The email we got along with the link to the YouTube vid above, which is really more of a Powerpoint presentation than a video, said “why can’t we have affordable housing and something that gives back to the community, city, etc? it could even be private financing if need be.” Yesterday, Lost City described the […]

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Q: When are planning bodies not eligible for certain planning grants? A: When they’re community boards in New York City. From Community Board 6 comes a reminder that a measure that will help these entities do planning is awaiting NY Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s signature. An email says: You may recall that two years ago Senator […]

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The Department of Housing Preservation and Development announced this morning that it is taking RFPs from developers interested in building on the extremely polluted Public Place site in Gowanus. Public Place will be a mixed-use development that will include at least 400 units of mixed-income housing, commercial space, community facilities and open space, including landscaped […]

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Here’s a vid we found on the YouTube that takes a look at Gowanus in the context of planning and zoning issue. It has a college lesson video feel to it, but is worth a viewing is your interested in some of the neighborhood planning issues generally. You can click over to it here if, […]

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For all the discussion in Carroll Gardens about the building that will be built at 360 Smith Street, and its design and height, the bigger issues according to community leaders are rezoning the neighborhood and enlarging its Historic District. The rub, however, is that neither are likely to happen soon. Residents have been told by […]

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The Gotham Gazette offers two interesting pieces about Coney Island redevelopment this week. One of them is from Coney Island Development Corp. President Lynn Kelly and is based on her remarks at a Municipal Art Society discussion last week. It’s an interesting window into her thinking. Here are some excerpts, but we suggest a read […]

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There’s a book launch party this evening, from 6PM-8PM for The Great Neighborhood Book. It takes place at Christ Church, which is at the corner of Clinton Street and Kane Street in Cobble Hill. The book is from the Project for Public Spaces and its formal title is The Great Neighborhood Book: A Do-It Yourself […]

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Was the rezoning of Fourth Avenue in Park Slope seriously flawed? We’d argue that it was in several respects, in particular in that it allowed tall (for Park Slope) buildings without requiring any affordable housing. Yesterday, Normal Oder tackled the subject in a very extensive and thoughtful item on his Atlantic Yards Report. The upshot […]

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While there are many streets in New York City that are unfriendly to pedestrians, Third and Fourth Avenues in Brooklyn are at the top of the list. Recent accidents in which pedestrians have been injured and children have been run down and killed have shined a light on the problems. The meeting will take place […]

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Every few weeks, it seems, there is news to convey about the slow burn known as the city’s plan to convert the Red Hook Piers from a container port into something that is, well, quite different. The ideas have already gone through many iterations, and various parts–including housing–have fallen off or been removed. Now, Sarah […]

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We’re a day late and a dollar short in getting to this, but it’s worth noting that in this week’s Village Voice, Neil deMause deals with the mega-development in the making called Downtown Brooklyn and the collateral damage in the form of people being evicted to make way for the new development. It is not […]

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We certainly love a good piazza, so were were cheered to see the following rendering in all its splendor on Streets Blog. The plan to turn the Pearl Street Triangle in Dumbo into a public plaza comes from the Department of Transportation. The Triangle has a lot of potential to be a pretty and nice […]

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Among the many issues in the ongoing discussion about Gowanus rezoning and planning is how to preserve the neighborhood for the hundreds, if not thousands, of artists that are working there. One proposal, to make Gowanus an Artist’s District, or to at least provide some buildings where artists can work at low cost is the […]

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Kiss housing goodbye in terms of any redevelopment of the Red Hook Piers. The initial proposal as floated by the city’s Economic Development Corporation included 350 units of housing on the west side of Columbia Street. The concept was not entirely greeted with open arms by the community. In any case, the Carroll Gardens Courier […]

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[Photo courtesy of turkeyheart/flickr] If you are going to pay attention to what is happing in Brooklyn that is of critical importance, you have to pay attention to rezoning plans. Today’s Metro reports that plans for a rezone of more than 200 blocks of Bedford-Stuyvesant begin a public review process by the Department of City […]

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So, here’s the “year-round” Coney Island solution, though it does look like it takes up a lot of real estate. It comes from Japan, from whence a lot of interesting land use, planning and architectural ideas originate. (Dubai is an excellent source as well.) This came to our attention in the context of someone circulating […]

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How many Brooklyn neighborhoods are being downzoned, upzoned or just-plain-rezoned? A lot. In fact, the list of neighborhoods that haven’t been rezoned recently, aren’t currently being rezoned and aren’t scheduled for rezoning may be shorter than the list of ones that were/are/will be. Zoning is generally something that is only of interest to hardcore planning […]

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The other day, protesters were out on Flatbush Avenue to speak out against the “premature demolition” of buildings in the Atlantic Yards footprint by Forest City Ratner. On Sunday, we gazed at the big lot at Bedford Avenue and N. 3rd Street in Williamsburg that is half empty and has had a half-demolished building for […]

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What you’re looking at above is part of the Gowanus “Land Use Framework” map in which the neighborhood has been divided into “subareas.” Despite the civil tone of last week’s neighborhood planning session, there remains strong opposition in the community to allowing residential development along the canal. One of the battlegrounds is going to be […]

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If you’re wondering what’s going on in Gowanus, there are two key meetings coming up this week. The first is tonight (4/17). It’s a meeting of Community Board 6’s Economic/Waterfront Development, Housing/Human Services and Landmarks/Land Use Committees with representatives from the Departments of City Planning and Housing Preservation and Development about the toxic and empty […]

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