Real Estate Scare Tactic: Zone Busting

Uh oh. Queens' new status as "go-to borough" was cemented this past weekend by a NY Times feature, and, now, Queens lawmakers are making sure that residents aren't getting scammed into selling their properties too early. A developer is telling residents in Kissena Park that future rezoning may cause their property prices to drop, so they should sell now - to him - in a tactic called "zone busting." Zone busting actually sounds like a mix between the Zone diet and a Sugarbusters diet. Can this resurgence and growing acceptability of Queens be linked to the Nielsen success of the CBS Monday night hit, King of Queens? Not really, but we do find it hilarious that Jerry Stiller plays a crotchety father figure on the show, while his wife, Anne Meara, played a drunken "Maaaa" from Queens on Sex and the City. Related: Curbed graded real estate brokers' Queens-releated soundbites.

And in yet another attempt to keep a dead mother's apartment, a man told housing authorities his mom was down South, to keep a $170/month apartment in the Bronx. The Daily News interpreted it as "the woman was south - 6 feet under, in a grave."