July 12th, 2007 · Comments Off on The New Broadway and Kent Avenue
Oh, how the Williamsburg waterfront is going to change. Not only would the New Domino development be the single largest project on the waterfront as it’s currently proposed, big changes are coming south of the Williamsburg Bridge too. The rendering above shows the possible future of the northeast corner of Broadway and Kent Avenue. The up-to-date renderings of 11 Broadway are the top two, which are from GreenbergFarrow (who are also the architects for 80 Met, which is the building rising on the site of the destroyed Old Dutch Mustard Building). The 11 Broadway development would include an aloft Hotel, which has long been rumored for the site. The project would be 240,000 square feet (25,000 square feet of retail, 98 residential units, 200-room hotel). The bottom rendering is one for the site from Karl Fischer Architect, which we believe is an early and now outdated drawing.
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July 12th, 2007 · Comments Off on Official Brooklyn Trader Joe’s Announcement This Morning
Listen around 10:40 this morning and the sound you will hear is that of Brooklynites cheering the announcement that Trader Joe’s will be moving into the old bank building at Court Street and Atlantic Avenue. The news was broken by our friends at Racked yesterday and spread quickly. Racked reported:
Trader Joe’s Brooklyn is actually, officially happening! We hear via a very, very reliable tipster that a press conference will be held tomorrow at 10:40am at the Trader Joe’s Brooklyn site on Atlantic Avenue and Court Street.
Of the news, Jen Carlson wrote on Gothamist “For now, make tomorrow a casual Thursday, get out your tropical garb, and welcome Joe’s to the neighborhood…hopefully it won’t take them long to move in.”
Comments Off on Official Brooklyn Trader Joe’s Announcement This MorningTags:Uncategorized
July 12th, 2007 · Comments Off on Coney "Kitsch vs. Cash" in the Washington Post
Yesterday’s Washington Post had a front page story about Coney Island that is one of the first we’ve seen by an out-of-town writer that actually managed to capture the debate over its future without falling into the pit of hyperbole over a glitzy $2 billion makeover. The story, headlined “A Sea Change at Coney Island? Plan to Redevelop Aging Resort Pits Kitsch vs. Cash” was written by Anthony Faiola. It manages to hit many of the key points, including the various class issues that are frequently glossed over in stories about the redevelopment.
Mr. Faiola writes:
Supporters of the snazzy redevelopment say the run-down place needs a new look — “a Coney Island for the 21st century,” better suited to New York’s evolution into a city that is safer, cleaner and richer than at any point in its modern history. But other New Yorkers are aghast, seeing it as the symbolic last nail in the coffin of the rough-edged fun that once made New York New York.
This city’s once-serendipitous streets, they say, have gradually devolved into a bland collection of chain stores, over-conceptualized restaurants and upscale retail spaces that, while larger and higher-priced, increasingly have little else to separate them from similar fare elsewhere in America. They point to redeveloped Times Square, now kid-safe and complete with the world’s largest Toys “R” Us, but bereft of urban vibe. They look at SoHo, once an edgy artists district with affordable lofts now fully transformed into multimillion-dollar spaces for Wall Street executives and the stores that love them, including Dolce & Gabbana, Prada and Chanel…
The biggest controversy, however, remains [developer Joe] Sitt’s contention that he needs hotels and timeshares as high as 40 stories to make his redeveloped Coney Island financially viable. They would, he says, help him turn Coney Island — now open only during the summer months — into a year-round destination.
But critics say such structures would dwarf the island’s landmarks, ruining its quaint appeal. Meanwhile, his plans to spruce up the joint — “you know, like bring in a bookstore with a Starbucks in it,” he said — have many crying foul.
“He wants to bling it up; he wants to bring in all this retail and create a kind of enclosed mall with high-rise towers,” said Robert Lieber, president of the New York City Economic Development Corp. “That isn’t consistent with the historic nature of Coney Island.”
Interesting thing, that last quote from Mr. Lieber, who does not appear to be enthralled with the Thor Equities Coney Island proposals. There’s also a really nice video and panoramic photos that go with the story if you click here. Read the story. It’s worth it.
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Brooklyn’s jogging blogger, Gary Jarvis, is officially calling it quits. While we’re disappointed and will especially miss the thousands more photos that Gary would have shot and posted in his runs around the borough, but we understand the injuries that led to the decision. He writes:
This shouldn’t come as a big surprise to anyone (at least anyone who’s read this blog lately), but I’ve decided to officially hang up my running shoes and end the quest to run every street in Brooklyn. The final tally was 872 unique miles, or just over half of the total. I’ll leave it up to my loyal readers — all three of you — to work out whether the glass is half empty or half full, but I figured it was time to own up to the fact that I’m simply not going to run the other fifty percent.
