Attention Brooklyn foodies: If you’ve been waiting for the increasingly well-known food stands at the Red Hook Ball Fields to open you are going to have to wait another weekend. The stands were supposed to open tomorrow (4/28), but the opening has been pushed back to May 5. The food blog Pork Chop Express got an email from organizers saying, “administrative issues beyond our control have forced us to push this date to May 5th…We are very excited to set-up shop (or rather… shacks!) and begin our season as soon as possible.” There were reports of some booths being open last weekend, so there might be some food action this weekend too. In the meantime, the organizers report they’ll soon have a website, www.redhooklatino.org. It’s not live yet, though. What will become of the some of the best Mexican and Latino food in all of New York City next year when Red Hook becomes an access corridor for the waterfront Ikea a couple of blocks away is anyone’s guess. For now, though, eat up, starting Saturday, May 5.

[Photo courtesy of Brit in Brooklyn]

We don’t know if the collapse of a parapet at the Ward Bakery–which is being demolished by Forest City Ratner in its effort to clear blocks of property in Prospect Heights–was a harbinger of things to come or not. What we do know is that (a). it’s fortunate no one was hurt except for some cars, (b). 350 people that live near the building–in particular residents of a shelter–were displaced and (c). there is continuing reaction from those concerned with the demolitions (which only began on Monday) and with the impact of the project on the community if it goes forward.

Here are links to some of the Ward’s Parapet Collapse coverage:

• Details About Ward Bakery Flying Parapet [AYR]
• Homeless Flee Building Collapse [NYDN]
• Was a Sidewalk Shed Required? [AYR]
• Fire Officials Say It Was the Rain, but Workers Had Been on Roof [No Land Grab]
• Jeffries Calls for Investigation; James Calls for Stopping All Work [AYR]
• Ward Bakery Partial Collapse Photos [Brit in Brooklyn]
• Ward Bakery Collapse Photos [threecee/flickr]
• Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods Press Conference to Suspend Demolition [DDDB]
• Breaking: Atlantic Yards Building Partial Collapse [Curbed]
• Parapet Collapse Forces Evacuation at Atlantic Yards [NYT]
• Building at Atlantic Yards Site Collapses [amNY]
• Building at Atlantic Yards Partially Collapses [NY1]
• Halt All Demolition Activity Now [DDDB]
• Ratner Rubble Displaces Hundreds [Dope on the Slope]

Yesterday, we started to crack a joke about how McCarren Pool would become a swimming pool again around 2030. Boy, were we wrong. The Waterfront Preservation Alliance of Greenpoint and Williamsburg is reporting that money for recreating McCarren as a pool could be available sooner rather than later:

…the Mayor’s FY2008 (begins July, 2007) budget includes $3.85 million for planning and design development. In addition, the City has promised $46.2 million in FY2010 (begins July, 2009) for the restoration of the pool. That means that honest-to-goodness planning could start as soon as this July, and that the construction budget would be part of Bloomberg’s last budget.

Word from Community Board #1’s District Manager Gerry Esposito is that the plan the City is working on is to rebuild the pool as an Olympic-sized pool. We’ll reserve judgment on the plan itself until we see the details, and for now applaud the fact that the McCarren Pool might soon have water.

An Olympic-sized pool would only be about one-third of the size of the former pool, which already seems to be causing some handwringing in the neighborhood.

Earlier this week, we posted an excerpt of an email from the Urban Divers about last weekend’s Gowanus Canal cleanup. It mentioned that a lot of “sanitary items” were in the canal after the recent Nor’easter. Ariella Cohen fills in some of the detail in this week’s Brooklyn Paper. Apparently the, um, sanitary items included a lot of condoms. In fact, “a record number of condoms.” We’re not sure who keeps this record or how, but we’ll assume Ms. Cohen is correct in describing Ms. Cohen explains that “the explosion in the population of ‘Coney Island whitefish.'”

So, our question is, if it’s in the Gowanus Canal is it still a Coney Island Whitefish or is it a Gowanus Canal Whitefish?

