Warburg Blog

It was today – a grey and basically drab morning. 

Feeling a wee bit puckish coming out of the local subway, I went into our local bagel bakery for a toasted seven grain with butter.  Butter, in the era in which I grew up, was The Great Beast: it was fattening, costly, and my Father used entirely too much of it when he cooked scrambled eggs (a simple trick, it took my brothers and I years to figure out why his scrambled eggs tasted better than our Mum’s) but as I’ve gotten older I’ve re-discovered its virtues, and while I use butter infrequently in my cuisine, when I do I use lots of it and thoroughly enjoy every bit.  As a consequence, I now prefer a buttered bagel to its unctuous cream-cheese-schmeared relation.

Since I was hungry (I’d been at my son’s school for a lengthy meeting and hadn’t had any breakfast) I opened up the fragrant envelope which had been handed me by my favorite counter-girl, and took a first bite as I crossed Lexington Avenue.  Passing in front of Lenox Hill Hospital, tilting forward so as to avoid dripping on my suit, I took another. The initial toasty crunch, the toothsome pull, and the encompassing butter finish of the warm gobbet was perfection.  Pure and simple.  I tried hard to savor every bite, and I felt lucky: there was still half left, and it was still warm, by the time I got to my desk.

My point is there’s no other city in the World in which you can have that exact experience. 

Don’t get me wrong.  I love a baguette in Paris, a Cornish pasty, or a Singapore noodle as much as anyone.  I even love the Montreal bagel, flat and meager as it may at first appear to a native such as I.  But the New York Bagel, properly made and hot from the oven, simply has no peer.  I just think we should relish pleasures such as this, hold on to them tight, and as New Yorkers, cherish the fact that we live here.

 I was born and raised on the Upper East Side, and my office, not to mention most of my business, is centered in Manhattan.  But when my family started expanding and the need for more space in a relaxed atmosphere pressed upon me I moved out to Long Island City, about 15 years ago.  Now, two children and one divorce later, there’s no turning back; for me the diversity, the culture, and the ease of this fine borough is something I won’t give up. 

I’ve taken some of my foodie friends on gastronomic tours (as if you could see or taste everything Queens offers in a day) and I’ve brought many cultural-vulture friends to our local museums PS1 and the Noguchi, but if you love New York – get out the car next time you’re coming in from the airport!  At least stop off for lunch at any of the amazing ethnic restaurants along the Roosevelt Avenue corridor, between Woodside and Jackson Heights, right near the BQE.

Truly, Queens is The Forgotten Borough, and its exotic charms are there for your discovery – in the riverside parks of Long Island City, with the best city views in the world; in the Hookah cafés along Steinway Street; the dumpling parlors of Flushing, and the beer gardens of Astoria.  It’s the most diverse place on Earth, and also one of the most harmonious. 

I have a new listing, a studio apartment right there in the neighborhood I’m described above, and it will be very interesting to see who will step up for this remarkable opportunity: approximately 500 square feet, with six different subway lines within a three minute walk, and a 20 minute ride to Lexington and 51^st Street.  That’s closer than parts of the Upper West Side!  The asking price is $89,000, and the maintenance is $352 a month – that’s under $200 per square foot, depending how you measure the space.  It’s a well-run, six story, elevatored coop building with available parking (there’s a waiting list) and a laundry room.  Here’s a link with pictures, a floorplan, and more information:  http://www.warburgrealty.com/property/678793

If you do come out to see it, don’t eat lunch beforehand and ask me for a recommendation – it might be a pushcart on 74^th Street, but I guarantee it won’t disappoint.

One of the pleasures of representing New York’s first LEED certified townhouse has been showing groups of enviros through it, and showing off its features.  On Earth Day, for example, we had some people from the New York Council of the Natural Resources Defense Council as our guests, a group of about 20, and we spent an hour and a half or so going all through the house from the rainwater-collection system in the Cellar to the photo-voltaic panels on the roof.  There were lots of incisive questions and comments, and a high level of sophistication about the issues was clearly evident.  It’s heartening to know there are people who care about such things as recycled-wood products and low VOC-emitting paints, but who also care about good design and the vitality of a New York neighborhood undergoing rapid change.  How this latest Harlem renaissance will be affected by our current economy remains to be seen, but the activity in that neighborhood of Central Harlem, and the pride of ownership in the Mount Morris vicinity in general is palpable, and also very encouraging to a New Yorker passionate about our city and its neighborhoods.

I live in the Hunters Point Historic District in Long Island City, a neighborhood which has undergone tremendous change in the fourteen years I’ve lived there, and for some reason unknown to me last Friday night was party night.   I attended two of them, one with my kids and one without. 

The first was held in a re-modeled firehouse in the Dutch Kills section, just north of the 59^th Street bridge.  This is one of the most beautiful private residences I’ve ever been in and the view of Manhattan, especially at sunset, was spectacular.  It was a nice group of people, most of whom knew each other from working together at a soup kitchen in Manhattan every Friday afternoon, and a visit from the local City Councilman, Tony Avella, made it especially interesting.

The second party, in the Vernon/Jackson neighborhood, was more of an Artists’ gathering.  There were lots of kids underfoot, two dogs (why are there always two dogs at these kids of things?) a pot luck groaning board of food, a lot of it vegetarian (although there was one blues guitarist manning the grill out back working up some cheese-stuffed jalapeno peppers wrapped with bacon) lots of wine and beer, and a diverse crowd of people that included a couple of sculptors, some painters, several craftsman-style home builders, at least one filmmaker, several writers, a group of models, a couple of Native New Yorkers and even a few people who grew up in the neighborhood.  After a few hours there was a pick-up bluegrass jam session going on in the living room, and I was talking with our local Assemblywoman, Catherine Nolan, whose son, it turns out, plays in the local soccer league, where I am a volunteer referee.  Eventually my kids got tired of the video games which were going on downstairs and we all walked home past an iron foundry, some new condominiums, a vacant lot or two (read prime building sites) and some of the detached and semi-detached houses you’d expect to find in that part of Queens.

It was one of those nights where you’re glad to be alive, and living in a city as vibrant as ours.