It certainly was fun while it lasted, though. I got to see just about every neighborhood in the borough (okay, I didn’t actually run in Brooklyn Heights or Dumbo, but I’ve been to those places on other occasions), and ride almost every mile of subway. Along the way I also took over 2000 photos (some of which came out pretty cool, if I do say so myself), and met some great people. When I started this, one of my stated reasons was to “get to know the place a little better.” Well, I think I did. You could probably blindfold me, drop me off anywhere in the borough, and I’d know (well, within a minute or two) where I was and how to get home. I might not have accomplished everything that I set out to do, but I can’t complain, either.
There’s a lot more to the post and it’s worth reading if your interested. You can check out Gary’s 900 flickr posted photos here.
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Here’s an interesting story from Carroll Park between Smith and Court Streets that is making the rounds in the form of an email from a local mom about “an increasingly unruly element” making the park “unsafe for families” even during the day. It’s a very long post, and if you don’t have attention span for it, here’s the thumbnail: This all has to do with teenagers snapping wet t-shirts near some moms and kids. The teens didn’t enjoy being told to stop. Many recriminations ensued. Threats were uttered by the kids to the adults. The police were called–and to us this is the most interesting part–didn’t respond to what could have become a lousy incident in anything resembling a timely fashion. The kids kept up the harassment. They threw things at the adults. And, when the cops finally showed they are said to have been disinterested if not dismissive.
Meantime, the mom in question snapped a cell phone pic of one of the teens, but it didn’t make the rounds with the email. Here’s the Carroll Gardens mom’s account in full:
I wanted to relate to you something that occurred at Carroll Park yesterday afternoon, around 6:40 p.m. I am doing so to make a few points: an increasingly unruly elementhas made Carroll Park unsafe for families even during many daylight hours; there is little the police can or will do about it, perhaps because of manpower shortages or the volume of crime in the precinct; it is up to those who use the park to try to bring both some focus and some better order there by reporting incidents through the 911 system when they happen, by being more proactive when trouble is brewing and by dealing with that trouble more as a community. I know it is very difficult to handle unruly teenagers while also protecting your young children. But an ad-hoc group of several parents working together could likely keep the peace.
I don’t have much time to write this so this is only a rough sketch of what happened. Suffice it to say, this is not the first time something like this has occurred at Carroll Park, but it is the most egregious example of hooliganism I’ve seen so far. And in my mind it is another example of the danger of not fixing “broken windows” when they present themselves.
Three teenage boys were slapping each other with wet shirts near a woman I know and her 3.5 year old son. She asked them to be careful as they were getting very close to both her son and mine. This emboldened them and they moved even closer, nearly hitting one of the children with one of their shirts as they slapped them in our direction. When I interceded they responded that they were going to beat me down and break my nose.
I told them they needed to back off and be more respectful of others in the park. We moved away, entering the small-children area by the swings. After a minute or two, the three teenagers pursued us and started snapping their wet shirts over the fence, spraying our children with the water and threatening me. This went on for awhile. Finally I took one of their shirts, threw it in the street and called the police. I was assured they were on their way, and to wait for them to arrive.
They, of course, were not. We waited as the teenagers continued a hit and run tactic with their shirts and their threats. I left my child with my friend and her son, and went toward them as they snapped their shirts at my face, taking a quick snap with my camera phone.
A park worker showed up to take the garbage out as the teenagers regrouped and I asked what could be done. He said that he could tell the teenagers to leave the park but that was about it. He walked over to the group and told them to get out of the park. I thought this was good, although I’d have preferred for the police to run them through the station. I waited for the police to arrive.
The teenagers re-appeared after the park worker moved the garbage and attacked again. This time they were also angry and suspicious about the photo I took. They appeared to be thinking of trying to steal my phone and destroy what they saw as “the evidence.” I waited for the police.
The teenagers disappeared behind the building for a moment. Then, commando style, they appeared again, slinging small rocks and what appeared to be hard candy or large gum-balls of some sort. Several nearly hit my son and one struck me in the eye.
With no police there and none likely to arrive, we finally decided to make a break for it. As we attempted to leave, they pelted us with water balloons. By this point, probably 40 minutes had elapsed from when I called the first incident into 911. I called the police one last time (the third time by now).