Related Post:
Volunteers Fish Crap from the Gowanus

[Photo courtesy of the Brooklyn Paper]

The Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods is holding a noon press conference today at Ward Bakery, which suffered that parapet collapse yesterday, to call for a halt to demolitions for the Atlantic Yards development in Prospect Heights. The group wants an immediate suspension of activity until a “thorough investigation as to the cause of the collapse can be conducted,” safeguards are put in place to prevent similar incidents and there is “appropriate oversight” to monitor demolition and construction. Members of the group include the Fort Greene Association, Society for Clinton Hill, Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association, Friends of Greater Gowanus (FROGG), Boerum Hill Association, Park Slope Neighbors, Prospect Height Action Coalition, Council Member Letitia James, Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Reverend Dennis Dillon of Brooklyn Christian Center and others.

A reader reminded us about 53 Bridge Street, pictured above, whose yellow growth has graced the Vinegar Hill/Dumbo skyline for some time. The building is owned and is being developed by Joshua Gutman, whose name you might recall from the Greenpoint Terminal Market conflagration. The architect is the Brooklyn King of the Thing on Top, Robert Scarano, although no final renderings present themselves. (Call it Tumortecture?) 53 Bridge has pretty much looked like this for about a year, and when we walked bye this weekend we found a relatievely new Stop Work Order taped to the door. So, for now, the Big Yellow Thing on Top will stay big and yellow. Joy!

[Photo courtesy threecee/flickr]

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

• Is Walking Missing From PlaNYC? [Streets Blog]
• So, Who Put the Rat in Ratnerville? [No Land Grab]
• Three Muggings in Three Years, What Would You Do? [Eating for Brooklyn via Brownstoner]
• Your Kind of People Aren’t Welcome Here [Brooklyn Record]
• Proposed Extension of Clinton Hill Historic District [Brownstoner]
• Dumbo ’02 vs. Dumbo ’07 [Dumbo NYC]
• Brighten Up Your Blight on DeGraw [Lost City]
• Historic Kensington, Childhood Edition [Kensington Brooklyn]
• Lola Staar Reborn Hoopla [Kinetic Carnival]
• Metal Tube Building Weirdness [Clinton Hill Blog]
• Eat Well at Brooks Valley Cafe [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• New Restaurant: Spirito on Ninth St. in Park Slope [ABL]

We suspend any attitudes momentarily and give it up for the kids at PS 321 in Park Slope who did this little earth day walkathon for three green-oriented nonprofits, including Transportation Alternatives. This is a Street Films production and we found it on Streets Blog, of course.

It’s been a busy day on the Atlantic Yards demolition–or shall we say, building self-demolition–front. This morning a parapet on the Ward Bakery building, which is being demolished by Forest City Ratner, collapsed onto the sidewalk and street below. Fortunately, no one was injured, although a number of cars were damaged. In addition, 350 people from nearby buildings have been evacuated.

Reaction has been ongoing:

1) No Land Grab–…shame on you Bruce Ratner. Also, we’d like to send shout outs to Atlantic Yards Development Group President James P. Stuckey, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Governor Eliot Spitzer, the entire cast of “The Atlantic Yards Community Liaison Office” (currently running on 6th Ave), Community Benefits Agreement Environmental Compliance Czar Delia Hunley-Adossa, and “Joey From Cobble Hill” DePlasco, who we expect to hear from shortly. [NLG]

2) City Council Member Letitia James–“In light of what happened at 800 Pacific Street this morning, and other incidents, I have asked Empire State Development Corporation, who is acting as the lead agency in this project, to halt all work at the “Atlantic Yards” site until this morning’s occurrence can be fully investigated, and until there is a monitoring body to oversee all proposed demolition and construction at the site.” [Via No Land Grab]

3) Assem. Hakeem Jeffries–“This incident further highlights the need to proceed with extreme caution as the developer moves forward the Atlantic Yards project.” [Via No Land Grab]

4) Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn–Can the neighborhood look forward to this quality of work from Forest City Ratner for the next 20 – 40 years? Can the neighborhood survive this quality of work by Ratner and his contractors, and this complete lack of governement oversight? [DDDB]

UPDATE: Atlantic Yards Report has posted the Empire State Development Corp. response, which says that it has sent “representatives to the scene to assess the situation.” The statement adds that “Safety is our utmost concern and we’re very thankful no one was injured. Our team is conferring with the developer, the City, and various government agencies to find out exactly what happened and to help coordinate a thorough response. We’re also awaiting the outcome of an investigation by the city’s Department of Buildings so we can take any necessary action.”

Curbed is reporting via a tip and digital photo that a chunk of Wards Bakery, which is being demolished by Forest City Ratner, collapsed on to Pacific Street within the last hour. No one was injured (except for several cars), but there is significant Fire Department and NYPD presence on the scene. Apparently a parapet came crashing down from the building. 7online has since reported that some nearby buildings have been evacuated.

The other day, protesters were out on Flatbush Avenue to speak out against the “premature demolition” of buildings in the Atlantic Yards footprint by Forest City Ratner. On Sunday, we gazed at the big lot at Bedford Avenue and N. 3rd Street in Williamsburg that is half empty and has had a half-demolished building for almost a year. On Saturday, we were wandering around Coney Island, shooting photos of a huge fence erected by Thor Equities.

Frequently, we wonder: Is manufactured blight the urban development paradigm of the 2000s? Is it a new development tool in Brooklyn?

Quite possibly.

Just as urban renewal in the 1960s devastated communities by literally demolishing entire neighborhoods far in advance of hideous urban renewal schemes or highways that sometimes never materialized, today’s Brooklyn development heavyweights are busy tearing down structures–some of them centrally located–far in advance of ever driving a pile or erecting a beam of steel. (Onnyturf recently took a look around and came to the same conclusion.) The implications for communities are as alarming as the clearance efforts that were popular nearly 40 years ago. Those efforts left communities wringing their hands 25 and 35 years later about how to mend the wounds caused by government-driven demolition and projects that either (a). never materialized or (b). were killed by lawsuits or political opposition. (If you want a local look at the results of Old School Developer Blight, check out Edgemere in the Rockways where miles of beachfront property were cleared out by Robert Moses and Mayor John Lindsey. It became one America’s most stunning bits of deliberate urban devastation.)

Today, the players are different. They are generally private developers like Forest City Ratner, Thor Equities and Quadriad Development. Generally, (except for Forest City Ratner) they are working on a smaller scale than the urban renewalists of the 20th Century. (And, then, of course, there are massive waterfront conflagrations started by drunks looking for copper wire just as efforts to historically preserve big complexes are underway.) Yet, the impact on neighborhoods–should their schemes fail to come to fruition, will be just as devastating to communities. Imagine Prospect Heights should the courts kill Atlantic Yards. Or, even if you don’t believe this is likely, picture entire blocks of Prospect Heights turned into vacant wastelands ten or fifteen years before any stucture is ever built on the land. Or picture, if you will, Coney Island, if Thor Equities follows through on its plans to lay waste to 2/3 of the amusement district and if (a). it can’t get its project approved, (b). it takes four or five years before construction can start or (c). it can’t get financing or make the project work for investors.

One word: Edgemere.

It’s not hard to imagine that one of these orgies of premature demolition won’t leave beind a wasteland that an urban writer who is in pre-school today won’t be writing about in, say, 2027.

[Photos courtesy of Forgotten NY, which offers excellent background on Edgemere.]

