September 22nd, 2006 · Comments Off on New Development in the Atlantic Yards Debate
With the fight over Atlantic Yards poised to enter the official Empire State Development Corporation potential modification and definite approval phase, some neighborhood and civic groups are turning up the volume of efforts to reduce the scale of the massive project. Rather than trying to block the project, they will seek to changes in its scale and nature.
A new website called “BrooklynSpeaks.net” will go live today to push for negotiated changes in the development. The Brooklyn Speaks coalition’s working assumption is that the project will be approved, so they need to push for reductions in the project’s size along with an increase in the percentage of truly affordable housing allocated for low-income Brooklynites.
The groups involved in the effort include the Pratt Area Community Council, the Municipal Arts Society, the Boerum Hill Association and the Park Slope Civic Council. The coalition, however, does not include a significant number of civic and neighborhoods groups that remain deeply opposed to the project, including some based closest to the development. The New York Times reports today that the proposals will be uneiled tomorrow (Saturday) on BrooklynSpeaks.net.
The group, apparently, will not take a stand on the use of eminent domain, which is the issue around which Atlantic Yards earliest critics organized.
So, is it a crack in the opposition? It depends on one’s point of view. There has never been a united front of opposition to Atlantic Yards, although many have rallied under the banner of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn. Some opponents want to block the project entirely in its current form. Others look to make significant changes in it and to lessen its impact. If the new group leads to public in-fighting among project opponents it will afford project supporters the advantage that comes from having members of the opposition wasting ammunition on each other. If it introduces a productive voice into the debate, and opponents can work together, it is less problematic. Whether this group has staying power and the ability to influence the debate remains to be seen, although one senses they are angling for the middle ground in the polarized debate.
Supporters of Brooklyn Speaks apparently believe that the effort is pragmatic politics, given the current constellation of forces, and that the modifications they seek would avert a much worse outcome. Meanwhile, DDDB and some allies will be rolling the dice with a lawsuit over eminent domain and, likely, the legitimacy of the environmental review itself.
The messy end game is already beginning.
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Oh, Red Hook. First it was trash transfer stations and sewage treatment plants. Then, it was Ikea. Now, it’s, well, fuel production. Specifically, “the city’s first large-scale manufacturing facility for biodiesel,” in the words of Ariella Cohen in the new edition of the Brooklyn Papers hitting stoops and distribution points all over Brooklyn. Biodiesel is a clean-burning gasoline substitute produced with vegetable oils and animal fats.
The new plant is proposed for a 15,000 square foot site on Columbia Street near Halleck, within shouting distance of the Red Hook ballfields, which should provide a sense of the controversy the proposal could generate in the neighborhood.
The business involved, Tri-State Biodiesel, has already applied for a $4 million grant to build a plant and “tank farm,” Ms. Cohen reports, so that used cooking oil from restaurants could be “collected and mixed with methanol and some petroleum” to create a diesel fuel. There would also be a filling station for trucks and buses.
The upside: the fuel is definitely green, producing 78 percent less carbon-dioxide emissions than standard diesel. The downside depends, one would suppose, on collateral damage in terms of the odor of millions of gallons of putrid cooking oil, other pollution and whether you happen to play ball across the street.
Apparently, a 2004 study done by Cornell estimated that more than a million gallons of waste oil could be collected for reuse from Brooklyn kitchens alone.
Ms. Cohen writes:
Yet some in Red Hook worry that the clean oil may be still too dirty for the popular baseball diamond — home to the Mexican Baseball League of New York— and public park that sit just west of the industrial park’s exhaust-colored concrete walls. The new facility would replace a storage lot now occupied by mounds of smoke-free road salt.
“We are talking about a site that is immediately adjacent to one of the city’s most-popular recreational areas,” said John McGettrick, Red Hook Civic Association President. “We have to find out more.”
Experts agree that the conversion of cooking oil into fuel does create a small amount of emissions. But even environmental watchdogs note that the emissions are minor compared to conventional petroleum production.
You can read the story in its entirety here. Gowanus Lounge is putting our money on a little bit of a mano-a-mano between some in the nabe and the city on this baby.
