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

Splasher:

• Breaking: Alleged Splasher Caught Sabotaging Obey Show in Dumbo [Gothamist]
• Was That the Splasher at the Shepard Fairey Opening? [Dumbo NYC]

F Express:

• Residents Give F Express an “A” [NYDN]
• F Train Express to Coney Amusements [Kinetic Carnival]
• Downtown Brooklyn Partnership Also Supports F Express [Brooklyn Streets]

Not Splasher or F Express:

• Fries with Your Special Tax Loophole, Mr. Ratner? [Dope on the Slope]
• Firefighter Falls to Death in Williamsburg [NYT]
• Arabic School Finds Home on Dean Street [NYDN]
• Kaufman’s Flatiron to Rise Behind Meiers’ OPP [Brownstoner]
• Bushwick Real Estate Roundup [Bushwick BK]
• 5 Percent Price Cut at the Beacon in Dumbo [Brownstoner]
• What the heck is Clinton Hills? [Clinton Hill Blog]
• Fort Hamilton Construction Moving Up [Kensington Brooklyn]
• Great Moments in Greenpoint Vinyl Siding, Vol. VI [newyorkshitty]
• Big, inflatable rat at 545 Washington [Set Speed]
• Community Council Meetings [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• Williamsburg Advice Blogger’s Book Now Available for Pre-Order [Bad Advice]
• 1934 Gerritsen Beach June Walk Parade Vids [GerritsenBeach.Net]
• Ex-Judge Gerson Gets Detox Before Jail [NYT]
• “Crooked Judge Gets Jail Break” [NYP]

[Photo courtesy of vOv/flickr]

That “Emergency Meeting” that was supposed to happen in Manhattan Beach to discuss solutions to the “thug” problem on the beach never happened. It was canceled, probably because in the words of organizers Dr. Ron Biondo, it was “no longer necessary.” The development was reported by GerritsenBeach.net, which first brought word of the “ideas” for things like police checkpoints, beachfront metal detectors and beach privatization. Today’s Post reports “Biondo said he overreacted after receiving a false report from other members and the area’s own private security company that there was a shooting on June 12.” There was no shooting. Us, we’re thinking that the canceled meeting and plans might–just a little–have something to do with negative press coverage.

We first heard about Stoopendous at a Park Slope Civic Council meeting during the winter when summer seemed so far off in the distance that we chuckled as bitterly as the cold wind blowing outside. Yet, here we are.

Stoopendous, which is kind of neighborhood-wide block party to celebrate summer, takes place tomorrow night all over Park Slope. The event is sponsored by the Park Slope Civic Council and has been conceived in part and promoted tirelessly by Louise Crawford of Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn. Here’s what the Stoopendous website says in part:

Join your neighbors on Saturday, June 23, for a STOOPendous party that is as big as the Slope! Mark the start of summer with your neighbors on your own stoops and sidewalks. Celebrate the summer solstice, the day when planet earth enjoys the most sunlight during the year.

This short guide offers you suggestions for how you can create a simple yet engaging solstice event on your block, in your building, or along an avenue.
Your celebration can occur any time of day, but at 8:31 pm, when the sun sets, the All-Slope-Solstice-Shout-Out will start. Use kazoos, bang pots and pans, swing bells, or play drums. Make a racket to bid farewell to the sun’s long day and to ring in the new season. Or sing to the sun.

So, if you’re in Park Slope tomorrow and you see a bunch of people outside blowing kazoos at 8:31, there’s a reason for it. And, if you live in Park Slope and you’re outside, get out there and blow a kazoo or bang on a pot or point your speakers out the window and blast Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life or something.

N. 8th Street, Williamsburg

Remember that big TransGas power plant on the Williamsburg waterfront that would, among other things, have a park and million dollar condos as its neighbors? You know, the one that everyone assumed had been beaten to death by community opposition a long, long time ago? Well, it’s alive and its future could be decided today. The New York State Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment (Siting Board) has a meeting about the issue this afternoon. It will decide whether to continue considering the proposal by TransGas Energy System to build a 776 MW gas-fired generator that would sit, roughly, where the Bayside Fuel depot is today. Most of the plant would be underground, presenting serious environmental issues, as it includes the area once occupied by a Manufactured Gas Plant. Toxic substances are believed to be deep under the surface and are also said to have migrated on the water table. If you’re really hardcare, you can watch the meeting live online. You have to go here to do it and we looked and saw no obvious linke and it requires RealPlayer, at which point, we completely lose interest.