Related Post:
Sitt’s Demolition Underway, Coney Island Looks Like Hell

At least one Coney Island gag provision in a lease (though not the one that Thor Equities forced most tenants to sign as a condition of renewing their leases for the 2007 season) has been found illegal. The saga of the Coney Island Arcade is detailed in Time Out New York. Yesterday, Dianna Carlin (Lola Staar) sent out an email about the latest development that said:

Jeff Persily, a land owner in Coney Island, forced his tenants to sign the exact same Confidentiality Clause that Thor Equities forced down their tenants’ throats. It is speculated that Jeff Persily is partnering with Thor in their scheme to build Condos within the Amusement District. Manny Cohen has owned the Coney Island Arcade and has been Persily’s tenant for roughly 20 years. Manny refused to sign his 2007 Agreement due to this Confidentiality Clause. Persily took him to court to evict him yesterday. At this court date, the judge ruled that the Confidentiality Clause in the Agreement was not legal. The judge told Persily’s lawyer that they had to negotiate a fair Agreement and that the Confidentiality Clause was not fair. This is a very significant ruling because most of the Coney Island businesses have been forced this very same Clause…

Today Manny plans to unveil a large tomb stone on the corner of the Bowery and 12th Street. This tomb stone reads Coney Island RIP and accuses Joe Sitt and Jeff Persily of being dictators. It also includes a copy of the illegal Confidentiality Clause that the two land owners have forced their tenants to sign.

Did someone suggest that Ms. Carlin was going to roll over and play dead after her lease (without a gag order) was renewed by Mr. Sitt following the Save Coney Island demonstration and a ton of bad press? Not looking like it.

Related Posts:
Gag Me: Why Do Mr. Sitt and Mr. Ratner Like Silence?
Legal Gag Removed, Coney Island’s Lola Staar Speaks

UPDATE: Mr. Cohen’s landlord writes to say: “As Mr. Cohen’s landlord I can assure that the judge made no such ruling in reagrd to an unfair or unjust ‘gag rule.’ Mr Cohen was taken to court only because of his continuing failure to tender his rent which in fact is still owing from last season. If such a ruling was made by a judge surely it would be in the public domain, nobody can or will find it because it is fictional and does not exist. If Mr. Cohen pays his rent he can stay if he doesn’t he will be evicted. Can we hold ourselves to a higher standard and at least attempt to print what is actual and true. No that would never be as controversial or interesting, just continue to conjure up and fabricate more nonsense about the big bad landowners.”

Does your day begin and/or end with the F Train? The other day, the Kensington Brooklyn blog mentioned that F Train service kind of sucks and solicited opinions on same, noting that something called the Culver Viaduct Rehabilitation is due to begin later this year. In any case, ee’re certain that many people will be offering opinions about it, as subway service and postal service are two things guaranteed to elicit a response from most Brooklynites. (That and the B61, if you’re one of the ones blessed with having to depend on it.) Regardless this is all an exceptionally long-winded way of sharing the following exchange, which we witnessed during a recent morning rush hour commute, between Bergen Street and Jay Street-Borough Hall:

Woman Near Door: You didn’t say excuse me.
Woman That Just Entered: Excuse me?
WND: You did not say excuse me.
WTJE: So?
WND: You bumped into me.
WTJE: I brushed you.
WND: You got to say excuse me.
WTJE: Whatever.
WND: Your mother didn’t raise you with manners.
(Nearby passengers were now rolling eyes, making rare, meaningful eye contact with each other.)
Guy Nearby to Girlfriend: Excuse me.
Girlfriend: Sorry.
WND: See, they said excuse me.
WTJE: You expect everyone in New York City to say excuse me?
WND: Yes, I do.
WTJE: We’re in the middle of New York City. You can’t excuse me to everybody.
WND: I do.
Guy Near Door: Come on, now.
WND: You mind your own business.
GND: But it’s early in the morning.
WND: I don’t care. She didn’t say excuse me.

At least the train was on time.

We were amused to be thumbing through the Open Space section of the PlaNYC 2030 document and to find the following verbiage on Page Six:

Opened in 1936, then closed in 1984 due to the deterioration of its systems, McCarren Pool will finally be rebuilt as both an outdoor Olympic-size pool and a year-round recreation center serving the people of north Brooklyn.

No dates or details are given. Today’s New York Times has a full story on all the unused spaces that would be rehabbed and returned to use if the money and political will are found. (The Times story has the work starting this summer and being finished in “a couple of years.”)

