A delicious building-by-building report on how the richies living in New York landmarks are contributing to the presidential campaign is bringing out the Peeping Charlotte in me.


The piece is in the New York Observer, which has always been savvy about real estate (and anything else pertaining to denizens of several of the nation’s most exclusive zip codes).


One surprise is that one of my very favorite New York buildings, the graceful The Beresford on Central Park West, is not quite as true blue as one might imagine:


“Never mind the boldface names — like Jerry Seinfeld, Helen Gurley Brown and Phyllis Newman  — who helped put this storied Upper West Side fortress on the Democratic fund-raising map: The Beresford is all about one discrete, Midas-fingered hedge-fund manager named Paul Singer, who has raised more money for George W. Bush than any other Gothamite.”


On the other hand, The Dakota, on West 72nd Street and another of the world’s most beautiful apartment buildings, is (almost) every bit as blue as one might have predicted: 


“Not only did this famous building’s most famous onetime resident, John Lennon, pen the peacenik anthem “Imagine,” but many of its present-day occupants are committed to ejecting the current Commander in Chief from office. Ellen Chesler and her attorney-husband, Matthew Mallow, have together given more than $7,000 to Democratic candidates this year, while Jane Rosenthal, president of Tribeca Productions and sister-in law of powerhouse fund-raiser Susan Patricof (see 830 Park Avenue), has donated a whopping $33,500. In February, she hosted a fund-raiser for John Kerry that featured a live performance by Jon Bon Jovi and a swanky guest list that included Robert De Niro, Serena Altschul, Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick and Tina Brown. Still, the Dakota isn’t completely unfriendly to the G.O.P. A closer look at the co-op’s donor list suggests a quiet rise in the number of Republican donors in recent years. Among them? A sweet retired couple who each gave $1,000 to George W. Bush.”


The article is chock-full of such details and is great fun.