The bid by neighborhood community groups to dedicate a new Marine Park plaque in honor of the victims of September 11 has been shot down by the borough's top dog in the Parks Department. Brooklyn Borough Commissioner Julius Spiegel told members of the Madison-Marine-Homecrest Civic Association last week that his agency would not "entertain memorials in other parks." Instead, Spiegel said that the towering memorial known as "Brooklyn Remembers" on the 69th Street Pier in Bay Ridge should stand as a kind of a "catchall" for September memorials in the borough's parks. "We don't want to turn our parks into cemeteries," the commissioner said. Luke Constantino Commercial | ResidentialRE/MAX at THE SLOPEDirect: (212) 300-3919 | Fax: (360) 368-0098http://LukeConstantino.com 05/07/2007

This statue("Night" by Adolf Weinman 1910) was part of a larger piece that was in front of the old Penn Stantion in NYC set to be demolished.   If you ever plan on visiting The Brooklyn Museum of Art treat yourself The Steinburg Family Sculpture Garden on the first Floor. Theses beautiful sculptures were adorned on buildings and other structures throughout New York City but were saved from demolition. The majority of these fine pieces of art are made from metal, stone and terracotta. they date as far back as 1880. Do not deny yourself this beautiful exhibit! http://lukeconstantino.tripod.com/   Luke Constantino Commercial | ResidentialRE/MAX at THE SLOPEDirect: (212) 300-3919 | Fax: (360) 368-0098http://LukeConstantino.com 05/07/2007

"Say hello to my little friend!!!"   Get ready for a great party! It's Fantasia's birthday at the Brooklyn Children's Museum. Fantasia, a 18 foot, 200 pound python will be celebrating her 13th birthday with her friends. Cake, refreshments and party hats will be available. So bring the kids and have some fun! 5.00 admission but free for members. An international model for museum and community programs, Brooklyn Children's Museum offers interactive learning adventures through hands-on exhibitions, multicultural performances, creative workshops, and an extensive collection of cultural artifacts and natural science specimens. Situated in the heart of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, for over 100 years, the Museum was founded in 1899 as the first children's museum in the world. Brooklyn Children's ... 05/07/2007

This go-at-your-own-pace, self-guided tour, for the benefit of the Brooklyn Heights Association, allows visitors a rare opportunity to experience the grandeur of private homes in the Brooklyn Heights Historic District. Five townhouse interiors, exhibiting both 19th century and contemporary architectural styles, will be open to the public for the afternoon. The Brooklyn Landmarks House and Garden Tour takes place, rain or shine, from 1 PM to 5PM. Included in the ticket price is a delightful repast of pastries and tea served in the garden of the Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims on Orange Street from 3-5 PM (or moved indoors in inclement weather). Docent-led tours of the historic church sanctuary are given at 3:30 and 4:30 PM. Tickets are $30 per person and tax deductible. The tour begins w... 05/07/2007

 Sunday June 3rd is the 3rd Annual Tour De Brooklyn! This year's tour gets underway at Grand Army Plaza, a National Historic Landmark at Prospect Park. This year's 18 mile tour will feature Brooklyn's southern neighborhoods along the waterfront like Sunset, Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Bensonhurst and loops towards the heart of Brooklyn, Kensington and Prospect Park South to end at the Carousel. Tour De Brooklyn going into the Prospect Expressway via Church Ave and Ocean Parkway. If this is your first time to Brooklyn by bike don't worry you can join our feeder ride, leaving from Cadman Plaza near Brooklyn Bridge. Ride will depart promptly at 7:45 am, arriving at Prospect Park 8:05 am.   Luke Constantino Commercial | ResidentialRE/MAX at THE SLOPEDirect: (212) 300-3919 | Fax: (360) 368... 05/07/2007

  Most homeowners think that when they sign into a contract with a Realtor they are bound to it.  I've heard countless stories of Realtors just taking a property listing, putting it on the MLS (Multiple Listing Service), and hoping for the best, like pulling the pin on a grenade and waiting for the explosion.       That's very rare in today's market, unless a property is way under FMV (Fair Market Value).  I myself would advertise a low ball property vigorously for prompt closing.     Always remember that it's your property, and you deserve the best quality in the sale of it. Before you sign anything, make sure there is a right to cancel the contract under non-performance circumstances clause.  Your house is not a grenade.  It's a large investment that should be taken seriously. I alway... 05/02/2007

