today, what do you say to them? What does that mean?

GORE VIDAL:...it's going to take two generations to undo the mess of the Bush people. Too much has been damaged. Too much is now—just look at the judicial system. Look at these, you know, judges they've been appointing. No, the power was seized using the 9/11 adventure as a cause to overthrow the government of the United States, and it was overthrown. Gore Vidal Full Interview

By Suzy Kline

Monday, May 05, 2008

I did a little research into what percentage of our Senators, Representatives and Governors were women.

Woman Senators 16%

Woman Representatives 16%

Woman Governors 16%

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 Ben Muessig The Brooklyn Paper

Saturday, March 15, 2008

O, 311, 311 on the wall, which is the whiniest neighborhood of all? The latest figures from the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications show that Williamsburgers and Greenpointers complained the most, phoning (or web-bing) in 8,900 complaints since July, 2007 — about 500 more complaints than the second-most annoyed neighborhood, Canarsie/Flatlands. Here's what ticks off North Brooklynites the most:

Noise: 4,178, Lost property: 651, Street and sidewalk condition: 758, Traffic and illegal parking: 530, Blocked driveways: 491, Graffiti: 26, Grand total: 8,900

By Pat Baker

Sunday, February 03, 2008

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)

Sunday, January 13, 2008

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 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

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 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 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 The New York Times

Monday, December 18, 2006

1985

2005

178-180 Woodpoint Road, Brooklyn Number of bedrooms: 3 Number of full bathrooms: 1 Number of half bathrooms: 0 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 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

-------------------------------------------------------

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.

11211 article

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