Will residents of Northside Piers and The Edge be able to gaze down on a park with fountains covering a 776 megawatt power plant, plus its big smokestack? Stay tuned.

Carroll Gardens residents upset about the proposed building at the corner of Smith Street and Second Place, have posted an online petition “demanding” a moratorium on new buildings more than 50 feet tall in the neighborhood until a comprehensive rezoning is done. The petition reads in part:

Therefore, we DEMAND an immediate moratorium on all buildings and alterations in our neighborhood, where the ultimate height of any structure to be built will exceed a height of fifty feet, while we await a decision on rezoning and or landmarking in our beloved Carroll Gardens.

The petition also says that the “very character of our neighborhood cannot afford to wait” up to five years for a rezoning to take place.

In the meantime, residents allege that some illegal work has been going on at the site for the building that started all the trouble in the neighborhood, 360 Smith Street. The Transit Authority, which has a subway tunnel adjacent to the site says that no work can take place until all approvals and permits are in place. In fact, a Transit Authority employee asked a work crew to leave the site yesterday, according to one resident.

Many residents say they feel ignored by local officials. “The lack of any meaningful communication from Bill de Blasio’s office, from [developer Billy] Stein’s office and from the Borough President’s office is like pouring salt into the wound,” one resident told us.

You can find the petition here and Carroll Gardens residents are invited to sign. (Actually, anyone can sign, but it’s really intended for neighborhood residents.) Can a YouTube Video of work being done without a permit be far behind?

There’s so much interesting Coney Island news in advance of the Mermaid Parade that one wonders is an orchestrated charm offensive is not underway. Today’s volley: Astroland won’t be closing at the end of this year, after all!

Councilman Domenic Recchia Jr. has apparently brokered a deal that will keep the amusement park open for the 2008 season. Operator Carol Hill Albert has been looking for a way to keep the park open since she sold it property to developer Joe Sitt for $30 million in November. The New York Post reports that Ms. Albert and Mr. Sitt are working out terms of the deal and that Thor will be paid for allowing the park to stay open on its property. Ms. Albert continues to work with the city to try to find land near KeySpan Park to reopen Astroland. Presumably, the Astroland rides, which as of yesterday were still available for sale online, will now be taken down.

So, it would appear to be time to put away those “Coney Island’s Last Summer” laments until next year.

The Landmarks Commission has confirmed that they will hold the first public hearing for the designation of part of the Domino Sugar Plant in Williamsburg next Tuesday, (6/26). (Brownstoner actually first noted the news last week.) The 9:45AM hearing will follow a vote on the controversial effort to landmark Sunnyside Gardens in Queens. Supporters of landmarking can testify at the hearing or submit a letter of support. The Waterfront Preservation Alliance blog has some details:

At Tuesday’s hearing, LPC staff will make a presentation to the Commission regarding the results of their research on the site. Member’s of the public will be allowed to testify, after which the Commissioner’s will probably make comments regarding the designation. While it is possible that the Commission will vote then and there to designate, it much more likely that the hearing will be closed and the designation will happen at a later date. Future meetings will not include public testimony, though, so speak now…

The Landmarks Commission is located at 1 Centre Street, 9th Floor North. That’s the Municipal Building, which is at the eastern terminus of Chambers Street. The Brooklyn Bridge station of the 4/5/6 and the Chambers Street station of the J/M/Z are underneath the building; the City Hall station of the R/W is about a block away. There is a security check to get into the building, so bring a valid ID and leave the sharp objects at home. And plan to arrive a few minutes early.

Letters of support should be addressed to:

Robert Tierney
Chairman
NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1 Centre Street, 9th Floor North
New York, NY 10007

The LPC is currently only considering three buildings of the main refinery complex–the filter house, pan house, and finishing house. This does not include the power plant, the Adant Building at the southeast corner of the complex which is contemporary with the 1883 refinery, nor the Bin Structure on which the well-known sign hangs. Supporters are being urged to note any disagreement with the current definition of what is historically significant, say so.

