February 27th, 2007 · Comments Off on Brooklyn Bridge Park Meeting Tonight
The Brooklyn Bridge Park development is one of those projects about which controversy continues, even though it was approved by the Empire State Development Corporation during the reign of Chair Charles Gargano. Yesterday, there was a report that the park’s cost could actually balloon to double the original estimate of $150 million. That report, actually, is connected to tonight’s Town Hall Meeting, which will take place at 7PM at Founders Hall of St. Francis College, which is located at 180 Remsen Street. The meeting will focus on a host of topics, including a “fight to restore the ice rink, the swimming pool (a permanent pool, not a barge to be floated in and out according the latest public relations needs), a performance venue, stores, and restaurants). Organizers of the meeting write:
As it has done at Atlantic Yards, the ESDC and its satellites have run a relentless, well-orchestrated and financed campaign to make their plan look and feel like a foregone conclusion. A big and enthusiastic turnout on Tuesday will effectively contradict that perception. The press, the public and the new administration in Albany will be watching…Our panel of parks advocates, community organizers and traffic experts will answer your questions about how we can get a real park.
In particular, organizers say the want “restoration of the seasonal, year-round, indoor and outdoor recreation that’s been systematically removed from the community’s plan and replaced with frivilous, elitist features designed to discourage public use.”
Designs and a new budget are supposed to be coming next month.
February 27th, 2007 · Comments Off on Poolaid Vid Debuts Tonight
As we noted a couple of weeks ago, Poolaid, the group concerned about various McCarren Pool issues, is debuting its “We are the Pool” tonight (2/27). The video will debut at Union Pool, 484 Union Avenue (cross street: Meeker Ave.), in Williamsburg. The event is from 7–9 pm.
The video is intended to draw attention to the situation with McCarren Pool here in Williamsburg. Poolaid wants to encourage our community to learn more about the pool and to let the Parks Department and our elected officials know what they want done with the pool. We want the pool to be for the people!
McCarren Pool, situated on the Williamsburg/Greenpoint border in McCarren Park, was built in 1936 as a WPA project. After being shut down in the late 1980s, the pool fell into major disrepair.
In 2005 the pool was reopened as a performance venue. A local group, Jelly NYC, put on free shows every Sunday that drew huge crowds. Noemie LaFrance’s dance troupe performed the dance pieces Agora and Agora II. Unfortunately, the Parks Department chose to allow Live Nation, a spin-off and business partner of Clear Channel, to put on shows in the park as well. Live Nation then chose to charge $40 for their concerts.
We think a $40 cover charge for a show in a public park is wrong. Deeply wrong. Why is our pool being used to line the pockets of a corporation known for its predatory business practices? Furthermore, what does this mean for the future of the pool? Will some backdoor deal leave our community with a mini-Madison Square Garden and no pool? North Brooklyn is already lacking in park space and public facilities, and our pool should not be for sale.
And we want to go swimming.
The group argues for diversity of programming while the pool is used as a performance venue and for events that are “cheap or free.” It says that profits from ticketed events should be set aside for the pool and that the Parks Department–which has engaged in relatively private planning for the pool–set up “a community committee and have regularly scheduled meetings for discussion of community concerns.” The group also wants “a clear timeline and a funding plan for turning the pool back into a pool again.” Oh, and did we mention they’re not fond of Live Nation and other corporate concert promoters?
The street art vandal known as the Splasher has struck again in Williamsburg, splashing white pain on street art and ads on N. 6th Street, Kent, Berry, Wythe and other locations around the neighborhood. In contrast to the aqua and maroon paint used in earlier splashings, the new splashings were done with white paint. At first, on N. 6th Street, we wondered if the splashings were the result of a Copycat Splasher, but a look at 184 Kent, where another of the Splasher’s screeds pasted on defaced street art confirmed that the white paint splashings were indeed the work of the Splasher.
It appears that the Splasher is particularly targeting the work of Faile and Swoon. We almost hesitate to say it, but he appears to have ignored the work of another artist that has been appearing around Williamsburg.
Street artists have already struck back on N. 6th Street (look below or click here), which is becoming the scene of a bizarre tit-for-tat, back-and-forth war between street artists and the street art vandal.
