Miscellaneous Information That May Be Useful for People Who Live at 255 Eastern Parkway

Last updated: Sun Jan 14 2007

The Neighborhood

255 Eastern Parkway is in the neighborhood of Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Here's the definition of Crown Heights, as provided by The Encyclopedia of New York City (Kenneth T. Jackson, ed.; Yale University Press, 1995-10-01; ISBN 0300055366):

The neighborhood metamorphosed from what was previously known as Crow Hill:

Crow Hill was defined differently than today's Crown Heights, which extends west of the aforementioned hills; it is not certain when the boundaries moved westward.

The Crown Heights North Association, Inc. website reports:

See also:

Crown Heights Wikipedia Entry

Brooklynian.com

DailyHeights.com (Prospect Heights Website)

Yelp (restaurant reviews)

HopStop (subway/bus directions)

A rough draft of Victoria Missick's paper about the Franklin Avenue Shuttle

Elected Representatives

Your Elected Officials (Elected representatives, status of bills, etc.): here.
For example, the elected official information for 255 Eastern Parkway, Apt. F9 is here.

Police

Here's where our police station is located:

77th Precinct Crime Statistics: click here.

Related phone numbers: click here.

Fire Department

First of all: if you're reporting a fire, dial 911.

Here's the closest firehouse:

The New York Fire Department does not disclose the telephone numbers of individual firehouses.

City Council District

255 Eastern Parkway is in City Council District 35.

New York City Council Web Page: http://www.nyccouncil.info

Our city councilwoman is (was!) Letitia James:

Letitia James' New York City Council Web Page: http://www.nyccouncil.info/constituent/member_details.cfm?con_id=86

US Mail

The nearest mailbox is at the southeast corner of Franklin Avenue and Eastern Parkway.

The ZIP code for 255 Eastern Parkway is 11238, but the ZIP+4 depends on the apartment you're in. The ZIP+4 of 255 Eastern Parkway (the entire building) is 11238-6370, but there's no reason to use that unless you don't know exactly what apartment you're mailing to.

To find out what your ZIP+4 is, go here.

The post office for the 11238 ZIP code, which is where you'd go to pick up registered mail and so on, is here:

However, it is often more convenient to go here, because no subway transfer is necessary:

If these close too early, consider the main Brooklyn post office:

If that's still too early, you'll have to go to Manhattan:

There's apparently some satellite post offices in Brooklyn that are open on Saturdays and Sundays. See Cpu #361 and Cpu La Blanquita Laundromat. I haven't been to either. I strongly recommend calling one of these satellite post offices in advance in order to make sure that they're really open when they say they are, that they're still acting as a satellite post office, and that there will be someone there who knows what he/she is doing.

Cable TV, Internet Access, Telephone

I'm pretty sure that there's only one cable TV provider for this building: Cablevision. I don't have cable TV, but I do use Cablevision for Internet and telephone service (Optimum Online and Optimum Voice , respectively). This is a personal pitch; I don't work for them. My experience with Cablevision has been far more pleasant than with Verizon (my former telephony provider) or Speakeasy (my former ISP).

Be warned that Optimum Online provides only 1 IP address (a dynamic one, and they log it). Incoming traffic to the following ports is blocked: 80, 135-139, 445, 1080, 3128, 8080. They also discourage customers from using multiple hosts behind the single IP address they give you, but that's an annoyance that's easily circumvented (so far). They won't tell you the addresses of their DNS servers either, but that's easy enough to figure out. Dynamic IP addresses appear to be bound to your MAC address , and they don't change very much over time, at least if you don't reboot your computer (or router) often.

Building bylaws prevent you from installing a dish antenna on the roof or fire escape.

Dry Cleaners

As far as I'm aware, the only dry cleaners that picks up and drops off clothes. I strongly suggest calling and/or visiting them to ask for the most current information:

Video Rental Stores

All the video rental stores around here are lame. I use Netflix.

The only halfway-decent video store that I know of around here is the Video Forum in Park Slope, but don't expect anything on the order of Mondo Video a-Go-Go or even Kim's Video or Evergreen Video:

Grocery Stores

The Key Food Supermarket at 801 Washington Avenue is surprisingly good, but they close early:

However, the following location is considerably better:

The nearest C-Town:

A number of people in the building love using FreshDirect. I've never tried them. I've also heard that some of the local liquor/wine shops deliver here, but I don't know which ones do or don't.

By far the best market around is the Fairway in Red Hook, Brooklyn:

Fish Tales is supposedly among the best fishmongers in New York City:

There's also Union Market, in Park Slope.