Those who ride the F or (God Bless You) the G train in South Brooklyn know the glories of the Smith-9th Street Station, which at about ten stories, is the highest station in the New York City system. And, if you don’t know what it is, and have glimpsed it, you’ve probably asked, “What the hell is that?” It’s simply that (a) awful or (b) impressive, depending on how you view it. In any case, we found the following verbiage on a blog called Faith in Fiction. We think it’s pretty cool, so we’re doing some copying and pasteage of an excerpt:

White ceramic pieces are set against square aquamarine tiles. These tiles make the station logo. It reads SMITH 9TH ST. More tiles, these ones rectangular and mint green, border the sign. Parts of the mosaic are chipped, as if bullets hit them, and the glaze on some of the lower tiles is peeling off like the kind of nail polish I used to get at the toy store, in those safe-for-kids cosmetic kits.

The cast iron platform is rusting, and the whole thing might look better if the weather would just finish stripping the white paint off of it. The electrical piping is rusting; the white chain link around the otherwise open, glassless windows is rusting. Even I’m rusting, just standing here, waiting for the train.

You’d think with the Ikea store that just opened in Red Hook (sic), this old train station would get a little bit of love. But I guess that’s not how things work. Maybe if Brooks Brothers and Saks and Cartier decided Red Hook was the place to be and moved their stores to this old shipping section of Brooklyn, maybe then this station would get a scrub-down.

But if that happened, the locals would gripe. We don’t mind the hike to the station, or the two flights of stairs and two escalators from the mezzanine to the platform. We don’t care that these long, almost-abandoned platforms feel as if they’ll tumble like Jericho if the right wind comes off New York Harbor. We all belong to this station, and this station belongs to us.

This stretch of the IND, all the way down to Coney Island, is aboveground, but it’s considered the subway. This station is 91 feet above street-level, and is the highest point on the IND. It was built in the 30s. The reason it’s so high up is because the Gowanus Canal passes under it, and the Gowanus Canal is a tall-mast shipping route. The Gowanus Canal stinks to the highest of heavens because the sewer treatment plant overflows on a regular basis, and the combined sewer outlets, when overworked, pour into the canal. One of my friends grew up down here, and in the summers, when the heat made the stink stink so bad that his breakfast threatened to make an encore appearance all over his secondhand Air Jordans, he would run as fast as he could to get from one side of the canal to the other without inhaling.

I’ve learned to breathe out of my mouth when I’m up here, and I don’t really remember what the canal smells like. Just that it’s awful.

You feel the train before you hear it, and you hear it before you see it. And the big, lit F with a circle around it screeches its brakes and you wonder if the train ever wishes it had wings so it could flap backwards the way big birds do when they’re landing too fast…

It’s a fun piece, definitely to be read in its entirety.

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

• Neglected Story of 9/11 Debris Hitting Brooklyn [Center for the Study of Brooklyn]
• New Life in Park Plan for Old Spaces [NYT]
• Scaffolding Suggests Flatbush Avenue Demolitions Are Coming [AYR]
• Fort Greene-Clinton Hill Rezoning Certified [Brownstoner]
• Way to Go: Brooklyn Assem. Who Filled Clarence Norman’s Seat Accused of DWI [amNY]
• Anybody Up for a Brooklyn Blogging Song? [Dope on the Slope]
• Here’s Your Chance to Rent at 99 Gold in Vinegar Hill [Dumbo NYC]
• Are the Forte Condos a Rip Off? [Set Speed]
• Dogshit Queen’s Greenpoint Block Pounded by Patriotic Pole [newyorkshitty]
• Buy a Brooklyn House for $1.4M on eBay [My Life in Brooklyn]
• Bless You Realty [Across the Park]
• Retail Rents in Kensington [Kensington Brooklyn]
• Look Good and Barf [Brooklyn Record]
• Deja Vu All Over Again: Still Plenty of Drugs at Cypress Hills Houses [NYP]
• When Women Pursue Justice [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• Cherry Blossom Beauty at the BBG [About Brooklyn]
• Cherry Blossoms at the BBG [Clinton Hill Blog]

First, the good news: This building at 219 Withers, which we’d last seen in its construction phase, turns out to look pretty nice with the landscaping out front. (Although it does have the same feel as all of Tahoe Development‘s Greenpoint and Williamsburg buildings.) The apartments themselves have humongous floor to ceiling windows.

