Paterson: Fiscal Crisis Looms

Gov. David A. Paterson said in a brief TV address on Tuesday that New York is facing a fiscal crisis as a result of the Wall Street meltdown and has called the Legislature back in August to tackle a budget deficit that will grow to $26.2 billion over the next 3 years.

“This situation will get worse before it gets better,” Paterson said.

The Governor said little about what he plans to do, but said his administration would consider reducing the state work force, cutting additional spending by state agencies and selling or leasing public assets.

“Our economic woes are so severe that I wanted to talk to you personally...,” the governor said in his 5-minute Albany speech. “The fact is, we confront harsh times.”

The governor, a liberal Democrat who spent more than two decades in the Senate, seems to be positioning himself as a fiscal conservative as he prepares to run for office in 2010. Possible opponents are Nassau County executive Thomas R. Suozzi and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

Wall Street accounts for 1/5 of the state’s revenue stream. Large financial firms based in New York City may be handing out $18 billion less in pay and benefits this year than last year.

“The damage on Wall Street is infecting all of our communities, and its effects on our New York State finances are devastating,” Mr. Paterson said.

Non-administrative budget cuts will have to emerge from negotiations with lawmakers in August. The governor has called an emergency economic session for Tuesday, Aug. 19.

Already, the Democratic-led Assembly and Republican-led Senate are gearing up for battle.

The article from the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/nyregion/29paterson.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

More from Gotham Gazette:
http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2008/08/04/is-thestate-in-crisis/

Coney Island's Future

On the Tuesday after the annual Mermaid Parade, the City Planning Dept. met to gather public comment on the revised Coney Island redevelopment plan.

An animated group of Coney enthusiasts spoke against the revised plan.

Most commenters agreed that Coney needs radical change, but questioned how much of its unique character will -- and should -- remain.

In 2005, Joel Sitt's Thor Equities announced ambitious plans for Coney's hundred-year-old amusement park. Once home to Luna Park, Steeplechase and Dreamland, Coney is now an economically depressed neighborhood dotted with public housing and high-rise apartments.

Thor's plan included an indoor waterpark, hotels, up-market retail and new rides.

In June, DCP released a revised version of the Coney Island plan.

In the revised plan, the eastern side of Coney —between the Parachute Jump and the Cyclone—would become a huge entertainment center with rides, a steel roller coaster, a waterpark and a hotel.

Landmarks like the Parachute Jump, the Cyclone and the Wonder Wheel would be preserved and Childs' Restaurant and the historic B&B Carousell and Shore Theatre would be renovated and reopened.

The city would take over the Astroland site and use the property for privately-owned rides.

A community center and expanded parkland on the southern end of the amusement area have also been incorporated into the plan.

The revised plan would preserve the amusement park "in perpetuity" but reduce the open amusements zone from 15 to 9 acres (there are now 60 -- mostly vacant -- acres in the zone)while expanding the enclosed amusements and "entertainment retail" portions.

Sideshow producer Dick Zigun, self-appointed mayor of Coney Island and former director of the Coney Island Development Corp., sees danger in the revised plan. He fears it would open the amusements area in the original plan to a "mega-mall".

Zigun resigned as a director of the Coney Island Development Corp. in June after the city announced the revised plan. He wrote in his resignation letter that the revised plan endangered the core amusement district.

"There is almost unanimous dislike of the new plan among amusement park owners, workers and fans," wrote Zigun. "You underestimate the protests, yelling and lawsuits headed your way from a land where legit businesses call themselves Cyclone, Thunderbolt and Tornado."

At the June 25 DCP meeting, Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping, the president of the International Federation of Competitive Eating, performers from Zigun's Sideshows by the Seashore and the vice president of the American Coaster Enthusiasts all spoke against the revised plan, saying that reducing the amusements area would threaten Coney's character and make it impossible to build a large, world-class amusement park.

They argued that "entertainment retail" was a backhanded attempt at building a mall.

Coney Island Development Corp. president Lynn Kelly said that opponents of the revised plan have misrepresented it. "The fear that Coney East is going to turn into a mall is absolutely wrong," she said.

Purnama Kapoor, of DCP Brooklyn, said that "entertainment retail" will allow for year-round attractions that would complement outdoor amusements.

Kelly sees the biggest threat to Coney as the opponents of change who cheered pictures of vacant lots during the city planning presentation. She believes Thor is Coney's best chance.

If the plan falls apart or Thor, Coney's biggest landowner, gets impatient with the opposition, Kelly said, the developer could sell its property or lobby the city to allow housing in the core amusements area.

