There are a couple of opportunities coming up to dispose of your unwanted electronic gear, including computers, in an environmentally-friendly way. The Lower East Side Ecology Center will be holding a three-day collection drive for unwanted electronic equipment in Park Slope. Collection days are Saturday, March 31 & Sunday, April 1 from 10 AM to 4 PM and Monday April 2 from 4PM to 7PM. The drop off location is J. J. Byrne Park, at the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 4th Street. Equipment they’re taking includes computers (laptop & desktop), monitors, printers, scanners, fax-machines, copiers, network devices (routers,hubs, modems, etc.), peripherals (keyboards, mice, cables, etc.), components hard drives, CDRoms, circuit boards, power supplies, etc.), TVs, VCR & DVD Players, cell phones, etc. Click here to see the announcement at the Community Board 6 website. And, if those days don’t for you, I’m Seeing Green reports another opportunity coming up on April 21.

So, who was ranked Number Three in spending on lobbying in Albany last year? Try Bruce Ratner. Overall, firms and trade associations trying to influence the outcome of things in the Capitol spent a record $151 million last year, triple what was spent a decade ago. A hospital group, the Healthcare Association of New York State, came in first by spending $2.2 million. A doctors group, the Medical Society, ranked No. 5 at $1.5 million and the Greater New York Hospital Association was No. 7 at $1.2 million.

Verizon ranked No. 2, spending $2.15 million.

None of those are a surprise given the high stakes nature of health care and telecommunications. No. 3, however, turned out to be Bruce Ratner, who spent $2.11 million. Meanwhile, No. 8 was the New York Yankees Partnership, which was looking for state assistance to build a new baseball stadium. Mr. Steinbrenner spent $1.1 million on lobbying, one of the rare instances when he was outspent by another team.

While Atlantic Yards Report points out that $2.11 million on lobbying is a drop in the bucket for a $4 billion project, it’s still interesting to find that Mr. Ratner outspent New York State United Teachers. AYR’s Norman Oder also notes that there was a potentially significant payoff to the lobbying as New York City eventually increased its contribution to the project from $100 million to $205 million.

“Forest City Ratner had $2.11 million to lobby Albany on ‘Atlantic Yards’ but will not spend a single penny to purchase the rail yards which comprise over one-third of the development site Bruce Ratner desires,” Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn’s Daniel Goldstein said. “Instead NYC taxpayers will pay to buy the yards for Ratner. It’s an exquisite shell game.”

Grouped by business nature, health-related groups by far spent the most, $22.3 million. They were followed by real estate and construction ($15.9 million) and unions and trade associations ($12.6 million).

As for Mr. Ratner’s spending, Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn called it a “shell game” because money he saved on land acquisition could be spent lobbying state and city officials. The Real Estate wrote:

The Real Estate thinks the big winner in all of this is lobbying firm Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, which received $656,520 for its efforts. Among other targets listed in its lobbying report are “acquisition of Altantic Avenue railyards from MTA” and “acquisition of city-owned property at Atlantic Yards.”

Apparently, Mr. Fried and Mr. Frank persuaded Forest City that it needed their help persuading the state and the city to do things that they pledged when they signed a memorandum of understanding back in 2005, and for a sweet price.

In the registration letter, Forest City agreed to pay up to $995 an hour for Fried Frank’s services.

You can find the report here. Fascinating stuff.

Related Stories:

• Groups Spent Record $151 Million Lobbying in 2006 [Sun]
• New High in Pay to Sway [NYP]
• Ratner among state lobby leaders [Metro]
• Lobbying Ms. Burden [AYR]
• Forest City Ratner’s Spending on Lobbyists [AYR]

You know that grassroots democracy has taken an odd turn when everyone is debating how a vote came about and what the outcome meant. You might even be tempted to call it a triumph of parliamentary maneuvering over clear results if you were in the mood to editorialize. And, you especially know it’s bad when videos of the motion in question–the Community Board 6 Transportation Committee vote on the controversial proposal to make Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Park Slope one way–are posted on YouTube and people write headlines like “The Motion Carried, but What Does It Say?”

For those who’d person like to figure this out, here’s the motion in question, as written:

Motion 1: CB6 thanks DOT for their efforts to improve pedestrian safety and facilitate the flow of traffic in and around Park Slope as dialogue and discussions are always beneficial; however, we request that DOT not proceed with their proposal to convert 6th and 7th Avenues from two-way to one-way streets at this time because there are too many questions about the impact of this change and how it would affect the neighborhood’s traffic flow and pedestrian safety.

