And You Never Hear A Peep From The Neighbors

One thing should be for sure — God willing, you won’t be complaining to the community board about your noisy neighbors:

New Yorkers with a zest for life — and $1 million to spend — are dying to move into a luxury condo building with a killer view of Green-Wood Cemetery and its 560,000 permanent residents.

About a third of the condos at the ritzy “Simone” in Windsor Terrace overlook the cemetery and some of its famous graves — artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, editor Horace Greeley and political titan William (Boss) Tweed.

“A lot of people haven’t said anything about the cemetery,” said Corcoran sales associate Andrew Booth. “Or they say they like it because they know nothing will ever be built on it.”

Booth said 19 of the building’s 35 condos are in contract — at prices ranging from $275,000 to $999,000 — and buyers can expect to move in by early next year.

. . .

Brooklyn residents yesterday seemed to envy their new neighbors’ graveyard views, but some were deadly serious about the once-blue collar area’s skyrocketing housing prices.

“I can’t see paying that much anywhere, never mind next to a cemetery,” said Lang Price, 54, an attorney who lives nearby.

“But that’s what the market has done to real estate in this city. People will pay anything to live anywhere.”

Location Scout: Green-Wood Cemetery.

Developer Charged With Failing To Maintain Waterfront Property 434 Times

Though they cannot or will not prosecute him for actually setting the fire, the Brooklyn DA will charge developer Joshua Guttman with 434 counts of “failure to maintain waterfront property”:

Joshua Guttman, 58, faces 434 counts of failure to maintain waterfront property — a misdemeanor only brought once before in history, said lawyer Robert Hill Schwartz.

“Our research discloses only one reported case in which this statute was enforced,” Schwartz said yesterday in Brooklyn Criminal Court. “So there’s a question as to this statute and whether it’s applicable.”

The lawyer said the research did not indicate how that case was disposed of or which of the five boroughs it was brought in.

A spokesman for the Brooklyn DA countered that although their office could only document one such case that they prosecuted, other agencies and jurisdictions in the city had applied it “dozens of times.”

Brooklyn prosecutors hit Guttman and his son, Jack, 26, with the charges following the suspicious fire at the Greenpoint Terminal Market last May 2.

See also: Greenpoint Terminal Market Fire.

City’s Myriad Layers Of Bureaucracy Finally Good For Something

Minerva will continue to peer out at the Statue of Liberty from her Green-Wood Cemetery perch, instead of having to wave at a seven-story condo:

The wave is saved.

In a unanimous decision, a city board voted yesterday to revoke a construction permit for a seven-story condo locals feared would block the famed salute between Green-Wood Cemetery’s statue of Minerva and the Statue of Liberty.

“We’re delighted,” said Mic Holwin, of Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights. “The view is part of our national history.”

The graceful statue was erected in 1920 on Battle Hill, where part of the Battle of Brooklyn was fought during the Revolutionary War.

The vote by the Board of Standards and Appeals bars developer Chaim Nussencweig from constructing a planned 30,000-square-foot, seven-story tower.

Nussencweig can appeal the decision or develop a building, but under restrictive new zoning rules.

Nussencweig appealed to the Board of Standards and Appeals after the Buildings Department found “serious zoning violations” in the condo’s design last fall and revoked permits it already had issued for the project at 614 Seventh Ave.

The plans were submitted by controversial architect Robert Scarano, who last month agreed to drop out of a program that allows builders to certify that their drawings conform with city zoning regulations.

Buildings Department officials charged Scarano with repeatedly violating the regulations — on Nussencweig’s project and others — and said he failed to ensure the safety of an Ocean Parkway construction site where a worker was killed in March.

Backstory: Greenwood Cemetery Vista Saved?; Minerva Update.

Clarke To Represent Brooklyn’s 11th Congressional District

Eager to return Cynthia McKinney to Congress, Democratic voters in the 11th Congressional District elected Yvette Clarke to represent the party in November’s general election. For all intents and purposes this sends her to Washington:

A black city councilwoman won the racially charged primary for a Congressional seat in central Brooklyn yesterday, beating back a challenge from a white councilman to win a seat created nearly four decades ago to increase minority representation in Congress.