There is precedent for that. In 1964, developer Fred C. Trump (father of comb-over king Donald Trump) demolished Steeplechase Park for luxury housing -- which he ultimately failed to get permission to build.

Trump Senior is notorious for personally throwing a brick through the glass façade of the beaux-arts Pavilion of Fun at Steeplechase, leading a festive demolition of the building before it could be designated a historic landmark.

After the wanton destruction of Steeplechase Park, Coney went into a decades-long decline. What had been one of America's premier amusement destinations shrunk to 5% of its original size, and many other landmarks, such as the Thunderbolt roller coaster, were lost.

Many Coney Islanders see the Thor redevelopment plan as a way to keep the neighborhood's amusement zoning designation and restore some of Coney's past glory.

But would Coney be a destination for New Yorkers? According to New York Magazine, Thor's prospective billion-dollar Coney Island investment will only pay dividends if retail space and hotel rooms are rented at rates that would attract high-end retail and vacationers with disposable income.

The Coney Island re-development is midway through the environmental review, which should result in a report in December. After that, the local Community Board, the DCP, the City Council and the mayor's office must all approve the rezoning before construction can begin.

Final approval is not expected until spring 2009.

The project's predicted completion date is 2019.

The article from Gotham Gazette:
http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/issueoftheweek/20080728/200/2594

More from the Brooklyn Paper:
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/31/32/31_32_mm_coney.html

More from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2008/09/23/2008-09-23_charges_fly_in_feud_over_coney_island_pl-1.html

More from the Wall Street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122306828434603303.html

A Coney Island summit, from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2008/11/13/2008-11-13_some_brave_new_worlds_for_coney_island.html

MAS wants a year-round Coney Island:
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081117/FREE/811179916/1050

Bricolage

According to Committee sources, Bricolage Designs (Website "under construction") is the proposed builder of the "Green Church Condo" development.

Bricolage was founded by architects Douglas Pulaski and Henry Radusky.

Committee sources report that Douglas Pulaski is the architect who signed off on the 72-unit "Green Church Condo" development plan Abe Betesh has filed with the DOB.

Like the buyer, the builder is controversial. Here are a few examples, drawn from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and Wikipedia:

Williamsburg Mews

A group of Williamsburg condo owners sued Bricolage and Douglas Pulaski for breach of contract, breach of warranty, negligent misrepresentation and negligent construction.

Also named in the complaint were developer-sponsor Hope Houses LLC, principal Shlomo Karpen and Brooklyn contractors Superior Construction and Roth Roofing.

The complaint alleges defective construction, defective roofing materials and workmanship, leaky roofs, damaged bulkheads and floors, inadequate flashing over lintel heads, leaky window sills, cement-clogged sewer pipes, basement floods, inadequate heat, and a single layer of sheetrock between units -- instead of the two layers required by the Building Code.

In 2007, the condo owners settled the lawsuit for $235,000. Under the settlement agreement, Bricolage Designs and Pulaski were required to pay $25,000 in damages.

Self-Certification Privileges Revoked

In 2005, the Village Voice reported that DOB inspectors found that Henry Radusky "failed to follow required codes" on 55 building projects. In response, Radusky agreed to voluntarily surrender his Self-Certification privileges for one year.

Spencer Street Condominiums

Bricolage designed the Spencer Street Condominiums -- five 9-story buildings in Bedford-Stuyvesant that included 72 apartment units, for developers Mendel Brach, Moshe Oknin, and Moshe Roth.

The project was permitted by the DOB as "faculty housing" for the Beth Chana School for Girls in Williamsburg. Under the "community facility" rules in place at the time, the building was allowed to be much larger than neighboring structures.

The 72 apartments were then sold as condos, in violation of the city's "community facility" rules.

DOB refused to grant a final C of O.

266 22nd Street

This Greenwood Heights building was designed for real estate developer Jack LoCicero. The 90-foot, 9-story project, which towered over neighboring buildings, also took advantage of the existing "community facility" rules.

266 2nd Street was permitted by DOB as "faculty housing and daycare" for Yeshiva Gedolah Bais Yisroel in Midwood, though the yeshiva's principal denied any knowledge of the project.

The building now provides rental units to employees of Methodist Hospital.

182 15th Street

This proposed 62-unit, 11-story building, in which disgraced architect Robert Scarano, Jr. had a hand, was built for developer Isaac Katan. The foundation was botched when the developer tried to get it in the ground before new zoning regulations limiting building height took effect.

The City Board of Standards and Appeals ruled against the project. As a result, it could not be built as designed.

Armory Plaza

This project at 406-408 15th Street in Brooklyn was designed for developers Jack and Lorenzo LoCicero. Originally planned for nine stories and 47 apartment units, it too was permitted by DOB under the "community facility" rules.

