February 4th, 2007 · Comments Off on Brooklyn Back in the Day: Red Hook
This is another superb historic photo of Red Hook posted on flickr by Key Lime Steve. (Yes, this Key Lime Steve). The photos, he notes, are from the collection of Greg O’Connell, the Red Hook developer that owns, and has presevered a number of historic waterfront structures.
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February 3rd, 2007 · Comments Off on Coney Island Death Watch: Sitt to Pressure City via Bulldozer and Press Leaks?
Bulldozers dispatched by Thor Equities were at work in Coney Island this week and it would appear that the land clearance is a strategic move by the developer to ratchet up the pressure on the city to act on rezoning it wants in order to build its $1.5 billion Coney project. The reaction of some officials to allowing Thor to build luxury housing highrises in the current “amusement zone” has been decidedly lukewarm. The developer, in turn, has suggested that he might pull the plug on the project without the ability to build cash-generating housing. It was the first time that direct public threats have been uttered in what could be an intense test of wills.
The Brooklyn Paper expanded on resistance to Mr. Sitt’s plans for housing in Coney Island:
“The city’s chief goal is to support the amusement area and we have serious concerns about how residential fits in with an enhanced amusement area,” said an EDC official who did not want to be named.
“[Sitt] wants residential because that’s where he gets the most bang for his buck, but we’re not convinced the housing is necessary.”
Sitt’s Thor Equities would need a zoning change before it could build residential units on the dozen or so acres it owns in Coney Island.
In the meantime, it appears demolition is one of the tactics that Thor will use to increase pressure for action, as it will leave Coney Island with large tracts of land that it has cleared for development. While Thor did not respond to the Brooklyn Paper, it did talk to the Courier Life chain and to the New York Post (whose parent corporation also owns Courier Life) this week. An article in the Park Slope Courier quotes Thor spokesperson Lee Silberstein of the Marino Organization:
“Thor is committed to implementing its vision for Coney Island as soon as the city finishes the rezoning process…It therefore believes it is important to complete as much site prep work as possible now…”
Silberstein further explained it is clear that during construction there is going to be a time of adjustment.
“Those sites were not going to be active this summer, so rather than wait to do the site prep work at a future time, Thor made a decision to do it now,” Silberstein said.
GL will go out on a limb and predict that the spring and summer will feature a great deal of added vacant land in Coney Island, a pitched fight over the inclusion of housing near the Coney boardwalk and on the height of the buildings and a campaign of calcuated leaks of information and opinions to select media outlets by the developer to try to sway public opinion and increase political pressure to get the changes it wants. [Photo from the Park Slope Courier]
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February 3rd, 2007 · Comments Off on Brooklyn & Queens Councilmen to Lead Sudan Divestment Rally
Council Member and former Congressional candidate David Yassky and Council Member Eric Gioia are helping to lead a rally on Sunday (2/5) calling on New York City’s and New York State’s pension boards to divest investments they have in firms doing business with the Sudan. The move stems from the awful conflict and genocide in Darfur. Organizers say NYC pension funds have hundreds of millions of dollars worth of investments in companies with active holdings in the Sudan. “By choosing to withdraw investments from these companies, New Yorkers will be sending a clear message that their money will not be used to support genocide,” a release for the rally says. You can check out the Sudan Divestment Task Force here. There is a growing movement around the nation, including divestment legislation at the state level, concerning divestment from funds doing business in Sudan. There are hundreds of ongoing campaigns around the nation.
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February 3rd, 2007 · Comments Off on GL Weekend Curbed Roundup
As those of you who read us regularly–and you have our deep gratitude–know, we also post over at Curbed from Monday through Friday. Here’s some of our Curbed-alicious output as it relates to Brooklyn this week:
February 3rd, 2007 · Comments Off on Brooklyn Back in the Day: Red Hook
Keylime Steve (of Keylime Pie fame), who posts excellent photos on flickr, has uploaded some cool vinage shots of Red Hook, so we figured we’d borrow one of them and run it as a Brooklyn Back in the Day feature photo. He writes of this pic, which shows the building that is now the Fairway prominently in the background:
At center, sailing ships at the New York Warehouse Co.’s Stores, currently known as the Red Hook Stores (aka The Fairway Building) and to the right, the Beard Street piers. IMHO, both of these historic building (and a few others) are still standing and not slated for demolition due primarily to the fact they they are owned by Greg O’Connell and Pier-41 Associates. The working waterfront still exists, albeit small and getting smaller.
