Gowanus Bay, Brooklyn

Oh, yes, the plight of the Red Hook vendors has clearly gotten some attention. Sen. Charles Schumer is going to be on hand at the Red Hook Ballfields today at 1PM to protest the wrongheaded Parks Dept. plan to force the vendors into a competitive bidding situation. Porkchop Express–which has done the best job in New York City reviewing the individual food stands in Red Hook–posts the Senator’s press release, as do our friends at Eater:

Parks Dept. Forcing Citywide Favorite Food Stands to Re-Bid for Permits They’ve Held for Years, Could Raise Fees Exponentially and Lead to Their Elimination by Big Corporations

Locally Owned Vendors Serve Eclectic High-Quality, Affordable Cuisine that is a Symbol of Neighborhood Vitality and a Weekend Staple for Brooklyn and City Families

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer will criticize a move by the Parks Department that could force food vendors operating at the ball fields in Red Hook out of business TOMORROW, Saturday, June 9 at 1:00pm in Red Hook. Every weekend, the vendors sell high-quality, affordable food, mostly Latin-style, at the ball fields and have become a much beloved weekend destination for families throughout Brooklyn and the entire city. However, the Parks Department informed the vendors that they would now have to competitively bid for permits they have held for years, which could result in an exponential increase in rates or the prospect of being out-bid by corporate conglomerates. Schumer said that these vendors are Brooklyn treasures, and are a symbol of the diverse cultural vitality of the community that should be preserved and supported, not subject to the City’s bottom line.

Schumer will be joined by Cesar Fuentes, President of the Food Vendors of Red Hook, Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, food historian Ed Levine and area chefs.

DATE: Saturday June 9, 2007
TIME: 1:00pm
PLACE: Red Hook ball field #1
Corner of Bay St and Clinton St

We’d have thought that Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe would have dropped this like a bucket of toxic waste by now. Let’s see how he many editorials, press conferences, blog items, petition campaigns and emails he can handle before he drives a stake through the heart of this idiocy (and PR nightmare). Sen. Schumer should have some fun with this one. We often roll our eyes at his weekend media events, but we applaud him loudly for turning up the pressure to save our beloved Red Hook vendors. Give ’em hell, Chuck.

So, we were wandering around Coney Island yesterday afternoon in the fog that was rolling in off the water and giving it the feeling of the Sunset District in San Francisco in July, when we looked up and saw that developer Joe Sitt has finally painted a tiny portion of his plywood fence blue. It’s in front of one of the more atrocious tagged up spots his firm, Thor Equities, has created. It was a recent paint job. A can of blue paint was still sitting on the sidewalk. (Well, we assume it was recent. It could be that the can had been sitting there for days after workers thoughtfully left it behind.) So, we were wrong: Thor can, in fact, afford $20 worth of paint as part of a $2 billion project. Does this mean they’re, uh, going to paint multiple city blocks worth of fencing in Coney Island blue? We thought one of their consultants was going to do something artsy with the fences in order to put a happy face on what some people consider deliberately created blight intended to apply pressure for faster action the zoning changes the developer wants. Possibly. In the meantime, GL suggests having someone check out these depressing, tacky eyesores every couple of days to paint over the tagging so that Thor doesn’t help recreate a Warriors feel in Coney. (Yes, we understand it was worse in the 70s and 80s and into the 90s, but things had improved dramatically until Thor came along and started knocking things down and putting up fences, possibly years before they ever building anything.)

Also, we noticed that some of the signage had been removed from the stand pictured above. Earlier, we had written wondering if anyone was going to preserve Coney’s signage or if Mr. Sitt was simply going to have his work crews rip it out and toss it in dumpsters. We don’t know the answer. Only that the signage is gone.