It was later determined that the project had been approved months after the "community facility" rules had been stricken from the from city zoning regulations. (Woopsie!)

The project had to be reduced to five stories.

I think I now understand why DOB would take its time reviewing any application for a building permit filed by Bricolage or any one associated with the firm.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle article:
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=4&id=12892

Deal Going Down

As reported on this blog, the Department of Buildings (DOB) has initially failed to approve an application filed by developer Abe Betesh for a construction permit for the Green Church site.

The Brooklyn Paper reports that Betesh and the trustees are going ahead with their plan to demolish the church.

Included in the DOB permit application is a seven-story, 72-unit residential building, an 8,196-square-foot "church" and a 42-car parking lot.

According to Betesh, the DOB has not rejected the application but only required that it be revised and resubmitted.

“They are reviewing it,” Betesh said. “When you submit a set of plans and they disapprove it, they give you certain comments or ask you further questions — it means they are working on it."

A DOB official told The Brooklyn Paper that an application can be disapproved for non-compliance with building or zoning regulations or because it is incomplete.

Pastor Robert Emerick called the Green Church "an albatross.”

Councilman Vincent Gentile hopes that the DOB denial will delay demolition and give him more time to work with developers who might be interested in saving the church.

Not very much time.

We have no evidence yet that an application for a demolition permit has been filed with the DOB by the trustees or an agent of the trustees.

The article from the Brooklyn Paper:
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/31/30/31_30_bm_green_church.html

Green Church Interior Being Removed?

Green Church Newsflash:

A Committee member e-mailed me today -- I just got home and opened the message -- to tell me that she'd gotten a call from another member who said she could hear a lot of banging going on in the church.

It sounds like they may be demolishing the interior.

But maybe not.

Another member of the group who lives near the church said, "Last Friday and today the water main and sewage people worked all day in front of the first church gate next to the parsonage. The noise was infernal. We had to close all the windows in the front."

This could have been the source of the banging.

Riding the Cyclone

Until the National Bureau of Economic Research's Business Cycle Dating Committee says we are, we're not in a "recession". And, given the fact that we're closing in on an election, don't expect that announcement. But losing half-a-million jobs over the past 6 months sure looks like a recession.

Unemployment is rising and record oil and grain prices are cleaning out our wallets. Price hikes have curtailed our non-fuel and food spending, making the downturn worse. That $100 billion in tax rebates people got over the past two months as part of the stimulus package? Long gone -- gobbled up by rising costs.

New York City is seeing monthly job losses, with 5,000 jobs lost in May and June. Wall Street has shed 7,500 jobs since last fall. Losses of as many as 22,000 jobs are projected.

Employment agencies, management consulting, business services, hospitals, corporate headquarters, law, accounting and advertising have all seen flat employment over the past year.

Record tourism fueled by the declining U.S. dollar has enabled job growth in retail and food.

As job losses spread, the city's overall employment levels will be further depressed. The mayor's office is projecting the city will lose approximately 90,000 jobs by the spring of 2009.

Initial claims for unemployment insurance are running about 10% higher in the city than a year ago.

City tax records show home values in the outer boroughs falling; mortgage foreclosures are mounting. By early this year, 15% of all sub-prime mortgages in Brooklyn were in foreclosure, with more to come.

The slowing job market and rising food and energy prices are putting the pinch on New Yorkers' household budgets. The New York City Coalition Against Hunger reports a 9 percent increase in the number of free meals served in March and April compared to a year ago.

Energy prices have pushed the New York metro Consumer Price Index up by one percentage point in each of the past two months.

The unprecedented Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout, threatened bank failures and continued losses at major Wall Street banks point to severe and deep-rooted problems. Economic policymakers face their greatest challenge since the Great Depression.

New York City's near-term economic outlook is -- at best -- a moderate recession, given continued job losses, financial and housing problems, rising food and energy prices, and the uncertain fate of Wall Street.

The article from Gotham Gazette:
http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/fea/20080721/202/2584

Happy Dog

Having a swell time at the dog run.

"Pratties" Re-Design Admiral's Row

Pratt professor Brent Porter and his architecture students have designed a plan for Admiral's Row that would preserve 10 of the old houses and build a supermarket and parking lot.

The re-design would restore the historic houses for commercial and community use and put the supermarket on the old parade grounds.

The Pratt proposal came out before last Tuesday's public meeting at Borough Hall and after Councilmember Letitia ("Tish") James said she was willing to preserve at least some of the historic houses.