Mr. O’Connell’s buildings are some of the most beautiful historic waterfront structures in New York City.
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February 2nd, 2007 · Comments Off on Residents to Whole Foods, Gowanus Edition: Hold the Hole
The planned Whole Foods in Gowanus has drawn a negative review from a Gowanus group. Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus (FROGG), have submitted comments to the Department of Environmental Conservation calling on it to reject the grocer’s current clean up proposal for the environmentally-challenged site. There is much in the seven-page document (which is not posted online, but which one can presumably get from FROGG). To make a long story short, the organization particularly opposes the plan to build more than 80 percent of the Whole Foods below street level and suggests that Whole Foods has “misused” the ability to build below street level in order to skirt the local review process. They write:
This land sits at one of the lowest elevations in Brooklyn…at the bottom of an urban drainage basin known for flooding. And along with all that, the soil they need to build the market down under is contaminated. The Brownfield Cleanup Program is being improperly used to endorse this scheme.
Whole Foods plans to remove some, but not all of the toxic soil at the site, and to cap the site with a “protective membrane” that would prevent any seepage of vapors into the store or other problems. The FROGG statement points out that the site is in a wetlands/watershed area and says that “local drainage in this area is a concern to the community…because the site is within the FEMA 100 year flood zone there will be additional impact locally from storm seawater rise given this large cellar structure.”
One could go on at length about the problems that FROGG notes with plan, including the potential for “the change in hydrology” caused by construction “to move contaminants” around underground.
FROGG’s alternative: Do a cleanup, cap the site at street level and build the store above ground. It also suggests a green roof for the building. “It seems so silly that so many people have been drawn down the road to achieve a design of a building and a site-cleanup focused around skirting local zoning limits,” FROGG writes. It ask DEC to reject the proposed site cleanup and only approve one that would involve an above-ground store.
February 2nd, 2007 · Comments Off on Residents to Whole Foods, Park Slope Edition: Modify It
Park Slope Neighbors, which led the campaign to get Commerce Bank to make the design of its Fifth Avenue branch more community-friendly, has launched an online petition campaign aimed at the Gowanus Whole Foods. The organization is asking the grocer to reduce the amount of parking at the site, to replace rooftop parking with a green roof, solar panels or both and to come up with a comprehensive traffic management plan that includes jitney service to subway stops, adequate bike parking and even charging for onsite parking. (The grocer rejected a green roof last month, but at a meeting of the Park Slope Civic Council last night was still said to be “looking into” one.) PSN’s Eric McClure points out that the chain has extremely environmentally-sensitive stores in places like Madison, Wisconsin and Edgewater, New Jersey and that Gowanus should get the same treatment. “It would be nice if they put some of their social responsibility to work in our neighborhood the same way they do in Edgewater and Madison, Wisconsin,” Mr. McClure told the Park Slope Civic Council last night.
Specifically, the group is asking the grocer to eliminate at least one-third of the parking. As planned, the store would have 420 spaces. The group wants the number cut by 100. The petition letter to Whole Foods Chair John Mackey also asks for a green roof to “reduce run-off, lower energy costs and promote a healthy environment. Solar panels will supply a significant portion of the store’s energy needs and reduce harmful emissions.”
We keep running into boats in Brooklyn in the oddest places. A couple of weeks ago, we had the boat on a scaffold at the Aqua Condo in Greenpoint. Now, we have this, inside an old plane fuselage. The location is inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and we’re sure there’s an interesting back story as to how this came to be, but we haven’t got the slightest notion what it is. The side view of “Meow Man Airlines” is below.
As word continues to bubble up about Wal-Mart’s continuing interest in building a store at Albee Square in downtown Brooklyn (on the site of The Gallery mall, which is currently owned by developer Joe Sitt and his firm Thor Equities), there is now a Wal-Mart protest planned for next week. The Albee Square site could end up with a tower up to 50 stories tall with 800 apartments and 500,000 square feet of retail space at ground level. Mr. Sitt is said possibly be looking at selling the mall, which he purchase from developer Bruce Ratner. (The city actually owns the land under the mall.)