Now, the bad news: Curbed passes on comments from a tipster who noted that some righteous molds seems to be growing in the basement. He writes that “The apartments were O.K., 100 square feet too small and 100k too expensive. Great finishes though, in both style and quality. The story is down in the ‘Recreation Room’ where the mold I first noticed as black spots, was in fact full, three-dimensional growth. I didn’t know whether to put on a respirator, or make a salad.”

Nice landscaping, though.

East Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Today is GL’s first birthday. During our first year we posted 2,200 items, the first of which is pictured above. We hope we’ve made a small contribution toward adding to the flow of information in Brooklyn and to shedding some light on the things that we cover. You may agree with us on some issues or disagree strongly with us on others, but if you think we’ve added a little something to the discussion about Brooklyn’s present and future, then we’ve been doing what we set out to do.

What motivates us is simple: to share information so that less happens in Brooklyn when no one is looking or has to wait a week to read about it. We know we can’t get it all, but if we get a little and someone else gets a bit more, pretty soon a lot more information is available.

GL has been a labor of love, and the product of very long work days and very sore feet as we make our way around Brooklyn with a bag of photo gear slung over our shoulders. We have made many friends in the process, which is the nicest part about doing all of this.

We want to especially extend our thanks to Curbed founder Lockhart Steele, whose support and encouragement have been invaluable. Without Lockhart there might not even be a GL. Others have encouraged us too, particularly Gothamist founder Jake Dobkin, whose kind words have meant a lot, No Land Grab‘s Lumi Rolley, who has been a good friend, Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn‘s Louise Crawford, who was supportive from Day One, and Atlantic Yards Report‘s Norman Oder, whose dedication and intellect are inspiring. The sites that link to us regularly are too numerous to mention. You know who you are and we appreciate the fact that you find our stories worth mentioning. To the hundreds of thousands of visitors that have stopped in: Thank You. To our readers that have passed along valuable information, and to the particularly valued readers that have practically become contributors: Thank You. Thank You.

Our goals for the next year are simple: Bigger. Better. Faster. Smarter. Different. More.

A lot more.

Here’s to Year Two.

What you’re looking at above is part of the Gowanus “Land Use Framework” map in which the neighborhood has been divided into “subareas.” Despite the civil tone of last week’s neighborhood planning session, there remains strong opposition in the community to allowing residential development along the canal. One of the battlegrounds is going to be “Subarea B,” which includes the land on which the Toll Brothers want to develop hundreds of units of housing as well as the Bayside Fuel facility north of Union Street. (The later is likely horrendously polluted and appears to be the source of the oil which coats the surface of the canal.)

In any case, Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus (FROGG) sent out an email yesterday that highlights some of the likely points of contention. FROGG writes:

In Thursday’s April 19th meeting NY City Planning held with the Gowanus community, was anyone listening to anyone? The community was busy talking about whether housing should be allowed anywhere along the water’s edge while the Department of City Planning was trying to get us to talk about how high housing should be at the waters edge and how much parking should be included in such housing developments. It didn’t seem that anyone in the community even embraced housing or parking as a redevelopment goal or necessity.

But it seems clear from the meeting that the groundwork is paved for handing Toll Brothers the zoning change they have been demanding. Somewhere along the line, before holding these community-planning meetings, decisions were made. It is now obvious why City Planning first presented us with the new five Subareas, Subarea B is slated to be handed over for residential development ASAP!