September 22nd, 2006 · Comments Off on Disconnected in Brooklyn on Craigslist
As we’ve noted, the Missed Connections section on Craigslist offers a rich sampling of ships passing in the Brooklyn night. Depending on your point of view, they’re either sad or funny or hopeful or desperate or a little bit of all four. Clearly, the subway produces a huge number of “missed connections,” and the F Train is clearly first among equals. In any case, here’s our personal fave of the week, titled “‘Freakishly quiet’ on the F-Train about 2pm Wednesday 9/20 – w4m – 23“:
I was sitting next to you on the F-Train this afternoon, Mr. Intimidatingly Hot, writing a list for myself and regretting my really impractical choice of footwear today. You were to my right, wearing an army green button up shirt, dark jeans, and brown man boots, with beautiful blue eyes and dirty blonde/light brown hair (mussed up just so) and some scruff. Swoon.
You were so incredibly cute that I was not my usual conversational self, and after awkwardly catching your eye a few times, the thing I finally said to you was…
“It’s freakishly quiet on the train today, huh?”
Very smooth, very smooth. *Hits forehead*
You got off at the next stop (Bergen, I think), and my inner monologue groaned. If you’re the missed-connection-checkin’ type, email me and tell me what I looked like/was wearing and what you said to me. You’re totally intriguing- and I promise I can usually come up with something far more compelling to say.
Ah, the Brooklyn hotel boom. The opening of the Holiday Inn Express in Gowanus has sparked a lot of interest in Brooklyn lodging options. Today’s Daily News surveys the landscape and adds some interesting information to that already in hand.
(Nitpick Moment: The story also refers to the Holiday Inn Express as being in Park Slope, which is one of our pet peeves, but then notes that its location on the block of Union Street between Third and Fourth Avenue is “marginal.”)
Okay, peevish nitpicking concluded. The article notes the opening of the Holiday Inn Express and a new Best Western in Sheepshead Bay, the big expansion of the downtown Marriott, the new hotel at Atlantic and Smith, plus plans for many more rooms. Specifically, a 400-room Sheraton on Duffield St. and plans for smaller ones in Bay Ridge, Red Hook and Sunset Park.
We’ll quote for a moment:
“All of the major players have been snooping around in Brooklyn,” said Brad Robertson of Leviev Boymelgreen Developers, which is building a 93-room hotel at 75 Smith St., across from the Brooklyn House of Detention on Atlantic Ave.
The article also provides some information about the Comfort Inn being developed by McSam Hotel Group, which is developing a large number of Brooklyn properties. The 106-room Comfort Inn is going up on Butler Street “in an industrial zone behind the city-run Gowanus Houses.” Hotel developer Sam Chang told the News he chose the spot because the land was available, cheap and well-located.
“It’s for blue-collar Brooklyn, or the self-employed who have to be downtown and don’t want to pay $300 a night,” he said.
We have a feeling we’ll be noting new Brooklyn hotel projects for years to come.
September 21st, 2006 · Comments Off on Atlantic Yards Update: Opponents Plan Oct. 21 Walkathon
It’s long been known that the decisive battle over the Atlantic Yards development will play out in the courtroom. The litigation–or actually multiple lawsuits–are likely to be coming regardless of the outcome of the Empire State Development Corporation‘s vote, the major suit centering around the use of eminent domain to take land for the project. The litigation will occur regardless of whether some public concerns about the project’s scale, density, traffic and environmental impacts are addressed by the ESDC and incorporated into a revised plan before approval or whether (West Side Stadium Killer) Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver can be convinced to hold out for more changes as part of the Public Authorities Control Board vote.
On that note, Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn will be raising money for its legal fund via a Walk Don’t Destroy walkathon on October 21. Last November, 400 Walkathoners raised more than $50,000 to support DDDB. The group’s last major public activity was a large rally at Grand Army Plaza on a blistering hot July day.
We finally got around to checking out the new Red Bamboo in Fort Greene, which is the new Brooklyn outpost of the West Village vegetarian spot, and found that it was generally to our liking. The restaurant has a cool Fort Greene vibe versus the more Manhattan/NYU feel of it’s other side of the East River parent.
As for the food, if you’ve eaten at the Manhattan branch, you know what to expect. Meaning that if you have a hard time with fake chicken or meat, you’re probably not going to like Red Bamboo. If, on the other hand, you don’t mind vegetable products being made to try to seem like they are, say, chicken or beef, then you might enjoy it.