We have been down this road before with 98 Clay Street in Greenpoint, so we thought a “Now & Then” sort of comparison would be useful. There’s good news–the gaping hole in the fence we showed in March has been plugged up. And there’s bad news–now, the gate is open. Whoopee. Our Greenpoint correspondent who snapped both photos, details some of the issues, calling the building “a poster child for what is wrong with New York City’s ‘oversight’ of development, especially in Greenpoint.” She writes:

1. A fence has been left to (further) deteriorate by the developer because our city is either unable or unwilling to do anything about it.
2. As a consequence, anyone who cares to can access the adjacent property’s yard. This poses some serious safety concerns for the tenants of 100 Clay Street. Yet nothing is being done about it.
3. The same developer appears to have damaged the fence/sidewalk at 96 Clay; clearly nothing has been done about this either.
4. I suppose I should be happy this developer got a stop work order; if a construction company is unable or unwilling to build a decent fence, god only knows what their construction practices are like.
5. What is the point of having agencies charged with policing shit like this if they are ineffectual? If there was no oversight whatsoever at least everyone would know where they stand: anything goes. Why bother giving people the hope of redress when their property and personal safety are placed at risk when it is unlikely to get them anywhere?
6. This situation has been left to fester for far too long. The city should be ashamed. I know I am.

All of which would be good, if anyone in the hierarchy at the dysfunctional Department of Buildings knew the meaning of shame. Given the critical safety violations and violence done to Brooklynites quality of life every day at hundreds of buildings sites, what chance does a crappy fence have of registering on their defective radar screen?

Related Post:
Construction Site Du Jour: Greenpoint’s 98 Clay Street

Don’t look know, but the Cyclone in Coney Island turns 80 next week, and it looks pretty good for an octogenarian that takes that kind of daily beating from moving cars and the elements. There will be a birthday celebration on June 26, with riders in their 80s taking the first ride of the day. The Cyclone Dream Team, as reported by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle includes Chimilio Estanislau (84), Louis Picariello (81), Ed Murman (81) and Seymour Wershberg (80). The first 80 riders will ride for free on Tuesday, 6/26.

Here are some Cyclone facts from the Astroland website:

Operation Began: June 26, 1927
Operated by Astroland Park: since July 3, 1975
Designed By: Vernan Keenan
Built by: Harry C. Baker
First Owners/Operators: Jack & Irving Rosenthal
Initial Investment: $175,000
Type of Ride: Compact wood twister

GROUND DIMENSIONS: 75 feet by 500 feet
HEIGHT: 85 feet
LENGTH OF FIRST DROP: 85 feet at a 60 degree angle
TRACK LENGTH: 2,640 feet

NUMBER OF 180 DEGREE TURNS: 6
NUMBER OF DROPS: 12
CHANGES OF DIRECTION: 16
NUMBER OF TRACK CROSSOVERS: 18
NUMBER OF ELEVATION CHANGES: 27

SPEED: 60 Miles Per Hour
RIDE TIME: One Minute, Fifty Seconds
TRAINS: 3 Trains, 3 Cars per train
CAPACITY: 24 Passengers per Cycle

UNUSUAL FEATURES: Steel track on almost entirely wood structure; Classic Trains, station, and operational procedures; distinction of being the most copied roller coaster ever built — 7 “clones” currently operating throughout the United States, Europe and Japan.

The Cyclone was designated a New York City Landmark on July 12, 1988, and has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places since June 26, 1991.

We’ll no doubt mark the occasion on Tuesday, but it’s never too early to say, Happy Birthday, Cyclone!

Will Atlantic Yards get special treatment under the 421-a tax exemption, which has provided massive tax breaks to developers building luxury condos and luxe condo buyers, but which is being tightened to require some affordable housing in return for the taxpayer subsidy and to make more neighborhoods off-limits for the subsidy? Apparently so.

The 421-a tax break is now working its way through the state legislature. Atlantic Yards Report’s Norman Oder reports that “a bonus for developer Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project appears hidden in the verbiage.”