Yesterday, we came across the results of renewed destruction of street art by the vandal known as the Splasher. (Insert your comment here about how it’s all vandalism.) On N. 6th Street this has led to a series of punch-counter punch exchanges between vandal and artists. (You can see the full post about the latest Splasher strike above or by clicking here.) In any case, this is what art and vandalism scene on N. 6th Street between Kent and Wythe is looking like.
February 26th, 2007 · Comments Off on Thor’s Hammer Nearly Finished With Revere Dome
We noted on Saturday that the Red Hook skyline viewed from a distance is now missing its iconic dome. These photos show why you can no longer see it. The demolition crews dispatched by developer Joe Sitt and Thor Equities have now started cutting holes in the base of the structure itself. In a couple of weeks, at most, all traces of it will have vanished except in photographs.
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February 26th, 2007 · Comments Off on Sunset Park Highrise Has Few Fans
That 12-story building proposed for 42nd Street in Sunset Park continues attracting opposition. Last week, Community Board 7 voted unanimously to denounce the “non-contextual” building, which would be located at 420 42nd Street. Now, CB7 is going to have a community meeting on the development on Thursday (March 1) at 6:30. The meeting will offer an update on the project and a discussion of how the community can “fight the project.” The meeting will take place at the Community Board Office, which is at 4201 4th Avenue at the corner of 43rd Street. (Which is basically a block from the development.) The Sunset Park Alliance of Neighbors (SPAN) will have a meeting on the development on Saturday, March 3. (We don’t have an address on that meeting.) Neighbors are objecting to the development because it would rise on a block of three- and four-story buildings and because it would interfere with views from Sunset Park and of St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church.
February 26th, 2007 · Comments Off on An NYT Op-Ed and Words from Cleveland About Atlantic Yards
We neglected to link to the New York Times op-ed by Jennifer Egan on Saturday (which was, astoundingly, the paper’s first such treatment of the most important development in Brooklyn history). The op-ed is absolutely worth a read (the writer is very up front about her position) and places the development in the broader context of New York City and Brooklyn and the political and planning environment that communities must confront. Ms. Egan writes in part:
Nearly everyone I’ve spoken to about the Atlantic Yards project, whether they favored or opposed it, assumed that it would be scaled back. In fact, the plan approved by the Public Authorities Control Board in December was more than 600,000 square feet larger than the one first unveiled.
That approval came despite sobering revisions by the city and the developer of his initial heady claims about the project’s benefits to Brooklyn: the proportion of affordable housing has slipped, and much of it won’t be completed until 2016; the public park on the arena’s rooftop is now only for residents; the number of promised jobs has shrunk; the projected tax revenue has fallen; and the taxpayers’ bill is colossal and apparently open-ended.
We need to take our money back, along with our cities. We in Cleveland have seen all this before, as we swirl further down the drain, and now Ratner is sucking Brooklyn into the vortex as well–the earmarks are the same–the faddish Frank Gehry buildings, the promises of jobs and tax revenue and affordable housing, the sports arenas, the doctored impact statements commissioned by the developer. Read the entire article. You’ll recognize the patterns of lies, deceit, sins of omission and commission, the corruption. Dwell on the last sentence. Blog. Congregate.
All very much worth reading.
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Yes, Sunday. Time for our Brooklyn Craigslist Missed Connection of the Week. There are a lot of tough choices this week, like the simple, yet compelling, one for the woman wearing the cheetah print shoes on the F and the bit of nastiness left for the “ass face” that took someone’s Arecibo car in Dumbo. Finally, after much back and forth, we settled on the oogler ogler, mainly because of the funny use of the word “oogle,” which we googled just to double checking that the correct spelling is “ogle” not “oogle.” So, Mr. Oogler, this we, we salute you:
This was around 9:45pm. Sorry if I oogled a little too much. You are extremely nice looking. My mother would love to meet you. Problem is, I’m likely soooo not your type. You stood the whole time, though our wait was short. You had dark denim skinny jeans that were made to be wrinkly at the knee. You also had on a pair of comfy looking dark brown suede shoes. You were blonde and had strong and straight hair. You wore a black (was it wool?) coat. Again, you’re extremely nice looking and I’d love to share a sandwhich with you, discuss politics or Williamsburg over a hot chocolate, or make-out! Or become really great platonic friends or something. You likely know who I am, so I won’t say much about me, maybe you could write and possibly say one thing about my appearance so I’ll know it’s you i you do decide to write, if you see this…
If not, enjoy your weekend and your life, and your boyfriend/husband/girlfriend/life partner/significant other is very lucky.