In any case, the protest was reported yesterday via The Real Estate from the Wal-Mart Free NYC website. The organization suggests that allowing the Evil Empire of Retailing to open in New York City (and they’ve been moving in that direction for some time) and, specifically in Brooklyn “will destroy everything that Brooklyn stands for.”
Here’s the full text of the missive:
As you have all read and heard about, Wal-Mart continues to have an enormous interest in Brooklyn. It’s not even a question of if Wal-Mart will do damage to the community and the local business owners throughout the borough, the the question is How much damage will they do to Brooklyn. They will destroy everything that Brooklyn stands for or listen to what one Brooklyn resident had to say:
“People come here on tour buses when they want to see what real New York is like,” said Leo Gulfam, a former graffiti artist who rents a storefront where he customizes clothing, jewelry and Air Jordan sneakers with everything from Pakistani flags to pictures of Tweedy Bird. “Our people are crazy about bling,” he said. “They aren’t crazy about Wal-Mart.”
We’re holding a rally on February 8th at 1 PM at Albee Square (the site of the potential Wal-Mart) We strongly encourage all of you to come and show Wal-Mart that they are not welcome in Brooklyn or our city…Head to our blog (www.nywalmart.blogspot.com) to view the flyers we’ve been distributing…Please join Walmartfreenyc,the U.F.C.W, Change To Win, the NYC CLC, Brooklyn City Council members and Community groups to tell Wal-Mart they are not welcome in downtown Brooklyn or in any Borough of New York City. We will join together on Thursday, February 8, 2007 at 1 PM at “The Gallery at Fulton Street”….Albee Square.
February 2nd, 2007 · Comments Off on Call It Scarano’s Law? Council Cracks Down on Self-Certifiers
The City Council has voted to toughen up on architects and engineers that may take liberties grading their own homework. Engineers and architects had previously been able to certify their own permit applications and building plans as meeting city codes, leading to some well-known accusations of abuse that made the press in the last year. (Architect Robert Scarano settled with the Department of Buildings last year, dropping out of the self-certification program without admitting any wrongdoing.) As reported in the Daily News Council Speaker Christine Quinn said that “sadly,” architects and engineers “too frequently” ab use their self-certification provision. The Council pass to bills by unanimous votes yesterday. One requires the Department of Buildings to check the work for architects and enginees put on probation by a state disciplinary and regulatory panel. The other allows suspension and revocation of self-certification for those filing false or noncompliant permits.
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When last we heard about Broken Angel, a transaction had taken place so that it could be redeveloped and sold as individual condos. The plan came in the face of city threats to demolish the building and significant cost to bring the building up to code. The new Real Deal fills in some detail about Broken Angel and why its owner and creater Arthur Wood put the building up for sale and, then, cut a deal with Shahn Andersen to develop the Clinton Hill landmark:
“He brought in a local developer mostly to appease the courts,” said Michael Annunziata, the Massey Knakal sales director who was handling the sale of Broken Angel. “We put it on the market in October and got 25 offers for the property and its adjacent lot — up to $1.9 million — before he decided to develop it himself.”
Annunziata believes the development arrangement will benefit both Wood and his creation.
“It’s nice to see something unique,” he said. “If it’s done right it will have much success and preserve Wood’s original vision.”
Preserving Wood’s vision is exactly what Broken Angel’s developer Shahn Andersen says he wants to accomplish.
“When we’re finished it will be even more esoteric and outlandish than it is now,” said Andersen, who projects it will cost $3 million to renovate Broken Angel and develop the adjacent lot into a second Wood-designed structure Wood called the Sunflower Building. Andersen himself has rehabilitated several 19th-century brownstones in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Andersen, who is financing the development, said that he and Wood will split the condo profits 50-50. “[Wood] is going to come out ahead,” he noted.
The design for the renovated Broken Angel is quite attractive and, one can only assume that given a budget with which to work, Mr. Wood will end up enhancing his creation. This is one Brooklyn story for which we truly wish a happy ending.