You’ve probably read about Daniel Goldstein and Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn at some point, but who are the lawyers in the middle of the legal challenges to Atlantic Yards? The New York Law Journal has an informative profile of what DDDB calls its “grassroots” legal team. Here’s an excerpt:

Under the leadership of Candace Carponter, a Manhattan solo practitioner who lives in Park Slope, some 30 of her neighbors/attorneys have formed the legal committee of Develop-Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, the principal opposition group to Forest City Ratner’s plan. The committee assists retained counsel in fighting the developer in federal and state courts…Funds for constitutional and environmental litigators hired at reduced rates by Develop-Don’t Destroy were generated from bake sales and stoop sales, as well as walk-a-thon pledges and audience donations at screenings of an anti-Forest City Ratner documentary, “Brooklyn Matters.” Matthew D. Brinckerhoff and Andrew G. Celli Jr. of Emery Celli Brinckherhoff represents the group in the federal matter; Jeffrey S. Baker of the Albany-based Young Sommer Ward Ritzenberg Baker & Moore in the state matter.

The whole article is definitely worth a read.

Coney Island already got its own fragrance this spring, so it’s only fitting that it’s getting its own brewski, Coney Island Lager, in time for summer. Newyorkology reports:

While plenty of things are set to leave Coney Island this year, at least one thing is arriving. Coney Island is getting its own beer.

Shmaltz Brewing, the company behind He’Brew beer, has teamed with Coney Island USA to launch Coney Island Lager.

The actual brewing will take place at Brooklyn’s Greenpoint Beer Works.

The beer will roll out first in Brooklyn and New York City later this month with national distribution to follow.

Just in time for those warm summer nights in Coney Island. Fill ‘er up with Coney Lager. Take a seat on the moving cars on the Wonder Wheel or in the front car of the Cyclone and Bwwwwaaaaahhhhhh. Look out below or behind. The complete Coney experience.

So, a GL reader has pointed out that the Mermaid Parade Ball will be held at the old Childs building on the boardwalk in Coney Island this year on June 23. (Someone Coney Island Film Fest director Indie Rob Leddy on the Coney Island Message Board confirms it, saying that the info was inadvertently left out of an email blast.) The historic structure is being cleared out and will ultimately be restored and redeveloped by Taconic Investment Partners as part of a big mixed use residential and retail project. GL is thrilled to see this surviving piece of Coney Island history being revived. We look forward to visiting. (For some interesting historical background on the Childs building, from whence we obtained the image above, click here.)

[Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Weinberg/flickr]

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and, especially on weekends, images.

More Visual:

• Broadway Junction (above) [Elizabeth Weinberg/flickr]
• Gowanus Canalers [Atomische]
• Williamsburg Bridge [Malarchie/flickr]
• Noble Street Warehouse [11222]
• Rooftop [f.trainer/flickr]
• Coney Sunset [Erica’s Blog]
• BBG Reflection [Flatbush Gardener/flickr]
• Atlantic Yards Grass [Brit in Brooklyn]
• Plumb Beach Photoset [Elizabeth Weinberg/flickr]

Less Visual:

• Rechecking a Times Article Two Years Later [AYR]
• Coney Island Plan Discussed [Real Deal]
• Yeah! Schumer Backs Red Hook Vendors! [Lost City]
• Many in Brooklyn & Boroughs Outside Manhattan Oppose Congestion Pricing [NYT]
• This Greenpoint Rental & Landlord Are Hard to Describe, Please Read [newyorkshitty]
• Those New Atlantic Ave. Bike Racks Can be Ripped from the Ground [Streets Blog]
• Eating Much Sushi in Brighton Beach [lornagrl]
• Ditmas Park West Lawn Sale June 10-14 [Living in Victorian Flatbush]
• Movies, Shakespeare and Blues in JJ Byrne Park [OTBKB]
• Bklyn Links [110 Livingston]
• Gravesend Bay Park Remake Gets Thumbs Up from Community [Bay News]
• Traffic Safety for Children in Brooklyn [Daily Gotham]
• Brooklynites Rescued from Bear Mountain Ledge [NYP]

