1) Doña Zita, Coney Island. Doña Zita, a small and great Mexican food stand has survived the closings and demolitions in Coney Island to live another season. Several years ago, there were a number of Mexican food stands that had set up in Coney. Now, Doña Zita and a couple of others are all that remain. Doña Zita makes superb tortas, great tacos and has kick ass horchata. Make sure you get the containers with pico de gallo and the one with dried peppers for your table. Then, chow down and gaze upon the plywood fences developer Joe Sitt has erected. [GL]

2) Pete’s Clam Shop, Coney Island. The folks at Pete’s go in for a bizarre style of cookery known as “raw,” flouting both shellfish toxins and all sense of decency. Upon arrival, I appealed to the beggar-woman languishing behind the counter for a “bucket of clams,” as is the custom, while rubbing my hands together like a lawyer at a divorce proceeding. You can imagine the shock of horror on my face when I found myself tete-a-tete with a plate of half-dead bivalves, the treacly lumps staring back at me like something out of “The Brood.” [Clean Plate Club]

3) DiFara’s Pizza. “In a stunning and shocking turn of events, we’re now able to confirm with 100% certainty that Di Fara has again been shut down by the Department of Health. Furthermore, with the pizzeria having failed five of their last six inspections, Dom DeMarco’s pride and joy will remain closed until further notice.” [Eater]

4) Trois Pommes Patisserie, Park Slope. “Emily Isaac’s journey from being the pastry chef at Union Square Cafe to her new place behind the counter of her own bake shop in Park Slope. Trois Pommes Patisserie, which Rob and Robin include in this week’s Openings, has twelve seats and an open kitchen where Isaacs cooks up ‘greenmarket-inspired fruit pies and ice cream,’ not to mention a wide selection of other pastries. The iced coffee is pretty good too.” [Grub Street/NYM]

5) Bickles Caribbean, Brownsville/East Flatbush. “Bickles takes a lot of pride in their seafood, and it shows. Our favorite dish was probably the Escovitch Crocker, a whole whitefish quickly fried then set to marinate in a spicy vinegar sauce stocked with onions, thyme, pimento, peppers and carrots. The flavors are clean, assertive and hot, chock full of blazing Jamaican Scotch Bonnets. You can eat it at room temperature but we loved it fresh from the fry-pan, when the fish releases that spicy vinegar aroma that sends both eyes and mouths watering.” [Porkchop Express]

6) Tortilleria Los Hermanos, Bushwick. “…an indoor streetcart with a few battered countertops and refrigerators right out of a restaurant supply store. Which happens to serve some of the best tacos we’ve tasted in New York City. They’ll make you tacos, tortas, and an assortment of other concoctions, all made from fresh tortillas, almost all so good they’re a revelation.” [The Paupered Chef via BushwickBK]

• Livingston Corridor Suddenly a Hot Neighborhood [BDE via 110 Livingston]
• Thor Snubbed by Coney Roundtable Discussion [TRE]
• More About Ratner’s $2 Billion Subsidy [NYP]
• Detail About the Latest Gowanus Hotel [Brownstoner]
• Kent Avenue Now Has 20 Percent Less Trees Because of The Edge [INSIJS]
• Bloomberg Visits Pratt [Myrtle Minutes]
• Under Construction in Prospect Heights [Built Environment Blog]
• Greenpoint’s Sister & Brother Shop Getting New Mystery Tenant [11222]
• Habitat Condos for Brownsville [BushwickBK]
• Sheepshead Bay’s Riviera Suites Would Have a Huge Dock [GerritsenBeach.Net]
• Five Thursday Dumbo Events [Dumbo NYC]

So, it turns out that some interesting things have gone on in the last week or so, Williamsburg Domino Plant-wise besides growing momentum for landmarking the building and the Don’t Demo Domino Concert that took place on Sunday. Several intrepid photographers and photobloggers–who have been responsible for giving us very cool looks at the Red Hook Grain Terminal, Revere Sugar Plant and other Brooklyn structures–went inside Domino. They have been posting some outstanding photos of the plant as well as views of Williamsburg that you otherwise would never see. The photos come from Nathan Kensinger Photography, Bluejake, The Food of the Future (aka f.trainer) and Mercurialn. They are all outstanding. Check them out.

