Monday, March 10, 2014
Real Estate Monday: The Million Dollar Homes
From the sublime to the ridiculous. Demolition work next door began over a year ago, and today the shell of the boutique condo building has yet to reach its full height (one more floor plus penthouse still to go!). A cold winter & a good measure of incompetence have slowed the pace of construction . We've had backyard subsidence (not yet fixed) and basement flooding, and cracks in the entrance to the basement. Can we please move this sodding farce along?
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Parting
Well, I have to put a stop to these Budapest pictures, & try to renew some NY enthusiasm. Today I'll just throw in a few parting shots. Clearly my visit was a superficial one & my cursory knowledge of Hungarian history has made saying anything at all in that respect entirely pointless. I hope to do some serious reading. If you visit, you will a) be overwhelmed by the city's impossible beauty (no pictures here of the grandest buildings here - all tiled, inlaid & gilded dream creations) & b), even in ignorance, feel the shadows of occupation. And you will want to return.
The Turning Season
On a sunny, late winter day, Connie reemerges, taking up a familiar panhandling spot outside Rite-Aid. In late-sixties, rail thin, in long black coat & leather cap, Connie's look is better by far than what normally passes for fashion in dull old Park Slope. Certainly a million times better than the blandly dressed girl I overheard in Union Square yesterday, talking loudly on her phone: "I'm playing a supermodel who just graduated from Harvard!" Connie was in good health & good spirits ("still looking at the younger guys" (pause) "and still getting them!!"). Spring is a heartbeat away.
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Even Here
In its last throes, Law & Order (SVU) finally got to 148th in Queens this week. What drew it to a one block stretch of the undistinguished street? I imagine some vile business at this house of worship.
Friday, March 7, 2014
Bouquets & Billboards
More street pleasures. Here's another kiosk, this time selling flowers
and also, unaccountably, assorted wigs & hairpieces.
but for me that clown mop only echoes the clown in the ads I saw plastered all over the city when I was there. The ads, put up by backers of the ruling right-wing Fidesz party, brand the left-wing opposition running in next month's elections as a party of crooks & buffoons:
(a poster that) shows three or four guys wearing neckties standing in a police lineup, alongside a clown. In one of the more ubiquitous versions of the poster, two of the men are former left-wing prime ministers of Hungary. A third is Attila Mesterhazy, president of the country’s Socialist Party and a current candidate for prime minister in the coming election in April. The fourth is Miklos Hagyo, the former left-wing deputy mayor of Budapest, who is currently the subject of a corruption trial (and not running for re-election). The men, and the clown, appear above the slogan “They Don’t Deserve Another Chance.” Given that political advertising has been sharply and abruptly curtailed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his ruling Fidesz Party, the pre-eminence of a political ad — on billboards, lampposts and the sides of buses — might seem surprising. But Fidesz ... has become adept at controlling the message. It has rewritten the state’s Constitution, come to dominate all branches of government and held increasing sway over the news media.
(Danny Hakim, NY Times, March 1)
Parties are allowed by the campaign law to advertise without limit on billboards. But, as it turns out, most of the display advertising space in the country is owned by companies in the possession of the circle of oligarchs close to Fidesz ... If the opposition parties buy billboard space, the proceeds go straight into the pocket of the Fidesz family of companies. As it turns out, however, having the opposition enrich the governing party through the purchase of billboard space was the least of the problems with the monopoly on billboards. One of the leaders of the Unity Alliance told me on a recent trip to Budapest that all of the billboards in the country are sold out for the duration of the campaign and not available for purchase. But one can see already that Fidesz-friendly billboards are everywhere. As I write, Budapest streets, streetcars, metro stations and other public spaces are flooded with Fidesz-friendly ads, using the spaces owned by the Fidesz-friendly companies.