Ever since Astroland owner Carol Albert sold her amusement park to developer Joe Sitt, she has been voicing regrets. She suggested that the city’s plans to make Coney a year-round destination made it impossible to continue in business and led her to sell. She said that she was talking with Mr. Sitt about the possibility of staying open another year. She voiced skepticism about the developers plans for Coney Island. She put Astroland’s rides up for sale on an online auction site, then said they were no longer on sale (they’re still up online) because she was hoping to cut a deal with the city for a new site. Neil deMause in the Village Voice blog Runnin’ Scared fills in with some detail gleaned from that Municipal Art Society forum the other night:

Unfortunately, [Coney Island Development Corp. President Lynn] Kelly’s deliberate timetable may mean it will be the last summer for Astroland, which is being evicted by Thor from its home of 45 years at year’s end. Though owner Carol Hill Albert has been looking for a new site somewhere between the Cyclone and Keyspan Park – the area the CIDC has staked out for traditional amusements – she says that despite reports to the contrary, she’s not close to consummating any deals.

The holdup, she agrees, is less lack of vacant land – Coney Island is swimming in that – than the fact that the current private landholders don’t want to make any moves until they see the new zoning regs. “We can only wait so long before we have to decide to sell these rides, and we’ve already waited a long time,” she told the Voice earlier this week. “So we’re hoping that something can be worked out. That’s all we have is a little ray of hope here.”

Asked specifically about the future of Astroland last night, Kelly didn’t open Albert’s hope window much wider. “The reality is that there’s not a lot of land that the city owns in the amusement district,” Kelly said, and though the city does own several dead-end streets that conceivably could have rides set up on them, city procurement regulations make that difficult. “We’re talking about it with her. We’re going to try to find a solution. I can’t say we’re definitely going to have one.”

We do not read them as hopeful words.

Streetsblog pointed out a small bit of history that was made yesterday in Williamsburg as the process of removing a couple of parking spaces so that the sidewalk could be widened and bicycle parking installed. The spot in question is the southeast corner of N. 7th Street and Bedford at the entrance to the L Train. Streetsblog writes:

So, what’s the big deal?

This project represents the first time ever in New York City that on-street car parking spaces have been eliminated to make way for bicycle parking. DOT says that construction should be completed by the beginning of July, if the weather holds up, and will yield somewhere around 25 new bike parking spaces. A similar project with even more bike parking has been sketched out for the northwest corner of the intersection as well.

Every little bit helps.

BONUS: If you’ve seen those new bike racks on Atlantic Avenue, you might want to hold off a minute. Streets Blog reports that thieves can literally rip them out of the ground to get your bike. Read what happened to one bicyclist and see the photo.

East Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Coney Island, Brooklyn

If you thought that the proposal by Quadriad Development to build highrises in low-rise neighborhoods–including ones that have been downzoned–was so far fetched that it was a non-starter, think again. The 24-story tower proposed at the corner of N. 3rd and Berry in Williamsburg took a small step forward with a vote in its favor by the Land Use Committee of Community Board 1. The thumbs up came as a shock to some residents, who told us they were surprised by the outcome. The voting process was odd, with the project being defeated, and then, approved when a committee member arrived after the vote had been taken and cast a deciding vote in favor of the project. The plan calls for a project combining a 5-story building with 75 units and a 24-story building.

Quadriad includes among its executives former U.S. Rep. and Bronx Borough President Herman Badillo, who ran for mayor five times, making it as far as a runoff election against Abraham Beame. One of the development partners is Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities.

The property is in the part of Williamsburg that was downzoned in 2005 in return for allowing highrise waterfront development. At that time, city officials argued they were protecting the low-rise character of “inland” blocks by allowing buildings up to 40 stories tall on the waterfront.

While Quadriad is looking to upzone a downzoned Williamsburg property, it is also proposing a new zoning classification citywide called R6AF, (the “AF” stands for affordable) which would create tremendous density bonuses for a project that would include one-third affordable housing. Williamsburg activist Phil DePaolo calls it “the Mother of All Density Bonuses.” In Williamsburg, for instance, it would result in a building quadruple the current allowable height.

