DailyHeights

The Russian Cabbie Who Loved America, originally uploaded by The Klaus Kinski of Kamerafones.

…and How to Make the Angry Yellow Cab Driver Go from Manhattan to Brooklyn, Despite Heavy Sighing, Muttered Profanity, Maniacal Driving, and General Rudeness, as reported by users of the Prospect Heights Message Board:

Q. HOW MUCH TO TIP A TAXI CAB DRIVER GOING FROM MANHATTAN TO PARK SLOPE/PROSPECT HEIGHTS?
A. “I give about 15% – 20%, or a minimum of $2-$3 if a short ride.” -VeggieQueen
A. “I tip at least $3 if they’re coming over the bridge from Downtown, more if it’s from midtown and up…” -daisyh
A. “If I take a yellow cab home from Manhattan I tip about 15%, depending on how the driver reacted when I told him I was going to Brooklyn…” -em
A. “I usually tip $2 to $4 unless it’s a really long trip.” -neene

Q. CAR SERVICE: CAN YOU SKIP THE TIP? Seems like a lot of people tend to tip cab drivers, but avoid tipping the car service drivers, on the rationale that they drive their own cars and don’t have to pay for a medallion. Apparently, some car services automatically add a gratuity (~10%) to the fare, according to kristina.
A. Magic 8 Ball says: Unclear. Shake again. From Idlewild (who is a former car service driver): “Not all car service drivers own their car, and even if they do, they are still paying hefty maintaince and tax costs.”

Q. WHAT IF THE DRIVER COMPLAINS/REFUSES TO TAKE ME BACK TO BROOKLYN? This used to be almost the rule, and now is becoming the exception. But it still happens. A lot. What’s more, some cabbies will refuse fares across Brooklyn if they deem yours not worthy enough. As far as we know, none of this is legal.
A. Legal or not: don’t even let it happen. Pre-empt it. Jump in the cab and slam the door before disclosing your destination. If the driver balks, remember this phrase: “You may not want to take me to Brooklyn, but you’re not getting another fare until you do, because I’m not getting out.” -Carnivore

Q. RUDE DRIVERS: SHOULD YOU GET REVENGE? And should you report the cabbie who won’t go to Brooklyn??
A. Don’t bother, unless you’re unemployed, or especially vindictive: “You can complain all you want, but to have any real action taken, you have to turn up to a TLC hearing in person, which usually means taking a day off work. What a shock! The TLC isn’t concerned about weeding out lame drivers, or serving the entire NYC populace.” -ANFIELD

Photo by: neene

Is it possible to get a fresh, affordable tree in this neighborhood?? Michelle76 writes on the Park Slope Message Board: “… I live around Garfield and 5th Ave, and I’ve bought trees at both the place on Flatbush/5th Ave, and the one in front of Key Food on 5th. Both have been disappointing in the past, with really, really dried out trees. I’m just trying to get a nice, healthy 3-footer … I really love Christmas trees, but these ones in Park Slope have been bumming me out.”

3-footer?? Okay, Charlie Brown. Here’s your quick list:

That place on Union between 6th and 7th Ave – “Vermont” something, just downhill from the Food Coop. They are nice and the trees are great. -pitu

The church at the corner of 7th and Carroll (Old First Reformed Church) has sold trees … Pretty good trees in the past. But they are large ones. Also, there’s the lot on Flatbush @ 5th Avenue that’ll be around until they build Ratnerville … nice Canadienne who sold me a tree last year … they have all sizes and probably have Charlie Brown-type trees too. -dw438

But don’t buy on recommendations alone – check the tree before you buy: Bend the needles to see if they snap. They’ll be flexible on a fresh tree … Unfortunately its probably near impossible to get a fresh affordable tree in the neighborhood. – Ando

Get more recommendations on the Park Slope Message Board

Photo: gregg snodgrass for PropertyShark.com

A panicked armchair_warrior wrote on the Prospect Heights Message Board about a –suspicious because he had no idea HIS property was on the market: “…and me nor my mom knows about this. We paid the building in full. So how the hell these realtors would put my building up for sale …”

“Only reason I even found out of this is ’cause its a hobby of mine, looking at buildings for sale, and also my relatives want to buy near me. And I found my own house for sale!!!”

Is there some nefarious plan afoot? Or did this real estate agent make an honest mistake and somehow list the wrong property? As doctorj notes, screwups are more common than conspiracies… Well, our friend armchair says he actually called the “listing agent” in question, and innocently asked if he could make an offer on his own property….

And the story continues on the Prospect Heights Message Board

Looks like Corcoran has listed Richard Meier’s One Prospect Park tower. A lot of time and effort has been spent to characterize this building as Brooklyn’s premiere address… and the sticker prices do bear that out. So, what do you get for the money? Could that $3 million, 2,125 sq ft, 3-bedroom condo look any more like an airport lobby, neene asks on the Prospect Heights Message Board? An airport lobby with a basement-esque 8.9-foot ceiling, alafairnadia adds?

Well, of course these issues are going to be an issue for you brownstone-entrenched PHers… But locals are not exactly the target demographic, now are they? Consider that One Prospect Park’s “sales gallery,” despite its 718 area code, is actually located in Tribeca.

Cheer up, naysayers… doctorj hypothesizes: “Maybe none of them will sell, nobody will want to live there at any price, an attempt at making it a hotel will fail, and the developer will end up in a bailout with the city to turn the building to a Section 8 tenement.”