(Kim Lane Scheppele, in Paul Krugman's The Conscience of a Liberal blog, NY Times, Feb. 28)
and also, unaccountably, assorted wigs & hairpieces.
but for me that clown mop only echoes the clown in the ads I saw plastered all over the city when I was there. The ads, put up by backers of the ruling right-wing Fidesz party, brand the left-wing opposition running in next month's elections as a party of crooks & buffoons:
(a poster that) shows three or four guys wearing neckties standing in a police lineup, alongside a clown. In one of the more ubiquitous versions of the poster, two of the men are former left-wing prime ministers of Hungary. A third is Attila Mesterhazy, president of the country’s Socialist Party and a current candidate for prime minister in the coming election in April. The fourth is Miklos Hagyo, the former left-wing deputy mayor of Budapest, who is currently the subject of a corruption trial (and not running for re-election). The men, and the clown, appear above the slogan “They Don’t Deserve Another Chance.” Given that political advertising has been sharply and abruptly curtailed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his ruling Fidesz Party, the pre-eminence of a political ad — on billboards, lampposts and the sides of buses — might seem surprising. But Fidesz ... has become adept at controlling the message. It has rewritten the state’s Constitution, come to dominate all branches of government and held increasing sway over the news media.
(Danny Hakim, NY Times, March 1)
Parties are allowed by the campaign law to advertise without limit on billboards. But, as it turns out, most of the display advertising space in the country is owned by companies in the possession of the circle of oligarchs close to Fidesz ... If the opposition parties buy billboard space, the proceeds go straight into the pocket of the Fidesz family of companies. As it turns out, however, having the opposition enrich the governing party through the purchase of billboard space was the least of the problems with the monopoly on billboards. One of the leaders of the Unity Alliance told me on a recent trip to Budapest that all of the billboards in the country are sold out for the duration of the campaign and not available for purchase. But one can see already that Fidesz-friendly billboards are everywhere. As I write, Budapest streets, streetcars, metro stations and other public spaces are flooded with Fidesz-friendly ads, using the spaces owned by the Fidesz-friendly companies.
(Kim Lane Scheppele, in Paul Krugman's The Conscience of a Liberal blog, NY Times, Feb. 28)
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Birthday Wishes
Today it's the birthday of reader & occasional commenter Carl Douglas. Happy birthday Carl! Some time ago Carl sent me a link to a set of Stan Weyman photographs of Polish artist Jan Lebenstein, taken in Paris for Life magazine. They were taken in Lebenstein's street in Le Marais, in 1961. How different it looks in '61 in comparison to my visits there in the 80s and 90s.
Cinema Cvaj Presszo
Instead of huddling in a doorway with their smokes, patrons of the Cinema Cvaj can settle into this sidewalk kiosk and gaze out onto Erzsébet körút.
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
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Tuesday, March 4, 2014
More Spar
I'm sorry. I haven't readjusted to New York yet. It's winter, my small camera's broken, & I'm still thinking Budapest. And I'm still a little Spar-obsessed. Unable to find any exciting Hungarian news stories in which the chain featured, I had to turn to Britain & a headline in the Mail Online. It was worth it.
Shop forced to call police after druid refuses to pay because cashier wouldn't ask for the money in WELSH!
Monday, March 3, 2014
Real Estate Monday
Just down the block from the old White Eagle Tavern, Rutenberg Realty is offering three eight-family apartment buildings for sale (225 - 229 23rd Street) at $6,800,000.
THREE 8 FAMILY BRICK BUILDINGS FOR SALE AS A PACKAGE DEAL AS IS FOR
$6,800,000 IN THE SOUTH PARK SLOPE AREA
THREE 8 FAMILY BRICK BUILDINGS FOR SALE AS A PACKAGE DEAL AS IS FOR
$6,800,000 IN THE SOUTH PARK SLOPE AREA
The rent-roll is $120,000, though it's unclear if this is for just one or all three buildings. Either way, this looks like the loss of many rent-stabilized homes.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Carnegie Libraries
An interesting article at Brooklynology, the BPL Brooklyn Collection blog, on the history of the Brooklyn Carnegie libraries. Brooklyn librarians (like their counterparts in other boroughs?) are not allowed to comment on the current destruction & "redevelopment" of city libraries, though I know many feel passionately about this travesty. It's nice to hear a quiet voice of dissent from the Collection:
It is certainly no secret that the Pacific branch -- the very first of the Carnegie libraries to be built in this borough -- is facing potential demolition now that it has found itself in poor physical shape and, coincidentally, next door to one of Brooklyn's hottest properties, the Barclays Center.