[Photo Courtesy of Bluejake]

[Photo courtesy of Mercurialn/flickr]

[Photo courtesy of Nate Kensinger Photography]

Have you seen the Atlantic Yards documentary Brooklyn Matters yet? If not, there are multiple opportunities coming up in the next two weeks, including one on June 21 that will include an interesting panel discussion afterward. You can always check the Brooklyn Matters website for up-to-date information. Here are some of the screenings:

Friday, June 8, 7:00 pm — Spoke the Hub Re:Creation Center. 748 Union Street, Bklyn, Local Produce Festival (sponsored by Spoke the Hub), RSVP: 718-408-3234

Saturday, June 9, 6:30 pm — St. Cyril Belarusian Church. 401 Atlantic Avenue.

Wednesday, June 13 6:00 pm (6:00 pm reception, 6:30 pm screening) — 87 Lafayette Street, NYC, Sponsored by Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project.

Friday, June 15, 7:00 pm — Spoke the Hub Re:Creation Center. 748 Union Street, Bklyn, Local Produce Festival (sponsored by Spoke the Hub), RSVP: 718-408-3234.

Tuesday, June 19, 7:00 pm — Fifth Avenue Committee. 621 DeGraw Street, Bklyn, RSVP: 718-237-2017 x 171

Wednesday, June 20, 7:00 pm — St. Gregory’s RC Church. 224 Brooklyn Avenue. Sponsored by the Crown Heights North Association, Inc.

Thursday, June 21, 7:00 pm — 1320 Eighth Avenue. Panel to follow with Council Member Letitia James, Daniel Goldstein, Ron Shiffman and Michelle de la Uz, and Isabel Hill. Sponsored by the Park Slope Jewish Center and Jews for Racial & Economic Justice.

Friday, June 22 7:00 pm — Spoke the Hub Re:Creation Center. 748 Union Street, Bklyn, Local Produce Festival (sponsored by Spoke the Hub), RSVP: 718-408-3234.

A Federal judge has dismissed the eminent domain lawsuit brought against Atlantic Yards. Residents and businesses that refused to sell their businesses or leases to Forest City Ratner had filed the suit to stop the taking of property for the project. The judge ruled that the suit belongs in Federal court but said that the plaintiffs had not proven their case that the taking of property did not serve a primarily public purpose. Crains quotes developer Bruce Ratner as saying: “Today’s decision is an important victory not only for Atlantic Yards but for Brooklyn as well. This decision means we are one step closer to creating over 2,200 units of affordable housing, thousands of construction and office jobs and bringing the Nets to Brooklyn.” Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn attorney Matthew Brinckerhoff said in a statement issued by DDDB that “We will appeal the ruling. We are confident that the appellate court will allow this case to proceed to trial, at which the citizens of New York will finally learn the real reason plaintiffs’ properties were selected to be forcibly taken, and why Ratner was chosen to reap an unprecedented financial windfall.”

The Red Hook ball fields, home to the city’s most beloved cluster of food vendors, may be closing for good in September. The city, eager as ever for the fat stacks that only a bidding war by commercial concessions can offer, has given the vendors notice that their Temporary Use Agreement, the permit given to them by the Department of Parks and Recreation, won’t be renewed. The city wants to open the parks up for concession bids, which will almost certainly mean an end to the makeshift food stalls that have been operating there for over ten years.

“They told us that the last day we can operate in the park is September 8,” Cesar Fuentes, the executive director of the Food Vendors Committee of Red Hook Park, Inc. “The only person that can extend our permit beyond this season is the Commissioner of Parks.”

Today’s Daily News reports that the vendors have been operating with two-week temporary use agreements that are renewed and that the Parks Department wants a long-term agreement via a competitive bidding process for the space:

“We really felt it would be more appropriate for them to have a longer-term use license rather than renewing two-week permits throughout the summer,” said Warner Johnston, a spokesman for the Parks Department. The concession contract for the park would be put out to competitive bidding, Johnston said, with hopes that the vendors would be able to stay.

“Hopes,” however do not mean a lot in a competitive bidding situation, particularly when the mom & pop Latino vendors could be bidding against deep pockets.

There’s been some serious reaction already. It’s worth reading the post on Serious Eats that calls the decision “a travesty” and promises a petition. Meantime, Chowhound a Chowhound reader has posted the contact information for the city officials that can be contacted.

