There are still decisions pending in two major cases concerning Atlantic Yards. One is a challenge to the environmental review process that was argued in May. The other is an appeal of a decision to dismiss the eminent domain lawsuit.–AYR

Through Christmas we’re going to veer off-topic by featuring a few holiday photos from cities in Europe and elsewhere. Enjoy.

The Leidseplein, Amsterdam[Photo courtesy of PjotrP/flickr]

[Gowanus Christmas Boat Photo courtesy of Dietrich/flickr]

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images. Happy holidays to all our readers.

• Dear Mr. Mayor, Why Is Okay for the Cops to Harass Bloggers? [Brooklyn Junction]
• Hassled by Cops for Christmas Photos & New Camera from Mr. Heather [NYS]
• People Less Than Happy as Cop Shoots Dog in Bed-Stuy Park [NYP]
• The Brooklyn Woods Job Training Programs [NYT]
• Fed Ex Holiday Truck Recovery in Greenpoint Details [Gothamist]
• Flatbush Haitian Pirate Radio Jumps from Ditmas Park Blog to Print Media [NYT]
• Santas Coming to Town [GerristenBeach.Net]
• Happy Holidays [Brit in Brooklyn]
• Mulchfest in Fort Green Park [Myrtle Minutes]
• Trashy Bay Ridge [Bay Ridge Rover]
• Marine Park #2 [seriously excited!]
• Thinking About 604 Perfect [Brookynometry]

Through Christmas we’re going to veer off-topic by featuring a few holiday photos from cities in Europe and elsewhere. Enjoy.

Brandenburg Gate, Berlin
[Photo courtesy of samcox22/flickr]

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Through Christmas we’re going to veer off-topic by featuring a few holiday photos from cities in Europe and elsewhere. Enjoy.

Venezia, Italy[Photo courtesy of miss.picolo/flickr, for full size click here]

In the days before Christmas, the Fulton Mall is one very busy and un-bland place. It’s “a chaotic throwback to the era before the sanitization and, yes, mallification of New York City’s retail districts. For every Nextel or Children’s Place or Foot Locker on the mall there is an immigrant-run mom-and-pop store offering off-brand electronics or no-brand suits or a trifecta of cellphones, gold teeth and sneakers.”–NYT

Williamsburg, Brooklyn[Photo courtesy of amc_/flickr]

News of the new permits for the Caroll Gardens Hell Building at 333 Carroll Street has gotten around the neighborhood and residents have been emailing city officials. One reply making the rounds says that elected officials are still working on a variety of issues related to architect Robert Scarano:

We are trying, but even Scarano has the right to due process….Bill of rights anyone????? Look for some action after the holiday…

It’s unclear whether the “action” is on issues related to the architect’s professional certification, about the controversial 360 Smith Street project or about the revived Hell Building development. Interesting.

If you’ve followed the stories and posts about Coney Island’s boardwalk, you know the state of disrepair into which the city has allowed it to fall. Someone has produced a short, documentary-style vid about the issue that is very much worth watching. We came upon it on YouTube this morning. The producer also has a blog entry about it that you can read here. As things currently stand the boardwalk should provide ample fodder for photos and post during the next summer season as it continues to rot and people keep getting hurt on it.

[Photo courtesy of Victoria Law/flickr]

Our friend Miss Heather’s adventure with the NYPD is continuing. First, she was stopped and questioned while taking Christmas photos in Greenpoint. Now, she’s been deluged by comments from someone who turns out to be with the NYPD. The wonderful wave of holiday cheer continues to wash over us all. Be careful out there bloggers. Never know when you’ll shoot an image of a verboten Santa and end off up locked in a cell.–New York Shitty

There is no little irony in the fact that, after a lot of effort by developers to rebrand part of Gowanus as Park Slope, a condo in the Slope may be named “The Gowanus.” We’ve referred to it in the past as the Big Mac Building because of its location next to a McDonalds on Fourth Avenue. Yesterday, our friend Gabby Warshawer at Brownstoner, who has been unearthing all sorts of local nuggets, posted a rendering of The Gowanus, which is on First Street. She writes:

It’s entirely possible that the building’s name has changed since the rendering was produced, but we’re fascinated by the fact that the developers would name a condo between 4th and 5th avenues (in Park Slope!) after the canal/industrial neighborhood. The condo will have three one-bedrooms, 16 two-bedrooms and 13 three-bedrooms, and it’s supposed to hit the market soon.

We’re fascinated too, but have to say that the building looks far less interesting in reality (below)than it does in the rendering.