We further request that DOT continue to work with the Community Board and the Park Slope community in resolving Park Slope’s very real traffic and pedestrian safety problems. For example, the perceived/actual high rate of speed of vehicles traveling on 8th Avenue and Prospect Park West, and the congested Union Street approach to the Grand Army Plaza . By working more closely with the Community Board and community we are committing to work with DOT to produce an improved set of remedies and actions designed to further enhance pedestrian safety and facilitate the safe movement of vehicles within our community.

Motion 2: CB6 would table making a recommendation on the 4th Avenue proposal until after such time as we have had a chance to engage DOT in a more comprehensive discussion of the traffic planning needs and challenges facing the Park Slope community.

In the words of the person that created the video, Kevin Burget of WideIris:

The proposer of the Motion did actually say “we ask that the DOT withrawal this proposal at this time; there are many questions, we want to get a lot of data”. But when the meaning of the Motion was unclear to some who spoke up in the house, the Meeting Chair recapped by saying the Motion “is basically, to withdraw this proposal for 6th & 7th”. This clarification met with huge applause in the end, as people did take it to be an unequivocal rejection, or statement of an intention to reject at the next meeting.

The text of the motion that came out of the meeting, it turns out, makes no such intention clear, and may be reflecting the idiosyncratic bias of the motion’s writer neither in accord with unanimous opinion in the room, nor indeed with the definition given by the Meeting Chair. This is not a subtle distinction, as sending it back to the DOT for more study implies that people had lingering questions that were unanswered, therefore could not decide.

In the meantime, Park Slope Neighbors reports signatures on it’s petition (click here to sign the online version) opposing the one-way proposal are up to 2,000. PSN’s Eric McClure writes:

It’s critical that we all work to keep the pressure on our elected representatives and members of CB6 to ensure that the plan to convert the avenues to one-way operation dies — and stays dead. PSN will present local elected officials and CB6 with the signatures of all those who have signed the petition, but we urge you to weigh in individually by calling or writing your Council Member, Assembly representative and State Senator, as well as the Borough President and the Community Board.

Much, much more to come before this issue reaches the full community board in April.

Related Posts:
Big Crowd of Park Slopers Turns Out Jeer One-Way Proposal
No Way One Way Update: “At This Time Edition”

• Forest City Ratner’s Spending on Lobbyists [AYR]
• Ratner Spends $2.11 Million to Lobby, Not a Penny to Buy Vanderbilt Yards [DDDB]
• Sad Koolman Fire Aftermath [INSIJS]
• Got Some Faux California Stucco? [WPA]
• Trying to Close a Zoning Loophole in Southern Brooklyn [NYDN]
• Clinton Hill’s Contribution to the Poo Knowledge Base [Clinton Hill Blog]
• Welcome Natasha! Excellent the Parents Bought You a $1M Penthouse! [Bad Advice]
• All Rise: Brooklyn Judge’s Bribery Trial Starts [NYDN]
• Time Lapse: 475 Sterling [Brownstoner]
• Cab It to Deep Brooklyn for Restaurant Week [Grub Street]
• Dine in Brooklyn 2007 [Dumbo NYC]
• Edward Scissorhands at BAM [Brooklyn Record]

A City Council committee hearing on historic downtown Brooklyn buildings that are said to have been part of the Underground Railroad, has been postponed from Tuesday (3/20) until April 11. A recent report by consultants AKRF (hired by the city) found no conclusive evidence that buildings on Duffield and Gold Streets were Underground Railroad sites. The city wants to take two of the properties by eminent domain for use as a parking lot for a hotel. The owners said in a statement posted by No Land Grab that the consultants are ignoring local history:

AKRF released its most recent scurrilous report, and nobody seems to care. They want to deny that Downtown Brooklyn was not home to important Abolitionists. They say that there are no reports in any published accounts of the period that there were escaped slaves in Downtown Brooklyn. They said that they studied the entire public record. I guess they didn’t read Leaves of Grass, where Walt Whitman talks about a slave coming to his house- and he lived two blocks from Duffield Street.

Joy Chatel, the owner of 227 Duffield Street, and Lewis Greenstein of 223 Duffield have been fighting the development plans. They held a rally last summer.

A vid of yesterday’s Irish-American Parade in Park Slope. Click here if you can’t get into the embed.