Us, we think the fake meat takes some getting used to, but Red Bamboo produces an acceptable Chicken Parmesean and Cheesesteak (if you keep an open mind). Their Soul Chicken is good (in either sandwich or entree form), although we’ve got say that the various fake fish dishes are best avoided. As appetizers, we enjoyed their Collard Green Rolls (a kind of spring roll with spicy collard greens and soy ham), but forgot that we’re not big fans of their Cajun Fried Shrimp. Best of all, they serve Vegan Treats cakes for dessert, which are also available at two other Brooklyn veg spots, the V Spot on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope and Foodswings on Grand Street in Williamsburg.
The space occupied by the new Red Bamboo is great–there’s outdoor seating in good weather, a nice dining room, and a lounge upstairs with an outdoor deck. Forget the irony that it was an Italian restaurant in a past life that is said to have been frequented by people with, um, organized crime connections.
The bottom line is that you’re vegetarian or have a friend or significant other that is, you’ve got to applaud the fact that you now have another Brooklyn choice. You can click here for a positive review or click here for a less enthusiastic take. Red Bamboo is located at 271 Adelphi Street, which is at the corner of Dekalb.
September 21st, 2006 · Comments Off on After School Art, Plus Coney Island Shortcakes
“After School Art” is a cool group show that kicks off today (Thursday, 9/21) at the Laila Lounge on N. 7th Street in Williamsburg and runs through October 17. There are more than a dozen featured artists in the show, which has been put together by s.u.n.Arts.
We learned about the when we got an email from the good people at Coney Island Shortcakes, also known as thundercut in their more serious incarnation as graphic artists and publishers of an excellent literary mag called SHERBERT. They have a couple of pieces in the shows and will also be serving up their shortcakes at the opening soiree at Laila, tonight between 7PM and Midnight. There’s a good item on the show over at Cool Hunting.
(Coney Island Shortcakes also noted the upcoming weekend will be their last slinging shortcakes on the boardwalk in front of Cha Cha’s, right next to Shoot the Freak, so if you haven’t been and the sun is out, check ’em out. Thanks for putting many smiles on many faces this summer, Dan and Kalene.)
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September 20th, 2006 · Comments Off on About That Nasty Brooklyn Mosquito Spraying…
This is turning out to be quite the week for Brooklyn environmental nastiness stories. First, we have the tests showing all the toxic muck under Greenpoint because of that old oil spill. Then, we have the more subtle story of mosquito spraying.
Among the many reasons we were happy to be far, far out on Cape Cod in late August, was the spraying of many parts of Brooklyn for mosquitoes. Not that we like mosquitoes or mosquito-borne disease, but we like getting doused with chemicals less.
We linked to some items about it then, but were reminded of it by Sunset Parker’s outrage in an item about the “WMD”sprayed on Brooklynites. Of course, the city will tell you it’s all about preventing West Nile Virus and snuffing out mosquitoes. Sunset calls it the “utterly horrendous and utterly unnecessary” spraying of “cancer causing chemicals…indiscriminantly all over pregnant women and children last month by the City.” He continues with a very salient point:
Once again, its worth pointing out that not one Brooklyn resident was diagnosed with West Nile Virus this year, yet thousands (if not more) will potentially have their lives cut short. If you think the government gives a wit about your health, look at how they lied to people, guilting them to come down to the “pile” after 9/11, knowing full well (yes knowing full well) that they were sending them to an early (and most likely agonizing) death. This is a big deal (so was that.)
Sunset’s item was motivated by an excellent piece in ZNet that provides graphic detail about the callous way in which poisons–some of them carcinogenic–were sprayed around Brooklyn:
The first spraying of the year in Brooklyn took place on the evening of August 21. The spray truck — now driven by unionized NYC workers wearing DOHMH insignias — recklessly spewed pesticides in a thick cloud down crowded 5th Avenue in Sunset Park and in the surrounding area in utter disregard of the hundreds of people walking the streets. The truck blasted pregnant women and many, many little children with the spray, and fogged people in dozens of restaurants without warning — their doors wide open — as they ate.
Among the things sprayed on Brooklynites were a cancer-causing chemical called piperonyl butoxide and the pesticide Anvil that has been found to be a hormone (endocrine) disruptor and neurotoxin as well as serious lung irritant. Every time we feel that nothing can amaze or shock us, something comes along that does. And then we wonder why every time we turn around someone we know is being diagnosed with or dying from some horrendous cancer?
