• Would Robert Moses Like Atlantic Yards? [AYR]
• So-Called Useless Space [Brooklyn Views]
• Dumbo Improvement District 2007 Initiatives [Dumbo NYC]
• How to Ruin a Neighborhood: One-Way Streets [I’m Seeing Green]
• Williamsburg’s Purple Truck Condo [Gothamist]
• Rocking Purim in Carroll Gardens [Englishman in New York]
• The Future of Park Slope? [Daily Slope]
• Bay Ridge Church Going Condo [NYDN]
• Bye Bye Tiffany’s Diner, Hello Commerce Bank [Bay Ridge Courier]

Look no further than the purple 1953 bread truck parked on the corner of N. 12th St. and Bedford Ave. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Dance photographer Angel Hess and his girlfriend have been living in the vintage Ford since the fall.

“I always wanted to own a house,” the 28-year-old said. “But I can’t because I don’t have any credit.”

After living in Manhattan for two years, Hess, 28, was so sick of paying for crummy rented rooms he decided that radical change was in order.

Last summer, he spotted the truck on eBay, made a winning bid of $2,500 and hopped a plane to California to pick it up.

He’d never driven a stick and the truck’s top speed is 40 mph, but he decided to bring it back to the city and make it his home.

Interesting.

Related Post:
Meet You New Bedford Ave. Parking Lot

It’s Sunday and that means it’s time for our weekly voyage into the pathos and comedy of Craigslist Missed Connections. As this weeks choice, we bring you:

7:30pm/g-train/i was wearing flannel you had a moron hoodie – 25

…you were wearing a maroon hoodie and banged up brown boots that I wanted to see up close…i was wearing a grey hat, flannel coat and was carrying a case of soy milk..of course, retrospectivly, I realize that’s a bit odd (at least to have to recount)…You were on the G train around 7.30 tonite and we both exitied at fulton street..i was walking in front of you and accidentally got in your way…you made your way down fulton towards the clock tower & I turned down my street and came to write this on the rare chance you’ll read it…and reply…hey not for nothing, you know I drink healthy milk.

Moron. Maroon. Same difference.

Images:

• We Must Call It One Hanson. Sure. [Frank Lynch/flickr]
• Wall [lornagrl/flickr]
• Red Hook Demolition [Really Not Worth Archiving]
• Highway with Overpass [seriously excited!]
• Beautiful Gowanus @ Smith & 9th [f.trainer/flickr]

Words:

• Engine 212 Update [WPA]
• Eberhard Pencil Factory, Isaac Katan and Greenpoint Magic [jUSTINYC]
• Updating Things [Runs Brooklyn]
• Smartmom Strikes Back, Deconstructs David Brooks in re Hipster Parents [OTBKB]
• Dumbo Chocolate Wars [Dumbo NYC]
• First on Ratner’s Hit List [No Land Grab]
• Happy Purim! [ABL]
• Purim Fest at Southpaw Tonight (3/4) [About Brooklyn]
• A Visit to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden [Flatbush Gardener]
• La Marqueta Threatened in Williamsburg [Green Brooklyn]
• Inside a 24-hour Brooklyn Flat Fix Shop [NYT]
• Gowanus Canal Debate Series: Yay II [Brooklyn Skeptic]

A half-dozen Williamsburg-related vids from the YouTube for your Sunday viewing pleasure. Click on the embedded player below or on this link.

• New Williamsburg Condo Almost Finished, Trucks Included (above)
• The Splasher Goes Mainstream
• New Karl Fischer Williamsburg Building Popping Up
• Spreadsheet Time: Atlantic Yards Financials Released
• How to Control Park Slope Strollers Traffic
• Here’s the Brooklyn Industries Gallery
• Park Slope Altnerative Stepford Moms Mount Defense

Piers are timeless landmarks of many oceanfront metropolises, as they embody paradise on the edge of civilization. Gaining popularity early in the 1900’s, piers resembling scaled down versions of Coney Island were erected in coastal cities around the world. People of all ages were drawn in by the glowing aura of their attractions, the aroma of fried cuisine, as well as the sounds of mechanical rides and the adjacent ocean. Alas, the evolution of modern theme parks has ostracized pleasure piers into a realm filled with the nostalgic relics of our past.

Very cool stuff.

Definitely click over for the full read, but here are a couple of teasers:

1. David Von Spreckelsen, a Toll Brothers vice president, said the development firm expects the city to rezone the Toll-owned parcels in Gowanus before a larger rezoning occurs.

“We are working with the city, and we are fairly confident that we will get rezoning for our sites within the next year,” said Von Spreckelsen, adding that the site-specific rezonings would likely be consistent with larger rezoning plans.

2. Lowe’s built a store on the former site of a manufactured gas plant in 2003. The home-improvement retailer did a voluntary cleanup of the site before starting construction, removing tar that was known to exist at depths of 60 to 80 feet. Lowe’s did not clean up all of the tar because the company said it could not access the contamination by conventional excavation techniques. Tar contamination has now been reported on the site a few feet from the grocery store next to the Lowe’s, a Pathmark.

If anyone was the community meeting in Gowanus on Thursday evening, please drop us an email with details at gowanuslounge (at) gmail (dot) com.