We were going to walk through this group of teenagers to get out of the park, hopefully without our children being hurt. The teenagers had again disappeared behind the park building. Maybe this time they would use larger rocks? Maybe this time, they would hit my young son. I was no longer concerned about the moral or legal ramifications of breaking all of their fingers and toes.
I hung up with 911 and we started walking out of the park. Another parent in the park noticed two police officers standing toward the middle of the park, toward Carroll Street. We reversed course and headed toward them. I motioned for them to walk toward me. They didn’t budge, offended that I actually wanted them to, well, walk, and motioned for me to walk over to them.
I yelled to them that it had been over half an hour since I’d called and that it wouldn’t kill them to meet me half-way. I attempted to explain the situation and urged them to go toward the building where the teenagers might still be. They didn’t seem too interested, perhaps because they didn’t understand that the teenagers might still be in the park. After a good minute or two, they began to slowly meander over to the park building. I said that the teenagers would just run away if they saw the police coming, but the police didn’t care much about this. And I don’t fault them for this really. Why should they care? They know that nothing can be done with a juvenile in such a situation. Even if they grabbed one of them and took them into the station, the teenagers would just be held there until their parents arrived. And who wants to do the paperwork?
The upshot of this is that the police in our precinct obviously have more pressing concerns than to deal with relatively minor incidents like what happened at Carroll Park yesterday. But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be made aware of them, or that such activity should go unchecked. If these incidents are not nipped in the bud — the threats and intimidation of parents (most often women with young children), the physical altercations, the drug dealing and pot smoking by a very non-mellow outfit camped by the sand courts — then things can, and likely will, escalate into something more serious.
As James Wilson and George Kelling wrote in their seminal work on community policing, “one broken window becomes many.”
“The citizen who fears the ill-smelling drunk, the rowdy teenager, or the importuning beggar is not merely expressing his distaste for unseemly behavior; he is also giving voice to a bit of folk wisdom that happens to be a correct generalization — namely, that serious street crime flourishes in areas in which disorderly behavior goes unchecked.”
Marauding groups of t-shirt snapping teens menacing moms and their kids in Carroll Park and threating to break noses and cops that take 40 minutes to show up. Fun.
We put together some photos we’ve taken of Smith Street near Atlantic Avenue, mostly this year, that show a little bit of the surviving old Smith and some of the new. This is the last part of Smith Street to be hit by the wave of gentrification that has turned corner gift stores into Starbucks, etc. These are photos of buildings more than people, but you can see the remnants of the largely disappeared Latino culture in some of the signage that has been left in place for its hipness factor. Both people and places continue to disappear, and we know that some of the businesses pictured below probably don’t have a lot of time left to live either.
We find this during and after photo of the Smith Street building that used to house Tirado Income Tax interesting in that we got it with dumpster out front and, then, just recently. Of course, it’s not much without a photo from earlier, but it still shows a tiny slice of change on Smith Street over the last twelve months. We’ve got a slide show of more photos in a post directly above.
We had no idea you could go online to get the, uh, water quality data for local beaches like Coney Island until the excellent blog GerritsenBeach.net posted it. (In recent weeks, the blog has broken both that weird story about the idea in Manhattan Beach to privatize the beach and about the vandalism of those new glassy bus shelters.) So, we’re brazenly borrowing from GBN here, again. If you want to find out what the enterococci count is at your favorite beach you can go to the city’s Beach Quality and Safety page. What’s enterococci, you ask? Well, let’s say that a key word in guessing what it is is Enterococcus faecalis. Right now, the poo-related bacteria count at Coney Island and other area beaches is totally within acceptable limits!!! So, surf’s up!
If you go to the beach and go in the water and, uh, get sick, the city also has an online Beach Complaint form you can fill out. That’s a screen cap below, so we won’t dwell on what it says you can check off, like sewage in the water and the gross symptoms you might be experiencing.
July 11th, 2007 · Comments Off on Fun With Building Permits for the Very Tall
We love oddly posted building permits, like these, which we found at 53 Hope Street in Williamsburg. The permits in question are posted about nine or ten feet (give or take) off the ground. We had to use our telephoto lens to zoom in on them to figure out what they said. You can find previous examples of this kind of tall person-oriented thing here and here.
July 11th, 2007 · Comments Off on Red Hook Movies in the Park are Back!
