Rents Reach $8,000+ on State Street

A small poster on a window at 183 State Street, at the corner of Court Street in Downtown Brooklyn, announces that a three-bedroom apartment with a gas fireplace is to let for $8,500/month. A quick visit to the Halstead Property web site shows that prices for other three-bedrooms in the building start at $7,800 and go up to $8,350. (Retail space is also available in the building.)

While this makes our Rent Meter swerve dangerously into Red Alert mode, it's not a total anomaly. Other interesting nearby rents include:
The two-bedroom Clocktower at One Main Street in Dumbo can be had for $13,000/month;
A two-bedroom penthouse loft in the Sweeny Building in Dumbo (at 30 Main Street) is also $13,000/ month;
And a five-bedroom townhouse at 13 Cranberry Street is yours for $25,000/month.

The Big Event: Tour de Brooklyn 2007

It was a perfect day, and more than 2,000 cyclists took over the roads Sunday in the Tour de Brooklyn. Below is Streetfilms' awesome video.
(Via OTBKB)

Oro -- Boys? Or Girls?

Who is buying into the Oro Condos at 306 Gold Street in Downtown Brooklyn?

Looking at the building's signage, we see a 2 to 1 female/male ratio. There are ten females illustrated (both alone and in snazzy little get-togethers), but only five males.

According to the Census, there are slightly more females than males in Brooklyn -- 53% to 47%. While a bit unbalanced, this ratio bears no resemblance to the 2:1 ratio illustrated on the Oro signage.

So who is the Oro aiming at with its depiction of double the number of females?

Boys? Or girls?

Remember Those Fireworks You Heard Saturday Night But Didn't See?

The Gowanus Lounge blog has photos. The fireworks show went along with the screening of Close Encounters of the Third Kind in Prospect Park.

Like Everyone Else, City Hall is Moving to Brooklyn

(But Just for a Couple of Weeks)

1010 WINS reports that City Hall and the Mayor are moving to Brooklyn for two weeks in July, while the Manhattan digs are being renovated.

Starting July 9, the mayor and his staff will move to the new, state-of-the-art Office of Emergency Management in Downtown Brooklyn.

Mayor Bloomberg won't be roughing it. The building is equipped with a100-person Emergency Operations Center, Watch Command, general office space and a press and conference center, and is right across the street from the newly renovated Cadman Plaza Park.

Photo courtesy of www.nyc.gov

Alleged JFK Plotters Used Google Earth Photos of Airport

The complaint regarding the suspects (including a Guyana-born Brooklynite, Russell Defreitas) who were allegedly plotting to blow up John F. Kennedy Airport in New York says that the group used Google Earth to help locate the "fuel farms" at the airport.

Many countries have raised concern with public access to satellite images of sensitive areas, including India, Australia and South Korea. An article in the International Herald Tribune discusses security issues arising from Google Earth's satellite imagery. Operators of a nuclear reactor in Australia have argued that Google Earth makes their site an easy target for terrorists.

A pdf of the JFK complaint can be seen at the Counterterrorism blog here.

Public Tours at One Brooklyn Bridge Park Monday

If yours was not one of the 3,000-plus names on the infamous list for an individual tour of One Brooklyn Bridge Park, your big chance has finally arrived. According to Linda Collins of the Brooklyn Eagle, anyone who wants to view the luxury digs (once called 360 Furman Street) can show up Monday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

About 70 contracts have been signed, reports the Eagle. For starters, real estate magnate Elizabeth Stribling (of Stribling & Associates) has purchased two adjacent units with terraces on the 12th floor, which will be combined, plus a parking space in the garage, for $6.6 million.

Pictures of the model apartments, news about contracts, and rumors about Traders Joe's here.

Past posts on this topic here and here and here.
All stories about Brooklyn Bridge Park here.

Photo by MK Metz

Who's Brooklyn's Top Dog?

Canine Casting Calls Start June 2

Trendy design and apparel company Brooklyn Industries is searching for Brooklyn’s Top Dog, reports the Brooklyn Eagle. The winner (and runner-ups) will be showered with recognition and prizes.

Beginning Saturday, June 2, BKI will hold open casting calls at the store’s Park Slope, Williamsburg and Smith Street locations.

For times and places, see here.

Atlantic Yards 'Neighborhood Buzz' Map

Outside.In has produced an animated map of neighborhood buzz, projected over both time and space. The map tracks the the neighborhood hotspots in the Flatbush/Atlantic Avenue area of Brooklyn that people have been talking about online for the past six months.

It's fascinating to watch the ebb and flow of coverage by both bloggers and mainstream media.

The larger the icons, the more conversations about the place. Each circle represents the ratio of coverage by local bloggers (in orange) to the mainstream media (in gray.)

Go to the map here.

Walk to Bridgeview Towers Showroom Just a Wee Bit Intimidating

Persons interested in viewing the luxury Bridgeview Towers condo model showroom can't be blamed for being a bit put off by the subtle hints that all may not be well with the "upcoming" Flatbush Avenue Extension neighborhood at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge.

Signs instruct interested parties to enter at the back. But as you walk that way, you pass a quite intimidating array of warnings tacked up on grafitti-covered boards: "K9 Powerhouse Attack Dog of Premises;" "BEWARE OF DOGS;" "Warning: Poison Posted -- Baited Area."


That, and the deflated balloon on the Open House sign leave a lingering impression...


Photos by MK Metz