...As the public debates the merits and atrocities of clearing our oldest Carnegie branch in the name of progress, it is only prudent to take a moment and look at those pieces of his legacy that have already crumbled to dust through neglect and obsolescence.
I was amused by a reference to the Park Slope branch, which was recently deemed worthy of a grand & costly renovation, something its Pacific neighbor, which serves a less economically advantaged population, and is considerably more significant architecturally (but also has that Barclays-friendly location), has been thus denied. Still, though the Park Slope branch is in no danger (no mean feat these days), its renovation has left it with fewer books, and a bilious interior glossier and gassier than ever. The folks at the Collection (you lovely people) are not much impressed by its charms:
The Park Slope branch recently received a major renovation, perhaps making it once again the "most pretentious" of the Carnegie-funded branches, as the Brooklyn Citizen described it at its opening in 1906. Below, the showy Prospect Park branch around the time of its opening (see link above for picture). Now known as the Park Slope branch, it is oddly prescient that this building was deemed a bit much from the beginning.
Ha ha. Let's hope that the new administration's audit of the library systems and more cautious development strategy helps save the beautiful & busy Pacific. And thank you Brooklyn Collection for your ever stellar work.
It is certainly no secret that the Pacific branch -- the very first of the Carnegie libraries to be built in this borough -- is facing potential demolition now that it has found itself in poor physical shape and, coincidentally, next door to one of Brooklyn's hottest properties, the Barclays Center.
...As the public debates the merits and atrocities of clearing our oldest Carnegie branch in the name of progress, it is only prudent to take a moment and look at those pieces of his legacy that have already crumbled to dust through neglect and obsolescence.
I was amused by a reference to the Park Slope branch, which was recently deemed worthy of a grand & costly renovation, something its Pacific neighbor, which serves a less economically advantaged population, and is considerably more significant architecturally (but also has that Barclays-friendly location), has been thus denied. Still, though the Park Slope branch is in no danger (no mean feat these days), its renovation has left it with fewer books, and a bilious interior glossier and gassier than ever. The folks at the Collection (you lovely people) are not much impressed by its charms:
The Park Slope branch recently received a major renovation, perhaps making it once again the "most pretentious" of the Carnegie-funded branches, as the Brooklyn Citizen described it at its opening in 1906. Below, the showy Prospect Park branch around the time of its opening (see link above for picture). Now known as the Park Slope branch, it is oddly prescient that this building was deemed a bit much from the beginning.
Ha ha. Let's hope that the new administration's audit of the library systems and more cautious development strategy helps save the beautiful & busy Pacific. And thank you Brooklyn Collection for your ever stellar work.
Fourth & 9th
At the site of Catene, the deli that closed in late 2011. A restaurant of some kind is coming in, according to the workers there.
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Friday, February 28, 2014
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Little Miss Muffin Reopens
Just got an email from the folks at Little Miss Muffin 'N' Her Stuffin'. They are now OPEN at 768 Washington Ave, between Sterling & Park Place. Great news after a sordid expulsion from their old spot at Park Place & Flatbush. Bring on the patties!
To Market
To someone from England, any mention of "Spar" brings to mind a commonplace convenience store or mini-mart, found on village, town or city corner. Certainly nowhere that might make nipping out for PG Tips or a pint of milk a quasi-romantic experience. On Klauzal ter., in a market or vasarcsarnok setting, the grocery store mission feels soul-wrenching.
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