The verbiage, as reported by The Real Estate:

The one exception, however, is laid out in Section 6, paragraph 13, which refers to “a multi-phase project” with “at least 2,500 dwelling units” that has been “approved by the Public Authorities Control Board”—which, to people who have been following the project in central Brooklyn, can mean only one thing: Atlantic Yards.

AYR reports:

Instead of requiring the condo buildings–perhaps four of the 16 towers–at Atlantic Yards to include 20 percent affordable units, as the tax break reform would require, the developer would be allowed to spread the affordability over the project as a whole—as long as the project met some requirements that would apply only to… Atlantic Yards.

Brad Lander of the Pratt Center for Community Development, who’s reviewed the legislation and has followed the discussion swirling around the bill, thinks that’s wrong. “There shouldn’t be special side deals for particular developers. Buildings that include 20 percent affordable housing should get a tax break and all market-rate buildings should pay their taxes,” said Lander, who was part of a mayoral task force that recommended reforms last year.

Moreover, the bill would allow this project to violate the spirit of affordable housing. Affordable housing is defined as 30 percent of household income. However, the “Atlantic Yards carve-out” would allow lower-income residents of affordable apartments to be charged a higher percentage of their rent—perhaps 35 percent rather than 30 percent.

We believe the 421-a program is a tax giveaway to the wealthy that should have been killed off and that the reforms, while worthwhile, are the equivalent of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. That being said, it’s fascinating to see an Atlantic Yards Exception actually being written into law.

The big empty lot where Quadriad Development hopes to build a 24-story building in Williamsburg recently sprouted some interesting anti-gentrification street art. The Quadriad building would contain about one-third affordable units (with definitions of affordability with which some take issue). Our point here, though, is simply to show some close ups of the artwork.

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images. Happy summer!

• Two Men in a Room and a Ratner Bonus [AYR]
• Fascinating Q&A with NYC’s New Transportation Commissioner [Streets Blog]
• A Chat with Daniel Goldstein [NYO]
• Atlantic Yards Demolition Update [Brownstoner]
• State Brownfield Program is a Boondoggle [Sun]
• Joe Sitt Fights for His Coney Plan [Crain’s]
• Criticism Grows About Atlantic Avenue Jail with Retail [Sun]
• Should Lowe’s Remove Car Seat from Their Lot from the Gowanus? [Velvet Sea]
• Downtown Brooklyn Partnership Endorses Congestion Pricing [Brooklyn Daily Eagle]
• Digging Up Brooklyn’s Roots [newyorkology]
• Subway Reads: Coney Island [ABL]
• Williamsburg Music Hall Opening in September [Gothamist]
• We’ll Always Have Broadway [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• Ex-Judge Garson Ordered to Prison [NYT]
• Driver Drives into Brooklyn House [NYP]

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

If you’re not sick of Coney Island coverage this week (and we, personally, never are), check out the new story in Metropolis Magazine. It offers an interesting perspective on the situation, even though it wrongly predicts “By the time you read this, the battle over the future of Coney Island may be over.” The article lays out the difference between organic development and the kind of “themed entertainment” that would be Coney’s future:

Of course, the beauty of Coney Island is that it’s been a long time since anyone thought through the experience from threshold to completion. It’s just there: a patchwork creation of myriad small enterprises with an aesthetic dictated by the sky, the ocean, and the simple, colorful attention-getting strategies of ride manu­facturers and sign painters. Although this was where themed entertainment was born more than a century ago, today’s Coney Island has somehow escaped the tyranny of concept. No single designer or developer invented a story for the place. Rather, Coney Island is a compendium of many stories, some happy and some tragic—and most of them better than what passes for narrative in the world of experience design.

It’s worth reading in its entirety.

The Brooklyn blogger networking and face-to-face time that began with the wonderful efforts of Louise Crawford of Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn–who created and organized the first two Brooklyn blogfests and who keeps up contact with so many local bloggers–continues on Sunday with a monthly meeting in Flatbush. The event is being organized by Flatbush Gardener and Sustainable Flatbush. You can check for details about the event here. The idea is to provide a way for people who normally only communicate online to share some time together as well as moving the meetings to different neighborhoods. The second monthly event, sometime in July, is planned for Greenpoint.