We are going to drop all pretense of being open minded and say that this is the most outrageous, reprehensible and despicable piece of news we have seen of late and, God knows, there’s been plenty of it around. One might even go so far as to suggest that the Parks Department is targeting Latino food vendors so that it can sell the concession to a corporation. GL’s blood is boiling.

That the city would force out the Latino Red Hook vendors so that it can make more money from commercial concessions, possibly ones that will cater more to shoppers at the new Ikea, is a symptom of the disease of empty prosperity that consuming Brooklyn.

Shame on all of us if the bureaucrats that dreamed up this scheme are allowed to get away with this outrage. One would think today would be a good day for Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe to call the public employee that made the decision into his office and read him the riot act, and announce that it was all a big misunderstanding and that the city understands what an asset these increasingly well-known vendors are.

Here’s a handy email link for Mr. Benepe. To give him a piece of your mind about this outrage, click here. Likewise, to tell the Mayor what you think of a Parks Commissioner and a City Administration that would kill off one of our Brooklyn treasures, click here.

Email. Call. Write. Fax. Petition. Repeat After Us: SAVE OUR RED HOOK VENDORS!!!!!!

Significant news on the 360 Smith Street front after some residents met with the developer, William Stein. If you’ve been following the story, the neighborhood has been in a mini-revolt for nearly two weeks about a building designed by Robert Scarano that would go at Second Place and Smith Street. GL first reported the story before Memorial Day weekend.

Primary objections have revolved around the building’s original design as well as its height and the elimination of the plaza in front of the Carroll Street subway stop. There is a rally today at 12:30 organized by Council Member Bill de Blasio, who is protesting “illegal construction” and calling for the state to take Mr. Scarano’s architecture license. Some residents have taken to calling it “The Anti-Scarano Rally.”

In any case, the developer told residents, in the words of an email we saw, that “the building will not look at all like the drawing on the website” although a new rendering is not available yet. The writer continues:

The Second Place portion is set back to line up with the neighboring houses and most of the subway plaza is open–the bldg does not come out as far as the parking lot “line” as the original drawing suggests. It is still quite tall (the highest point is at 70′) but the height is graduated, rising as the structure goes toward and around smith st. The finish on the 2 place side will look more like a brownstone–the tallest portion’s finish, which will be where the 2 pl and smith st sides meet (around the area of the present newsstand), is still undetermined.

Residents appear to be pushing for a further reduction in the building’s height. Still developing.

Even though the city is thinking about throwing out the Red Hook Ballfield vendors, there’s good news about another group of Latino merchants that were facing city eviction at Williamsburg’s Moore Street Market, which is called La Marqueta. The Daily News reports:

A group of Hispanic merchants facing a city order to vacate Brooklyn’s last indoor market by next week has won a huge reprieve – it’s not going anywhere for now.

The Daily News reported in March that the city’s Economic Development Corp. had suddenly notified 20 merchants who operate in the cavernous Moore St. market in Williamsburg that the building was to close June 15 to make way for new affordable housing.

After decades at the same location, the merchants were furious at the city’s bullying tactics.

“At first, they offered us $20 a square foot for our businesses and told us we had 20 minutes to make up our minds,” recalled Virgilio Rodriguez, owner of Ramonita’s Restaurant and head of the merchants group. “No papers, nothing in writing. Just get out, they said.”

The bureaucrats at EDC didn’t even have the common sense to consult the local community board about the city’s plans to demolish the market – something required by city land use laws.

So the merchants refused to budge and vowed to fight.

The 70-year-old Moore St. market was always more than just a place to do business, they said. It is part of the fabric of Williamsburg life, with periodic cultural events and tiny shops and stalls that hearken back to the days before glitzy shopping malls and sterile big-box stores.

In a sign of the overwhelming support their cause quickly garnered, U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-Brooklyn) and her political archrival, Assemblyman Vito Lopez (D-Brooklyn), the Kings County Democratic Party boss, joined forces in the fight to save La Marqueta.

Last Friday, City Hall finally did the right thing. At a meeting with Lopez and the merchants, EDC officials and Mayor Bloomberg’s aides agreed to postpone any action for at least a year while all sides explore three alternatives to keep the market afloat.

One option, Lopez said, will be to develop a plan to fully rent the 15,000 square feet of space in the market. Only about half the space is currently leased and because of that, the market regularly runs a deficit.

Check out the full story by clicking here.