Citing an appraisal firm's new study, an article in Crain's reports that Brooklyn residential real estate was pretty robust in the first quarter of the year.The average sales price for Brooklyn homes is said to have increased 9% to $757,000 during the first three months of the year. This is based on sales date covering single-family homes, multi-family homes and condominiums.Single-family prices rose even more: 13% to $688,000 from a year ago. It gets better (or worse, depending on your side): four-family homes rose 18% to $1.16 million, and  the average condo price rose 26% to $551,000.Despite the increase in price, the number of home actually being sold has declined. Officials said the disparity points to the unwillingness on the part of sellers to drop prices, and the patience of buy... 04/30/2007

My wife and I love walking down some streets in Greenpoint Brooklyn.  There are some beautiful tenements on this Street!  Here is one of them: Built in 1909, this beautiful limestone/brick house stands out as a very sharp, very well kept building.  The street itself is amazing.  Greepoint is known mostly for it's very old churches and Polish heritage.   Can you see walking up to this house and turning the key?  I imagine  this as a tenement where everyone eats breakfast and dinner together and share stories about their day.  You can almost smell the perogies and kielbasa on the table!  Even though I'm Italian I love Polish food.   Luke Constantino Commercial | ResidentialRE/MAX at THE SLOPEDirect: (212) 300-3919 | Fax: (360) 368-0098http://LukeConstantino.com 04/29/2007

This may not be one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Brooklyn to some, but since I was a little kid seeing these buildings was amazing to me. The old world Dutch architecture and the materials they used are so much different from what we see here in Brooklyn today.    Wow... This apartment building on Nostrand Avenue is a clssic. Made of Terracotta with it's cylindrical corners makes this one of Brooklyn's most origional buildings! Here are some close up features: My dream is to own a few buildings like this in the near future. Real estate is going to be my vehicle. I for the life of me do not understand why anyone would want to buy new construction when you have such beautiful old world structures such as these standing right in front of you. Yes, these do need alot of work inter... 04/29/2007

     1595 UNION STREET BROOKLYN, NY 11213 BUILT: 1901 BEAUTIFUL LARGE 2 FAMILY LIMESTONE IN A GREAT NEIGHBORHOOD.LARGE ROOMS AND FINISHED BASEMENT WITH SEPARATE ENTRANCE. BEAUTIFUL PARQUET FLOORS, NEW ROOF, NEW SKYLIGHTS, CLOSE TO TRASPORTATION, SHOPPING, MAIN HIGHWAYS AND HOUSES OF WORSHIP. 785K OBO., EXTREME POTENTIAL. PLEASE CALL OR E-MAIL LUKE CONSTANTINO FOR DETAILS http://lukeconstantino.tripod.com/   I've showed this house to a few clients and they loved it! The brownstones are very expensive here in the NYC area so alot of people are looking into Limestine buildings. They are just as beautiful and have that old world charm. Don't ever think your going to find one in mint condition, they all need a little ungrading here and there but well worth it! Luke Constantino Commercial | R... 04/28/2007

  Let's face it. Right now a majority of the properties out there are overpriced. The real estate market hit an apex recently and a lot of property owners still think their houses are still at that value... WRONG. It looks like it may take some time for a large portion of the market to come down to FMV (Fair Market Value).  I believe that an educated buyer has more of a chance of scoring that high priced property for a lower price.  Here are some tips that might help you in your price lowering negotiations: CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) It's an evaluation of a home's value based on available local market data: How much are the homes similar to the one you're looking at have sold for recently How long these houses were on the market before they sold What homes listed have expired (us... 04/28/2007

A bank foreclosure listing can include foreclosures at public and private auction, pre-foreclosure listings and real estate owned properties. These properties are sold mostly below the actual market value price. The value may even decreases up to 60 percent of the current market value for similar properties. This means that you can enjoy the benefits of purchasing foreclosure property without the backlash of large monthly house payments. You can watch for bank foreclosure listings and make some good investment with bank foreclose homes. You can use theses homes for many different reasons such as rental purposes and the rent could then be used to pay for the fees incurred in a mortgage. For a quick return on capital, you could purchase foreclose homes at some very low prices, because of ... 04/24/2007

The former Sunset Park Court House is a Classical Revival style building located at 4201 Fourth Avenue between 42nd and 43rd streets in the southwestern section of Brooklyn. It is one of only two courthouse buildings known to have been designed by Mortimer D. Metcalfe, a New York architect who also worked on the design of Grand Central Terminal, served as NY State Deputy Architect under State Architect Franklin Ware, and independently designed several landmark buildings in Palm Beach.     The Sunset Park Court House was built in 1931 to house the magistrates' and municipal courts and today is one of the neighborhood's few remaining civic buildings. It's largely intact on the exterior and has had only a few minor alterations. Of particular note are its imposing Ionic-columned porticos on... 04/22/2007

