Today I thought I’d focus on the tree-lined, well-kept streets off Irving Avenue on the south side of Myrtle. Most of the homes are quaint bay- or bow-front brick two-families, interspersed with a few larger buildings on the corners and some other interior streets. The area has some of Bushwick’s more intact blocks, likely due to the high owner-occupancy rate. It’s a bit far from the action, but the price makes up for having to ride the train another 3 minutes.

$1500 — 2br: Most Bushwick newcomers have no idea this exists. Down around Covert Street near Irving are a couple of blocks of Tudoresque buildings with cottage-sized apartments full of beautiful old details like herringbone and (old) parquet floors, stained glass windows, and patinaed tilework. The rooms are ample and bright — and the price is right. I can’t vouch for this particular building but I have been in another one and they are just awesome.
Covert and Irving | street view | Halsey L

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“Death trap” Market Hotel, by Zach Stern

Plus ça change…

This article from nearly 120 years ago in the Brooklyn Eagle describes with typical reformist horror all the moral degradations to which young people, especially ladies, subject themselves to in the name of fun. Degradations such as imbibery and hatlessness. Though the bars were supposed to be closed on the “day of rest,” the author notes with shrill prudishness that there is not a cop to be seen and when there is, why, he’s watching the show!

Brooklyn nightlife of the 1890s could be confused with that of today — except the cops now actually do bother shutting down venues. But those venues would still be considered “death traps” by the patrons’ mothers, and with the latest style of hipster dress, you might actually see a young man in a bowler hat.

Enjoy the old-timey Puritanistic press lingo. My favorite quote is, “It is in direct violation of the law, and is consequently wrong…”, but there are lots of great ones in here — which ones make you laugh?

Cornelia Street, by brandi66

A Pot Farm Grows…: For once, comments in a New York tabloid we can get behind: Legalize it already! The cops took advantage of a house fire to break into a neighboring building and steal 80-100 pot plants.

Stop Kenneth Cole: Now the Kenneth Cole blog extends its gratingly lame social commentary to hipsters and condos in Bushwick? But props for mixing such tired observations with the Hipster Olympics and a Make the Road anti-gentrification protest. One note: hipsters don’t “make an appearance” in the MTR video — the camera specifically sought them out. Look, white people existing! White evil knows no bounds, I tell you. Bonus: o noos, the projects r gross!

Another Domino: A Westchester developer snapped up a large property on Stanhope near Wyckoff, citing nearby condo developments as a draw.

The Violence Continues: Another victim of the ongoing mayhem in Bushwick.

1117 Jefferson Avenue is one of those homes in this area which kept its second-floor entrance, instead of chopping it off and having the entrance on the garden level. Inside, there are some modern touches but built-ins and some other details seem to have been left intact. This property is listed as a single family but the records show it as a legal three-family — I don’t know if this is just poorly described by the agent or it’s actually been turned into an eight-bedroom home for one family. Either way, it’s a great deal by square footage, and it’s on one of those shady tree-lined blocks off of historic Bushwick Avenue.

1117 Jefferson Avenue | $599,000
3600sqft | 20ft-wide | 3-family, 8br/3ba | frame
Gates JZ

$1995 — 3br: This is really nice, very well done renovation, everything new but classic. The bathroom sink is a little over the top but it’s better than being under it. Bright apartment with a back yard — and a dishwasher in the kitchen. Enough said.
PETS OK | Wilson and Decatur | street view | Wilson L

$1550 — 2br: This has two full bathrooms, a rarity in these parts. Nice renovation, wood floors, some original details, and a pretty good location.
PETS OK | Stanhope and Wilson | street view | Wilson L

$975-1400 — 1-3br: This must be stabilized at these rents. Acceptably renovated, nothing special or too crappy, wood floors — and from the ad, a no-nonsense landlord. Area is not terribly convenient but good for the price.
Putnam and Evergreen (1br — 2br — 3br) | street view | Gates JZ

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Cuchifrito, by Shira Golding

Warehousing Warehousing: Developers sitting on tracts of vacant and might-as-well-be-vacant industrial tracts in Bushwick are taking advantage of the downturn to get their properties rezoned residential, something they didn’t bother with in the recent frenzy. In the next bout of “irrational exuberance,” or even a modest uptick in the market, look for condos on the Rheingold Brewery site.

Bushwick Beans: New York coffee roasters are finally getting some respect, including two roasters which will soon operate out of spaces somewhere in Bushwick.

Myrtle Madness: A map dork after my own heart, Chi Birmingham sketches some of the odd block shapes created by Myrtle slicing east to west through our cockeyed Bushwick street grid. Fun. Also check out the artist’s website; lots of cool noiry and 60s-evocative stuff.

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Today, just a thought experiment of sorts. I was in Orlando last week visiting the in-laws — more like Borelando, amirite? It actually turned out to be more like Bori-lando — the whole damn city is Puerto Rican, it seems. I said something to Luis, and he said “Yeah, Orlando, hicks and spics.” I responded, “I don’t see the hick part.”

“Well,” he shrugged, “things change.”

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Cute Bushwick house, by Shira Golding

Do the Subprime Whine: The Guardian comes to Bushwick and pours it on with one of those worst-case scenario subprime stories used to define the “crisis” by the hysterical media. Satan-incarnate “predatory” lender dupes simple old man out of his financial stability. And yet before the industry loosened its standards after decades of browbeating, the media would have wrung its hands that this old man didn’t have “access” to “important financial tools.” The article mentions in passing that he shares the blame for making poor decisions, but what nobody is mentioning is — where is all the money? He got a LOAN, and now he’s BROKE. Where did hundreds of thousands of dollars go? Gah!

‘Everything Is a Venue’ Indeed: Poking fun at the names of makeshift party spaces in Bushwick has become a pastime for this group of friends… I think I’ll start doing it, too. Next BBQ I’m at will be the “The Railroad Apartment Yard.”

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I’m in Orlando visiting my boyfriend’s family, so updating will be late and sparse for the next few days. Anna’s weekend picks should be coming at you some time this late afternoon, but for now I’ll leave you with a fluff post: a tipster spotted Susan Sarandon on Stockholm Street this week. That…that’s it. Later.

Bushwick Avenue, by miggyboybitoy

Get on Early: The Straphangers Campaign has rated the L line #1 in the city. That does not speak well for the other lines. But maybe it’s all in how you ride it.

Click, Click, Click (and Cricket): Double dutch will soon become a varsity sport in New York high schools; Bushwick girls squeal with glee. I wonder: will they be scored on the rhymes, too?

Oh You Didn’t Mean Random Random…: Metro NY “randomly” picks an NYC block to review — and wow! They got the block that’s home to St. Barbara’s Roman Catholic Church! What luck! Two millimeters to the left or right would have gotten them in the middle of a Hope Gardens complex. God must really be watching over them. Anyway, the reporter pats the cute Hispanicals on their adorable little heads and then notes a few laundromats as “amenities” before presumably burning rubber back to the city.

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