We want to relate a single item today of interest to the North Brooklyn vegetarian set and to vegetarians passing through Greenpoint and to those with vegetarian friends whose preferences they would like to accommodate. A GL reader reports that “The William Taft opened on June 5th. The prices are pretty cheap ($4-$6 Sandwiches w/a side dish). Best of all, it’s open 7 delivers until midnight everyday.” This is the interestingly named William Taft Vegetarian Diner and Deli at 155 Calyer Street in Greenpoint. It bears the name of U.S. President William Taft, who was a patient at John Harvey Kellogg’s Sanitarium in Battle Creek, where vegetarianism was the order of the day. We are certain a complete explanation of the naming choice is available at the new eatery.

• Huge Tax-Exempt Financing Deficit Suggests Major Atlantic Yards Delay [AYR]
• Judge Garson and Clarence Norman Surrender for Jail Terms [NYT]
• Dark Time for Brooklyn Pizza: DiFara Shut Down by Health Dept. Again [NYDN]
• Marty Markowitz’s Building Has Bedbugs [Daily Intel]
• Bushwick Students Organize Over Racial Profiling After Arrests [NYT]
• Old School Mayhem: Attempted Mob Hit in Bath Beach [NYP]
• Is There a Toll Ahead in Gowanus? [Found in Brooklyn]
• It Came from the Blogosphere [No Land Grab]
• The Flatbush Ave. Extension is Significantly Booming [Brownstoner]
• 3 Bedroom Apts Hit $8,000+ on State Street [McBrooklyn]
• Dumbo Improvement District, Year One [Dumbo NYC]
• Development Day on Ocean Parkway [Kensington Brooklyn]
• Coney Island Anniversary Banners [Kinetic Carnival]
• Anyone Know How to Use a Cell Phone or Doorbell in Bushwick? [BushwickBK]
• Paul McCartney Day at Park Slope Starbucks [OTBKB]
• Lost Rat in Greenpoint? [newyorkshitty]
• Big Fine in Clinton Hill [Clinton Hill Blog]
• Tri-Glyceride Levels Elevate as KFC Nears Reopening [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• Six Minutes to Sunset [Big Sky Brooklyn]
• Brooklyn Blogger Roadshow Coming Up Sunday, June 24 [Flatbush Gardener]

The upshot of the story is that the Fourth Avenue rezoning, which has led to significant new construction, highlights flaws in the city’s affordable housing strategy. While there are serious issues about the extent to which the Williamsburg/Greenpoint rezoning has promoted affordable housing–and the evidence is that it is doing so somewhat along the waterfront, but not in other parts of those neighborhoods–the city didn’t pursue affordable housing incentives at all on Fourth Ave. (There is an argument to be made that affordable housing is best required in neighborhoods like Williamsburg and Greenpoint where development will happen regardless, but that is an issue for a different post.)

In any case, Mr. Oder wrote:

In hindsight, the rezoning of central and northern Park Slope seems an unwise move, favoring some powerful constituencies—homeowners in an affluent district, real estate developers, and an unbending city administration—without requiring commensurate equity. Now luxury buildings have sprung up along Fourth Avenue, replacing light industrial buildings and three-story apartments, and previous residents have been displaced. Developers—and the people from whom they bought property—have reaped the benefit.

Interestingly, the person that Council Member Bill de Blasio appointed to Community Board 6 as part of the Atlantic Yards Massacre a couple of weeks ago, is Brad Lander of the Pratt Center for Community Development, who will chair the Housing Committee and is an advocate of affordable housing.

It’s significant in more than an academic way, as CB6 will clearly have hand in the shape of the Gowanus rezoning, both in terms of what areas are rezoned for housing, the densities that are allowed and the extent to which affordable housing is addressed and how.

Related Post:
Fourth Avenue: A New Development Every Three Blocks

While there are many streets in New York City that are unfriendly to pedestrians, Third and Fourth Avenues in Brooklyn are at the top of the list. Recent accidents in which pedestrians have been injured and children have been run down and killed have shined a light on the problems. The meeting will take place on Saturday (6/9) from 9:00 AM – 12:00 noon at P.S. 24, which is located at 427 38th Street, at 4th Avenue. (Take the D, M, N, R to 36th Street in Sunset Park.) It is sponsored by the District 15 Community Education Council and Community Board 7, and co-sponsored by the Boerum Hill Association, the Park Slope Civic Council, Park Slope Neighbors and UPROSE. Here’s a bit from the announcement:

From Atlantic Avenue to 65th Street, heavy and dangerous traffic is hurting our quality of life and jeopardizing the safety of our children. Many families share the same concerns about truck traffic, enforcement issues, and the need for safer walking conditions. Please join us as we hear from transportation experts on accident trends, pilot projects, and the best ways to prevent crashes along 3rd and 4th Avenues.