The Quadriad project has also applied for the 421a developer tax break. Interestingly, the company is expected to rush to create a foundation for the project before the end of the year so that it can qualify for the tax break without having any requirement to build affordable housing. The building site would fall under a revision to the 421a program requiring 25 percent affordable housing in return for the tax break in neighborhoods like Williamsburg.

Quadriad is also ultimately looking to develop at least six other parcels from N. 3rd to N. 5th Streets between Berry and Kent Avenues with highrises, as well as two others, one of which may be between N. 7th Street and Metropolitan Avenue near the BQE. The company has also set its sights on Coney Island Avenue in southern Brooklyn. The company wants to propose the zoning formula citywide for sites that are a minimum of 40,000 square feet.

The full Community Board still has to vote on the project, but there is a chance it could be approved. “I’m very worried about it,” said Mr. DePaolo, who is an advocate of affordable housing, but deeply critical of the methods the city has tried using in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. “We could end up making the same mistake twice.” Mr. DePaolo’s studies of the neighborhood show that the 2005 rezoning has only produced nine units of affordable housing away from the waterfront. There is also a very in-depth and intelligent analysis of the proposal at Brooklyn 11211 that suggests that if it approves the proposal, “CB1 will have literally given away the store, and in the process will have thrown out all of the good of the upland rezoning for Williamsburg and Greenpoint.”

The zoning change would ultimately have to be approved by the City Council.

The Park Slope Civic Council voted unanimously last night to endorse Mayor Bloomberg’s groundbreaking–and controversial–congestion pricing plan. The civic group added its voice of support on the same day that the plan to charge a fee for driving into the most congested parts of Manhattan during peak weekday hours was endorsed by Gov. Eliot Spitzer and the Bush Administration indicated that hundreds of millions of dollars in transportation funding would come the city’s way if the plan is approved. The Civic Council discussion was polite, particularly when compared to the shouting that greeted a proposal to put bike lanes and other traffic calming measures on Ninth Street. The group made its “strong support” of congestion pricing contingent on a plan for residential parking permits, upgraded subway service for the neighborhood and immediate commitments of funding to improve subway stations and signals.

The Park Slope Civic Council honored blogger and journalist Norman Oder last night with a Lovgren Volunteer Award. Mr. Oder is the founder and writer of Atlantic Yards Report, which he has developed as New York City’s most authoritative source of Atlantic Yards reporting, information and analysis. Just this week, Mr. Oder combed through documents and found that the project is getting nearly $1.4 billion in tax-free bonds and that the level of bonding is so large that parts of the project will create intense competition for tax-free financing resources in the city and could be delayed.

The award was presented by Lumi Rolley of No Land Grab and by outgoing PSCC President Lydia Denworth. Ms. Denworth praised Mr. Oder for “the thoroughness and conscientiousness with which he took to the task” of doing the city’s only in-depth Atlantic Yards reporting. “Very few individuals have had such an impact on the public debate,” Ms. Rolley noted.

Mr. Oder said that he viewed his work as “challenging some complacency” and described his reporting as “watchdog journalism that the market is not providing.” He said that Atlantic Yards Report offers “the skepticism and persistence that’s needed to keep government accountable.”

We were very happy to see Mr. Oder get recognition for his invaluable and superb work. He received sustained applause when he finished his remarks.

Kim Maier, who has done superb work running the Old Stone House in J.J. Byrne Park and has turned the facility into a site for a myriad of community activities during her tenure, was honored with a Lovgren Professional Award.

Our beloved Red Hook food vendors have heard your support and that of readers at many other blogs. We found a note from Cesar Fuentes, who is Executive Director of the Food Vendors Committee of Red Hook Park Inc. He writes:

Dear Friends,

Thanks so much for your concerns & support for our current situation . We sent a letter to Commissioner Benepe yesterday in hopes we can remedy this situation and be able to continue our affair. As I read every comment from each of you, I feel happy to realize we are not alone–and also, how much caring, symphathy, and love you have for us! As we we are gearing for an uphill battle with the system, we hope your emails sent to Parks Dept. and city officials can–and will–really make a difference. We have faith that this humble affair, which has become a weekend tradition for all of us, can be saved.