There has been no discussion as whether Subarea B (Toll Brother’s and Bayside proposed residential development sites) should be residential or continue to act as a protective buffer zone for the “existing residential use a short block away”. There has been no discussion about how this area might be better utilized under existing zoning, or green rezoning under it present use. There has been no community discussion about how this stretch of land sits along the section of Gowanus that receives the greatest volume of sewage. There has been no community discussion about the limited reduction in sewage the Gowanus will receive under the DEP Pumping Tunnel reconstruction plan (especially with predicted raise in rainfall volume). There has been no community assurance that the new Flushing Tunnel will do little more that shift the pathogen center from the head of the canal to a few blocks south as tides and sea level push higher in from the harbor over the next 50 years.

The Department of City Planning has presented no reasoned argument to the people of this community as to why Subarea B should be granted a zoning change to residential use…City Planning needs to do more homework here.

Look for the discussion about Gowanus’ future–which will be decided by the zoning decisions–to be spirited, to say the least.

Related Post:
Burden Calls Gowanus “Great, Unique Opportunity” at Polite Rezoning Meeting

Don’t look now, but Lola Staar‘s return to the boardwalk has prompted a bit of a controversy among the regulars at the Coney Island Message Board. Words like “sell out” are being used to suggest that Dianna Carlin (aka Lola) used the Save Coney Island protest to get her store back after she’d been evicted by Thor Equities developer Joe Sitt. Ms. Carlin, for her part, sent out a press release yesterday saying that “I intend to continue with the Save Coney Island Organization and to stand up for my beliefs about how Coney Island should be redeveloped.” She did not have to sign a “gag rule” as part of her lease, an objection to which led to her eviction in the first place.

The objections to Ms. Carlin’s return to the boardwalk seem to range from everything from the fact that she is not a “real” Brooklynite (and that, as someone that wasn’t born and raised in the borough, she has no right to hold and voice opinions about Brooklyn) to the fact that she caters to “hipsters.” Ms. Carlin, who despite her cheerful demeanor seems quite capable of giving as good as she gets (just ask Mr. Sitt), has fired back with her own responses. Ms. Carlin writes:

I started Save Coney Island (which now has over 1,200 members) and organized the “No Condos in Coney” demonstration on the steps of City Hall. My goal for Save Coney Island was to create an organization which would spread information about the redevelopment, give people the opportunity to discuss and express their opinions and ideas about Coney Island, and to organize events which would publicly express these opinions and convictions about the redevelopment. Mr. Sitt was frightened by the negative press and the growing resistance against his plan. This caused him contact me. I agree that Mr. Sitt’s decision to evict me and to offer me my store back were very contrived decisions which he ultimately hoped would work to his advantage. Regardless, it is positive that it has open up a dialogue about his plan.

We believe the issues of Ms. Carlin’s store and her position on Coney Island redevelopment are very different ones. We were thrilled to find her back and, frankly, found the prospect of the boardwalk without her and her merchandise depressing. When we first talked to Ms. Carlin several months ago, she had lost the heart of her business. When we saw her on Saturday, she was happy and smiling. No one deserves to lose their livelihood because they want to speak their mind or to have to make a choice between a business and free speech (although we’re aware that people make these choices every day). We are very happy for her.

As for “Save Coney Island,” there is nothing wrong with sitting down with a gentleman who potentially holds Coney Island’s future in the palm of his hand. We frankly wish that Mr. Sitt and his team would reach out more broadly to those with an interest in a place with such a rich history. Building consensus is important, and Thor has not done a very good job of creating bridges.

We have talked and corresponded a great deal with Ms. Carlin. We don’t think she will let Mr. Sitt off the hook or stop voicing her opinions about Coney Island because she has a lease.

You go, Lola.