This forum will be the first step in a community-led vision for safe, walkable streets around our schools and other sensitive locations on 3rd and 4th Avenues. There is already a traffic-calming plan for Downtown Brooklyn. It’s time to make that vision a reality, and to extend the plan into Sunset Park. We must let the city know that planning for our children’s safety is more important than planning for traffic. Your input and expertise is greatly needed! There will be ample opportunity for questions and comments, plus a huge map of the avenues, where you can note concerns about particular intersections.

Improvements at some intersections, including one where a four-year-old was killed by an SUV at Third Avenue and Baltic Street, were supposed to be completed last year. You can read more about the forum, as always, at Streets Blog.

Every few weeks, it seems, there is news to convey about the slow burn known as the city’s plan to convert the Red Hook Piers from a container port into something that is, well, quite different. The ideas have already gone through many iterations, and various parts–including housing–have fallen off or been removed. Now, Sarah Ryley reports in the Brooklyn Eagle that the proposal “is at a stalemate.” Container port operator American Stevedoring, which had all but been declared dead in the water last year by redevelopment advocates, has turned out to have far more staying power than those hoping to move it out seem to have anticipated. The Eagle reports:

Luxury housing, a hotel and another cruise ship terminal — once major components of the Economic Development Corporation’s (EDC) proposal — have already been delayed or dropped from the plan. Now, Brooklyn Brewery, the marina and a ferry connection could be the next casualties of the agency’s attempt to wrestle Piers 7 to 10 from containerport operator American Stevedoring, which has been unloading the region’s food, clothing and furniture there for more than a decade.

The latest snag came last month, when EDC officials said they would consider temporarily relocating beer distributor Phoenix Beverage to Pier 11 while awaiting the outcome of a federal court battle over Pier 7, now occupied by American Stevedoring’s warehousing subsidiary…Tom Fox, president of New York Water Taxi and a finalist in the EDC’s process of selecting a developer for the Atlantic Basin and Pier 11, said sharing the space with Phoenix Beverage would make his project unfeasible. A large portion of his proposal, submitted in partnership with The Durst Organization, would be located on Pier 11, including a new Water Taxi headquarters to accommodate the growing business, a dry dock, and a maritime maintenance and fueling center…

Steve Hindy, president of Brooklyn Brewery, said he’s been in negotiations to relocate to Pier 7 for three years, but is now considering moving to Gowanus, Bushwick or East Williamsburg. “American Stevedoring seems to have some politicians on their side, and it’s creating a stalemate,” said Hindy. “The project’s not moving; it’s not happening.”

The Public Place parcel that Brooklyn Brewery has previously identified as a site it might like is not likely to be ready for occupancy for several years–at best–given the extent of the toxic cleanup that needs to occur. It was the site of a Manufactured Gas Plant that left behind an underground stew of toxins as deep as 150 feet. As for the Red Hook issue, there are, no doubt, many more updates to come.

Related Post:
Red Hook Piers Plan Takes Another Curious Twist

The upside: Crater Lake in Greenpoint!!!

What we do know is this: No results from the many test wells drilled around N. 11th and Roebling that have become public or that have been passed on to public officials by the Department of Environmental Conservation. Consultants hired by the developer to do environmental monitoring of the site have reported that oil seems to be entering from the north and east although no one can determine the source of what they euphemistically, and without irony, call “free product.” They also found what one would expect to find in the soil in the industrial part of Williamsburg: some arsenic, barium, cobalt, mercury, nickel, zinc and other things. (The contaminated soil was all removed, the consultants say.) There was measurable benzene in the groundwater too, but not a significant amount.

We think it’s worth noting that there doesn’t appear to have been much in the way of intensive hands-on testing or monitoring by the Department of Environmental Conservation.

