December 22nd, 2006 · Comments Off on Gowanus Toxique No. 1: Lake G. Looking Mighty Fine
Whenever we pass the future site of the Gowanus Whole Foods, which has been an environmentally-challenged lot wit a couple of pits for about a year, we like to check on its status in general and, specifically, on how the body of water we like to call Lake Gowanus is doing. The little lake that will probably be somewhere around the bakery department and the vegan baked goods has been created by Gowanus groundwater seepage and we’re please to report that it’s looking great. (Ice skating for winter, if it gets cold?) As for the rest of the site, think post-industrial wasteland. We do note that equipment like the big red Gowanus crusher has been removed from the site of the former concrete crushing factory on the site.
Now about that toxic underground plume, including carcinogenic benzene, that is spreading through Gowanus from the Verizon lot across Third Street, and is responsible for some of the environmental issues at Whole Foods site…
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So, we were glancing some more at the interesting Planyc 2030 documents and website when we noticed that one of the more prominent empty parcels of land in Gowanus is serving as a poster child of sorts for brownfield sites. The 6.5 acre site was once used by Brooklyn Union Gas (Keyspan’s corporate predecessor) to produce manufactured gas and is so polluted that no one is even sure what toxic hazards are beneath the soil. If you can’t place the site, it’s that big empty lot as the F and G train tracks loop into (or out of) the tunnel the Carroll Street station. Some NYU Wagner school students offered a redevelopment plan for the parcel earlier this year and created a Public Place website with photos and maps and details. The Gowanus Canal Community Development Corp.’scomprehensive plan–envisions recreational use for part of the parcel. The site may not be a threat only to itself. Last year, the Brooklyn Papers reports, Keyspan engineers detected the potent carcinogen benzene in groundwater under the site moving toward the hipper part of Smith Street, which is not the only nasty underground threat in the area. Environmental testing is still going on.
We have more information about the boat formerly known as the Empty Vessel, which was moved to a berth north of the Carroll Street Bridge over the weekend, pretty much where she was located when first arriving on the Gowanus Canal. The former EV was “purchased” for $1 and its new owners are going to be living on it and, ultimately, turning it into:
an arts space/educational environment/screening locale… really we just want to hold alternative weddings on our roof…We are changing her name so that she isn’t mistaken for the Empty Vessel Project and it’s specific goals/intentions/owners. But we still don’t have a proper name, perhaps we’ll hold a boat naming contest. Currently we’re more concerned with running a capable heating system before we move aboard.
One of the new captains, Sasha, reports:
Megan, my co-captain, freight-hopping companion, partner-in-mischief, and HOT girlfriend, and I were seeking a mutual dwelling and this boat floated into our view. We paid the EV kids $1 and were given the registration…we found her a berth in Carroll Gardens, 2 blocks up from where she’s been.
Our goals for the boat:
create an example of a nearly complete sustainable, off-grid dwelling
create an open space to hold parties, meetings, screenings, pot-lucks
hold alternative weddings
make a sort of hobo hostel for traveller kids in search of a warm hammock…
Unfortunately, for the next six months or so she won’t be accessible for public events as we’ll be working on the first of our goals pretty intensively–winterizing her as a dwelling is the A#1 priority, and that’s where you all come in. We need help
Meantime, the former owners of the Empty Vessel emailed to say that the transfer of the boat “is a tremendous success for us.” The Empty Vessel Project itself will be moving forward without a boat, and they plan to publish a new book and hold a conference in the spring. Updates will be posted on the Empty Vessel Project website.
We’re glad that we can stop checking to make sure the boat is still there every time we cross the Carroll Street Bridge and know that, by definition, any wedding that takes place on a boat on the Gowanus is very alternative. The still-to-be-renamed boat has a registry at Amazon and the new owners are looking into getting nonprofit status for the new venture. No website yet, but we’ll keep you posted.
What can you say about yesterday’s vote by the Public Authorities Control Board to approve the Atlantic Yards project? The decision–and the project that may grow from it–will change Brooklyn forever, and will have a profound impact on the communities that are nearest to it. We understand that some people are cheering–quite loudly–today. We respect their opinions, but feel very differently about the project and its impact on the the neighborhoods around it.