The best beer store around here is Bierkraft in Park Slope.

Restaurants

Saje
710 Franklin Ave. (at Park Pl., NW corner)
Brooklyn, NY 11238-4201
Telephone: (646) 393-5897
Misc: run by some guy named Paul who has lived in Crown Heights for 21 years.
Brooklynian.com forum topic: "Saje Opens at Last, and with Gorilla Coffe [sic] no less!"

Sushi Tatsu II
609 Franklin Avenue (at Dean St., NE corner)
Brooklyn, NY 11238-3305
Telephone: (718) 398-8828
Hours: Mon-Thu 11 am to 11 pm, Fri-Sat 10 am to 11:30 pm, Sun 12 noon to 11 pm
Brooklynian.com forum topic: "Sushi Tatsu II"

Chavella's Mexican Cafe
732 Classon Ave. (between Park Place and Prospect Place)
Brooklyn, NY 11238-4607
Telephone 1: (718) 622-3100 Telephone 2: (718) 622-3101
Hours: closed Mondays. Call for other hours.

New York City Property-Related Documents

If you want to find the block number and lot number of your unit (or anyone else's), go here.

Once you know the block number and lot number, you can pull down a bunch of documents here.

Current complaints, violations, building permits, etc.: here.

Deeds, contracts of sale, etc.: here.

255 Eastern Parkway Management

Front Desk

The telephone number of the front desk in the lobby is (718) 230-8389.

Building Staff

The current building superintendent is Clarence Franklin.

The previous building superintendent, who was fired shortly before Labor Day 2006, was Anthony James:

The other building staff are:

• Linden Joseph, assistant to superintendent
• Errol Sookoo, doorman
• Fitzroy Sookoo, doorman
• Jose Batista, doorman
• Luis Guzman, porter

As of 2003-05-21, Ron McLaren arranged for Galster Managenent to “set up dedicated telephone line to service your individual needs.” The number is (212) 587-6100, extension 113. However, if it's something the building superintendent should be taking care of, call the building superintendent first.

Galster Management Corporation

255 Eastern Parkway is “managed” by the Galster Management Company, or “Galster Management” for short. As far as I can tell, “East Realty” is an alias for Galster Management.

Contacts include:

On 2004-10-14, Robert Blackman told a group of unit owners that he “had a talk” with Larry Malitzsky and implied that Galster's quality of service will improve. Blackman invoked the metaphor of a large boat turning around. He also compared the act of switching management companies to “getting your teeth pulled.” Whether such improvement will occur remains to be seen.

Laundry Rooms at 255 Eastern Parkway

Here's some useful information about the laundry rooms at 255 Eastern Parkway: laundry.html

Bankers, Lawyers, Realtors

Prospect Heights Realty Corporation

The realty company in charge of the condo conversion at 255 Eastern Parkway is the Prospect Heights Realty Corporation:

Contacts include:

Ron McLaren has the following titles:

• President, President of 255 Eastern Parkway Associates Limited Partnership
• Exclusive Sales Agent, 255 Eastern Parkway Associates Limited Partnership
• President, Prospect Heights Realty Corporation

First Merchants, Incorporated

The mortgage company closely associated with 255 Eastern Parkway Associates Limited Partnership and Prospect Heights Realty Corp. is First Merchants, Incorporated:

Contacts include:

Guadagno and Edip

First Merchants, Inc. goes through Wells Fargo for their mortgages. Here is the contact information for the lawyers representing Wells Fargo for mortgages:

Contacts include:

Golenbock, Eiseman, Assor, Bell, and Peskoe

Here is the attorney representing the sponsor (255 Eastern Pkwy Associates Limited Partnership) in the sale of most (all?) condo units at 255 Eastern Parkway:

Contacts include:

Roslyn Savings Bank

Roslyn Savings Bank loaned money to 255 Eastern Parkway Associates LP for the purchase of the building at 255 Eastern Parkway:

Cullen & Dykman, Bleakly Platt LLP

Cullen & Dykman, Bleakly Platt LLP represents Roslyn Savings Bank in their loan to 255 Eastern Parkway Associates LP for the purchase of the building at 255 Eastern Parkway:

Contacts include:

The Olsono Company

(More information is needed about this organization.)

255 Eastern Parkway Documents

Problems documented on 2004-09-19

Black Book

Job Descriptions

Condo Book

Odds and Ends

The housepainting company that Galster Management uses is the Mercury Paint Corporation. Here's the address for what their advertisement calls their “factory outlet:”