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Wednesday, November 01, 2017

One Of Paul Manafort's Carroll Gardens Neighbor Is Raising Money To Turn His Brownstone Into A Women's Shelter

The Union Street Women's Shelter? That may be the most fitting future for Paul Manafort's Carroll Gardens brownstone at 377 Union Street.
Susanna Williams, a neighbor of President Trump's former campaign manager has started a crowdfunding page to raise $4,435,082 to attempt to turn the four story building into a safe place and to 'honor women who persist.'
Susanna writes:
Thank you for your interest in this project! I'm a citizen, just like you. I live down the street from this house. Now, to be perfectly honest, I doubt we'll be able to buy this and go forward with the shelter idea (not to mention the difficulty of navigating New York City government), but I think raising some money to contribute to women's shelters that are doing great work is the next best thing.Please join us!

There may be quite a few more obstacles since 377 Union Street and its dubious financing has been included in the indictment by Special Council Robert Mueller against Manafort. It is likely that the brownstone will be tied up in litigation for quite some time.
That being said, according to The Real Deal, two Corcoran agents apparently have a contract to sell the brownstone. The agents were researching comparable properties in the area to come up with a sticker price as far back as June. (The article mentions $8 or $9 millions for the house)

So far, only $200 have been raised, but the fundraiser only started today. Care to donate?



8 comments:

  1. Mr. Mueller shld have you on his team. Great reporting and investigation.

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  2. I am a former resident of Carroll Gardens (Huntington Street) and return frequently to my old stomping grounds from my new neighborhood in the Bronx. When I lived in Carroll Gardens, long walks were a regular occurrence and I often walked past this house when it was owned by an Italian family who had the obligatory Sunday dinners with the whole family. It gave off such a warm feeling. But then it was sold and it doesn't take long for a house to look unloved. Thank you for efforts to uncover the ownership of this house.

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  3. Nice coverage in the New York Times....

    The Little Blog that could.

    Keep up the great work...and Congratulation!

    You realize, you could be the spark that brings down a president.

    Extraordinary, really....when something so ordinary, like a happenstance encounter with a neighbor and some research on the NYC website leads to such a huge discovery.



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  4. I just went to donate but the crowdfunding page no longer seems to exist.

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  5. unfortunately, I noticed that. That's too bad. Perhaps someone wants to start another one?

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  6. Hi! This is Susanna, the creator of that fundraising page. Thanks for the support! Unfortunately, the women's shelter I designated as the recipient of the donations refused to accept the contributions. They never communicated directly with me. The crowdfunding site suggested I set up a page with the donations going directly to myself, but that made me uncomfortable and I really wanted to support a shelter program directly.

    Side note: I'm a daughter of Carroll Gardens. I lived at the corner of President & Clinton when I was a baby. 41 years later, I returned. It's really good to be part of this community again.

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  7. Welcome back to the neighborhood, Susanna. What a sweet story. It is nice to know that people return to the neighborhood's. Mostly one hears of them leaving.

    I loved the idea of a Paul Manafort Woman's Shelter and I think many of my readers did as well, but I understand your concern. Perhaps there is another way?

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    1. Yes! Is there a nonprofit organization in our neighborhood that serves our neighbors who we could talk to and see if they would be interested in accepting contributions raised in this manner? I think of it as kind of a "Get Out of Jail" fundraiser that some organizations do- the people you're raising money to "free" aren't actually in jail and you know it, but it's a fun way to motivate people to give.

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