FIVE Stories on Brownstone Park Place Block?

dailyheights wrote: Hmm, 5 stories and 5 families... I wonder how that will go over with current residents on this block?

It doesn't seem to be going over well; I used to live on the block and I still receive emails from the block association. It's been the topic of discussion (or at the very least, emails have been going back and forth to inform everyone of the proposal) for the past couple of weeks. Some of the choice phrases include:

"...it must be plain and simple greed."
"will subtract from the scale of the neighborhood and is enitrely unacceptable."

I'll direct some of the people from the block assoc to the thread so they can comment on their own.

It's especially a shame because that building is so great the way it is (although not quite as cool as the one to the right of it). How many PH houses actually have a porch?

Subject: Proposed five stories on Park Place, Prospect Heights

September 7, 2005

I have lived in this marvelous Prospect Heights neighborhood for six years. I am aghast at the resales now going on and the speculators who are acquiring residential homes solely for the purpose of altering, adding on, and capitalizing on whatever monetary gains may be had.
A five-story building across the street (I live at the corner of Underhill & Park) will cause countless problems. First, the skyline changes dramatically: this is not a street of "high-rises." Secondly, the residents change-- the proposed space will invite short-term transients, bring more people to the same particular "foot pattern" (now with new vertical limits), and impact the overall look and feel of this historic neighborhood (even if it is not duly landmarked as such).
There will be issues pertaining to traffic, parking, car emissions, water, sewage, sanitation/trash, and safety as well. We have a children's school very close, and across Vanderbilt the Medgar Evers Educational Project. The only Kurdish Library in the western hemisphere, open to scholars and researchers), is at 144 Underhill Avenue.
Maintaining and protecting stable neighborhood life is essential to keeping Brooklyn's first identity as a borough of -- yes, neighborhoods -- where history can be felt along its tree-lined streets. There are reasons for landmark status for some of the houses here and it is up to us, and our elected officials as well, to come forward and help secure whatever landmark status behooves us.
Regrettably, proposed commercial plans in the area have put the scent of money reeking through our very air. One day I watched a young woman with a digital camera walk house to house, stopping in front of each home just long enough to take a photograph. I asked what she was doing and she said she was working for a realtor interested in buying houses. I said but none of these are for sale. Well, he hopes they could be, she answered.
Older people are being besieged by people asking if their house is for sale. There are even mass flyers being left, saying I WANT TO BUY YOUR HOUSE. Remember, this area is just two block from Eastern Parkway, the Library, the Botanical Gardens, and Grand Army Plaza. We are not Walmart area--though if development is allowed to encroach, that will not be far behind.
By contrast, go up on Washington Street and see the neighborhood spirit that is also very much active here, with striking community-produced murals and new small business ventures totally in keeping with the street that is both a vital multi-ethnic neighborhoos and the gateway to the path to the Museum. This is what we want more of, small community/neighborhood activity, not outside "scalpers" using these fine storied streets for their own monetary gain, and to Brooklyn's loss.
There are many complex issues to be raised and discussed regarding this proposal. This project ought not to even considered before all possible concerns have been raised, beginning with traffic, parking, environmental, and safety issues and proceeding to the historic character of the streets.
For starters, let's all reach out to both elected officials and those faces on telephone poles and at cross-sections, those public servants asking for our vote. Whether they have won or lost, their voices need to be added to the chorus of those who live here now, and who have been living here-- those who indeed are the best counsels in this extremely critical matter now before us.


Thank you for the opportunity to join in this discussion.

Mary Ann Lynch
718-857-6056

Subject: Fort Salonga, home of the new owner Mr. Schildkraut

Sept 7, 2005

Here is information about the home turf of Mark Schildkraut, new owner of the controversial house on Park Place with a proposed addition bringind it to five stories.

Demographically & economically, Mr. Schildkraut chooses to live in a very different neighborhood. Fort Salanga, which is in Suffolk County, across the Sound from Darien, Connecticut.

This information is from the web.

Mary Ann Lynch
718-857-6056
[email protected]
============================

FORT SALONGA, NEW YORK


Population (year 2000): 9,634
Males: 4,772 (49.5%), Females: 4,862 (50.5%)
Elevation: 31 feet
County: Suffolk
Land area: 9.0 square miles
Zip code: 11768
Median resident age: 40.2 years
Median household income: $98,128 (year 2000)
Median house value: $364,300 (year 2000)
New: Fort Salonga, NY residents, houses, and apartments details
Races in Fort Salonga:
White Non-Hispanic (94.9%)
Hispanic (2.3%)
Black (0.6%)
Chinese (0.5%)
Two or more races (0.5%)
===========================================

Subject: Re: 5 Story on 3-4 Story Block

Urbanhound wrote:
Interestingly, the monstrosity on Park between Flatbush and Vanderbilt does not seem to have hurt either the block's value or its "flavor," if you will, so while I do think everything possible should be done to stop this and prevent it from happening again in the future, I also don't think it will be catastrophic. And maybe it will galvanize us into fighting for landmark status and joining together to protect our much-loved neighborhood.

The only real beef I have with that building is that there is no greenery out front, unlike every other residential building on the block. Its very inconsiderate and non-neighborlike.

As a resident of another of Mr Schildkraut's properties, I can only hope that he brings high-quality construction to this addition/renovation than the work done on my building.

He's been a pretty decent guy to me these last four years, even though it did take two incidents of chunks of plaster falling from my bedroom ceiling to get a decent drainage system bolted on.

But the extension off the back of my building, where my bedroom is, has pretty much the crappiest quality of construction you're likely to find. Anyone who's ever been to my yard (you're out there) knows what I'm talking about.

Maybe I'll ask him about it next time I see him...

-p

He'll refile. Hard to say why it wasn't approved, it could be something small that needs to be corrected on the plans or it could be something more significant.

Most likely the developer checked out the big issues before purchasing but you never know.

It's pretty common for a major addition to go through multiple iterations of the filing process before everything is approved.

Don't know how I missed this thread before. Schildkraut is my landlord too. All this stuff about his buying up more properties makes me a bit nervous -- he already raised my rent by a hundred bucks the last time my lease came up for renewal, and I just know he'll probably raise it right out of my range next time.

For what it's worth, he used to be really responsive about repairs, but for the last few months it's next to impossible to get him to do even basic repairs. He usually doesn't return calls, even when it's an emergency. Hell, when I moved in I was told flat out I couldn't even expect him to pay for paint, when the apartment hasn't been painted in years and is peeling and scuffed up like crazy. Guess he's putting all that extra rent money from me into buying new buildings.

pete_c wrote: Interesting -- I thought there was some form of law to guarantee paint over the course of a few years?

Yeah, there is. When I brought this up with Schildkraut's broker, though, he just repeated "No paint! We don't pay for paint!" I was looking for an apartment two weeks after my mother died and, frankly, I was just too emotionally exhausted and desperate for a place to live to argue about it, and there's no way I would have been able to deal with painting after all my stuff was moved in even if I had decided to push the issue.

My place wasn't cleaned at all before I moved in, either, and the guy who lived there before me was nasty. Like, weird sticky black gunk on every surface of the apartment nasty. Just disgusting. Mouse traps, roach hotels, and rat poison everywhere (despite no sign of mice, roaches, or rats) and gun cleaner under the sink. It was creepy. I spent the first month I lived there scouring every inch of the place repeatedly.

To be fair, Schildkraut did buy me a new stove when I moved in, because the old one was very much dead. And a couple of months ago, he had someone fix my door buzzer because it was getting stuck and ringing for hours at a time. But other repairs have been ignored completely. Getting him to fix anything is very hit-or-miss.