We’re happy to note that Red Hook Movies in the Park are back for their second year. Every Thursday evening from July 12-August 16 there will be free films in one of three Red Hook Parks. Here’s the schedule, as per the email that went out from the sponsors:
July 12: Rize [at Valentino Pier]
July 19: Happy Feet [at Coffey Park]
July 26: Mad Hot Ballroom [at Red Hook Community Farm]
Aug. 2: Kung Fu Hustle [at Valentino Pier]
Aug. 9: Akeelah and the Bee [at Coffey Park]
Aug. 16: When We Were Kings [at Red Hook Community Farm]
The movies start at 8:15PM and are canceled if it rains. Each movies is preceded by short films, including works from Hook Productions, a non-profit group that offers film and media instruction to Brooklyn youth.
Red Hook Movies In The Parks is presented by the Red Hook Community Justice Center, SuperProjects, Added Value and Hook Productions with support from Partnerships for Parks and the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative.
The entire film schedule is posted at the Red Hook Movies in the Park website and you can also find information like directions to the park there as well as any schedule changes or updates.
Comments Off on Red Hook Movies in the Park are Back!Tags:Uncategorized
July 11th, 2007 · Comments Off on Say What: Alternate Side Edition
We continue our series of photos of compromised signage with this example of an Alternate Side Parking sign at its finest, which comes to us from Williamsburg, east of the BQE.
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July 11th, 2007 · Comments Off on A Fun Thing to Do with Kids in Sunset Park
We got an email from Friends of Sunset Park about a series of Wednesday morning events that start today (7/11) and continue for the next four Wednesdays. They’re CityParks Kids performances and they start at 10:30 AM. Here’s what the email says:
Are you 1, are you 2, ….? or, are you 101?
Whatever your age, have we got a great way to start your Wednesday mornings. Please join the hundreds of neighborhood youngsters on 11 July and for the following 4 Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. for CityParks Kids performances.
Enter Sunset Park at 44th Street & 6th Avenue, bear left pass the playground, the swings and the “Native Plants” Children’s Garden and we’ll see you by the Chess Tables.
Don’t forget to bring a blanket or towel to seat on, plenty of water to drink and plenty of joy and energy to applaud, sing and laugh.
And, SAVE THE DATE- Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre is coming to SUNSET PARK on Saturday, August 11th at 6 p.m. with a couple of short theater works by Cervantes. Watch for details in the coming days.
See you at the Top of the Hill!
GL welcomes news of events and tips from all Brooklyn neighborhoods. We’re particularly happy to have information about Sunset Park. So, if you’re in Sunset Park and have something for us, please email us. You’ll win a special place in GL’s heart. Our inbox is open 24-hours-a-day and can be reached at gowanuslounge (at) gmail (dot) com.
Comments Off on A Fun Thing to Do with Kids in Sunset ParkTags:Events · Sunset Park
If you paid attention to the surprisingly contentious Park Slope debate about installing bike lanes and other traffic calming measures on Ninth Street, then you’ll recall that one of the key points of concern was that the bike lanes would put a crimp in double parking. Well, all appears to be well.
We post these photos to show two things. One is that the installation of the bike lane markings and the new traffic patterns narrowing the flow of traffic from two lanes to one is making quick progress (see below). The other is to show that the bike lanes are not an impediment to double parking. Yesterday morning, we counted four double parked vehicles (three cars and one van) in the bike lanes between Seventh Avenue and Prospect Park West. Plus one truck that was driving in the lane.
Take the Red Hook Quiz. Match the Red Hook bar, restaurant or business to the answers below. The quiz–both concept, questions and answers– come to us from our special Red Hook correspondent Chris Curen.
Don’t look down there first, but we’ve got the correct answers at the bottom.
1) Red Hook Bait and Tackle 2) Liberty Heights Tavern 3) LeNell’s 4) Old Pioneer 5) Lillie’s 6) Lido
a) For sale on craigslist. b) Closed, but still listed in NFT Guide, causing tourists to walk to deserted street corner next to toxic construction site and find nothing but dust and confusion. Soon to be jazz venue with outdoor seating called Mordechai and Caponi (as in hero of Battle of Brooklyn and hero of gangster movies). c) Recently sold to member of Black 47, renamed Rocky Sullivan – which officially makes it a franchise (there’s one, same owner, on Lex). d) Could be yours. Visit craigslist. e) Rumored to be looking to relocate, but would like to stay in Red Hook. f) Shuttered for good after suspiciously aggressive Health Department attention. For sale on craigslist.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and we’re willing to consider the fact that we’re simply the wrong beholder in the case of this buiding at 126 Fourth Avenue (at Baltic). In fact, we kind of liked it better when it was hidden behind scaffolding and netting. The building sits where an Exxon station used to be and, if the truth be told, the gas station was not necessarily any worse looking than this thing. Maybe that center strip will have magnificent decorative flourishes.