Related posts:

Meet the New ‘Row’ [Brooklyn Paper]

Guard Starts Talks 'To Come Up With Alternatives' For Row [Brownstoner]

James Opens Door to (Partial) Admiral's Row Preservation [Brownstoner]

The Brownstoner post:
http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/07/pratties_have_c.php

Waterfront Plan Review

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn wants to update the city's waterfront development plan.

As part of the "City of Water" event on Governor's Island yesterday, Quinn praised waterfront activists for keeping the city's waterfronts vibrant, but said that "government must keep pace."

Quinn will introduce a bill in the council next month that would require the City Planning Department to update the city's waterfront development plan every 10 years.

Her stated goal is to keep the city's waterfronts alive with recreational and commercial uses, acknowledging that increasing water transport would alleviate the city's traffic woes.

The article from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/07/26/2008-07-26_city_council_speaker_christine_quinn_wan.html

Related post from Green Brooklyn:
http://greenbrooklyn.com/city-of-water-speaker-quinn-says-nyc-government-must-keep-the-pace-of-communities-activists-on-waterfront-development/2008/07/28/

Development Projects in Trouble

Big development projects like Atlantic Yards, Coney Island and the John Catsimitidis supermarket/luxury condo/affordable housing project on Myrtle Ave., pictured, are in jeopardy as the crumbling economy spreads fear through the real estate industry.

All development projects in New York City face delays and size reductions.

"The economy soured and [Catsimitidis] can't get municipal bonds to get the affordable housing," said Councilwoman Letitia James (WFP-Prospect Heights), an early supporter of the project -- because of the affordable housing.

Ah, yes, affordable housing: the carrot. But is there a stick?

The post from No Land Grab:
http://www.nolandgrab.org/

The article from the New York Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2008/07/26/2008-07-26_myrtle_ave_condosupermarket_project_stal.html

Whither Marty?

BP Marty Markowitz is keeping his political intentions to himself.

According to filings, Markowitz has raised just $935,116 in campaign cash. Mayoral front-runners Anthony Weiner and Christine Quinn have each raised more than $3 million -- three times as much.

Fund-raising is seen as an early indicator of a candidate's strength, in which case Markowitz looks very weak.

While Markowitz' campaign spending indicates that he's leaving the mayoral door open, he has candidly asked "Do I have what it takes to be the best mayor?"

Meanwhile, in the race to succeed Markowitz as BP, Park Slope Councilman Bill de Blasio leads the fund-raising pack with $608,820, five times as much as his closest opponent. The crowded field includes East New York Councilman Charles Barron and Deputy Borough President Yvonne Graham.

The article from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2008/07/21/2008-07-21_marty_markowitz_losing_race_for_cash_to_.html

Yellow Hook Townhomes

Remember the 74th Street Victorians scandal that fueled the local blogs last fall?

Well, this is what replaced them:

http://yellowhooktownhomes.com/

Nothing proclaims "neighborhood values" quite like a brand-new "luxury" condo box.

Scandinavian Brooklyn

Bay Ridge native Victoria Hofmo, member of the Committee to Save the Bay Ridge United Methodist Church and prominent local historic preservation advocate, is featured in a New York Times article on Scandinavian Brooklyn.

The city’s once-thriving Scandinavian community was centered in Bay Ridge, Sunset Park and Dyker Heights.

In 1996, Ms. Hofmo, who became interested in her Scandinavian heritage as a college student, founded the Scandinavian East Coast Museum, which maintains an extensive collection of artifacts of Scandinavian Brooklyn. The Museum also organizes the annual Viking Fest, a Scandinavian cultural event in Bay Ridge.

Ms. Hofmo, who calls Scandinavians a "forgotten group" in Brooklyn, is searching for a home for her museum -- a place to honor the people and the life of Scandinavian Brooklyn.

The New York Times article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/nyregion/thecity/27scan.html?_r=1&ref=thecity&oref=slogin

Brooklyn Foreclosures Rise 25%

According to Crain's New York, Brooklyn and Queens each generated about 25% more foreclosures in the second quarter of 2008 than last year.

Kings County reported 1981 foreclosure notices, including 102 repossessions. Queens County reported 2692 foreclosure actions, including 375 repossessions.

Staten Island was again the second quarter loss leader: S.I. foreclosures surged by 93.7% between April and June of this year, compared with the same period in 2007 according to Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac Inc.

Nearly 800 Staten Island homes received at least one foreclosure notice during the quarter and 130 houses were repossessed.

“Staten Island has some of the worst mortgages out there,” said Sarah Ludwig, co-director at the nonprofit Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project. The problem is attributed to S.I.'s large new immigrant population and high rate of home ownership.

