In today’s Daily News, Mike Daly reacts to the recent brouhaha on Brownstoner when a Clinton Hill resident used paint on his brownstone. Daly, whose column I enjoy, has a good story on his hands. And some wonderful quotes from the longtime Clinton Hill resident, who DARED to use paint.
The photo was sent in response to an urgent posting by Brownstoner.com late Friday morning, a message right out of a Brooklyn yuppie’s nightmare.
“We just got a tip that someone just started painting one of the brownstones on Grand Avenue between Gates and Putnam white this morning. … If any readers are nearby, we’d appreciate a photo asap.”
The photo was posted minutes later, and sure enough the portal of the building was being painted white. As in not brown.“ILLEGAL PAINT JOB ON LANDMARKED BLOCK OF CLINTON HILL,” the headline read.
The photo triggered 145 postings, the first of which was entirely reasonable.
11:38 a.m.: “Are you sure it’s not primer?”Reason was joined by humor.
11:51 a.m.: “I hope it’s primer and they go with GOLD.”
12:09 p.m.: “Gold and fuchsia horizontal stripes.”Then came sterner voices, ones that belong more to some gated suburb than to Brooklyn…
175 and counting this morning. Brownstoner seems to attract a vigilante-style of comment on many topics (making it an entertaining read, though.) I guess most of the commenters would look down on a city like San Francisco, with its glorious painted ladies, certainly not “authentic” Victorian. By contrast, brownstone Brooklyn is dull and uniform.
Of course, one could blame the way landmarking is enforced; its primary purpose should be to prevent demolition and out-of-context building, not to govern minutaie such as the color of the front door. Common sense should prevail. But its hard to enforce common sense.