Combine this with the fact that it took 30 years to do tests showing (surprise) that there are carcinogens and other toxins (not to metion potentially explosive methane gas) in Greenpoint because of the humongous decades-old oil spill, and the ongoing revelations about the possible Ground Zero air coverup, and one has quite a few environmental stories to mull with one’s morning latte.
[Photo courtesy of NYC Indymedia, which also did excellent coverage of this issue back in August.]
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September 20th, 2006 · Comments Off on Coney Island Film Festival Coming Oct. 6-8
Just when you thought we might be done with Coney Island for the season, we’re happy to convey word that the Coney Island Film Festival is just around the corner. The 6th annual installment kicks off on Friday, October 6, and the fest runs through Sunday, Oct. 8. This year’s fest includes eighty-one films from around the world, officially described as “a stunning array of high and low-brow fare, as diverse as the neighborhood it represents. Subjects range from the profound to the profane, showcasing the independent spirit and irreverent nature of the one and only Coney Island.”
The “centerpiece film” is director Stephen Verona’s lost classic Boardwalk, starring film legends Ruth Gordon, Janet Leigh, and Lee Strasberg. It’s a look at life during Brighton Beach and Coney Island’s dark days of the late 1970s. There are documentary features, shorts and features.
The festival will begin with an Opening Night Gala on October 6th. American Carny: True Tales from the Circus Sideshow screens at 7:30pm at Sideshows by the Seashore followed by an opening night party, 9:30 p.m. at The Coney Island Museum. All the details about the fest and the full schedule of films are available at coneyislandfilmfestival.com.
You can watch a promo for the 2006 Coney Island Film Festival by clicking on the embed below or on this link.
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September 20th, 2006 · Comments Off on Trump to Murder Coney Island’s Cousin: Steel Pier in Atlantic City
It took us a while to get to this, but we noted the bitter irony when we read on the Kinetic Carnival blog that Donald Trump is closing a cousin of Coney Island–the Steel Pier in Atlantic City. Trump Entertainment owns the 100-year-old amusement pier and is going to turn it into a mixed-use development including stores, restaurants and hotel rooms. (Sound familiar?) The Philadelphia Inquirer offers a good article about the Pier’s history and its impending demise.
Why the irony, though? Because The Donald’s father, Fred C. Trump, was the moving force behind the destruction of Coney Island’s landmark Steeplechase Park in 1964. Trump père wanted the land for housing that was never built, and when there was talk of landmarking the spectacular pavillion he saw to it that it was demolished before any such thing could happen. (Again, ring any bells in a general way?) Trump even threw a rock threw the glass facade to symbolically start the demolition of a structure widely considered to be one of the world’s finest examples of Beaux-arts architecture. The only thing left of Steeplechase today is the beloved Parachute Jump and the name “Steeplechase” attached to a soccer field.
Kinetic Carnival writes of the intended victim of Trump fils:
Opening in 1898, the Steel Pier delighted crowds for decades with big-name entertainers ranging from Al Jolson to Frank Sinatra, daredevil stunt performers and hard-to-believe animal acts that included the diving horse and Rex the Wonder Dog, a water-skiing canine in the 1930s. One memorable oddity was the diving bell, which took thrillseekers underwater in murky seas. W.C. Fields got his show-business start as a minstrel at the Pier. It also hosted many big musical acts and had five entertainment theaters in its prime.
Last week, we walked past the Whole Foods site in Gowanus (or is it Park Slope?) for one of our periodic looks to see what’s happening or not happening with one of Brooklyn’s more eagerly anticipated grocery stores. (It should add at least 2-3 percent to asking prices in Park Slope and launch the Gowanus boom.) What we found was a site on which nothing has happened in months, a wasteland of empty nothingness. Except that vegetation now appears to be growning in the huge pool of water from groundwater seepage that we call Lake Gowanus.
The adjacent properties are vacant, and part of the former Red Hook Crushers property was roped off with yellow tape because of a collapsing wall.
So, why are we relating this? Because a tipster emailed us to say that they understand the project is gourmet toast. As in, “I just heard a rumor that the Whole Foods at 3rd & Third isn’t going to happen after all.” Yes, we note the use of the word “rumor.”
What’s interesting is that a different tipster to Curbed, relating comments that Whole Foods’ President/COO made at a meeting in San Francisco mentioned the opening of stores in Tribeca and at the Bowery & Houston, and even in London, but said nothing about Brooklyn. More likely, though, is that Whole Foods is getting ready to present its plans to expand the Third Avenue and Third Street site to include the adjacent properties, which has long been said to be the most logical option for building on the site. We do know that the Gowanus site has some fairly monstrous toxics issues, including “volatile organics,” and that remediation will take some time, and that the earliest a store would open is 2008, which could be very optimistic.