The fact that Atlantic Yards was designed and approved with only minimal genuine public input and was the result of a process that only sought to create the appearance of responsiveness and inclusion will saddle Brooklyn with a project that we’re pretty certain will prove to be a boil on the landscape in decades to come. Genuine community planning and inclusion would have produced a less disruptive development and one that would be more conducive to everything from a better streetscape to less neighborhood disruption. Instead, Atlantic Yards will serve as a monument to the Jobs and Housing Uber Alles School of Urban Economic Development from which it came.
As such, the approval of Atlantic Yards and its broad support in the political establishment is part of a grand tradition of tossing common sense to the wind and throwing massive subsidies at those who build manufacturing facilities and offices. And, it is in keeping with the longstanding practice of deep subsidies and tradeoffs for professional sports teams, stadiums and arenas. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
The only real difference between Atlantic Yards and a story we could have written 20 years ago is that Brooklyn has been hornswaggled largely on the basis of “affordable housing” rather than jobs. As such, Atlantic Yards is a reflection of the desperate affordable housing situation in New York City. A developer could probably site a nuclear waste repository in the borough if he promised to build a few thousand apartments on top of the storage caverns, swore up and down that the radiation would only amount to a few extra dental x-rays a year and produced an “independent” consultant’s report that concluded “Don’t Worry, be Happy.”
The fallout of the Altantic Yards decision–and the unwillingness to make any significant reductions in density or to fully address impacts from traffic to pollution–will change Brooklyn in fundamental ways. Start with a decade of massive construction projects at Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues. Then, consider the impact of block upon block of highrises, and you begin to get the picture of the legacy that Gov. Pataki, Mayor Bloomberg, Empire State Development Corp. Chair Charles Gargano, Borough President Marty Markowitz, developer Bruce Ratner and all of the other officials, both public and private, who pushed this development through will leave to our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We’re not convinced that in 25 years they’ll be saying “Go Nets!” so much as “Screw this traffic.”
There are those that are cheering yesterday’s decision as a victory for jobs and housing and as a return of big-time professional sports to Brooklyn. In its own way, Atlantic Yards will bring those things. But at what cost? Brooklyn’s soul has been sold to achieve those goals. And, now, we’re going to have to deal with the consequences.
Of course, the legal system has yet to have its say and there is much litigation to come before the plan is a final reality. Eminent domain and the deeply flawed public process that produced the Atlantic Yards plan could still be its downfall.
Us, we’re reminded of a hooting and howling Slim Pickens, as Major T. J. “King” Kong, at the end of Dr. Strangelove riding the H-Bomb down from a B-52 (the embed above). Yes, it’s a bit of an excessive comparison, but if you get Atlantic Yards, then you get the analogy. And, if not, give it 15 or 20 years. By that time, the gridlock will be of epic proportions, neighborhoods will have been ruined, all of the promised “affordable” housing still won’t have materialized, Bruce Ratner will have sold out and moved on, the Nets will have gotten a better deal from another town or used it to squeeze more money out of Brooklyn and residents will be muttering, “How did we let that happen?”
December 21st, 2006 · Comments Off on Brooklinks: Special Ratnerian Edition
Brooklinks is a selection of Brooklyn-related news and images. This special edition focuses on Atlantic Yards. (Image above adapted and posted by No Land Grab.)
Yes, we’ve been paying a lot of attention to the oil pit development site in Williamsburg on Roebling between N. 10th and N. 11th with oil oozing out of the ground that we have called a number of things including the Roebling Oil Field and Pennzoil Place. In any case, a big ass drilling rig construction crane has appeared outside the site, no doubt to help with the foundation which is being built atop the slimy and frightening ooze remediated parcel. The corner still smells like an oil field in Kuwait, but we’re confident the petroleum stench will fade and all will be well as the foundation work on McCarren Park Mews continues. Meantime, breathe deep. You’d otherwise have to take a cruise down Newtown Creek or head to the ass end of the Gowanus where the oil is leaking into the canal to get that heady petrochemical scent.