Where would we be without a Live Journal diatribe about Brooklyn from time to time? Here’s the latest one we came across, called “I Hate Brooklyn” from someone that goes by the name of redstripe. (And this is by no means the only entry on the page that might elicit a strong response from some.) We’ll copy and past a couple of choice tidbits:

I couldn’t pinpoint my blind hatred for this borough until now. After all, I’m the kind of person you’d expect to move to Brooklyn. A student, a transplant from a bumfuck state, quirky…if one overlooked my strong distaste for white girls my age, my conservative leanings, and my thirst for chaos and danger, it wouldn’t be difficult to picture me sharing a railroad apartment in Williamsburg with Jennifer, an NYU English major from Oregon, and Michelle, a psychology grad student from Texas.

It’s the pinnacle of NYC stereotype and inconvenience. It’s almost as expensive as Manhattan, yet most of the borough feels remote, desolate, isolated…but there’s an organic deli on every corner, and the bars serve PBR! PBR in a can!

Gentrification in Harlem is fought tooth and nail by the community and met with hostility; in Brooklyn, it seems almost universally undisputed. They welcome the Ikea in Redhook. They push the Prospect Heights boundaries back and begin consuming Crown Heights. Trashy Gowanus becomes Boerum Hill, where studios routinely fetch $1500/month. Block by block, they gut and renovate the buildings in Bed Stuy. And no one says shit.

Soon enough, it’ll be nothing more than a homogeneous landmass of typical middle class Americans who would be upper middle class if they hadn’t chosen to live in one of the most complicated, exorbitantly expensive, prestige-driven cities in the world. That there are fewer chain establishments here than in Manhattan gives Brooklyn “character”, but it’s a facade…Or, you know, maybe I’m just not hip enough. I miss the Bronx. It was largely nasty and isolated, but you expect it. Shit, I was paying $1000/month for a 1300 square foot apartment with utilities included. And the 2/5 may have taken a motherfucking hour to get downtown, but I always had a seat.

Hard to know where to begin, so we won’t, because we know Brooklyn readers will have plenty of opinions.

This city once had a great waterfront transportation network that moved freight, livestock, vehicles and people between all boroughs and New Jersey. Much of this was dismantled during the heyday of highway building because highways were seen as the new, better technology. Some forty years later, we find that our roads are clogged, our highways and bridges are constantly under repair for carrying excessive loads, and we never meet federal clean air standards.

However, we hear little dialogue about moving things via the water that threads through our urban archipelago. Private operators that make proposals to the city are often cold shouldered; New York waterfront planners forever show slides of waterside entertainments in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor (pioneering planning in the 80s) while neglecting to mention that Baltimore itself recognized that the pendulum can swing too far and instituted maritime protection zoning in 2004.

PortSide believes it is high time to develop a new, innovative, varied and robust waterborne transportation plan.

We also support clean water efforts, the reduction of CSO’s, greater public access to the waterfront and more recreational boating…but given the momentum in those areas, we profoundly believe that THE key planning issue now is figuring out how to move stuff by water and incorporating that into the “new” waterfront. We need to find ways to SHARE these uses and users.

Among the principles the group suggests are:

1) Develop a new warehousing and distribution system since we import more and
manufacture less.

2) Don’t race to rezone unused manufacturing zoned land.

3) To put goods closer to the final market, use and develop Brooklyn ports, a cross harbor freight rail tunnel, freight ferries and barges.

4) Develop ways to include new uses and public access without displacing the vessels that deliver sand, stone, cement, lumber, asphalt, etc. and distribute fuel for homes, vehicles and power plants.

5) Develop new forms of waterborne transportation with new vehicles and new routes.There is more to the proposal than we can possibly do justice to here, so we suggest heading over to PortSide’s web page to learn more.

For now, all we will add is that there is a school of thought that global energy supplies may start to shrink sooner rather than later and that, as they do, there will be intense pressure to re-industrialize the waterfront, starting with transportation.

The Parks Department is again trying to lure operators of beachfront amusements in Coney Island. In contrast to the demolitions now underway by Thor Equities and its efforts to shrink the amusement zone by including housing, the Parks Department is soliciting bids from operators interested in operating rock-climbing walls, parasailing and other activities. A similar attempt last year failed to draw interest. The development is reported in today’s Daily News:

Bids are due in mid-April, but agency officials couldn’t say whether things would be up and running by summer. A similar request last year drew no respondents, but the agency has increased advertising and outreach efforts.

“We’re not sure why we didn’t get responses the last time around – it might have been a question of people seeing the ads too late,” said Parks Department spokesman Eric Abramson, noting that the agency is also “talking it up” to current Coney Island business owners.