Here’s hoping that someone fills the obvious needs in the Brooklyn grocery market. Eventually, the trips to the Fairway in Red Hook are going to get old.
I was getting a slice on Seventh Avenue Friday evening when three loud little girls burst in (about age 13 or so, looked like the basic Park Slope Overprivileged Precious Offspring). Every third word out of their mouths was an obscenity. They walked up to the counter, barked and snapped at the pizza guys, demanding food and sodas. I asked one of them “Do you not say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to the people who are working hard here? Are these words not in your vocabulary?” She stared back at me and said “NO!”
I finished my pizza and left. As I was going out one of these delightful girls yelled at the top of her lungs “‘Please’ and ‘thank you’ my a*s!!. B*TCH!!!” Thank you, Park Slope parents, for creating these little monsters! After 25 years in the neighborhood I’m considering leaving for someplace more civilized.
There’s a long discussion about Park Slope teens over at the message board, along with what appears to be a sub-thread about the behavior of children of privelege versus low-income or working class kids.
Us, we see our share of both very civilized and very, um, somewhat less-than-civilized teens in Park Slope, and in other Brooklyn nabes too.
Now, here’s a thought we had on Sunday as we watched the Running of the Maclarens on Prospect Park West: What sort of horror will the Slope would be like in, say, 10-13 years when the Park Slope Rugrat Army of today becomes the Park Slope Teen Brigade of tomorrow? This is not a function of upbringing or class, but one of demographics. A nabe overloaded with 14-17 year olds is going to be a teen spirit kind of place, with a smattering of anarchy, no matter what.
The cat is out of the bag in terms of the identity of the restaurant that will occupy the site of the closed India House, aka the South Asian Scourge of Seventh Avenue, in Park Slope. It’s going to be called the No No Cafe, as in North of New Orleans Cafe. So, after some serious consideration, we’re figuring a Cajun/Creole spot? Or, of course, it could simply be a cute name for a cafe that plays on the owner’s city of origin.
How do we know this? There was a sign taped to the window when we passed by yesterday evening, keen watchers of the streetscape that we are. The more general point is that there is so little change from year to year on Seventh Avenue, especially of a culinary nature, that any new restaurant opening is cause for major excitement.
Call it manifest destiny. Or, at least, the slow creep of Park Slope into Gowanus (plus Sunset Park). We’re used to Manhattan-based and out-of-town media calling parts of Gowanus “Park Slope.” We have expressed our ire more than once that Holiday Inn Express insists on calling its new Gowanus lodging the “Park Slope” Holiday Inn Express. But, now, the “Park Slope” label is being applied by a publication based close to home: The Park Slope Courier.
We’re not trying to pick a fight with the Courier. We read it every week (and some of Courier Life’s other nabe pubs too…we stop at boxes in different spots to pick them up and go through their weekly emails and scour their website) and consider them a valuable source of the Brooklyn information we consume in massive quantities. But this week’s headline and story hurt: “New Holiday Inn Express Checks Into the Slope.” Specifically, “The world’s largest single ‘value conscious’ hotel brand has opened its first Brooklyn lodging in Park Slope.”
The Holiday Inn Express, for those of you that don’t know, is located at 625 Union Street, between Third and Fourth avenues. It is, in a word, in Gowanus, as Park Slope generally is considered to end at Fourth Avenue, by most definitions on the east side of Fourth Avenue. (Or, as our favorite definition of Park Slope goes, if you’re not walking up or down a hill, you’re not in Park Slope.)
The Marketwire/Holiday Inn Express press release about the official ribbon cutting at the hotel by Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff and others read:
Holiday Inn Express Brooklyn, which is managed by Magna Hospitality Group under agreement with InterContinental Hotels Group, and owned by McSam Hospitality, is the first and only hotel currently in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood.
Park Slope has been experiencing a renaissance in recent years, with an increasing number of Zagat-rated restaurants, world-class boutiques, businesses and other developments adding to the popularity of the neighborhood. The Holiday Inn Express is ideally situated to service visitors coming to see the Nets play in their new home at the nearby Atlantic Yards development, which will include an arena designed by architect Frank Geary (sic), and travelers on the Crown Princess and Queen Mary 2, both of which will be docking in the new cruise terminal in the borough’s Red Hook neighborhood.