The councilwoman, Yvette D. Clarke, 41, narrowly beat three opponents to capture the seat, which has been held by blacks since the 1968 victory of Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress.

This year’s campaign attracted national attention because of the strong run by the white councilman, David Yassky, whose candidacy raised questions about race and representation.

With all precincts reporting, Ms. Clarke led with 31.2 percent of the vote to Mr. Yassky’s 26.2 percent, according to unofficial returns tallied by The Associated Press. State Senator Carl Andrews, who had the backing of many Brooklyn Democratic officials and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, had 22.9 percent. Chris Owens, the son of the incumbent, Representative Major R. Owens, who is retiring, received 19.6 percent.

Early this morning, Mr. Yassky conceded the race. “I congratulate Yvette Clarke on her victory,” he said in a statement.

By way of a parting gift, the Observer offers some tidbits from the campaign trail:

Dozens of black teenagers and twentysomethings were dancing to loud reggaeton and enjoying the late hours of a block party. It may not have been an ideal setting for the super-white, Oxford-shirt and rimless-Prada-wearing [David] Yassky to search for votes.

But Mr. Yassky plunged ahead, weaving his way past the revelers. He reached the D.J. booth and grabbed the microphone to introduce himself. What he heard back were jeers and hisses.

“We don’t want him!” one woman kept yelling.

. . .

[Carl] Andrews began to wade into the small crowd. Then a D.J. spotted the large frame in the suit among the more causally dressed partygoers and eagerly announced his arrival.

“Brother Al Sharpton is in the House!” the D.J. said.

One of Mr. Andrews’ handlers waved to the D.J., hoping to correct him.

With the microphone still held to his mouth, the D.J. said, “Oh no, not yet? Sharpton isn’t here yet? Then who’s that?” The D.J. was pointing to Mr. Andrews.

. . .

[Chris Owens] was also the least experienced politician in the race. After arriving at the Brooklyn station of 94.7 WPRN Friday night, Mr. Owens was turned away from a pre-scheduled interview because he had not bought advertising from the station.

Later, his campaign spokesman said that they yielded and bought the ads. The interview aired.

Finally, mercifully put to rest: Comic Relief . . . Emphasis On Relief; Close Race; Score One For Opportunism; The Post Oppo Research Machine Chugs Along; See, The Thing Is Was, Senior Year Was Just Such A Blur For Me . . .; Excitement!; Well, That’s A Relief!; Pay To Campaign!; Recipe For Hitting The Front Page Of The Sunday Times: Just Add Sharpton; You Know You’ve Jumped The Shark When . . .; Unite To Stop White Individuals!; The Sad Thing Is That It Was Probably A Carefully Crafted Statement; How Do We Put This? Let’s Just Say Identity Politics Still Exists . . .; Barack Obama: Some Guy They Stuck In There; Nothing Against Your Policies, It’s Just The Color Of Your Skin.

Comic Relief . . . Emphasis On Relief

He may not have the kind of experience you would expect from someone who would be representing several hundred thousand constituents in the U.S. Congress, but Chris Owens has a nice sense of humor:

Democratic candidates In today’s four-way congressional primary race stuffed the mailboxes in the final push to succeed retiring Brooklyn Rep. Major Owens.

. . .

Chris Owens, the incumbent’s son, whose campaign hasn’t sparked as much enthusiasm as his rivals’, also sent out some mail over the weekend.

One even said, “No, this is not another mailing from David Yassky. It is your only piece of mail from Chris Owens.”

I declare the campaign is over: Close Race; Score One For Opportunism; The Post Oppo Research Machine Chugs Along; See, The Thing Is Was, Senior Year Was Just Such A Blur For Me . . .; Excitement!; Well, That’s A Relief!; Pay To Campaign!; Recipe For Hitting The Front Page Of The Sunday Times: Just Add Sharpton; You Know You’ve Jumped The Shark When . . .; Unite To Stop White Individuals!; The Sad Thing Is That It Was Probably A Carefully Crafted Statement; How Do We Put This? Let’s Just Say Identity Politics Still Exists . . .; Barack Obama: Some Guy They Stuck In There; Nothing Against Your Policies, It’s Just The Color Of Your Skin.