February 25th, 2007 · Comments Off on Brooklyn Back in the Day: Coney Island
We return to our episodic feature, Brooklyn Back in the Day, with this specimen from the Brooklyn Public Library’s wonderful collection of historic photos. This photo is Coney Island’s Bowery in 1948. The taller building on the right is the Henderson Building, which will eventually fall to Thor Equities demolition crews. The caption to the photo says: “Section of Coney Island amusement area known as Bowery that extended from Steeplechase Park to Feltman’s Restaurant; two men standing on ladder platform working on large sign (“…Irish House”) with arcade game below in right foreground, moving truck in center, and several amusement rides in background.”
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February 25th, 2007 · Comments Off on GL’s Weekend Curbed Roundup
As you may know, we also hang around in Curbed’s corner of the blogosphere from Monday through Friday. Here’s a sampling of this week’s Curbed goodness that didn’t appear on GL:
Part of our routine, every day, is to check out Red Hook from the F Train and from the Smith-9th Street Station. We do this because we like the view and because since December, we’ve been instinctively glancing toward the waterfront to check on the progress made on the Revere Dome demolition. We look to see that it is still there. Yesterday, for the first time ever, the Revere Dome was no longer visible from the F. We looked and we looked and all we could see was the towering smokestack of the old plant.
There are many people in Brooklyn–both newcomers and long time residents–that have never known this view without the Revere Dome. It was something that was simply always there.
And, now, it’s not.
Call us sentimental fools, but we’re going to miss that waterfront skyline with its towering cone very, very, very, very much.
February 24th, 2007 · Comments Off on Federal Magistrate Recommends State Courts Hear Eminent Domain Case
A Federal Magistrate has said that the Atlantic Yards eminent domain case should be heard in state court. The decision actually focuses on procedural issues, not the specific issues raised in the case. Atlantic Yards Reports notes that while the Judge’s “recommendation to federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis is not binding, judges generally follow such recommendations. Still, the parties in the case have ten business days to file objections, and Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, the coalition organizing the 13 plaintiffs—homeowners, business owners, and renters—promised to do so.”
The Judge wrote:
This action represents important public policy concerns and is essentially local in nature…The state’s interest in adjudicating this case in its own forum outweighs the federal interest in retaining jurisdiction.
Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn responded with a press release saying that the decision reflects the strength of the merits of their case and that they hope to prevail with the presiding Judge.
February 24th, 2007 · Comments Off on It’s the "New Park Slope"!
We’ve had our share of fun with the Boymelgreen development on Park Slope called Novo Park Slope (which we dubbed Boymelgreen Hall because of its, um, institutional look). The marketing campaign for the development is on now, and it may set a new standard of salesmanship. Here’s what Corcoran‘s site says:
Novo is the new Park Slope. This handsome condominium sets a new standard for full-service living, offering amenities previously unavailable in Park Slope. Come see how your new home pioneers comfort and style as Fourth Avenue evolves into a modern and exciting residential corridor, rich with the ambience and energy of Park Slope. Luxurious lifestyle begins when entering the lobby from a landscaped garden off a quaint 5th street approach. Once inside, open layouts and an impressive array of sunlit building amenities are several of the hallmarks of life at the NOVO. The building’s proximity to JJ Byrne Memorial Park offers not only wide open views, but also provides convenient access to extras such as a playground, a dog run and basketball courts. Facing west, many residences offer impressive views of the Manhattan Skyline, Verrazano Bridge and the East River.
“Facing west” is, of course, the big yellow taxi place, Pep Boys and Staples, but we’re sure it looks a lot better from above than it does at street level and we also think Hotel Le Bleu is going to polish things up when it opens. In any case, we can’t wait to see the full Novo’s website. The attempt to try to remake Fourth Avenue’s image has started.