July 10th, 2007 · Comments Off on Rendering of Smith Street Heavy Metal Building is Back
The rendering of the Heavy Metal Building in Carroll Gardens, aka 360 Smith Street, which is among the things that agitated neighbors and provoked a variety of reactions, is back online. Not long after there were bad reactions to the rendering (which had been posted for a long time), it was pulled from the Scarano Architects website and said to be an outdated conceptual model. Which it may still be. A reader emails, however, to pass along the screen cap above of the relevant part of the Scarano Architects site and to inform us that–whatever its status–it is back after an absence of nearly a month. Red lines added by our friendly GL reader. We checked, and the rendering was, indeed, back as of yesterday evening.
We’d post the panoramas of the Floating Pool and beach posted on flickr by michaelsphotoz, but they’d make no sense at the width at which we can reproduce them. Instead, go here and here to check them out at full 4000 pixel width.
Comments Off on Gl Chill Moment for a Hot Day, Part II: The Floating PoolTags:Parks
July 10th, 2007 · Comments Off on Ch…Ch…Changes in the Streetscape and Transportation
From Street Films, via a post on Streets Blog, comes this short video on some of the improvements to the streetscape and to transportation that we’ve been seeing lately. Check out the 9th Street Bike Lanes, Pearl Street Plaza in Dumbo, the new bike parking on Bedford Avenue and more.
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July 10th, 2007 · Comments Off on To the Gowanus in a Canoe
Those of you with courage who enjoy being out on the water can always take a trip down the Gowanus Canal in a canoe. Or, if that doesn’t move you, you can look at the pictures and read the words at Big Sky Brooklyn and enjoy the Big G from afar. A sample:
Paddling through the fetid water, surrounded by petrochemical odors, it seems unlikely that anything could live in such a toxic environment, but life is all around the canal. On my trip I saw marine life (mostly dead, though), waterfowl, and various indigenous species, like the Coney Island White Fish…
In addition, there are two canoing opportunities this month–on Saturday, July 14 from 1:00pm-5:00pm and on Thursday, July 19 from 6:00pm-8:00pm. If you’re interested, you can check out a segment with Ellie Hanlon of the Dredgers on CUNY TV by clicking here, scroll down to the Gowanus Canal Gondolier episode.
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July 10th, 2007 · Comments Off on Prospect Park Twilight Tours, Bats Included
We’re not sure how we feel about “mysterious nocturnal fauna” in Prospect Park, as we enjoy predictable and known fauna. But if you want to check it out, you can participate in some Thursday Night Twilight Tours of Prospect Park in coming weeks. In the words of the park’s press office:
Enjoy an evening of strolling and cruising, wine and cheese, and the Park’s mysterious nocturnal fauna. Start out with a ride on the electric boat Independence, followed by guided exploration of the Park’s nature trails and a chance to meet the amazing bats that call Prospect Park home. $25 per person (payable at the Audubon center by cash or credit card).
Dates are Thursday July 19 & August 2, 23 and 30. The tours run from 7PM-9PM and include both the boat ride on the lake (sounds like fun) and a “naturalist led bat tour” (sounds like fun depending on how you feel about bats.) Tours start from the Audobon Center. Call (718) 287-3400 x114 for more info or to make reservations. Please bear in mind that we’re working very hard not to include a Dracula joke. Regardless, you can satisfy all your Prospect Park information needs by clicking here.
[Cool photo courtesy of the Prospect Park Alliance.]
Comments Off on Prospect Park Twilight Tours, Bats IncludedTags:Events · Prospect Park
Remember Williamsburg’s Old Dutch Mustard Building? We can hardly pass by Metropolitan Avenue and Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg without seeing it and grumbling about its demolition. Well, Old Dutch will be morphing into 80 Met, which is your standard off-the-shelf Williamsburg luxe condo building. It’s not an especially offensive structure–it’s simply pedestrian and uninspired–unless you know the local history that was destroyed to make room for it. In which case, it is one of the most offensive structures currently under construction in all of North Brooklyn. Regardless, our point was not to rail further about historical and cultural vandalism committed by developer Steiner Equities. It’s simply to show you the Big Dutch Hole growing where Old Dutch used be. We still miss you, big guy.
