• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: smoke inhalation victims at Centre and White Sts. in Manhattan, a shooting on Neptune Ave. in Brooklyn, and a truck vs. overpass at 155th St. and South Rd. in Queens.
• Design firm EDAW was chosen to plan the Steeplechase Plaza for a now-vacant lot near the Coney Island boardwalk. The development beneath the Parachute Jump may include a water park and a platform for viewing Cyclones minor league baseball games.
• A large brokerage firm in Williamsburg, Brooklyn is saying the Corcoran Group's report claiming an 8% increase in average condo prices in the neighborhood during 2007 is incorrect. Aptsandlofts.com says that it's seen a 10-12% retreat in condo prices since the market's peak in early 2006.

The 2nd Ave. subway isn't scheduled to receive any passengers until 2014, but some residents are relishing the prospect of a new line, while others suspect it could deliver trouble. People living on East End Ave. or York Ave. are cursed with a hike to the nearest subway station, but also somewhat insulated from the increased crowding and pricing pressures that easy access via a subway accompanies. The construction of the 2nd Ave. subway could change the whole neighborhood. The New York Times reports that real estate developers are already touting proximity to a subway line as a selling point for new buildings along 1st Avenue. more ›

The NY Times is hinting that Brooklyn may be so over, a theory that seems to be based around Heath Ledger leaving the borough.

What if Brooklyn’s recent cachet as the locus for what’s next is little more than a thin and fragile crust of chic, hiding the insecurity of people who constantly measure the social currency of their ZIP code by Manhattan standards? The number of trendy boutiques, bistros and music clubs in Brooklyn may have spiked in the last five years, but its infrastructure of cool still represents only a fraction of that found in Manhattan. Its new identity is moored to a finite number of shops, restaurants, luxury condominiums and, yes, celebrities. If even one leaves, a void is created. Could the borough’s new status vanish as quickly as it ascended?

If the Manhattan real estate market is still a bubble, then it's a bubble with unbelievable staying power. The Sun reports that second quarter real estate data reveals that the average Manhattan apartment sells for $1.3 million (a record-high according to three of four real estate firms). The median sales price of a Manhattan apartment is another record: $895,000. And the commercial side is also very strong, with foreign buyers opting to buy buildings and apartments with the weak dollar. more ›

Everyone has abandoned an air conditioner or left condiments in the fridge when rushing to move out of an apartment. The NY Times goes behind closed doors to find out what is most commonly left behind when people move out. more ›

"I'm sick," said Costa, a retired waiter and cook who moved into the tidy studio apartment when he arrived in the city from Italy in 1972. "After all these years, they're gonna kick me out? This is my home. This is it." more ›

Real estate pundits are calling the downturn in the New York residential real estate market, as the NY Sun reports, a "soft landing" versus a "bubble burst." Apparently the fourth quarter was pretty good for some real estate brokers! more ›

The National Fair Housing Alliance says that real estate brokerage Corcoran discriminates against black people and also tries to steer white people from black neighborhoods. The NFHA, which was following up discrimination claims in a 2000 Department of Housing and Urban Development report, put both black and white people, posing as potential buyers, in a Brooklyn Corcoran office. Though the black "buyers" were more qualified, the whites received extra information about financial incentives. Further, the white "buyers" were urged to look in certain neighborhoods. From the National Fair Housing Alliance's report:

Agents at the Corcoran Group Real Estate were also found to have engaged in racial steering. In this investigation’s most egregious incident of racial steering, one agent produced a map of Brooklyn and drew a red outline of the areas in which the White homeseeker should consider living. He pointed to the neighborhoods of Prospect Heights, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights and parts of Carroll Gardens as attractive neighborhoods for the White homeseeker, and indicated with arrows the neighborhoods that were “changing.” The agent also noted the high quality of schools in these neighborhoods as further indication of their desirability to the White homeseeker. more ›

Corcoran is reporting that the average price for a Park Slope brownstone has hit 3.35 MILLION dollars! New York Magazine has the rundown:

Yes, Brooklyn Heights’ dreamy blocks continue to be a haven for townhouse types. But Park Slope is still the center of a certain kind of Brooklyn life, and last week, when the Corcoran Group released its end-of-the-year report—painting a patchy picture of a housing market that’s up, down, and sideways, all at once—one statistic leapt off the page. The average price of a townhouse in the Slope reached $3.35 million this past year, a 90 percent increase over the last quarter of 2004. more ›

Nikki Lewis more ›