Related Posts:
Environmental Officials Still Unsure of Source of Roebling Oil Field Oil
Potential Roebling Oil Field Neighbor Says Information Difficult to Obtain
Another Gusher at the Roebling Oil Field

Related Posts:
Anti-Building Signage Torn Down on Smith Street
Smith Street Revolt Brewing Over Shiny New Building

Related Post:
A Lot of New Street Art in Williamsburg

Some landlords can’t catch a break, especially in terms of PR. You might remember that Adam Mermelstein was named the city’s “most abusive” (also “worst”) landlord by a tenant group earlier this year and that the honor made headlines. Well, some of the trouble stems from Mr. Mermelstein’s long-suffering tenants at a building at 188 South 3rd Street in Williamsburg, which he is trying to convert to upscale rentals. The tenants are in Housing Court over a nine-month rent strike and they’re demonstrating before court this morning (if you’re reading this after 9AM, make that “they demonstrated.”) There are two legal actions, actually. The other is a contempt motion because it seems that in February Mr. Mermelstein was ordered to correct code violations by March 13 but that 124 remained at the end of May.

Here’s a bit from the release that landed in GL’s mailbag:

The tenants will be joined by supporters from “Save Our Southside,” a major tenant support group battling landlord neglect and harassment of long term low income tenants, aimed at displacing them to make room for wealthier newcomers flooding into the “hot” neighborhood. In a recent article in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Mermelstein disclosed his plans to renovate vacant apartments and rent them out for $2300/month, over three times the average rent now paid by the current tenants.

Tenant leader Jacquelin Hernandez declared: “This landlord has to learn that we will not be pushed around, and we will not give up our long term homes to help make a rich guy richer.”

Tenant activist Debbie Medina of Save Our Southside (“SOS”) stated that the situation at 188 South 3rd Street is unfortunately typical of massive displacement pressures on the overwhelmingly low income Latino tenants of the Southside, created by the ongoing gentrification, and made worse by the City’s recent re-zoning of the Williamsburg-Greenpoint waterfront to allow for the construction of over 8,000 new luxury apartments. “But,” Ms. Medina declared, “this is not the first war that we have had to fight for survival and against injustice in the Southside, and we’re still here.”

To be continued.

There appears to have been a rather tepid response by to the idea of putting a pool into Prospect Park as part of replacing the Wollman Rink and restoring the Prospect Park Lake and Concert Island to their original configurations. The idea was discussed at a meeting last week. Blogger Across the Park conveys some information about the pool conversation, including an observer’s notation that “It was clear Wednesday meeting that Tupper Thomas, president of the Prospect Park Alliance, is not too keen on having a pool in Prospect Park, and I also got a vibe from the goverment reps in the room that they didn’t much like the idea either.” Objections include aesthetics, cost and the fact there are already a number of public pool in Brooklyn. Read more over at Across the Park.

These renderings, which went up on Curbed late yesterday afternoon, may be some of the most depressing we’ve ever seen. A Curbed reader commented that the project they represent is dead and, if so, that’s a good thing. We’ve joke more than once about how Ikea represented the New Jerseyfication of the Red Hook waterfront, and this plan would seem to be the ultimate in Paramus-ification. Adding unspeakable insult to profound injury is the recreation of the Revere Dome as a shopping mall entrance in glass. If ever there were an architectural dagger through heart, recasting the Revere Dome as a mall entrance could be it. In fact, it would have earned the architect a place in a Circle of Hell if Dante had included one for crappy architecture.

It is our understanding that Enrique Norten and TEN Arquitectos is the project architect on the Revere site project for developer Joe Sitt and Thor Equities. Frankly, we have a difficult time seeing how Mr. Norten’s work could possibly be worse this uninspired shopping-condo mashup that reminds us of something that belongs in Rockville, Maryland or Tysons Corner, Virginia. We are becoming so accustomed to the triumph of mediocrity and the lack of respect for community context in Brooklyn, however, that nothing would surprise us.

The Magnusson Architecture and Planning firm that produced this has actually done an acceptable, if somewhat pedestrian, design for the Atlantic Terrace development on Atlantic Avenue (the solar building that would be cut off from the sun by Bruce Ratner’s towers) for the Fifth Avenue Committee. This nightmarish suburban-style monstrosity of almost unimaginable hideousness ambitious remake of Red Hook in the suburban shopping mall New Jersey vernacular would have clocked in at 1,661,200 square feet, including 907,000 square feet of retail and 250,000 square feet of housing.

We can only hope it is dead, although we’re terrified to see what might be coming next. Of course, it’s all an academic exercise until the uses for the property are decided, the zoning for the property is changed and densities are determined.