No Land Grab, which knows this kind of thing when they see it, opined that “The only way you can consider Park Slope ‘burgeoning’ is if you include the Gowanus side of 4th Ave. in The Slope, but then again, these are some of the same guys who think that the Atlantic Yards proposal is in Downtown Brooklyn.”
For the record, before you write us off as pedantic (which we may be, in any case), the real estate section profile of Park Slope in New York Magazine defines the Slope’s nabe boundaries as “Stretching from Prospect Park West to 4th Avenue, Park Place to Prospect Expressway.” (No, New York is not the be all and end all of what makes a nabe, but most definitions cut off the Slope at Fourth Avenue.) That, in and of itself, is considered an expansive definition by some, although we find it totally acceptable in the current day context. Meanwhile, Wikipedia defines Gowanus boundaries as such: “The northern boundary of the neighborhood is Butler street, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to the south and west, and Fourth Avenue to the east.” Again, although there are those that consider the entire concept of Gowanus a new creation, those sound like reasonable boundaries to us, although some people say the territory from Smith and Ninth to the BQE is actually Red Hook. Then again, Brooklyn isn’t the only place where neighborhood boundaries change (the Bronx) or entire nabes vanish over time.
We thought the day when people say Park Slope stretches to the Gowanus Canal would occur when the Whole Foods on Third Avenue (eventually) opens, but it may be closer than we think. Looks like any day now, Park Slope’s definition will stretch to Third Avenue.
We’ve said it before and we will say it again (and again and again): That new Holiday Inn Express is not in Park Slope. It is in Gowanus. (Close to the border, but still Gowanus.)
Gowanus. Gowanus. Gowanus.
Or, perhaps, we should give up and start calling ourselves The Park Slope Lounge.
September 18th, 2006 · Comments Off on Sunset Parker Finds Meat Online
We were amused to find the latest post at the always wonderful Sunset Parker blog–one of our top Brooklyn favorites-because we’d come across the video in question back in July or August. Turns out that Sunset produced a short “horror comedy” called Meat in the late 1990s and he just discovered that someone has posted it on Google Videos. We found it there during the summer as we were casting about for Brooklyn vids, and had it on our list of things to post before it became submerged in the daily flood of material. In any case, we’ll let Sunset explain:
We were surfing the web when we stumbled on Meat, a short horror comedy we directed nine years ago. Not sure how we feel about some stranger (we have no idea who the woman who posted it is, though we’ve contacted her) posting our movie to Google Video. (Also the upload quality is kinda crappy compared to the original cinematography which received plenty of kudos and accolades- again, nice, Matt). We sold it to the Sundance Channel in ’97 where it received heavy repeat airplay around Halloween for a few years (true story: we checked into a hotel on October 30, 1999, turned on the tv and it was playing) and developed a show with MTV around it. (disaster creatively, success financially). We only recently received the rights back from MTV, so that was part of our dismay at finding it on Google Video (posted by a stranger no less). Anyway, it won a bunch of film festivals all over the world and provided us with several awesome opportunities to travel, bask in some glory and most importantly quit the day job.
The video is bloody, but it’s shot entirely locally including a couple of scenes in Gowanus. Watch it by going to Sunset Parker (which is always worth doing regardless) or clicking on the embed.
While we’re on the topic of videos, check out our own Brookvids series, which we’ve been posting on the weekends, but which we’ll be doing more of as time goes on.
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September 18th, 2006 · Comments Off on Decades After Greenpoint Oil Spill, Study Finds Toxics
What Greenpoint residents and environmentalists have been saying all along–that there are some very bad things underfoot in Greenpoint because of the massive oil spill dating back to 1950–is turning out to be true. We will ignore why it has taken until 2006 for studies showing that residents may have been slowly poisoned for decades, and stick to the facts. And, the fact is that state Department of Environmental Conservation tests released last week found that there are high concentrations of dangerous chemicals under parts of Greenpoint, including benzene, a nasty carcinogen, and the explosive gas methane.
ExxonMobil‘s predecessors spilled about 17 million gallons of oil in Greenpoint, significantly more than the Exxon Valdez dumped, and plume has been spreading underground. The testing came about because a suit by Riverkeeper seeking to force a faster, more comprehensive cleanup.The epicenter of the toxic nastiness, which is acknowledged to be a “potential hazard” is around Bridgewater Street and Norman Avenue. At the request of the DEC, the tests were conducted by ExxonMobil and were required after Riverkeeper did its own testing and found vapors.
