building at 291 Devoe Street

Thank you for the feedback bingeboy. We have gotten that same feedback from many of the people that have come to visit the project.

It's hard to find much solid information on this, but I've read things about a few cases of an *extremely* rare (bone?) cancer in people living on Devoe Street. 2 were people who lived in the same building, unrelated people who were tenants at different times, and a third case several blocks away. Apparently the cancer is so rare that the possibility of it being coincidence is very small. I wasn't able to find any information about the actual locations of these cases—for all I know it may all be rumors and lies, but it's enough to keep me away from even considering buying here.

Williamsburg is all kinds of polluted. Newtown Creek, which is at the end of Devoe Street, is one of the filthiest places in the city, although it's supposed to be getting cleaned up. Do your homework and find out what used to be on and around the lot this building is on. A lot of horrible chemicals have been dumped by industrial places in the area, and it's hard to say what the long term health risks could be.

Ask the brokers about these rare cancer cases. If they don't know anything about it, they can probably find information easier than we buyers can. If they can't give you details or confirm or deny it ever happened, I suggest you walk away.

On the one hand, I feel bad for potentially scaring people away from the building, but I also feel obligated to pass on what I've heard. The building's people should be prepared for people to ask about this sort of thing, but it might totally be banking on finding buyers who want to live in Williamsburg and have never even thought to look into health risks, crime rates, etc. This building isn't far from a large housing project—that won't be going anywhere, no matter how much Williamsburg comes up.

I was going to buy in Williamsburg and ended up choosing to look somewhere else. It's not worth the cool factor for me. Just keep yourself informed. Weigh the pros and cons for yourself. Don't buy simply because its trendy, and be wary of better-than-average deals in the neighborhood. Be safe and stay healthy! :)

What was the address of building with the bone cancer cases?

I found a link with a map of the cancer cases... they appear to be on the same block. I'm with you, this building is very nice but with these rare cancer outbreak happening and the EPA super funded site just a few blocks down the street it makes me worry about my health.

URL with map: http://neighborhoodroots.tripod.com/ (it's twards the bottom of the page)

After doing more research it seems like there is someone who references the bone cancer in comments all over blogs about wburg and I can't find anyone else discussing the 2 cases. To me it appeared to be an article mainly discussing the oil spill in Greenpoint and the slander around it. The buildings people noted that the oil spill has not effected anything round this unit. The article referencing the bone cancer was 6 years old and there have never been any type of follow up. If you look at environmental maps dealing with pollution in brooklyn this building seems fine compared to many other places. I was in contract on Keap st for 8months but the deal fell through and the building ended up being 1.5 blocks from another EPA super fund site. After doing comprehensive research I'm moving forward with a unit here.