After days of speculation about whether the Public Authorities Control Board would approve Atlantic Yards or delay the vote, the development has been approved. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver reached an agreement with the Governor to have the project voted on independent of $8 billion in other “pork” projects. Crain’s has reported that 100 feet were trimmed from Frank Gehry’s Miss Brooklyn tower and a few other minor changes made. Action will now shift to the courts where legal challenges are in motion.
We don’t frequently wade into the territory of ugly ass interesting looking Brooklyn buildings, but in a recent photo walk around Gowanus, we happened to focus on 340-352 Bond Street, which is a block from the Carroll Street Bridge. We’d shot photos of it before at various stages of construction, but it didn’t dawn on us exactly how awful different this building truly is with its prison-like residentially-isolated and secure exterior and the dumbfounding lack of windows uplifting abundance of wall space. Truly a building in which you can feel safe.
The site on which Das Bunker is rising has a bit of a history. It replaces a 19th-century stable house that was demolished to make way for it. Brownstoner chronicled the demolition back in May ’05 when GL was still a twinkle in our eyes.
In any case, the building is a creation of Scarano Architects, one of the more prolific and controversial Brooklyn firms. We look forward to Das Bunker’s continued progress toward completion and will simply say that if you are window phobic or if you desperately crave that retro East Berlin 1979 Look, this building is for you. (There are also some old gun emplacements and concrete observation bunkers in Montauk of which this building reminds us.) Look at the bright side, however: Less pesky window cleaning. We all know how daunting that can be on an upper floor in an urban setting where they get dirtier faster.
December 20th, 2006 · Comments Off on And So, It All Comes Down to the Third Man (Again)
So, later today we will know whether Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has voted to approve Atlantic Yards in his role as a member of the Public Authorities Control Board or whether he has delayed the vote, effectively kicking the decision into the Spitzer Administration. There were conflicting indications all day yesterday, with an early report that Mr. Silver would postpone the vote until 2007 and later reports that he was still mulling his options. At day’s end, Mr. Silver was still said to have “questions” about the project, but there was a possibility that the man who killed the West Side Stadium and delayed Moynihan Station might give a thumbs up to Atlantic Yards. In fact, this morning’s Post is reporting that Silver will probably vote “yes.” He told the Post that as long as the project is on the agenda on its own, he’ll probably support it: “If [Pataki] puts it on the PACB agenda as an individual item, not one item that is contained in a big package of pork and everything, it’s a good bet that I would support it.” All of which would indicate that yesterday was a grand exercise in political theater.
In an odd way, this opera is a fitting conclusion to an approval process that has–depending on one’s point of view–violated basic principles of community participation, open government and public information. Even if you support Atlantic Yards, you might hope that a delay in the decision would produce full public disclosure of the true costs and benefits of the project, including information about how much the developer will make in profits.
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Turns out that a Volga Hydrofoil boat given to Richard Nixon by Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev in 1972 in return for a Lincoln Continental and a Cadillac is in Brooklyn. We know this via Sunset Parker who picked up the item from Andrew Sullivan’s The Daily Dish. The boat is up for auction on eBay. (You have five days to bid, with the starting bid being $1 million, which is a bit rich for our blood, even for Tricky Dick’s Brezhnev Boat.) The seller describes the boat as follows:
This auction is for the Soviet hydrofoil boat that Soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev gave to President Richard Nixon in year 1972. The model name of this boat is “Volga 70”. This boat was recently found partially buried in soil. Below are some actual pictures of this boat, in which you can see this boat was registered in Richard Nixon’s Florida residence, in Biscayne Bay…This boat is currently stored in Brooklyn, New York. We would be glad to provide you with access to inspect the condition of this historical item in person and to verify it’s authenticity.
Time Magazine reported this in 1972 about the Nixon-Brezhnev Cadillac-Boat trade:
Now for the fill-in-the-blank portion of our test. Pencils ready? If Richard Nixon gives Leonid Brezhnev a Cadillac, then the Soviet leader should give the President a . Well, what? What socialist product evokes the Communist system the way a Cadillac does U.S. capitalism? A personal, hand-controlled Sputnik? A collective farm?