[Photo courtesy of regular GL photo contributor and artist Gary Mirabelle of Mirabelle Studios]

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images:

Photos:

• Guitar Rock [A Test of Will]
• Gowanus Sky [Hunter.Gatherer/flickr]
• View from a Roof on Front Street [Bluejake]
• Sunset Park [Atomische]
• Prospect Expressway [Park Slope Street Photography]
• Red Hook Street [Stephen 10031]

Words:

• No More Left Turns at Fourth & Union [Brownstoner]
• Fuming in Carroll Gardens [Pardon Me for Asking]
• Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway Comes to Life [Streets Blog]
• On Meeting a Contributor at the Coop [OTBKB]
• A Blogged Week [Bay Ridge Rover]
• Rat Hole of the Month: 205 Parkside [Hawthorne Street]
• Bed-stuy Real Estate Picks [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• Mangers & Bay Ridge [Right in Bay Ridge]
• Neighborhood News and Events [Kensington Brooklyn]
• New Vietnamese Restaurant Coming to Bk Heights [McBrooklyn]

Fort Greene, Brooklyn[Image courtesy of gaby 72/flickr]

A hijacked FedEx truck full of holiday gifts was found in Greenpoint. The truck was taken at gunpoint and had more than $1 million in gifts inside. Apparently, the gifts were still inside. No word on deliveries.–KDKA via Greenpointers

Montague Street, Brooklyn Heights[Photo courtesy of ystrickler/flickr]

“Aveda’s path through peaces goes through Brooklyn.” If you’re still out there acquiring things to give on Tuesday, think about Aveda’s eco-friendly products with gifts sets wrapped in sustainably-sourced Latka paper from a women’s cooperative in Nepal. There’s a spa on Fourth Street near Seventh Avenue in Park Slope that sells the product line, so you can buy them locally.–Green Brooklyn

Here’s a short Brookvid from last year in Williamsburg.

It appears that 333 Carroll Street, which is also known as the Carroll Gardens Hell Building and also “What the Hell is That?” due to the supersized addition on top, is back in business. At least, the Department of Buildings has re-issued permits for the controversial building redo by architect Robert Scarano. Work on the Hell Building was stopped because of issues having to do with questions about the addition on top (which is visible from a great distance in low-rise Carroll Gardens). Yet, new approvals on some permits came out DOB on December 18. It’s unclear how the issues that led to the halt of work were addressed. Nonetheless, neighborhood blogger Pardon Me for Asking, was quick to make sure the word got around and was both angry and incredulous. She writes:

Could it be? Please tell me Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster and the Buildings Department have more sense than this?…Here we are again. After all the controversy generated by this construction project it is amazing that we are right back to where we were 7 Months ago.

The 333 Carroll building has often been used to highlight the need for rezoning in Carroll Gardens, so it will be interesting to see if the battle flares up again and if political pressure puts the building on ice again.

The special correspondent who sent the photo of G&D Television on Henry Street we posted yesterday, went for another look and sent the photos here and filed this report:

Walked past G&D (329 Henry), just a minute ago, and it is indeed empty as is my little deli with the cat. Completely stripped and bare with wide plank flooring. Someone at 329 Henry confirmed the vacate and the deli owners (331 Henry) did take the cat with them. Those plastic signs with the rick-rack trim, red plastic letters and corrugated back are so few and far between these days. I recall M&R Bar on Elizabeth Street in SoHo had one made at a Chinatown place that still had the materials. M&R Bar was a new place trying to look old.

Which brings us to the question of what might be going into these two adjacent storefronts. Perhaps as our correspondent suggested, the sign will stay and it will become G&D Television Wine Bar.

Miss Heather is still recovering from her interrogation by the NYPD for daring to take Santa pictures, but has posted a further installment in the compelling tale of Pete McGuinness, the Brooklynite after whom the fabulous boulevard is named. “After being ousted as Alderman, our very own Peter J. McGuinness set his sights on becoming the Sheriff of Kings County. Just as the catch phrase “Courtesy Professionalism and Respect” is a mere formality to our police force, Pete felt waiting to be elected before calling himself Sheriff was a mere technicality. He was also quite the gourmand, as you will learn from the article from the August 8, 1935 edition of the New York Times. Enjoy!” Read all about it.–New York Shitty

For a symbol of everything that is wrong with the system regulating demolition, construction and development in New York City and Brooklyn, look no further than 5 Roebling Street, aka the Giant Fart Cloud Building. Demolition work was stopped temporarily last month after a neighboring building was threatened. The demolition is back in full swing now, and from the emails that blogger Bad Advice has been sending us and her own blog posts, the situation is utterly intolerable. Here’s a bit from the email we got:

My ground-floor neighbors almost had their wall cave in on them and their house filled with what they thought was smoke, but turned out to be thick black dust. When you push against their wall, it gives and they can hear the guys talking on the other side like they’re in their apartment with them.

