None of this is verified, so I can’t give any more detail, but there are several rumors floating around that I figured I’d share with you here, just all in one post.

Around the corner from me is a collapsed house, which a tipster told me was recently bought by a guy who is busily buying up neighbors’ air rights so that he can build a condo tower. This would definitely add some shadow to my yard at certain times of day in certain seasons, but would I rather have neighbors who quietly admire my garden towering over me rather than neighbors who throw, uh, “used” glue traps in my yard? You bet. Sure, we probably couldn’t use the fire pit anymore due to uppity neighbor complaints, but what price property values? All I care about is that the new building isn’t floating in a sea of parking like the monstrosity on Grove. Given the small size of the lot, that seems unlikely.

Speaking of the building jam-packed with lovely neighbors who send me gifts via air mail, it was recently sold for $1.5 million. Sounds like a lot, but it has 15 units and a storefront, and there’s a lot of Section 8 up in there. My tipster says the new owner plans condos, like I had suspected previously. How will he work that out, I asked. Tipster assures me “he’s got tricks up his sleeves. Give him a year.” Expect life for the tenants to get worse before they get better. Someone alert the Village Voice!

Over on Troutman Street is a gigantic lot, the former home of the Castle Braid Company (I don’t have any more info than that — what does a braid company make?). It’s been a work site for a long time, but nothing was going on the last time I was near it. Recently my neighbor said he spoke to someone on the site, and they told him 140 or 170 (he can’t remember which) condos were being built at the site. That’s a lot of units — does that mean another tower? Then one of my housemates was walking by and said there were foundations in, and it looked like several buildings.

Here’s a downer: across the street, where I thought they were building subsidized coops, it turns out the city may own the buildings, and just booted the old people out to renovate — and they are moving them back in! Along with the deli that was on the corner. Many questions come to mind — how did they legally determine who the “good” tenants were, since the super of the building above (that got sold for condos) says the “bad” ones are not coming back? Even if they must legally offer the apartments to the old tenants, why in the hell are they putting the same crackhead deli back in the commercial space? And why did they spend so much money making the buildings look so good just to plunk the same old tenants back in? And where have the tenants been for the last YEAR? This all makes so little sense…but who knows with this city. The housing laws are from Bizarro World. The buildings do look pretty good, though, as you can see in the photo above.

On the “stuff opening” front, that bar I mentioned a while back is definitely happening, somewhere on Starr Street. My contact says he will let me know if they want any more leaked, probably when they have the location and opening date set.

Yes No Maybe is still a big maybe. When I spoke to the owner months ago, he said he wanted to be open in three weeks. There are still piles of dirt and debris in front of the building, though the garden area is looking nice, even if it’s just because it’s summer and everything is growing in very nicely. I’m sure the holdup has something…well, everything to do with the city giving him a hard time. No good deed goes unpunished, as my mom says.

And then there’s the owner of a Thai restaurant on Grand in Williamsburg who has had it with high rent and is looking to move to Bushwick. That’s pretty much all the info I have on that.

Anyone else have any other rumors to share?

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