It is a taxing problem, and the Russians have given up trying to solve it. Headed Nixon’s way by freighter is a gift from Moscow as capitalist as they come: a hydrofoil boat. If it arrives in time for the Republican Convention, Nixon will be able to rooster-tail through the waters of Biscayne Bay between his Florida home and the convention hall in true and glorious helmsman’s style.
To round out the picture, it’s worth noting that the boat shows up in the Watergate Tapes because Nixon’s Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman worked hard to work the swap with the Soviet boss. (Good to know he spent time on something other than Watergate in 1972.)
No bids on the boat so far. What we want to know is where is this baby being stored? Sheepshead Bay? Mill Basin? Marine Park? And was it found partly buried in soil in Brooklyn or was it moved here for storage?
Personally, we are profoundly grateful for the opportunity to run a photo of Nixon and Brezhnev on GL, which is not something we can normally do and stay “on topic.”
December 19th, 2006 · Comments Off on Breaking News: Atlantic Yards Vote Delayed Until 2007?
Looks like the growing questions about Atlantic Yards financing and the chorus of voices asking “What’s the rush?” have had an impact on Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. NY1 is reporting via the Brooklyn Papers that Mr. Silver will not give final approval to the project before January 1st. He controls one of the three deciding votes on the Public Authorities Control Board which is meeting tomorrow and, again, on December 28. (The Brooklyn Papers are also NY1 says Mr. Silver “still has financial questions about Atlantic Yards” and that he is “ready to either vote no or not vote at all if the projects are put before him” at the PACB meeting.
Given the possibility of significant revisions to the project under the Spitzer Administration, the development is sure to cheer some of its opponents. Spitzer supports the project–as does Silver–but both have indicated a desire to have a closer look, which means that even though final approval is likely, the End End Game could alter the proposal, including putting it on something of a diet. Time to dust off those backroom shrinkage plans?
UPDATE: The Real Estate is reporting, based on conversations with the Governor’s staff and the Empire State Development Corporation that the decision “is still up in the air, but that Silver is paving the way for postponement.” Another source emails to say “Silver may not have decided.” Which would seem to leave things exactly as they were early this morning with everyone waiting for definitive word about Mr. Silver’s intentions.
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December 19th, 2006 · Comments Off on Coney Island Update: Send in the Clowns
1) The latest Coney idea to be floated by Thor Equities as a possibile attraction on the vast parcel of Coney Island land that it has gathered is a circus. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reports that Thor CEO Joe Sitt has approached Big Apple Circus about having a performance space on or near the boardwalk. (Perhaps Thor is dismantling the Revere Sugar dome in Red Hook to move it to Coney Island for the circus, rather than demolishing it?) Thor has also had discussions with Nickelodeon, whose Governor’s Island theme park plan got a big Bronx Cheer. The Eagle reports they have also been in contact with Disney, the company that you might remember wanted to recreate Coney in its own image a while back. To check out the Big Apple Circus, click here. If you want to get a sense of what the SpongeBob-ish future might hold, click here. As for M-I-C-K-E-Y, we’re sure you can find him. As for all this, the Coney blog Kinetic Carnival writes, “If any of this is true, then it seems that Sitt and Thor Equities must be a bit confused in what to make of Coney’s new amusement ‘extension’.”
2) The latest Coney eviction consists of Vincent Garcia and his pit bull, Crazy. Mr. Garcia, described in the New York Times as a “stocky, tattooed ex-convict known as Cuba, has lived in a tattered tan trailer in a parking lot on Stillwell Avenue near the Boardwalk. He began staying there while working as a security guard at the lot, he says, after losing his apartment nearby to higher rent. Today, the graying Mr. Garcia…and his trailer blend into the landscape of tired rides, greasy fast food joints and vagrant Boardwalk regulars. But a snazzy reincarnation is planned for the crumbling seaside neighborhood, and the parking lot Mr. Garcia, 44, calls home is not part of that future. “I spend half my life in here,” he said. “I don’t want to leave.” Thor hand-delivered an eviction notice and has told him to leave by Dec. 28. Mr. Garcia wants more time. Thor’s spokesperson, Lee Silberstein, refused comment about Mr. Garcia or his situation to the Times.
