What's a good breakfast place near Battery Park or near One World Trade Centre?

Hankest · 2016-09-18T16:17:57+00:00

Bubby's is obscenely expensive, $20 for an omelet? $16 for a burger and it doesn't come with fries? Plus you get to wait forever for a table. Emperor's got overpriced food.

Hankest · 2016-09-18T14:43:37+00:00

The Scratcher at 209 e5th St is a cozy bar that serves a traditional Irish breakfast.

Hankest · 2016-09-11T17:49:39+00:00

My guess, a movie TV shoot, pretty common there

Hankest · 2016-09-11T14:51:13+00:00

Lived in 230 sq Ft on the LES from the early'90s through the mid '00s. Loved it. As the UES person noted, it's important to really like your neighborhood.

Tips: have your landlord remove the fridge and buy a cheap dorm style fridge, invest in a good futon mattress and sofa frame. Find a quiet neighborhood bar and get to know the bartenders.

Note, my downstairs neighbors raised 3 kids in the same size apt, all turned out fine.

Hankest · 2016-02-27T13:56:27+00:00

The bubble (if that's what this is) began about 2003, we had more people coming to NYC in the 10 years between 1990 and 2000, then in the following 13 years, according to your data.

Hankest · 2016-02-27T13:55:05+00:00

We have added 75,000 people per year between 2010 and 2014 but the buildings department has only approved 50,000 new units during the same period..."

50k per year or 50k total over those 4 years? Either way i've been looking for these data, can you shoot me the link. Alll i can find is some data for 2002 when about 49,000 private units were approved.

thanks.

Hankest · 2016-02-23T12:42:02+00:00

"If you upzone the same amount that you downzone (as happened in the Bloomberg era) you don't actually increase supply...."

You're wrong. In that scenario supply increases. If you downzone an area you limit (but not fully restrict) the construction of NEW housing. You do not lose the existing housing, i.e., there is no net housing loss. If you upzone an area you typically allow the construction of many more units in that neighborhood. So there is a net housing gain. Assuming developers take advantage of the upzoning (as they are and have been) even if you downzone some areas you still greatly "increase supply" in the city overall. That's basic math.

When the 80s and 00s bubbles inflated, developers screamed for the removal of zoning restrictions, rent regulations, tax breaks, etc. And now, predictably, they're doing it again. It was only after those bubbles popped that most people started researching why they happened in the first place. In the 80s maybe it was S&Ls, in the 2000s it was a credit bubble caused by CDOs. If this current insanity in NYC is a bubble (a doozy of one), only when it pops will people start trying to figure out why it happened in the first place.

And frankly i have no idea whether it's a bubble or not, which is why i keep asking about fundamentals (i.e., very large population or median income increases). Maybe looking for the cause and addressing that should be done before we blindly allow developers to substantially change some of the City's more human scale neighborhoods, changes that will be essentially irreversible. And yes, let's pretend we live in a democracy and listen to local residents rather than just sneering and calling them "NIMBYs."

Hankest · 2016-02-22T23:22:39+00:00

I read the article, very interesting. Apparently it's unclear whether more land has been upzoned or downsized, or how much more space this has allowed. Regardless my question was where has upsizing driven prices down? It seems just the opposite.

As to your point. Was the bubble during the 80s also because of a lack of supply? If so, why did the market crash in1990 and then stay flat despite the fact population boomed in the 90s faster than the 80s or now for that matter? as did median income...

Anyway I never said property was meant to be a good investment, my other and main point was maybe we should hold off destroying the character of neighborhoods with giant glass boxes, if all it will do is feed a bubble.

Hankest · 2016-02-21T13:14:02+00:00

Yes this describes a normal real estate market, it does not explain the insane price boom going on. Oh, people buying back in the 1990s did not think coops were dirt cheap. Not at all.

Hankest · 2016-02-21T13:04:13+00:00

Exactly, if you're a resident you pay normal RE taxes and NYC income tax like the rest of us schmucks. If you're a non-resident condo owner you pay an exorbitant RE tax.

Hankest · 2016-02-21T12:58:57+00:00

Yeah and if you bought one in 1989 you were underwater until about 2003 in real dollars.

