"Check out this huge pile of crap, I don't even know where to begin. I'll tell you what I know first.I saw this property listed for sale a couple years ago at 1.2 million. I wanted that property two years ago, and just didn't have the money. I wanted to buy it, eventually pay it off, and turn it into a really nice estate in the middle of Ridgewood. It would have been a one-of-a-kind property.
Check out the size of that lot! Lots like that don't come up very often. I could have had a garden and a big yard with trees...
So it sits there for a while, next thing I know someone cuts down all the trees, and knocks down the houses. There was a garage that had been converted to a small house, a one family house, and a two family house. Check out the Google Earth image of the place -- it was really sweet!
After a while construction starts, and I'm scratching my head, thinking what are they building, a warehouse? It covers the whole damn lot!! No, it's a series of townhomes or a giant apartment building or something. The freaking developer turned the building sideways to maximize the number of units he could cram in there!I can't believe it! There goes that block. It could have been a gorgeous home and mini-estate and now they're going to double the population on that block. The rest of the homes are two family homes and now you have this. So much for finding parking on that block anymore. So much for everyone's back yards that now stare into someone's living room. How big is it going to get? That lot is ruined for the next 100 years.
Don't even get me started on the air conditioners stuck through the wall. Give me a break, why are developers using the same crappy design that been used for the last 50 years? Let's build a house by putting up a box, punch some holes in for windows and punch some holes in for the air conditioners. Morons.
Thanks for letting me vent." - anonymous
The property in question was previously featured in this post.
7 comments:
"...for sale a couple years ago at 1.2 million. In Ridgewood?
Right there you have answered your question.
Look at that block, who in there right mind would pay that for a single residence?
As I wrote s few days ago, if the seller is going for top-dollar in an area like this......you get apartments or townhouses.
Let's not play dumb here, sellers know who is buying and what their intentions are...
They don't give a damn.
Judging by the steel studs, I'd guess it is -not- going to be a "giant' apt house but rather a multifamily/townhouses.
I also note an apt house that the author conveniently ignores.
"..why are developers using the same crappy design that been used for the last 50 years?"
This same person would probably bitch n' moan about anything stylish too.
Look, I know people some people are loyal to their neighborhoods, more of that would help the situation, but none of what I see in the surrounding construction is "house beautiful" -as long as what goes up isn't much taller...why make a stink..atleast it is fireproof.
Because it's completely illegal according to the zoning. And because cramming that many houses into a single lot doubles the population of the block as the contributor mentioned. And there is no green space whatsoever as is required under a zoning yards text amendment passed 2 years ago.
I guess in your opinion, we should all just be passive, sit by and watch developers break every zoning law and trash our neighborhoods as long as what they build is not taller than what's there. Vertical overdevelopment is the only bad kind of overdevelopment.
Lino, are you from Astoria? You sound like you may post on Astorians.com.
Hey it's a compact ghetto tucked away on a side street! Who do you think this is being built to house?
You say "as long as what goes up isn't much taller," but they are much taller, and that's one of the problems. Another giant multi-unit building is replacing a single family home behind my neighbor's house, and the thing that bothers him the most is he's lost all his light.
"...the thing that bothers him the most is he's lost all his light."
Are you talking about -this- case?
That construction is not indicative of anything more than 2-3 stories.
To answer the previous question about where I live: Manhattan.
When I moved in here I was up high enough to see the lights of Shea stadium..now all I see are living rooms across the avenue.
Both northern and eastern views -gone. That's how it goes in a popular area, people want to live there and some opportunist aka: developer takes advantage.
The only way for you to prevent what you consider "over development" is to organize, institute effective zoning and enforce it.
DOB and DCP are supposed to do that. This was contextually zoned by DCP - R5B - and DOB issued a permit for something that doesn't comply anyway. Now what? The thing is half built. Do you think they would shut him down and make him tear the thing down? No. So this perfect solution you came up with won't get us very far.
And as for this being where people want to live - does this look like something someone would want to live in? Or will they live in it because it's all they can afford?
..."does this look like something someone would want to live in? Or will they live in it because it's all they can afford?"
Both.
The people who work in the restaurants I deal with -like- this sort of neighborhood. I have visited many over the last 19 years and although I find these areas dead, my friends like the (relative) quiet and can't imagine living in the city, where I am.
If you want to make the "afford" argument - in some cases I agree, it's the squeeze-out effect on the middle/working class that has taken place at an accelerated rate since the weakening of rent regulations in the 1990s.
Shoehorned crap like this is occurring all over the boroughs, you should see the slivers that are going up on every slice of property in my area (UES) -it makes what is happening in Queens look tame.
Right now there are several going up including one on the SE corner of Park Ave @85th. It's at the corner, can't be more than 18 ft wide, it looks like a fungal growth on the side of an existing structure.
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