A public meeting on the findings will take place at 7PM on September 27 at 92 Nassau Avenue in Greenpoint. If you want to check out the Department of Environmental Conservation’s material about the spill you can click here. Also, you can check the New York Post story and the Daily News story and an item in Gothamist with some good links.
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We were alarmed to read a comment related to a photo of Lundy’s, the landmark eatery on Emmons Avenue in Sheepshead Bay, that we posted last week. The comment was from someone who works at Lundy’s. It said, in part, “I constantly overhear the owners preparing to sell the place! So all you GL readers come on by – before Lundy’s may be NO MORE!!!”
What’s the big deal? For starters, Lundy’s has (sort of) been around just shy of a century. It opened in Sheepshead Bay in 1907. At the time, it was on the bay side of Emmons, sitting on pilings in the water. It opened at the present site (which is the northwest corner of Emmons and Ocean Avenue) in 1938. Lundy’s was one of those humongous places that’s hard to imagine these days–it could serve 2,800 people at a seating.
A lot of people point to the closing of Lundy’s in 1979, after the last of the Lundy brother died, as being symbolic of the 1970s/80s tailspin of the Sheepshead Bay waterfront. It quickly became a derelict landmark with broken windows. Likewise, there are those who say the reopening of Lundy’s in 1995 was a turning point in the waterfront’s subsequent comeback. (It’s one-third the size of the original.)
We’re no Sheephead Bay natives, but we certainlly enjoy heading down there now and then when the weather is nice, just like we enjoy our regular trips to Brighton Beach and Coney Island. Let’s hope the talk of sale doesn’t pan out or, that if it does, new owners keep it open. Lundy’s is to Sheepshead Bay what Junior’s is downtown Brooklyn. You can’t replace that kind of history once you lose it.
Reportedly, next year’s Brooklyn Book Festival will span two days. That would be a good thing (and we say this in a very nice way). We stopped in to the Book Fest at Brooklyn Borough Hall yesterday afternoon and found it to be a wonderfully cool event, but also quickly concluded that there was way too much going on at any given time to take in. We have a hard time deciding what to have for dinner, so in this case, the result was near decisionmaking paralysis. Do we check out the New World Noir presentation on the main stage with Lawrence Block? See the City on the Edge readings with Jonathan Ames? What about the Notes from the Underground discussion with Johnny Temple of Akashic Books, Ted Hamm of the Brooklyn Rail and others? And that was the dilemma only from 2:00-3:00.
The Fest looked like it was a big success, and it was awesome to see so many people from the sprawling Brooklyn literary universe gathered in one place. The Book Festival drew a sizeable crowd, and the set up at Borough Hall was comfortable and fun. (Plus, the weekly Farmer’s Market was set up in the middle, so you could score some killer heirloom tomatoes We especially dug way the steps of Borough Hall were used as ampitheater seating for the main stage. The non-fiction stage, where we caught brewmaster Gerrett Oliver and rat expert Robert Sullivan was also fun.
The blog sarahana has some excellent early photos of the event, though we are certain many, many more are to come today and tomorrow, and we’ll round them up when they do. Meantime, here are a few shots we took, though we were mostly trying to concentrate on listening for a change.
Lawrence Block at the microphone.
Robert Sullivan, author of Dirty Secrets: A Literary Investigation of Rats & Garbage
The crowd on the steps of Borough Hall, watching the main stage.
September 17th, 2006 · Comments Off on Gowanus Lounge Brookvid: Sheepshead Bay Fishing Fleet
This is the third in our new Brookvids Series, our own video look at Brooklyn. This vid checks out the fishing fleet in Sheepshead Bay, day boats that return every afternoon and sell extra fish that are caught. It’s an interesting scene and classic Brooklyn by the water. Music here is Brian Eno. Watch by clicking the embed or on this link.
Comments Off on Gowanus Lounge Brookvid: Sheepshead Bay Fishing FleetTags:Uncategorized
With the fight over Atlantic Yards poised to enter the official Empire State Development Corporation potential modification and definite approval phase, some neighborhood and civic groups are turning up the volume of efforts to reduce the scale of the massive project. Rather than trying to block the project, they will seek to changes in its scale and nature.