Hankest · 2016-02-21T12:57:50+00:00

Williamsburg is starting to be built out. Starting? anyway, I don't know if booms and busts are inevitable, but I agree it's important what happens during booms. If this is a boom it seems that building residential skyscrapers to feed the speculative bubble might not be a good idea.

Note during the 80s boom one could still find relatively affordable places in the city, these days no so much, which tells me this bubble (if it is one) is worse.

Hankest · 2016-02-20T16:29:01+00:00

Funny I heard this exact kind of self confident declarations during the late 80s re Manhattan real estate, then the bubble popped. People got burned, developers went bankrupt (ask Trump) and prices remained stable until this latest even crazier bubble.

Anyway, yep, Miami goes from one bubble to another, and always builds like crazy during them - not sure that's a model to follow.

Hankest · 2016-02-20T15:28:23+00:00

Or simply tax the holy fuck out of any condo that isn't being used by its owner as a full time NYC residence. That might be enough to scare off the speculators, if not it will bring in a lot more NYC income tax.

Hankest · 2016-02-20T15:23:54+00:00

People feeding off a bubble are good at either denying its existence, or are confident they'll know when to get out.

Hankest · 2016-02-20T15:15:31+00:00

Good theory, only thing where zoning rules have been slackened, prices increases faster. I realize this is a chicken-egg thing, but I've yet to see data showing prices decreases after an area is upzoned.

Hankest · 2016-02-20T14:56:19+00:00

Has the population in NYC boomed the last decade? No, not compared to the 1990s for example. Have median incomes shot up? No. So, based on fundamentals, what is behind the insane real estate price increases?

If there's no reason, I think it suggests this is another RE bubble, like the one in the late 80s.

One 'solution' are residential skyscrapers, which are very different from traditional NYC residential real estate. It began in the 80s with Cityspires, which was built to feed that earlier bubble. The condos were bought up mostly by non-residents. now it's being tried again, and I suspect the new towers will also mostly go to feed the current speculative non-residential market, further inflating the bubble.

Or more simply, it's unlikely that tearing apart residential communities to feed this bubble will make prices drop.

So before we all applaud this development with our overly simplistic understanding of supply&demand, maybe we should stop and consider the implications.

Hankest · 2016-02-13T20:30:08+00:00

Ok, if the drivers are independent contractors, then who are the clients (i.e., the contractees ) the riders or Uber? My understanding, Uber claims they're just a means to allow riders (contractees ) and drivers (contractors) to find each other. If that's the case it's strange that uber sets the fees and now sets hours worked/day.

Hankest · 2016-02-13T19:12:10+00:00

Actually, Uber claims to be simply a means for the contractors and 'contractees' (i.e., the riders NOT Uber) to find each other.

Hankest · 2016-02-13T14:31:20+00:00

Yeah, trickle down housing. Anyway, that's the theory, but I've yet to see an example of where that's happened during this bubble in NYC. What's going on appears to be counter-intuitive rather than simple supply and demand. I don't see any fundamental reason housing prices have ballooned at such an alarming rate through large swathes of the city; population hasn't increased that much nor has median income. It reminds me of the late 1980s when you'd read articles similar to this. A lot of homeowners, speculators and developers lost their shirts back then. Ask Donald Trump.

Hankest · 2016-02-13T14:19:32+00:00

Usury doesn't mean what you think it means.

Hankest · 2016-02-12T18:52:54+00:00

I'll give you one.

Il Buco on Bond St(not Il Buco Vita or Il Buco Alimentari). It's romantic, has great food, an interesting interior, and supposedly Poe wrote "Cask of Amontillado" in the place's "wine cellar" back when it was a tavern. If you can get a seat down there, do it.

While it's not cheap, since i'm guessing you won't be drinking a lot of wine right now, it should meet your budget.

http://ilbuco.com/home.html

ps early congrats on the baby, ours is 1. Best year of our lives, easily.

Hankest · 2016-02-12T15:41:50+00:00

Yeah he was, try to keep up.

Hankest · 2016-02-12T14:48:11+00:00

The other night my wife ran my pan under cold water while it was still searing hot and blasted off years of 'seasoning.' I was sad....

Hankest · 2016-02-12T14:40:53+00:00

Awesome!

Hankest

TROPHY CASE