[Graphic created by Adrian Kinloch/Brit in Brooklyn]

The old industrial and warehouse blocks of Williamsburg around Driggs and Roebling Avenues from Union Avenue to N. 6th Street and being redone with new buildings. Most will rise 6-8 stories and some will take up significant portions of entire blocks. The latest such project that is coming together is on N. 9th and N. 10th Streets between Driggs and Roebling. We know this because we were walking up the block and noticed the beginnings of a construction fence about to go up. We checked and several of the buildings on the block (totaling nearly two-thirds of the block) changed hands on May 9. The only holdouts are the building at 221 N. 9th that houses Capones and another on N. 10th. There are no actual building permits applications on file yet. It will be interesting to see if excavation finds anything, as the building site is across N. 10th Street (N. 10th Street side is in the photo below) from the south side of Roebling Oil Field. More construction sites to sniff!

Truly, we realize that someday, this battle will be lost for good. Probably on the day that the Whole Foods at Third Street and Third Avenue opens, marketing wholesome goodness from a toxic site on the shores of the Gowanus, and people start calling it the Park Slope Whole Foods. We’ve already seen a Holiday Inn Express on Union Street between Fourth Avenue and Third Avenue on Union Street be named the “Park Slope Holiday Inn Express.”

Still, to have a reader point out that the Brooklyn Artists Gym, which is located on Seventh Street between Third and Second Avenues (at 168 Seventh Street), refers to itself as being in Park Slope is a hard pill to swallow. We note many events that take place at BAG and we think it’s a cool institution. We post them, partly because we always considered BAG to be in Gowanus. A shared artists’ space in Gowanus is cool. One in Park Slope is, well, artists’ space in Park Slope. There is this difference, no? (Nothing against Park Slope per se, but there are lines of demarcation.)

For those who will bicker with this definition, we’ll point out that BAG’s neighborhood is part of the Gowanus rezoning discussion.

Like we said yesterday, the cool, artistic thing to do would be for the Brooklyn Artists Gym to embrace its Gowanus identity as hip and great

We don’ t know who, exactly, has been working on Robert Scarano’s Wikipedia page, but we have a funny feeling that it’s someone that lives in or near Carroll Gardens. Why? Recent additions to the constantly changing, shall we say, ScaraWiki, concern the controversy surrounding his building at 360 Smith Street and the effort by City Council Bill de Blasio to have Mr. Scarano’s state certification revoked. (The latter was just added last night.)

[Photo courtesy of GerritsenBeach.Net/flickr]

We know a good story when we see one and the one first reported by GerritesenBeach.Net that we posted about on Sunday was a very good one. That’s the one about the suggestions that Manhattan Beach privatize its public waterfront, put a police checkpoint on the bridge from Sheepshead Bay and take other measures to keep “thugs” away. Well, the New York Post picked up the story yesterday (adding a nonsensical “the Post has learned” to details reported two days earlier on GerritsenBeach.Net and, as a result, on GL) and Channels Five and Nine turned up to do a story and interviewed, among others, the blogger who originally reported the story at great length. In the meantime, the police have stepped up their presence in the thug-infested beachfront (it’s probably one of the safest spots in Brooklyn). The originator of the checkpoints/private beach to stop the “thugs” idea backed away from the original points a little, but not much:

Those extreme suggestions have absolutely nothing to do with MB residents or the Manhattan Beach Community Group. As a matter of fact they are the ones that are the most outraged. If those unfortunate instances that were reported to me were indeed true, then I personally stand behind everyone of those extreme suggestions as a way to tackle the situation. Remember there ARE metal detectors @ public schools, public pools and all public buildings. They are there for a reason.

You can check out some pics of the scene yesterday here on flickr. You can also find the Channel Five Fox report on the issue here. To be continued.

After all the wrangling over and fears about Coney Island’s future, we take pleasure in noting the wonderful events that will be taking place there this weekend.

First, there will be a fireworks display on Friday night at 9:30. It’s not the regular Friday night fireworks. Those start next Friday (6/29) and will take place every Friday night through Labor Day. These fireworks are part of an event called “Above the Boardwalk” in honor of the Parachute Jump and will be preceded by a talk by a picnic and talk by Leni Schwendinger, who designed the landmark’s illumination. The fireworks start at 9:30.