Best regards,

Cesar Fuentes
Executive Director
Food Vendors Committee of Red Hook Park Inc.

If you haven’t sent an email to Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe yet, please take a couple of minutes from your day and let them know how displeased you are by this display of poor decision making. After the furor grew, the Brooklyn Paper said that a Parks Department spokesperson “disputed the widely held notion that an open bidding process would lead to the eviction of the vendors.” A few words from the story:

“No one else has called us to express an interest,” he said. “And if there are other bidders, we will look favorably on the fact that this group has been there for 30 years.”

The “request for proposals” that the Parks Department will soon put out will not specify a dollar amount for the permits, Abrahamson added.

Such an approach misses the point. The vendors may or may not be outbid for the Red Hook space. Other vendors may or may not be interested in the space. The hard working people at the Red Hook Ballfields are a neighborhood institution with a Red Hook-wide, Brooklyn-wide and citywide following. People that have never set foot in Brooklyn or Red Hook have heard of them thanks to countless articles and TV segments. The city should not leave anything up to chance in terms of their future existence. Their permit should not be subject to a competitive bid. Mr. Benepe should step up to the plate and guarantee that one of the signs of Spring next year will be the opening of the Red Hook Ballfields food stands. Such multicultural institutions that draw a multicultural crowd need to be celebrated and protected by the city government, not subject to the vicissitudes of a competitive bidding process. To email Mr. Benepe and ask him to kill this idea now, click here. Likewise, to tell the Mayor what you think of the idea his Parks Department has, click here.

Related Post:
The Absolute Last Straw: The City Wants to Kick Out Red Hook Food Vendors

Participatory democracy is a great thing. We prepared this post a long time ago and have left it sitting in our holding pattern. Two stories in the last two weeks–the Battle of 360 Smith Street and the threatened eviction of the Latino Food Vendors in Red Hook–reminded us of the need to sometimes get in touch with our elected officials and heads of city agencies, if only to let them know that voters and taxpayers are paying attention to what they are doing. In that spirit, here is some contact information, mostly for officials in the areas covered by Community Board 6:

Council Member Bill de Blasio 2907 Fort Hamilton Parkway Brooklyn, NY 11218 E-mail: deblasio@council.nyc.ny.us Tel: 718-854-9791 Fax: 718-854-1146	Council Member David Yassky 114 Court Street Brooklyn, NY 11201 Email: yassky@council.nyc.ny.us Tel: 718-875-5200 Fax: 718-643-6620
Assemblyman Jim Brennan 44th Assembly District 416 7th Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11215 Email: brennaj@assembly.state.ny.us Tel: 718-788-7221 Fax: 718-965-9378	Assemblywoman Joan Millman 52nd Assembly District 341 Smith Street Brooklyn, NY 11231 Email: millmaj@assembly.state.ny.us Tel: 718-246-4889 Fax: 718-246-4895
State Senator Eric Adams 20th Senate District 572 Flatbush Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11225 Email: eadams@senate.state.ny.us Tel: 718-284-4700 Fax: 718-282-3585	State Senator Velmanette Montgomery 18th Senatorial District 30 3rd Avenue, Room 615 Brooklyn, NY 11217 Email: montgome@senate.state.ny.us Tel: 718-643-6140 Fax: 718-237-4137
Marty Markowitz President of the Borough of Brooklyn 209 Joralemon Street Brooklyn, NY 11201 E-mail: AskMarty@brooklynbp.org Tel: 718-802-3900 Fax: 718-802-3778	Community Board Six 250 Baltic Street Brooklyn, NY 11201-6401 Email: info@BrooklynCB6.org Tel: 718-643-3027 Fax: 718-624-8410

In addition, the nyc.gov website provides a way to sends emails to a large number of city officials starting with the Mayor and working through a variety of city agencies. You can visit the contact information page with all the links here.

