The Big Takeover
Sarah Kramer/Brooklyn Paper
On the Map Dept: I live on Eldert Street, a 6 block long stretch on the south side of the Shwick (let’s get all the kids to start calling it that!). My end of the block is residential, rowhouses and an elevated train. Children run around the block and participate in activities that can only be described as “wholesome.” They roller skate (with or without those shoes with the wheels in the back), jump rope, bike, play basketball, pick broomsticks out of the trash and hit each other with them. It’s been pretty startling to see kids act like this, I thought kids just sat in front of the TV all day, absorbing Fritos and Hawaiian Punch while watching reality TV shows about people starving themselves. What I wanna know is, how do these nice little kids transform into the surly teenagers who hang out further down the block?
Anyway, that’s life on my end of Eldert Street. On the other end there is an old knitting factory building that’s been converted to loft apartments. The industrial side of Bushwick somehow made it this far south, seemingly only along the L train. The building at 345 Eldert is full of artists, and apparently a group of them are trying to get financial backers so they can buy their building from its management company. If successful, they will have a huge space in which the artists call the shots. Nice idea, I guess, but are they serious? The article in the Brooklyn Paper isn’t clear how much of a joke this is, but the accompanying photo doesn’t lend a whole lot of credibility to their crusade. They need some kind of venture capitalist to provide the dough to buy the place, who’s gonna do that? This sounds like the 21st century version of the “Let’s put on a show!!” type stuff from the 70’s and 80’s. I hope they pull it off, though I’m pretty sure this isn’t the first time anybody thought of this (”Hey, we all live here, we’re all into the same stuff, let’s buy the building!”), but I dunno if anybody ever actually went through with it. Aren’t there any wealthy, eccentric philanthropists anymore?
Still, the notion of a gaggle of artists trying to run their own building … shades of Lord of the Flies? Speaking of which, are you aware there’s gonna be a reality TV show in which a group of children live in the wild without adult supervision? See what the kids on my street are missing out on?
Crossposted from JimmyLegs.com
July 3rd, 2007 at 1:38 pm
If they all actually have some sort of income, they can definitely get a mortgage with all of them on it — it’s a common situation in places like SF where condo conversions are essentially banned. They need to have a lawyer to lay it out for them in a legal manner, a coop might even be a great way to go.
July 3rd, 2007 at 11:20 pm
Thanks to Jeremy & Jimmy Leg for putting Sobu, and Eldert St. on the map. Whenever someone hears this area, near Halsey Stree, they think it’s not in the thick of Bushwick, and more on the fringe of BedSty. But this building is in Bushwick proper, not where Jimmy lives.
I too wonder about kids “growing up” on the streets, and the bad habits they may be forming. Wonder what it’s like to be a newcomer to the area and raise a kid. And we’re not talking about raising cats!
Always wonder what if someone moved into such a building unknowing that it was an artist colony with loud music, and a hippie lifestyle?
A coop does sound like a good idea. These kids got spunk, but a building like that must cost in the tens of millions.
July 4th, 2007 at 10:19 am
You know, BklynGirl, more and more Bushwick is more acceptable than Bed-Stuy — you can’t believe when I’m doing the roundups how many ads I have to ignore because they say Bushwick but they’re really in Bed-Stuy. SoBu has arrived!
July 12th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
haha, that roof is awesome, my cruddy old band played up on that water-tower support two summers ago. loading gear onto that thing was a bastard.
August 23rd, 2007 at 10:55 am
wow. 345 Eldert is 3 miles away from me. and I live in bushwick too… Apparently bushwick is huge.
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:35 am
Acually it’s roughly two miles long and one wide.
August 23rd, 2007 at 8:03 pm
from SoBu
The other day, by fluke, I passed 345 Eldert; they’ve vacacies and ask $1000.00 rent per loft. I am curious how these lofts look like. I called for an appointment but these f%$#s are so rude on the phone, they hung up on me. Now I have second thoughts.
February 28th, 2008 at 8:01 am
[…] for I bring news: a building is going up at 342 Eldert Street and Irving Avenue, right across from the scamps at 345 — and by the same owner. Contact Luis S., who lives on the same block, took photos and even […]
May 21st, 2008 at 6:34 pm
I, ahem, work in real estate.
I, with all due respect, and I know that premise allows a man to say just about anything to another man, but I must…
… with all due respect …
You have a pipe dream. It is the very definition. This is a 78,000 SF building.
Do you have $31 million tucked away somewhere? Anyone got David Byrne’s motherfucking phone number besides me?
May 21st, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Jeremy - an interesting SF intrusion -
SF where condo’ed buildings are banned… wonder if that will ever happen here?
Or if financing will ever reflect their reality?
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, no.
May 21st, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Cause NYC is about business - while SF is about handing out money to crack heads.
I’m sorry - but these two cities have VERY STRONG DIFFERENCES IN OPINION - which is why I live in a place where homeless people aren’t asking me for money every five steps.
I mean, have you ever really been to SF?
May 21st, 2008 at 7:02 pm
“Cause NYC is about business - while SF is about handing out money to crack heads.”
haha!
Yes, I have been to SF several times. It has plenty of business going on, just like NYC — it’s residents have just deluded themselves that this is not the case and they actually live in a socialist utopia.
May 21st, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Well, we can agree they are separate cities and delightful for their differences…
This artist attempt to buy a 78k SF building is sort of, well, I’m sorry, difficult to see actually happening.