You certainly don’t need GL to tell you about the Mermaid Parade, but it will be taking place on Saturday. It’s the 25th Anniversary Edition and it starts at two o’clock. If you’ve never seen it in person, well, it’s a one-of-a-kind event. The Mermaid Parade Ball will be special this year, as it takes place inside the historic old Childs Building. It’s the first time that there’s been public access to the interior for an event in 60 years. The Ball runs from 6-12 and we’re going to guess that buying tickets in advance will be a very good idea this year.

Only a handful of people turned up for the three meetings held yesterday at the Newtown Creek Sewage Treatment Plant on the big, underground Exxon-Mobil spill in Greenpoint. That could be because the Department of Environmental Conservation did little to publicize the events or because they were held at the off-putting sewage treatment facility, which is both imposing, malodorous and a bit off the beaten path. The underground spill is estimated at 17-30 million gallons and only about 20-30 percent of it has been cleaned up. Its exact boundaries are unknown as the oil move around on the water table underground.

Our Greenpoint correspondent attended, however, and filed a full report on the briefing. She noted that attendees were required to sign in at three separate locations just to gain access to the meeting room. The DEC said that air sampling in neighborhood homes had found no evidence of vapor from the spill. In fact, chemical vapors were only found in two homes. The presence of the Tetrachloroethylene was due to improper disposal of dry cleaning
chemicals, likely from a dry cleaner close to the homes in question.

The DEC did not test every home in the residential areas above the spill. Some residents did not allow DEC into their homes and some landlords could not be reached. The department does not intend to do any follow up monitoring in homes, but will continue to do air sampling. Air samples are said to be “in line” with the rest of the city. The department said that it will do more testing of industrial properties in areas above the underground spill. Officials are reported to have been evasive about any efforts to map the spill beyond its reported boundaries and about investigating pools of underground oil that may exist outside the recognized spill area.

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

• State May Further Tighten 421-a Developer Tax Break [AYR]
• Some Manhattan Beach Residents Want to Take Extreme Measures [My Fox]
• Greenpoint Traffic [11222]
• Albee Square Project to Lose Some Housing [Brownstoner]
• Patti Smith Will Open Music Hall of Williamsburg [Relix]
• History on Duffield Street [Sun]
• Was Duffield Street a Stop on the Underground Railroad [City Room]
• AIDS Research Facility to Get Home at Brooklyn Army Terminal [NYT]
• Condoless Coney Hoopla [Kinetic Carnival]
• Best Parks in Brooklyn [1 Stop Over in Brooklyn]
• Cosi Fan Tutte at the Brooklyn Lyceum [OTBKB]
• Leo’s, formerly Sparky’s, is Hiring [Esthetic/Aesthetic]
• South Slope Bodega Armed Robbery [My Fox]
• ‘The Sorriest Crook in Brooklyn’ [NYP]
• Stoopendous Quiz [Dope on the Slope]
• Bike Boxes Coming to Brooklyn [Streets Blog]
• Retail Space at Washington and Park Still Empty [Clinton Hill Blog]
• J Condo Ready for Move Ins, Resales [DumboNYC]

The Metropolitan Opera rolled into Prospect Park last night with an incredible amount of equipment and a huge cast of musicians and singers to present Gounod’s Faust. Thousands turned out to watch, listen, have picnics and hang out for a beautiful evening in the park. Rain held off until long after the concert was concluded. The only drawback that we could see was that an extraordinary amount of space in front of the stage was held as reserved seating, meaning that ordinary concert goers couldn’t get within 20 or 30 rows of the stage in the center. We know that some of the seating was held for handicapped access. We’re not sure who benefited from the rest, although we can guess. We couldn’t get close enough to see.

1) We’re beginning to get the sense that there might not be any fleas on N. 6th Street. Why? Check out the signage. The planned new flea market has gone from an opening on June 2 to June 12 to, now, June 123. Well, June 23. Any wagers on whether it will open at all?

2) La Nonna on Bedford Avenue at N. 4th Street looks like it’s closing in on an opening this week. The paper is out of the windows, menus are posted and the restaurant is full furnished. The menus is a mix of pizzas, panini, pasta and some entrees.