Here are a few emails links courtesy of GL:

• Email Department of Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster by clicking here.
• Email City Planning Department Director Amanda Burden by clicking here.
• Email Department of Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Shaun Donovan by clicking here.
• Email Landmarks Preservation Commission Chair Robert B. Tierney by clicking here.
• Email Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Kahn by clicking here.

The CB6 website has a very useful Resource Directory with a great deal of contact information, among other things.

We’ve read several times this week that Astroland‘s rides are no longer up for sale at that carnival ride auction site. Yet, lo and behold, when you click over to ITAL Intl., you still find all the rides available for purchase, just like they were last week when we first found them. The Astroland tale–the surprise sale, the voiced regrets, the desire to stay open another season, the attempt to find a new location–has been full of strange developments. So, is it just a website that’s slow to pull things down when they’re no longer on sale? Are they keeping them up to hedge their bets, as it probably takes a while to sell a 1965-vintage Water Flume? Stay tuned.

Related Posts:
Astroland Soap Opera Continues: Nevermind the Rides for Sale
Want to Buy a Used Astrotower? Astroland Rides Up for Sale

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

News:
Is Downzoning Always a Good Thing? [AYR]
Congestion Pricing Endorsed by Spitzer, Gains Bush Admin Support [NYT]
Congestion Relief [I’m Seeing Green]
Oh, That Sinking Feeling [Lost City]
New on Seventh Avenue in Sunset Park [Brownstoner]
View of Oro Condos from Vinegar Hill [Dumbo NYC]
Well, at Least It’s a Backyard and It Does Have Potential [163 Ocean]
Those Irritating Virgin Ads Show Up in Kensington [Kensington Brooklyn]
Green Initiative in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill [Clinton Hill Blog]
New Atlantic Avenue Bike Racks [BK 11201]
Future of Coney Hoopla [Kinetic Carnival]
Brooklyn Pride is Tomorrow, June 9, in Park Slope [Flatbush Gardener]

Other News:
Big Drug Bust Near Brooklyn Children’s Museum [NYT]
More Old Time Brooklyn: Another Mob Hit, on Shore Parkway [NYT]
Does It Mean a Brooklyn Mob War? [NYP]
Three Shot Dead in Brownsville [NYP]

Behold 69 Maspeth Avenue in Williamsburg. (The building on the right.) It is not ornate like some of the other crappy Brooklyn buildings that we have previously showcased as exemplary specimens. No, 69 Maspeth stops you in your tracks because it is so utilitarian and without pretense. This is a building that screams, “I don’t give a rat’s ass what you think, someone is going to buy or rent, regardless. Bite me.” Just some tan brick and Fedders. What were they thinking?

[Photo courtesy of BK 11201]

• Red Hook’s Liberty Heights Tap Room Has Great Pizza (above) [BK 11201]
• Try Cafe Kashkar on Brighton Beach Avenue–Food from East Turkestan [Chowhound]
• New Taft Vegetarian in Greenpoint Needs to Work out Kinks [11222]
• Cortelyou Greenmarket Opening Sunday, July 1 [Flatbush Gardener]
• Photos of A Taste of Poland [A Test of Will]
• Scalino: Recently Opened Italian on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope [Chowhound]
• Williamsburg’s Union Picnic Closed by DOH, Brick Oven Gallery Still Closed [Eater]
• ‘Culinary Victory’ at Belachan, New Sunset Park Malaysian [Village Voice via EFB]

Coney blogger Kinetic Carnival attended the Municipal Art Society panel discussion on Coney Island on Wednesday night and reports back with news that Taconic Investment Partners, which holds a lease on the landmark, is bringing the building back to life this summer. We’ve previously noted the massive scale of the development that Taconic is hatching in this corner of Coney–up to five million square feet of condos and retail space. But the work to reopen the Childs building to the public is the nicest piece of Coney Island news we’ve seen in a while. Kinetic reports that, long-term, Taconic is planning on turning the space into an upscale eatery and using the rooftop–which was once a beer garden–for weddings and other oceanview events. In the short term, they will apparently have temporary food stands and storefronts by the end of the summer. Taconic VP Ari Shalam even mentioned having some sort of event in the space on June 23, which is when the Mermaid Parade takes place.