Kings Highway runs through the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The street has over 100 stores and shops. The road begins at Bay Parkway. After intersecting with Ocean Avenue the street becomes mostly residential, snaking through Brooklyn and ending at East 98th Street. At that point, it connects with Howard Avenue to provide seamless access to Eastern Parkway, another major road in Brooklyn with side medians and service roads.A Business Improvement District serves the road's stores, restaurants and businesses. Kings Highway is entering the Flatlands section of Brooklyn Originally; Kings Highway was much longer than it is now. It originally began at Fulton Ferry, where Old Fulton and Furman Streets are now, and ran southeast all the way to the small Dutch town of New Amersfort, now kn... 04/22/2007

Coney Island Avenue is a roadway in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, that runs almost parallel to Ocean Parkway. It starts at Neptune Avenue (in Coney Island), and goes all the way to Parkside Avenue (at the south-west border of Prospect Park), where it becomes Prospect Park Southwest. The near-parallel Ocean Parkway terminates 5 blocks south and 3 blocks west of that intersection, becoming the Prospect Expressway (New York State Route 27). At one time Ocean Parkway extended all the way to Park Circle where Coney Island met Prospect Park, but construction of the Prospect Expressway replace the norther half-mile of Ocean Parkway, but included ramps over to the edge of Prospect Park. Coney Island Avenue frontage is dominated by mixed-use housing - pre-war apartment buildings, small ... 04/22/2007

A decade ago, Katrina and Peter Millard bought a home in TriBeCa, a neighborhood they found open and quiet. She felt they should settle in a place big enough for children. He felt up-and-coming TriBeCa was a good value. And how. The Millards bought their 1,400-square-foot duplex for $270,000. Four years later, as parents of two babies, they bought the apartment on the floor below them for $250,000, joining the spaces with a staircase."The one floor cost as much as the two floors had cost four years before," Mr. Millard said, "so we were aware we were on to something." As it happened, the events of Sept. 11, 2001, became a turning point for the family. They spent six weeks living with a relative in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, which taught them that moving out of Manhattan was a possibility. "... 04/22/2007

Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights got theirs, now Bensonhurst wants "in" on the downzoning frenzy. "It is time for Bensonhurst to get the rezoning ball rolling," said Bill Guarinello, the chairman of Community Board 11 at last Tuesday's CB11 meeting. "We are going to make this a big issue soon," he added at the meeting, which was at the Holy Family Home on 84th Street. The audience sighed with approval after Guarinello's comment, though the chairman cautioned a downzoning scheme takes time to wend its way from conception to completion.  "Dyker Heights had a pretty big head start on us, but our time is coming," said Guarinello, though he did not offer a time-frame for the downzoning push. The goal of would-be downzoners is to curb "overdevelopment" by restricting builders from tearing down hou... 04/22/2007

A long-awaited plan to tighten zoning regulations and preserve Dyker Heights is moving forward, city planning officials said as they unveiled the proposal for public review. The goal of the plan - which follows a 2005 rezoning of adjacent Bay Ridge - is to maintain the architectural character of the neighborhood and subject developers to greater scrutiny before allowing them to tear down single-family homes in favor of apartment buildings. "We're really happy that [the Department of] City Planning has supported us and supports the efforts to protect our neighborhood," said Joanne Seminara, chair of the zoning and land use committee of Community Board 10. The proposal divides Dyker Heights along Bay Ridge Parkway. South of that street, the proposal would limit the size of medical offices... 04/16/2007

WHY HIRE A REALTOR?      When you're ready to think about buying or selling your property, you need to ask yourself the following questions: Do you have the time, energy, sources of information, and contacts to do the job yourself? If you were one of the 'do-it-yourself' people, would the results be as good as or better than they would be if you had professional assistance? Would it have gone smoother? Would it have given you more personal time? Would you have purchased for less, or sold for more, if a real estate agent was involved? Read the following information and learn how a real estate agent can help you understand everything you need to know about a real estate transaction. Luke Constantino Commercial | ResidentialRE/MAX at THE SLOPEDirect: (212) 300-3919 | Fax: (360) 368-0098htt... 04/15/2007

  The lower prices and negative psychology that dominated the New York City real estate market last year went "poof!" last month as the bonus-rich and others showed a renewed appetite for residential properties of all shapes and asking prices. Overall, both prices and the number of signed contracts rose more than 10% year-over-year in January. "[Buyers'] psychology has changed," said Frederick W. Peters, the president of the Warburg Realty Partnership. "For almost two years, they've been scared that the market would plummet and they'd end up like fools who paid too much." Steven L. James, director of Manhattan sales for Prudential Douglas Elliman, calls it a "cautious exuberance." One example: A park slope brownstone asking $2,475,000 that sold in a day. And in a further sign of strengt... 04/15/2007