February 2nd, 2007 · Comments Off on Brooklyn Back in the Day: Coney Island
Here’s another vintage Brooklyn shot, this one from Coney Island, circa June, 1947. It’s from the Brooklyn Public Library’s extensive and fascinating photo collection. The caption that goes with it reads: “Looking down on Coney Island–Photo taken yesterday from the parachute jump at Steeplechase Park shows Coney Island’s largest crowd this year, attracted by ideal weather for both bathing and strolling on the boardwalk.”
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February 1st, 2007 · Comments Off on New $30M Concert Venue for Coney Island?
Another day, another Coney Island story. Today’s news is a possible new “world-class” outdoor concert ampitheater that would replace the little bandshell in Coney’s Asser Levy Park. The 5,000 seat venue would cost $30M-$35M and is being proposed by Borough President Marty Markowitz and local Council Member Domenic Recchia Jr. There is no community response as of yet, but one might count on hearing some, given that thousands of people would live within earshot of a new venue in the highrises surrounding the park. The park has hosted a fairly low key summer concert series since 1991, but bringing in bands that do the outdoor summer concert circuit–everyone from Gwen Stefani and Bloc Party to Poison–would certainly take things to an entirely different level both crowd and decibel-wise.
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February 1st, 2007 · Comments Off on Teens Consider Brooklyn’s Future Through the Urban Memory Project
“Unfortunately, it is sad to say that much of Coney Island will be closing down at the end of the ’07 season due to new development plans that Joe Sitt has in store for us.“ –Janet Lazaro, Brooklyn High School Student
While it sounds like something that Gowanus Lounge might write, the words come from a local high school student that participated in the latest installment of the Urban Memory Project, which looks at the rapidly changing Brooklyn landscape through the eyes of local students. (We’ve written about it before and it was featured on the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC during the summer.) GL attended a reception that showcased the work last semester of students at the Secondary School for Research in Park Slope. We were very, very impressed at how the young people view the cityscape and how well they grasp complex development issues.
“The people that are for the project say that it’s time for a change and this whole new concept of Coney Island will be for the good of the community,” Ms. Lazaro, who is quoted above, wrote in a piece that accompanied photos of the Wonder Wheel, Cyclone and other Coney Island landmarks. “But who are they to decide for us, what is for for and not for good?”
The students looked at development and issues in Park Slope, Atlantic Yards and Coney Island. The focus was gentrification along Fourth and Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, the use of eminent domain and its impact on Prospect Heights and on preservation issues in Coney Island.
“The kids are really invested in the project,” says Rebecca Krucoff who, along with Ain Gordon, founded the effort. “They’re aware that people are the cause of the changes in their community. They’re not just happening.”
The project has been run a half-dozen times in schools in Williamsburg, Midwood, Carroll Gardens, Park Slope and other Brooklyn neighborhoods.
“They’re kind of in shock,” Ms. Krucoff says of how the young people look at projects like Atlantic Yards. “When you actually show them what it will look like, they’re freaked out.”
And then there is the ten-year-old Park Slope resident named Priya that we met at the event. She wasn’t part of the Urban Memory Project, which works with sophomores through seniors in high school. But she was intently looking at photos and reading the descriptions, particularly of the changes that may happen in Coney Island.
It turns out that Priya and her peers are worried about Coney Island’s fate. They like rides and they’ve heard that developer Joe Sitt is closing Astroland and tearing things down. They are thinking about starting a petition drive to ask that Mr. Sitt preserve rides and amusements, many of which are threatened, but very dear to their young hearts.
Did we mention that she is only ten? You go, Priya.
