Finished, refurbished or just breaking ground, you can spot condominiums of all shapes and sizes around Sunset Park.

New buyers are moving in, a trend welcome or unhappy depending on who you ask. Either way, the phenomenon has come to South Brooklyn. An article in the real estate section of today’s New York Times gives a comprehensive view of condo-buying. Though meant for those on the market, it offers insight for others simply looking for an explanation about the trend, as well as the pros, cons and state of the market in a city where price-per-square foot has proven as riveting as the cost of oil.

Interested in the shifting market closer to home? Check out this article on issues of affordable housing in Sunset Park.

Senior year leaves its mark on any high school student. For Jocelyn Morales, it was life-changing. It was the year she had her son Angel.

Morales hadn’t planned to get pregnant, but wasn’t willing to get the abortion Angel’s father suggested. “I had a choice,” she told the New York Times, “and I chose to be a parent.”

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This is a little off the Sunset Park track, but with Obama in China and Flushing only a “dollar van” ride away I thought I’d pass this along:

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Want to put a finger on the pulse of the economy? Look to the price of gold.

The metal hit a new high of $1119 per ounce on Wednesday as wary investors ran to sink their savings into a stock even their grandmothers could love. Gold often becomes a hot commodity when confidence in the market thins, and while the dollar has fallen, the price of gold has risen 26 percent since last November.

In Sunset Park, however, it’s the dip in gold purchases that tells of tough times.

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This is the first in a series of posts that will use maps, graphs, and other web visualizations to take a look at what’s happening in the neighborhood. Curious about something? Have a question about the neighborhood you’d like to see drawn out? Shoot an email, or leave a comment.

View Sunset Park Pharmacies in a larger map

Duane Reade has made its debut, and now settled into its shiny plate-glass storefront on 5th Ave. Best View in Brooklyn gives a great description of the space, and a resident’s viewpoint on how it compares in price and feel to longer term spots like Ike’s Party Party and the Mini Max.

“I wonder what’s gonna happen to all the little mom and pops,” said local Stacy Mosher, who said she has gone out of her way to shop elsewhere.

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