3) If Vegas and the Australians can approximate versions of Coney Island (kind of…sort of…), will Thor be able to turn the trick? We were amused to find the photo below (and others) post on the Coney Island Message Board of an Australian establishment known as Luna Park. If we had any sense that the Thor vision included something like that rather than developments that trade on the Coney Island brand name while bearing no relation to Coney’s history, we would be very upbeat about their plans. To borrow a phrase that the Clinton campaign used many years ago, “It’s about the amusements, stupid.”
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December 19th, 2006 · Comments Off on Atlantic Yards End Game: More Prominent Groups Call for Delay
With a possible vote on the Atlantic Yards plan as early as tomorrow, and an end-of-the-game pack of headlines about project finance questions, the chorus of voices calling for a delay in a vote by the Public Authorities Control Board is growing. And there have been reports that the PACB might actually vote to stall the project so that the Spitzer administration can take a fresh look at the megaproject. While the new governor supports Atlantic Yards, the delay would represent a stunning setback to supporters whose strategy all along has been to hurry up and get the deal done before Gov. Pataki leaves office.
Yesterday, the venerable and prestigious Regional Plan Association–which has voiced support for Atlantic Yards–called for a delay. It was joined by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Citizens Union, Municipal Art Society, New Yorkers for Parks, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and other organizations and officials. Ill-timed questions about project finances–like the $500 million decrease in revenue projections and continued refusal by the Empire State Development Corporation to reveal the developer’s profits, even to an Assembly Committee–have fueled the moves to delay for further examination and revision.
Municipal Arts Society Presdient Kent Barwick said: “We’re not here to kill the project, we’re here to resusicitate the role of the public. Atlantic Yards, so far, has been a public-private partnership in which the public has not been present. A delay in the PACB vote will not only allow the financial facts of the project to be understood, it will allow for the state to recognize and mitigate the negative impacts of this project that have been identified.” The MAS organized the press event and is behind the Brooklyn Speaks group, which has urged significant revisions in the plan. (Full release on the event is available by clicking here.)
The forces seeking to slow consideration of the Atlantic Yards project grew in strength yesterday as the influential Regional Plan Association (RPA) and the Citizens Union, groups that, respectively, had offered cautious support for the project and had not weighed in, called for the Public Authorities Control Board (PACB) to delay its vote.
Exactly how that might occur remains a question, but the groups expressed hope that a new state administration under incoming Governor Eliot Spitzer—a project supporter—would take a fresh look at Atlantic Yards.
Yesterday the advocates said that not only does the environmental impact require additional scrutiny, but so do the finances. The latter message was driven in part by recent revelations that the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) had lowered its estimate of net new revenue for the project by nearly half a billion dollars.
Will Spitzer have a say? Does he want to wade into Brooklyn’s most toxic political issue? Stay tuned.
The Gowanus Canal may be no Newtown Creek–and it’s awfully quiet on the Greenpoint Oil Spill front these days–but it is starting to look worse. The oil leaking to the canal’s surface north of the Union Street Bridge seems to be getting worse, and at low tide the canal’s surface is a disgusting, scummy mess. Now, we’re not floating around on the Big G taking water quality samples, but our eyes tell us that the situation is worsening, not getting better. Repeat after us: One step forward. Two steps back.
December 19th, 2006 · Comments Off on Bitter End: Revere Sugar Demolition Slideshow
We have taken many pictures of the Revere Sugar Plant in Red Hook over time, but never more than we’ve shot in the last couple of weeks since developer Joe Sitt and his firm Thor Equities obtained demolition permits and started tearing down the Brooklyn landmark. Click here to go over to a flickr set of demolition photos or just watch the embed below.
This very festive van was cruising the streets of Williamsburg yesterday, giving Bedford Avenue and environs a little bit of old time neighborhood flavor. The SUV had speakers on top and was blasting Dominic the Italian Christmas Donkey (a 1967 Brooklyn Christmas classic peformed by Lou Monte) so loud you could hear it from two blocks away. Click on the embed or on this link. You definitely ain’t gonna get this kinda’ thing on Park Avenue and you ain’t gonna find it in Park Slope, neither. (Or at NorthSix or Northside Piers.)