More sour grapes on the Prospect Heights Message Board

Atomische just wrote in to Daily Heights : “A visitor to my photo blog posted a long and fascinating comment about what it was like living on my block (Underhill & St. John’s) back in the 1960s.”

Here’s some excerpts: “Wow,,,,I lived on this block when I was a kid..from about 1961 to about 1968 or 69. … the door was never locked … there were beautiful grand stoops with a ton of brickwork and had huge bushes on each side. Inside our hallway vestibule were two huge mirrors facing each other and you could see yourself into infinity. “

“On Underhill Avenue was the famous HERMANS ICE CREAM PARLOR and people came to hang out from all over Brooklyn … MOTOWN was what we listened to on the jukebox mostly and drank Egg Creams. We could buy a pack of cigarettes for 28 cents at the drug store. “

“The rent in those days ran about $100 or $150 a month… the “average” kids lived on the tenament side and the ‘richer” kids lived in one of the three big apt buildings across the street…”

Read the full post on the

I can’t believe it’s not meat! Did you miss the book release party for “Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World” at Freddy’s Bar (Dean Street in Prospect Heights, Nov. 11)? Prospect Heights author and vegan cooking guru Isa Chandra Moskowitz showed off her book, gave away delicious free-range cupcakes and cookbooks, and Brooklyn bands Winning Looks and The Shondes performed in the back room.

The event (and the cupcakes) got glowing reviews on the Prospect Heights Message Boards. Splunge reports: “The cupcakes were super delicious and moist. Entertaining bands, to boot.” Carnivore adds: “I tried 2, offered to me by Isa’s “cupcake bitch” (that’s what Isa called her, before you all get mad at me) … I never would have guessed [the cupcakes] were vegan if I hadn’t been told.” The ultimate compliment for veggies and meat eaters alike.

Isa’s book can be found at amazon.com as well as on her website: http://www.theppk.com

Photo by Waxy Poetic

Where is good ol’ Peaches when you need her? Why is the mail ending up anywhere but the mailbox? What’s up with that substitute mail lady?
Josh B is one of several PH people to complain on the Prospect Heights Board: “She’s super-short, so she refuses to put any mail in mailboxes she can’t reach. She throws all my mail–bills, checks included–on the floor of my apartment lobby and forces us to sort out the mail for each apartment. We put a tiny ladder (like, three steps) out there for her, but she refuses to use it, saying she could ‘hurt herself.’ ”

What this neighborhood needs is a USPS cloning machine… Anotherdayinbkln writes about Peaches: “she’s so good, she makes me show her my I.D. if I go to my mailbox before she’s done filling them all up.”

No end to Brooklyn mail troubles on the Prospect Heights Message Board 

The first reports of gunshots at Indigo Blu were posted right here on the Prospect Heights Message Board. Since then, newspaper items have focused on gun-toting landlord Clement Calixte, the 67-year-old “Bible-thumping Brooklyn community activist” and ex-auxiliary cop who police say fatally shot a man in around 1 pm at the Vanderbilt Avenue bar space.

Apparently, the altercation was related to the eviction of tenant Alan Henry, proprietor of Indigo Blu. The guy who got fatally shot was helping Alan prep for the move, it seems.

What was Alan’s role in all this? Did he bring it on himself, so to speak?? The Daily News story certainly didn’t cut him much slack:

“Calixte had been in housing court just hours before trying to get Henry – who allegedly owed $19,000 in back rent – tossed from the building.”

” ‘He was supposed to be evicted today,’ the landlord’s wife said. ‘This is what happens when you have bad tenants.’”

Bad tenants? What about Alan’s side of the story? Insuremeeg writes: “Daily News got the story completely wrong… Try as he might, Alan couldn’t make rent because the constant harassment (noise complaint calls to the police, locking him out of his portion of the basement and then shutting off Alan’s lights during a busy night) and he had decided to give up at this location.”

Whatever the truth may be Emily wrote a letter of complaint to the Daily News. The reporter wrote back: “I didn’t write an article sympathetic to the gunman. My editor did…” Well, there’s a smoking gun!
So what exactly caused this altercation anyway? Not sure, but people on the boards say that apparently things were not too placid between Alan and Clement, who repeatedly complained about the noise coming from the bar below the apartment he lived in…

Read the whole backstory on the Prospect Heights Message Board.

wordhooer writes on the Prospect Heights Message Board: “that bodega [The one that has had curiously empty shelves for several years – Ed.] is under new management now, and it’s much better stocked. it has full cases of beer, a new ATM (yes, to replace the one that was stolen when someone SAWED a hole in the wall of the bodega and hauled it out), and all sorts of new food and stuff.”
“The new owners also own the bodega on Underhill and Sterling, to give you an idea of the new quality we’re looking at. they also have cigarettes every day, not just on mondays! it’s a vast improvement.”

No more empty shelves in the Prospect Heights Message Boards

How’s your real estate-fu? Match wits with jgregorie, who asks on the Prospect Heights Message Board: “it’s not my place, but i’m just curious what it would go for. how much would you pay to: A. rent it, B. buy it?”

Hmm… Well, this “bright” 2-room studio is actually in Prospect Heights, unlike most of those apartments “trying to pass”… We’ve got exposed brick (attn sellers: cheaper than sheetrock and the kids love it!); hardwood floors, maintenance of $450/mo, a “decorative” fireplace (pretty!)…

How’s that buyer’s market working for ya – ready to offer less than 200k?

Link: How Much Would You Pay for This Apartment? [Prospect Heights Message Board]