The hope is that what is currently a lightly used parcel in Steeplechase Plaza near KeySpan Park just off W. 19th St. will become an extension of the amusements east of Stillwell Ave.

Operators estimate the initial investment at about $1 million.

Related Posts:
No Way One Way Update: “At This Time” Edition
Big Crowd of Park Slopers Turns Out to Jeer One-Way Proposal

• AY Environmental and Community Benefits Agreement Monitors Being Hired [AYR]
• 300 Evacuated in Sunset Park Because of Carbon Monoxide [NYT]
• Tucker Place Park [Blather from Brooklyn]
• Chowhounder Calls Clinton Hill “Sketchy” [Set Speed]
• Actually, Clinton Hill is Almost as Shitty as Greenpoint [newyorkshitty]
• Keep Brooklyn Bridge Park Simple, Stupid [Dumbo NYC]
• Brooklyn Matters Screening and Eminent Domain Panel on Wednesday [No Land Grab]
• Mother Maimed by SUV in Sheepshead Bay [NYP]
• Kent Avenue Retrospective [INSIJS]
• Brooklyn Peace Parade on March 25 [OTBKB]
• Free Lunches, Sort Of [NYT]
• Belly Dancing Series [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• Rotting Brooklyn Bulkheads and Piers [Big Sky Brooklyn]
• Coney Island USA Spring Events [Kinetic Carnival]

This week’s Brooklyn Missed Connection offers the image of running into someone on the F Train that you can’t quite place, even if you’ve spent quality time with them in, say, Los Angeles:

You: Blonde girl on Bklyn bound F train after midnight: – m4w

To the girl who sat across from me on the Brooklyn bound F after midnight (morning of 03/17)- My apologies. I turned to get up and found you staring at me- hard. Your bright, beautiful eyes carried within them that spark of familiarality, as if you were fighting back the urge to ask me my name (or tell me what it is)- you know, as if you had recognized me from the past. If I had not had such a shite awful day I would have responded with a smile or even a hello.

I got off at Bergen St. and continued an otherwise dull evening having dull conversation with dull people drinking at some bar (that normally is’nt so bloody dull). I awoke this er- afternoon, and while lying in bed, Images of you on the F train were gently resonating in my head, and began telling me a story- about a hottie that I spent many, many hours with on a beach in Los Angeles watching the sun come up, Stealing moments in your car along the many secluded spots along Angeles Crest Highway, and having even more “fun” in your parents house whenever (and wherever) we could steal a moment.

Thinking about all off that drama now, just makes me smile. Is it really you? WTF are you doing in NYC? If it’s not you, call me anyway. You’re hot!

There you have it.

This year marks Astroland’s final season, although the Cyclone, which celebrates its 80th birthday this summer, will continue to operate for years to come. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz will officially launch the Cyclone at 11:30 a.m. by breaking the ceremonial bottle of authentic Brooklyn Chocolate egg cream against the coaster’s lead car.

The general public will be able to board the Cyclone at 12 p.m. To qualify to ride the Cyclone, youngsters must be at least 54 inches tall. After the first 100 visitors ride for free, the coaster’s regular $6 fee will apply. The Cyclone and the adjacent Astroland Park will also remain open for the afternoon. The Hungry March Band, Kinko the Clown and Angie Pontani will provide entertainment for the festivities.

For additional information, the public can call 718-265-2100 or visit www.astroland.com. The Cyclone, which debuted in the summer of 1927, will celebrate its 80th anniversary June 26. There will be a massive celebration on that day, led by a team of roller coaster-riding octogenarians from around the country. Since 1962, Coney Island’s Astroland has been the centerpiece of the world-famous Coney Island amusement zone, with more than 35 rides and attractions.

Thor Equities bought Astroland last year. The Cyclone is a landmark and will remain, but the remainder of the park will be redeveloped. Current plans call for a hotel and some sort of amusement facility on the site called Coney Island Park.

This is another Coney Island gem, a postcard of Astroland back when it had a skyride. It was posted by foz (who has posted a number of wonderful older Coney images) over at the Coney Island Message Board.