Kinetic reports:

They plan on making the structure a marquee food operation with restaurant and catering. And not just a walk-in-from-the-beach restaurant but more of a finer-dining-with-reservations-required family restaurant. The establishment’s grand archways would be fully open to the boardwalk to draw people in. Smaller food eateries would be at the base with the higher floor for a restaurant. The building boasts a 30 foot height possibly allowing for an additional level. And so, the top floor and roof would be for a large scale catering facility. Ari described the magnificent feel of being on the roof within the remnants of a once fabulous beer garden. He envisioned a perfect place for a grand wedding overlooking the ocean and Coney Island.

We will have trepidations about Taconic’s overall plan until the details are known, but for now, the Childs plan is reason to smile.

Related Post:
Meet the Coney Island Sleeper: Taconic Investment

The Crown Heights North Historical District was designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission on April 24. On Sunday (6/10), the Crown Heights North Association, (CHNA), which led the landmarking drive, will hold the first annual Crown Heights North Walking Tour. It will include, in the word’s of the group’s press release, “some of the fine architecture and beautiful blocks that caused the LPC to choose us for this honor, as well as peek at some of the surrounding blocks that make up phases 2 – 4, the designation of which will make the Crown Heights North Historic district one of the largest, and most architecturally significant districts in New York City.” The tour starts from St. Gregory’s R.C. Church at the corner of Brooklyn Avenue and St. John’s Place at 12:45. The tour will leave promptly at 1PM. Subway directions: 3 train to Nostrand Ave. Walk down Eastern Parkway 2 blocks to Brooklyn Ave, turn left to St. Gregory’s beautiful campanile bell tower.

Admission is $20, which includes the tour, as well as a Garden Tea, featuring light fare, international iced teas and other beverages. Tickets are available at the CHNA website. There will be a house tour on October 6.

Some Carroll Gardens residents say they are disapppointed that yesterday’s rally on Smith Street was more about architect Robert Scarano than about the building he is designing in their neighborhood. One resident wrote to say:

There was both some gratitude that [City Council Member Bill] de Blasio wants to point his finger at Scarano (who deserves it), but frustration that our specific development concerns were hardly heard by him…we feel we were lost in the shuffle.

Here’s the text of the News 12 report on the event, which underscores the point:

City Councilman Bill De Blasio is seeking help from the state in an effort to stop an architect he says has been designing illegal buildings.

De Blasio is asking the state to revoke Robert Scarano’s license. He says the architect has been abusing a process called “self-certification.” The self-certification process essentially puts an architect on an honor system to ensure his or her designs are legal.

Scarano is no longer allowed the right to self-certify, but De Blasio is calling for stronger penalties against the architect.

Brooklyn officials claim one Scarano-designed building violated zoning codes when it was designed to be 16 stories tall. Residents are complaining that many of Scarano’s designs ignore the typical low-rise characteristics of Williamsburg.

When reached for comment, one of Scarano’s employees hung up on representatives from News 12 Brooklyn.

GL Analysis:
While there are many issues with Mr. Scarano’s work, we have to say that the current effort exudes the ripe smell of old-fashioned political opportunism. The fact is that issues with Mr. Scarano’s buildings have been around for years. We, frankly, place as much responsibility for the problems with the awful self-certification system that the city has used and with the Department of Buildings, which has been scandalously inept, at best, in doing its job.