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February 1st, 2007 · Comments Off on McCarren Pool Landmarking Discussed, No Action Taken
While everyone was busy chuckling about the possible landmarking of the Pussycat Lounge in Lower Manhattan, a number of WPA-era swimming pools, including McCarren Pool in Greenpoint/Williamsburg came up for discussion at the end of Tuesday’s Landmarks Preservation Commission Hearing. Ultimately, no action was taken on landmarking McCarren or other pools such as Red Hook’s or Sunset Park’s (both of which are still very active and vital pools). We’ll let the Historic Districts Council Blog pick up the narrative regarding the pools:
The final items on the agenda were nine pools/play centers built with funds from the Works Progress Administration by Robert Moses and opened in the midst of a record-breaking heat wave in 1936. Eleven pool complexes were opened that year; two of them, Orchard Beach and the Astoria Pool, were designated last year. Up this time around were Crotona, Betsy Head, McCarren, Red Hook, Sunset, High Bridge, Thomas Jefferson, Jackie Robinson and Tompkinsville Play Centers (along with the bath house interiors of Crotona, Sunset, Jackie Robinson and Tompkinsville). These items were heard back in 1990, and two (McCarren and Crotona) are on HDC’s heard, but not designated list. Supporters, including representatives of local elected officials, spoke glowingly of the pools and their need to be landmarked. There was a bit of debate from those interested in McCarren over the Baumer plan. Christabel Gough of the Society for the Architecture of the City spoke up against the current polishing of Robert Moses’s reputation. She noted passages on Moses’s racist views and actions in Robert A. Caro’s book “The Power Broker” and ended by saying that if the pools were designated, it is hoped that it is “done with recognition of the broader history of the city.”
We are far from being fans of Mr. Moses and of his legacy–particularly in Brooklyn–but these pools are historic structures and deserve designation. McCarren Pool needs to be at the top of the list. As a non-functioning pool, it could be seriously re-purposed and lose its historic character.
Last night, WNBC pulled together 130 New York City bloggers for a “Bloggers Summit” for a discussion about the future of TV news and blogging. It was a fascinating event and we’ll be especially interested to see how many blog posts appear about it over the course of the day since, by definition, it should blogged about extensively. (In terms of fellow Brooklyn bloggers, you can check out OTBKB‘s take on the event here and A Brooklyn Life‘s impression of it here.) The station was particularly interested in sharing its vision of how Channel 4 and bloggers can work together, although the model could be applied more broadly.
Channel Four wants stories from bloggers and would give bloggers credit for them (hint to NYC print media outlets). The execs and producers at Channel Four clearly see working with bloggers as a winning step, partly because they understand that more and more people are getting their information from blogs and that bloggers are filling vital niches. They offered survey results that showed that only four percent of the bloggers present considered local TV news their “most helpful” source of information and that not a single blogger put local TV news websites at the top of his or her list. (Nowhere is the vital role of bloggers more clear than in Brooklyn, where stories would go uncovered or would be severely under-covered were it not for the efforts of bloggers.) In any case, the meeting was clear recognition that we’re all official parts of the information food chain. You can read WNBC’s item on the event here and there is a youtube vid of the event posted here (embed above).
We saw many bloggers whose work we have long admired and some whose blogs we did not know about. The woman who sat to our right, for instance, was a senior citizen who produces a blog called Barb’s Beauty Tips for Babes Over 60. Who knew?
February 1st, 2007 · Comments Off on Are Thor Equities & Developer Joe Sitt Making Friends in Red Hook?
The scorched earth-style tear down of the Revere Sugar Plant in Red Hook, which began without any consultation with or warning to the community, and which followed vague promises to possibly preserve structures on the site, is not necessarily making friends in Red Hook. (Although it does not seem to have led to the level of community debate that firm’s Coney Island demolitions and plans have.) While it should be noted that there is support for redeveloping the site and for projects that would create jobs, some residents are apparently peeved about both the total nature of the demolition and lack of community consultation. One longstanding resident emailed us to say:
I’m stunned they’re knocking down the brick walls from buildings mimicking the Beard Street Pier. Does anyone know if these philistines are going to level the whole lot? Will anything remain?
The developer–Joe Sitt and his firm Thor Equities–have not put forward any plan for the site, which will require rezoning for any commercial, residential or mixed use development. Here are two fairly predictions based on rumblings we hear: First, Mr. Sitt’s redevelopment plan could meet with residual community resistance from residents smarting from the loss of a structure that some felt should be preserved and, second, if Mr. Sitt & Thor encounter any problems gaining city approval, it’s likely that some in Red Hook won’t be lining up to encourage the city to act fast.
The first tower at Northside Piers, the Toll Brothers project on Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, has passed the halfway mark. A 29-story endeavor, it is the first of three towers that will rise on the site just north of the Austin Nichols warehouse, aka 184 Kent. Four more highrises will start to rise sometime this spring to the north of Northside Piers.