• Happiness is a Two-Way Street [NYT]
• Aesthetics vs. Statistics [I’m Seeing Green]
• Crime Trumps Traffic [AYR]
• Snow Lined in Greenpoint [A Test of Will]
• Daffodil Hill in Snow [Atomische]
• The Cat Healer of Prospect Heights [NYT]
• Stroll on Portland [Clinton Hill Blog]
• A Gray Day for the Oirish [Erica’s Blog]
• Gowanus Canal Photo Tour [Flatbush Gardener]
• Court Street with Snow [seriously excited!]
• Zip Car Looking for a Spot in Clinton Hill [Myrtle Minutes]
• Park Slope Dance Studio Threatened [NYT]

A small selection of vids posted to the YouTube this week that have to do with Brooklyn. You can also go over to the list by clicking here.

[Photo courtesy of the superb photoblog, Food of the Future]

As you may know, we hang out over at Curbed from Monday through Friday. Here’s some of our Brooklyn postings from that part of the online world:

• Red Hook’s Revere Dome is Totally Gone (above)
• Boymelgreen Backing Off From Brooklyn for Now
• Brooklyn Bridge Park Expects Tons of Snow & Rats
• New Look on Union Avenue: Beer & Soda Edition
• New Brooklyn Neighborhood Blogs
• Catch the ‘Save Coney Island’ Wave
• Park Slope #2: No Way to the One Way
• Park Slope #1: How to Piss Off Park Slopers
• Carroll Gardens Hell Adds to South Brooklyn Skyline
• Fun with Brooklyn Balconies #2: Overlooking N. 9th
• Fun with Brooklyn Balconies #1: Aqua Gets Funky

[Photo courtesy of Jonathan Barkey/PBase]

DOT’s proposal to make Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Park Slope one-way has generated more Brooklyn coverage than virtually any issue since those public sessions in the dog days of summer ’06 on Atlantic Yards. Park Slope Neighbors announced that it had collected 600 petition signatures at the hospital and estimates that more than 700 people attended or tried to attend the Community Board 6 Transportation Committee meeting on Thursday night. No one knows how many people turned around upon seeing lines stretching down the block, but Mr. McClure’s numbers indicate that previous estimates of about 500 attendees were too low.

Community Board Six circulated the resolutions that were actually approved by its Transportation Committee at the Thursday meeting–about which there has been some confusion because the verbiage was muddled, so confusing, in fact, that different conclusions were drawn about what the Committee’s vote meant. Note the inclusion of the phrase “at this time” below. Here they are because there’s such a high degree of interest in the community about them:

Motion 1: CB6 thanks DOT for their efforts to improve pedestrian safety and facilitate the flow of traffic in and around Park Slope as dialogue and discussions are always beneficial; however, we request that DOT not proceed with their proposal to convert 6th and 7th Avenues from two-way to one-way streets at this time (emphasis added) because there are too many questions about the impact of this change and how it would effect the neighborhood’s traffic flow and pedestrian safety. We further request that DOT continue to work with the Community Board and the Park Slope community in resolving Park Slope’s very real traffic and pedestrian safety problems. For example, the perceived/actual high rate of speed of vehicles traveling on 8th Avenue and Prospect Park West, and the congested Union Street approach to the Grand Army Plaza.

By working more closely with the Community Board and community we are committing to work with DOT to produce an improved set of remedies and actions designed to further enhance pedestrian safety and facilitate the safe movement of vehicles within our community.

Motion 2: CB6 would table making a recommendation on the 4th Avenue proposal until after such time as we have had a chance to engage DOT in a more comprehensive discussion of the traffic planning needs and challenges facing the Park Slope community.

It seems to us that the phrase “at this time,” would provide ample wiggle room for the proposal to spring forth from the transportation planning grave at another time after questions have been answered. The motions will be presented to the full board for a vote on April 11.

Here’s an incomplete sampling of items that have appeared:

• International Speedway Corporation Launches Park Slope Bid [No Land Grab]
• Clarifying the Community Board 6 Vote [AYR]
• DOT’s Park Slope One Way Presentation [Streets Blog]
• Kilroy Was in Park Slope [No Land Grab]
• Brooklyn to City Hall: Give Us Planning Not Traffic Engineering [Streets Blog]
• Slope Weighs One-Way Byways [Voice]
• CB6 Meeting Photo Gallery [Jonathan Barkey/PBase]
• One Way? Noooo Way! [AYR]
• No Way to One Way Streets [I’m Seeing Green]
• Park Slope Parents Win Traffic Battle, Lose Composure [Daily Intel]
• Slopers Jeer One-Way Proposal [Brooklyn Record]
• Blogtalk: Park Slope Revolt [Empire Zone]
• One Way! No Way! DOT Faces Park Slope Ire [Daily Gotham]