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February 24th, 2007 · Comments Off on Sunday Fun: Walking Tour of ‘Gorgeous Gowanus’
Looking for something to do on Sunday, assuming the weather cooperates? Try a walk of “Gorgeous Gowanus” sponsored by Shorewalkers. According to Shorewalkers, which sponsors many interesting urban excursions, “this narrated tour will cross four of the five bridges over the canal and cover 400 years of history. Tour ends at the launch site of the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club. Pace: Slow, 2 miles. MEET: 1:00 PM downstairs in front of entrance on 9th St. Check out the view from the subway platform (highest).” Fee is $3 per person. Call (718) 781-1228 for more information.
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So, to continue with a bit more information about all the signage in Coney Island, a commenter noted:
There is a semi-homeless man named Wallace who has painted many of the signs in Coney Island. He walks around Coney Island with his portable studio, a shopping cart full of canvases and paint. You will frequently see him sitting at the picnic table outside the grill house, using his big belly as an easel to prop up the canvases as he paints. Whenever he sees me he serenades me with the song “somewhere over the rainbow.” This redevelopment raises many issues about “What is Coney Island?” THAT, to me, is Coney Island. Wallace’s artwork, and all of the artists who contribute to the colorful landscape in Coney Island should, definitely, be preserved.
The person that left the comment was kind enough to follow up with the photo of Wallace that you see here. In that email, our commenter said: “He is just so brilliantly Coney Island.”
The New York Times wrote about a story about him in 2002, which we reproduce here:
George Wallace has spent half his life painting storefront awnings, menu boards, wall murals and amusement park game stalls around Coney Island. On any given day, from Palm Sunday, when Astroland Park opens for business, through Labor Day, he might be found touching up the bright block lettering on the facade of Ruby’s Bar and Grill on the boardwalk, applying a coat of linseed oil to the roller coaster cars on the Cyclone or changing the prices on the menus at Nick’s Greasy Spoon on Surf Avenue. Visitors to Coney Island may catch a glimpse of Wallace at work around Memorial Day weekend when the crowds first flood the beaches and the amusement park.
Paul Georgoulakos, who has run Gregory & Paul’s boardwalk cafe since 1967, has paid Mr. Wallace to paint his food signs for 15 years.
“There are no other sign painters,” Mr. Georgoulakos said the other day, surrounded by Mr. Wallace’s work: “Jamaican-style beef patties,” “Delicious fresh hand-cut French fries,” “Charcoal broiled shish-kabob.” “Wallace is the only one left. He’s not just a painter. He’s an artist. And the whole island knows him.”
Nick Georgiou has known Mr. Wallace longer than anyone else on Coney Island. He gave him his first job in 1980.
“There’s no one like Wallace,” said Mr. Georgiou, who owns Nick’s Greasy Spoon, a bright fast-food spot for Coney Island regulars. “He’s the only one I use to do my menus.”
Mr. Wallace, 52, pushes an old grocery cart everywhere he goes, or hauls a large yellow duffel bag full of cans of oil and paint thinner, T-squares, brushes and dropcloths. He is never without his sketchbooks and a composition notebook that he uses to schedule appointments, at least half of which he misses.
Mr. Wallace lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and in the winter, he says, he has access to a basement art studio in nearby Fort Greene. But by his own admission he has been a drifter for more than two decades, sometimes catching a night’s sleep in a flophouse or a cheap hotel. Much of his work can be found on Bowery Street, which cuts through Astroland Park and runs parallel to Surf Avenue on one side and the boardwalk on the other.
Heavyset, with only two top front teeth, Mr. Wallace has an unruly mustache and unkempt graying hair. His fingers are gentle, especially when he is sketching, which he often is. In the pocket of the denim vest he sometimes wears, he stuffs 10 or 15 paint brushes, which he says he learned to use as a student at the Royal Academy of Arts and the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where he moved from Jamaica at 14….
If you read GL and you wonder what the big deal is about tearing down Coney Island and replacing it with luxury condos and chain retailing and eateries because it’s such a “Shit Hole” now, here’s your answer: We’re going to lose Wallace and all the people like him that make Coney Island what it is. We’re pretty certain there will be no place in the new Coney Island for a sketchy guy with a paint brush who makes signs. Because there won’t be any place for those signs in the first instance.