Related Posts:
“Coney Island Miracle”? Lola Staar is Back

We saw an email yesterday asking the Sanitation Department to do a trash pickup at 2nd Street and the Gowanus Canal. This is because volunteers appear to have picked up 1,500 pounds of trash and debris (about 50 bags) during a volunteer cleanup on Sunday (4/22) that was part of the 8th Annual Gowanus Earth Day Flotilla Spring Clean-up sponsored by The Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy . Now for the fun part:

This year’s most common trash collected from the water were sanitary items commonly disposed from our toilets; an indicator that there are excessive Combine Sewage Overflows in the Gowanus Canal, particularly after this noreaster. There are more than 12 points along the Gowanus Canal that discharge raw, untreated sewage into the canal after every rainfall. CSOs occurences happen when our waste treatment system gets inundated by excess amounts of water during heavy rainfall. As this causes our waste treatment plant to fill to capacity, excess stormwater as well as what we flush from our toilets, which incidentally uses the same outflow pipe ( thus Combined Sewage), gets discharged directly into the Gowanus Canal.

Solving the CSO discharge problem on the Gowanus Canal is a key component to its ecological restoration and improving water quality. CSOs discharge more pathogens ( disease causing bacteria) in the Gowanus Canal, than any non-point source pollution. Trash from the paved streets and parking lot that run-off with stormwater into the canal is the other source of environmental impact. Run-Off is another major pollution issue on the Gowanus Canal that is very feasible to resolve today. As the Gowanus Canal is a flood zone, planting as many paved surfaces where possible would help retain much> of flood water from our homes and businesses; in> essence this would create a green buffer zone between land-use and this natural resource that is part of our estuary. As we are beginning to experience the effects of climate change on our coastal region, these are signs that flooding that is already a problem in the Gowanus watershed will only get worst.

“Sanitary items disposed from our toilets.” We can only assume that byproduct of the flushes was there too. Check out the Urban Divers, who sent out the message by clicking here.

Regardless of how you feel about redevelopment plans for Coney Island, the Coney Island Development Corporation is going to play an important role in setting the framework with which Thor Equities and other developers must work. Along those lines, there are a couple of noteworthy things to report.

1) Lynn Kelly has been named president of the CIDC. The news was reported by Crain’s. She has been vice president for special projects at the EDC since 2001 and has been acting president of the CIDC. The CIDC has , had been doubletiming as CIDC’s acting president for some time, said officials. The CIDC, which was formed in 2003, has a 13-member board that includes city officials as well as local business and community leaders from Brooklyn.

2) At the CIDC’s meeting on Monday, a wide variety of topics were covered. Kinetic Carnival has a full report. We will summarize his coverage of one important item: What to do about the Dead Zone that has been created on Stillwell Avenue between Surf Avenue and the boardwalk. The CIDC is considering the idea of placing vendors and concessions along the strip, which is boasts of big plywood fences. Objections include creating competition for existing businesses and eliminating parking. Kinetic writes:

Another member agreed that the current fences are a horror by saying, “People are coming to Coney Island and saying this is the last season.” He also said, “They are already tagged with graffiti”. But one major problem in placing kiosks or concessions there is that it would force the foot traffic to walk on the street. In conclusion the same board member who offered placing the stands on the sidewalk suggested using narrow concessions, which would not interfere with the whole sidewalk. “That way, we’ll have our cake and eat it too.” He said. The board decided that they would look into them because the strip definitely needs to be livened up, somehow. “We need to keep Stillwell Avenue exciting”, said Lynn Kelly.

More developments to follow.

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

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New York City’s newest historic district is in Crown Heights. Yesterday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to create the Crown Heights North Historic District, which is Brooklyn’s 17th. The Commission’s press release called the decision “the cornerstone for establishing similar districts in the neighborhood.” The new district runs along Pacific Street to the north, Dean Street, Prospect Place and St. Mark’s Avenue to the south, Bedford Avenue to the west and Kingston Avenue to the east. Most of the buildings were built between the 1860s and 1930s in styles that include Romanesque Revival, Queen Anne, Georgian and Renaissance Revival.

“This marvelous ensemble of mansions, churches, row houses and freestanding residences in Crown Heights North forms a streetscape that is unlike any other in New York City,” said Commission Chairman Robert B. Tierney in a press release. Up to 1,400 buildings could ultimately be in the Crown Heights district.