It got ugly. We called 911 and a bunch of fire and policemen showed up, but they can’t really do anything. We called 311, which at this point brings me less satisfaction than talking to my cat. One of my neighbors may or may not have grabbed the keys out of the MMG truck, so they couldn’t move the backhoe out of the yard before the cops got there. It is so ugly and stressful living here that I’m shaking as I type this. Thankfully, my terminally ill neighbor’s daughter is coming to take her to Florida on Friday so she can die of natural causes and not from having her ceiling cave in on her.

There is a great deal more detail about this scary and demoralizing situation over at Bad Advice. We are now going to be blunt about this disgusting state of affairs.

GL Analysis:
It is odd that a small, insignificant Williamsburg building can come to symbolize what is tragically wrong with the scandalously ineffective way that we “regulate” the development process in New York City. Every single day in Brooklyn, people’s lives are made miserable and they have nowhere to turn. Is it a lack of resources? Yes. It is a lack of caring? Yes. It corruption involved? We suspect that it is. Does the system need a major overhaul and reform from top to bottom? Without question.

The current situation is the perfect storm of out-of-control development, ineffective government and powerless citizens. It is what happens when honest, hardworking people find themselves in the middle of a development boom where, pretty much, anything goes.

Even if you don’t care about people, there has to be a self-centered part of everyone that can picture what it’s like to be in your home and suddenly be afraid you’re going to become homeless because of work going on next door. There has to a part of everyone that can understand the insane, helpless rage that comes from watching someone bash in your wall and having no one to turn to because you are dealing with an unresponsive and/or utterly ineffective system. There has to be a part of even the most callous “deal with it” person that becomes a little frustrated knowing that a phone call will be ignored or that inspectors will show up days after the problem was reported and, then, will duly note, “we didn’t see a problem.”

5 Roebling Street is a poster child for every single thing that is wrong with the system. The Department of Buildings actually did the right thing and issued a Stop Work Order. It would appear to have been disregarded at certain points, however, and it should never have been lifted until legitimate, enforceable ground rules were set. The decision should have been made at the highest level of the department, if anything, because the site has become a minor celebrity in its own way thanks to online coverage. It shows how the entire system doesn’t work even when it does work, so the best solution is making sure nothing happens at the site until people aren’t rendered homeless and their lives are ruined.

It seems to us that the 5 Roebling Stop Work Order should be reinstated in full immediately and the Department should refuse to issue any future permits for anything at this development site until there is a sense that the community will be respected. Had a lightening rod architect such as Robert Scarano been associated with the project it would be dead in the water already. (Or, maybe not, if one checks the Carroll Gardens Hell Building post above.)

Acting in a meaningful way on 5 Roebling would send a message that there are limits to the torment to which neighbors can be subject and to disregard for city regulations and neighborhood quality of life.

A potentially significant zoning change for small part of Williamsburg that was not included in the 2005 Williamsburg and Greenpoint rezoning is making its way through the system. The change could kill several planned tall buildings, but is also likely to spark a construction frenzy among developers trying to beat any zoning change. The rezone would impose a 50 foot height limit along Grand Street and a 70 limit elsewhere. Building fronts along Grand Street would be limited to 40 feet. (In general terms, the areas outlined R6B in the image above would be limited to 50 feet; in the R6A zone they could rise to 70 feet.) The changes would effect about 13 blocks bounded by Berry Street, North Third Street, Fillmore Place, Hope Street, Marcy Avenue and South First Street. According the City Planning Department site, “The rezoning aims to preserve neighborhood character and scale by establishing contextual zoning districts that have height limits and street wall lineup provisions. It would reflect Grand Street’s presence as a local retail corridor while protecting the residential character of lots adjacent to retail corridors.”

The next step in the process is a Community Board 1 public hearing that will take place on January 8 at 6:30PM at the Swinging 60’s Senior Citizen Center, which is located at 211 Ainslie St. The plan would also need to be reviewed by the Borough President, City Planning Commission and City Council. Any final action would come next summer.

Yes, we know it was only a few days ago that more grassroots artwork was added to our favorite wall in Brooklyn, but this new addition just popped up. We love the neighborhood spirit and old-fashioned way of communication the Carroll Gardens Democracy Wall represents. (We’re also proud to note that GL and Curbed posts about 360 Smith Streets were the first items to be posted there.) As long as it’s there and people are adding news and art, we’ll keep featuring it. The Democracy Wall never fails to make us smile.