apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I sincerely hope all of Barbara's neighbors follow suit IMMEDIATELY to "improve" her neighborhood.

This is, to me, a classic case of losing sight of the forest for the trees.

She needs to get out of her real estate bubble and reevaluate what "value" actuallymeans.

Personally, I'd keep the garden for all the reasons listed above.

A lot of people in San Francisco are paving over front lawns without permits (which are nearly impossible to get), and it looks the city is finally going to do something about it.

And if the owners who pave over gardens decide to put a curb cut in as well, one public parking space is lost forever.

So boo to Corcoran's column. Paving might be a savvy move, real estate wise, but I wouldn't feel right about it.

Gardens also help mitigate the urban heat sink effect, which is doing more to raise city temperatures than global warming does.

I've always thought that the real estate profession was one notch below prostitution : say or do anything to make a dollar, regardless of consequences. Thanks for not disproving my theory, Barbara!

Be fair, bryan, some prostitutes are surely perfectly decent people, folks in the real estate profession on the other hand...

I agree. I nearly had heart failure when I first saw her response. I live in the Carroll Gardens area of Brooklyn and large front gardens were once the pride of the residents. This is one of the growing blights of many NYC neighborhoods that have enough space fronting the street. And developers are trying to do anything they can to maximize their profit with little concern for anyone else. While I understand the desire for off-street parking the city should not allow this kind of abuse of the quality of life, not to mention the environmental concerns. I hope the city enacts the ban on this promptly and enforces it.

Cars are anti-urban.

I just sold my car and will now use Zip Cars, which have their own parking spaces. Every morning when Trish on WNBC says "Alternate parking rules are in effect today", I just giggle and hit my snooze button!

That is just sad. Would she also consider shaving her head so that she could tattoo an advertisement to her head in order to increase revenue too?

I would prefer a flower bed to a parking lot any day.

Being born and raised in California I never even considered not having a car. After living in NY for almost 8 years one of the first things I tell my California friends when they ask why I have no intention of moving back is "I love not owning a car."

Jetsetbaby, I'm sure Barbara would not, but would advise you to do so.

What appalling advice. For Christ's sake, it's New York City. I know Queens is not Manhattan, but there is plenty of public transportation available.

I agree with P2. Barbara needs to reconsider her definition of 'value'. The contrast between photos 1 and 2 says it all.

Someone needs to effing pave over Barb....what a whore

I think that paving over the yard might be grounds for a divorce.

Perhaps we should all go out to real estate agents and ask to see houses with yards and mention how awful houses with paved yards are. I don't know how many people read this site, but we could theoretically influence the market. Then again, for that to work, we'd all have to buy houses.

greer- ???????!!!!!!!!!!

But wait! If you pave over it and then paint it green everything will be fine, My mom has actually seen this in some places on Staten Island.

Pretty

Sparkly,

I believe that same design concept was used on the entire Grand Concourse (in the Bronx) at one time. Very Lego-like.

I just posted an article on my blog highlighting the research on street trees and property values.

Yeah, she's saying that because she doesn't own real estate in Queens. If she did, she'd change her tune fast. Total hypocrisy.

I don't mean you personally! I meant, she would probably advise the rest of us to shave our heads and tattoos advertisements on our skulls.

Somehow, I have a hard time picturing Barbara Corcoran living in a home with a driveway for a front yard. I mean, even if I could picture her living in Queens. Which I can't.

Living in the desert, I agree about the need to capture water--you could, however, save the water from the garden, plant a tree, perhaps, then "pave" your front with a semi-permeable material (gravel, etc.) that allows rainfall to sink into the soil and a (hybrid/electric) car to park.