Self-certification was the product of the Giuliani Administration. While it has been tightened after multiple abuses by many architects and developers, it is still there and serving as a substitute for public regulation. Why people are holding rallies now as opposed to having done so in 2004 or 2005 or 2006 is a fascinating question. So is the issue of where some of the same public officials were when other controversies arose and neighborhood activists asked them for help and got none. In fact, not too long ago, you would have had to send out a search and rescue team to find some City Council Members, Mr. de Blasio included, when issues arose.

The time would be better spent working to change individual developments that are problematic and on reforming and entire building approval and monitoring system that are in need to deep, systemic, top-to-bottom reform.

Yesterday, a Federal Judge dismissed the eminent domain lawsuit that had been filed to block the taking of property for the Atlantic Yards developments in Prospect Heights. He did not do so on the grounds that a magistrate had suggested–that the suit belonged in New York state courts–but because he found the central part of the plaintiff’s case lacking in merit. In so doing, he ruled that taking the property would not be solely on behalf of a private developer.

The ruling will clearly be appealed by Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, but the judge’s decision clearly doesn’t bode well for opponents of the Atlantic Yards Juggernaut. Time after time during the Atlantic Yards approval process, the opposition was overpowered by the project’s supporters from developer Bruce Ratner to his friend Gov. George Pataki and Empire State Development Corp. Chair Charles Gargano to Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. Gov. Eliot Spitzer seconded their actions by clearly choosing to sidestep Atlantic Yards and not interfering with its approval in the waning days of the Pataki Administration.

Now, the judicial branch is slowly removing the last roadblocks to a development that will radically and fundamentally change part of Brooklyn and all of the neighborhoods around it. There is still a suit pending based on the deeply flawed environmental review process for Atlantic Yards. It is not the type of litigation that would torpedo the entire project, although a ruling against the state could result in changes. Gov. Spitzer has shown no appetite for taking on Atlantic Yards and making it a better project, so one does not hold out much hope that he and members of his administration will perform in fundamentally different ways than his predecessor where Atlantic Yards is concerned.

Supporters will cheer the judge’s decision in the eminent domain case, as Bruce Ratner did. Opponents will say it isn’t over yet, that there will be an appeal and express confidence that an appellate court will rule in their favor. A lot of average Brooklynites that haven’t been following every twist and turn of this complex project and its wideranging impact, will simply wonder if this means that the Nets will actually be playing at Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues a few years from now.

If you have looked around the area that Forest City Ratner will develop–with what we personally believe will be disastrous consequences for the quality of life of surrounding communities and at what will be astronomical cost to taxpayers–you have noticed that a significant amount of demolition has already been done within the “footprint.” Soon, the preparation work for the development will reach a point that even if a panel of judges recognizes the legal validity of the case against Atlantic Yards, neighbors will have to contend with vast, depressing parcels of empty land for many years to come while the public sector and developers work out a Plan B. (Much of that acreage could sit vacant for many years to come regardless, but that is another story.)

Any way you cut it, yesterday’s court decision was one that did not put joy in the hearts of those that wish to block the Atlantic Yards project. It might be precipitous to say that the end is near, but it’s fair to say that the end is a little closer than it was at this time yesterday.

Here are links related to yesterday’s Atlantic Yards court decision:

• Judge Dismisses Federal Eminent Domain Lawsuit; Appeal Planned [AYR]
• Judge Rejects Main Argument of Effort to Stop Atlantic Yards Project [NYT]
• Judge delivers setback to Brooklyn arena foes [Newsday]
• Federal Judge Clears Obstacle from Path of Atlantic Yards [Sun]
• Atlantic Yards Suit Dismissed [Metro]
• Atlantic Yards Suit Dismissed by Federal Judge [Crains]
• Federal Judge Dismisses Atlantic Yards Lawsuit [NY1]
• FCRC Wins Major Battle for Atlantic Yards [GlobeSt]
• Judge Rules Suit Belongs in Federal Court, but Dismisses It Anyway [DDDB]
• ESDC Statement on Goldstein vs. Pataki Ruling [No Land Grab]
• Bruce Ratner Wins a Round in Atlantic Yards Legal Battle [Daily Intel]