[Photo courtesy of seriously excited! & daltonrooney/flickr]

Images:

• Carroll Street Lights (above) [seriously excited!]
• The Outdoor Life on Green Street [chicapoquita/flickr]
• Snowing on Manhattan Avenue [A Test of Will]
• The Only Graffiti in Vietnam [bluejake]
• Get Chucked [Park Slope Street Photography]
• Stripped Down BQE [Clinton Hill Blog]
• Paint Can [Lex’s Folly]
• Silent Coney [For the Love of Brooklyn/flickr]
• Playland [Lorna Girl on flickr via Only Coney]
• Pre-Depression Bed Stuy [Brownstoner]

Words:

• Why Was Stuy Town Buyer Embraced & Starrett City Buyer Villified? [NYT]
• Party at Starrett City After Sale is Blocked [NYDN]
• Any 99 Gold Street Updates? [Dumbo NYC]
• Domino Landmarking Petition Drive Update [WPA]
• It Came From the Blogosphere [No Land Grab]
• Brooklyn Neighborhoods and Maps [One Stop Over in Brooklyn]
• Music Hall of Williamsburg Woes [Gothamist]
• Finally, Spring [Flatbush Gardener]
• Best Bowl of Soup in Brooklyn [Brooklyn Record]
• Excited About Chiles and Chocolate on Seventh [OTBKB]
• Beware the McCarren Park Dog Gentile, Uh, Fondler [newyorkshitty]

Among the more interesting things about Red Hook that we haven’t gotten around to noticing because we’ve been so fixated on the Revere Dome being reduced to a Cylinder on its way to being reduced to total nothingness, is the fact there’s some, uh, sinkage in the hood. It’s not much in the sense that, say, Venice is really sinking, but it is sinking. The image and the news come from Amy’s New York Notebook. The sinkage was noted almost as an aside in a Carroll Gardens Courier story which quoted an engineers saying of Columbia Street: “That soil just isn’t as firm as the rest of the city. As we work by those homes we are looking to see if there is settlement of the soil.” Of the waterfront sinkage, Amy wrote:

As you walk out toward the Warerfront Museum and that new park, there’s been a section along the water blocked off by a fence. You could see there was some sinkage going on, but it’s obviously gotten way worse during the winter. The fence is actually half way under water now.

All this leads the Brooklyn Record to ask, ” Is Red Hook sinking?” which is a very good question, indeed.

All we can say is, this bad boy gets around.

Related Post:
Massive Williamsburgh Square Development Versus the Streetscape

The Alliance notes:

The permit covers a site that includes three buildings, all of which were once part of the pencil factory complex. It is not clear from the permit if the demolition is for all three buildings, or only one. In the past week or two, scaffolding has gone up around the building at the corner of Kent Street and West Street…While this building is not the most distinctive or historic in the Faber complex, it shares a lot with an older two-story structure that is very characteristic of the Eberhard Faber buildings.

So, we went poking around and found that the developer is none other than Isaac Katan, who is also involved in the Domino Sugar Plant property in Williamsburg and in many project in South Brooklyn. The trail also leads to Daniel Goldner Architects, which has designed building in the rendering. Their website says it will “establish a recognizable architectural icon for the area that would…stand out distinctly from the adjacent context of mundane utilitarian buildings lining the waterfront.” Some plans were disapproved by the Department of Buildings in November, but demolition permits are in place and the New Look Pencil Factory does not include the little “very characteristic” two-story building next door.

The handwriting has been on the wall since the day after the sale of Starrett City was announced on February 8. Since then, very few days have gone by without an objection being raised or a protest. Now, it looks like HUD–which does not have a track record of radical activism in recent year–is likely to block the sale. From the Times:

The federal housing secretary has rejected the proposed $1.3 billion sale of Starrett City, a working-class enclave of 46 apartment buildings in Brooklyn, because the prospective buyer has failed to supply adequate financial information or a plan for how the complex would remain “a viable community for New Yorkers of modest means.”

In a letter sent yesterday to lawyers for the buyers, the secretary of housing and urban development, Alphonso R. Jackson, left open the possibility that the deal could be revived. But he listed a series of issues and problems that must be addressed by the buyers, Clipper Equity L.L.C., a group led by the real estate investors David Bistricer and Sam Levinson.

It looks very unlikely the deal will be revived.

Starrett City Coverage:
Stick a Fork in Starrett City Deal
Feds Nix Starrett City Sale
Housing Agency Denies Sale of Starrett City [AP/Sun]

The Red Hook Piers redevelopment plan turned into a many twists and turns sort of situation some time ago. So, it comes as no surprise that the plan to evict American Stevedoring to make way for the remake has been put on hold. For now. The reprieve comes after earlier reports that the company would be out by the end of March. The Daily News reports today:

The city’s plan to close down the docks in Red Hook – where hundreds of workers unload cargo from international ships – by the end of the month were halted yesterday, at least temporarily.

“This is a great victory for the Red Hook Port. The clock has stopped,” said Matt Yates, spokesman for shipping company American Stevedoring International.

The company will not be evicted at the end of the month when their lease expires, Port Authority officials agreed yesterday.

Instead, proposed changes to the waterfront are expected to require City Council approval, pushing back plans to build a second cruise ship terminal, hotel, beer garden, beverage distributor and maritime businesses.

“The international shipping community can be assured that there will be no interruption of current port operations at the Red Hook container terminal [on] March 31,” PA Executive Director Anthony Shorris said last night.

Of course, there are likely to be new developments next week.

• Forest City Ratner Announces Atlantic Yards Demolitions [AYR]
• Did the Brooklyn Public Library Engage in Censorship? [Library Journal]
• Rice Abandoning Fort Greene Location? [Brooklyn Record]
• City Council Launches Probe of Eugene’s Eligibility [Sun]
• What’s Up at 99 Gold? [Brownstoner]
• DOT Explains Park Slope Traffic Proposals [Streetsblog]
• Ugly Buildings, Including a Couple of Brooklyn Choices [Gothamist]
• Serious Historical Misinformation in Cobble Hill [Lost City]
• Hope the Carroll Park Guinea Pig Problem Was Solved [newyorkshitty]
• Pimps, Prostitutes and Pigs at BAM [OTBKB]
• Gowanus Yacht Club Dreaming [Stories Without Words]