The housing crisis is expected by many analysts to continue through fall 2009, as more adjustable rate mortgages blow up homeowners monthly payments.

The article from Crain's New York:
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080725/FREE/83394901/1097

Life's a Beach: Breezy Point

Breezy Point sits on a low-lying spit at the southernmost edge of Queens, dangling into the Atlantic Ocean -- 22 miles from Manhattan.

Slide Show
Living in Breezy Point

“It’s beach living out here....” says resident Susan Hines, a therapist and photographer.

The Point, a neighborhood of about 1.9 square miles, is a unique enclave of nature, multi-generational families and drum-tight community.

Bicycles practically outnumber cars here, and side streets, blocked by security gates, are patrolled by blue-shirted rent-a-cops who keep DFDs -- people “down for the day”-- out of areas reserved for Pointers.

There are no more buildable lots on the Point. All of the private land here belongs to a co-op, which controls access. Annual charges of around $2,000 cover tap water, beach cleaning and basketball court maintenance.

The neighborhood went co-op in 1960, when the Point was a summer retreat for middle-class families from Marine Park, Sheepshead Bay and Flatbush. In the late 1990s, residents began razing one-story bungalows and building year-round dwellings.

Today, full-timers outnumber seasonal residents by 3-to-1, according to the Breezy Point Cooperative, which controls about 420 of the area’s approximately 1,200 acres.

In summer, the year-round population of around 5,000 swells by thousands of residents like 86-year-old Jane Kelly, a Bay Ridge resident who has come here since 1925.

Many Kelly family members own homes on the Point or come in the summer.

“I don’t miss the old days,” Ms. Kelly said. “The community’s a lot more active."

The Point is famously white, peopled by the descendents of those who came to New York City in the great waves of European immigration during the 19th century: Irish, German and Italian.

Gateway National Recreation Area, a federal reserve including Fort Tilden and Jacob Riis Park, surrounds the Point.

The article from the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/realestate/27livi.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Jemal vs. Cavanagh

Developer Stephen Jemal, who, according to the Daily News, founded The Wiz, has threatened to sue Daniel Cavanagh, who runs Gerritsenbeach.net, over Cavanagh's post suggesting that Jemal may have engaged in disreputable business practices.

The trouble started last week when Cavanagh posted a report that two Texas-based investment companies had sued Jemal for allegedly failing to repay a loan.

Cavanagh became interested in Jemal -- and his corporate alter-ego SSJ Development -- as a result of neighborhood opposition to SSJ's new luxury condo development, Riveria at Sheepshead Bay, on Knapp St.

Things turned ugly when someone acting as Jemal's agent -- authorized or not -- hacked into Cavanagh's site, shutting it down for six hours on July 25.

According to the News article, the post is still up.

The story from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2008/07/24/2008-07-24_exwiz_big_fights_jabs_by_blogger.html

"Hot" Brooklyn Nabes Cooling

Real estate prices in "hot" Brooklyn neighborhoods like Bay Ridge are cooling.

Total Brooklyn home sales are down by a staggering 43.6% for the last 12 months, according to a new report from Prudential Douglas Elliman.

The median home price is now $525,000, lower than a year ago -- but only by 1.9 percent.

"The primary dropoff in activity is all about credit," said Jonathan Miller, whose company compiled the report.

The article from the New York Post:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/07112008/news/regionalnews/kings_zinged_119411.htm

The Vermont Market Mystery

The Vermont Market and Pharmacy in Carroll Gardens closed a dozen years ago, yet the store sits mysteriously vacant in a now-gentrified Carroll Gardens.

The combination drugstore and market, which once sold Vermont specialties, sits at the corner of Henry and Sackett Streets across from a cafe and a trendy new dumpling house.

Owner Mark Stein still visits.

Neighbors say Stein is a recluse who wears suspenders and prefers to walk in the street, a genius with a deep knowledge of homeopathy and a university job.

Stein is characterized as "an elusive guy" by Adam Parke, who partnered with him the mid-1990s to open the Vermont Market. According to Parke, Stein "comes and goes in the middle of the night”, and has "never fit" in the neighborhood.

On a recent evening, Stein appeared unexpectedly at his store carrying a backpack and wearing a green hat and rolled-up jeans -- and walking in the street.

“It didn’t quite work out,” he said about the market.

Stein started Mark's Pharmacy there in the 1980s after his father bought the building. It was an attempt to revive the full-service pharmacies of the 1930s and 40s.

Around 1996, Stein and some partners opened the Vermont Market and Pharmacy.

The store closed within a year or so because business was slow. Stein said it had sat unused all these years because he did not want to give a tenant a long-term lease, and because he did not know what to do with it.

Stein envisions “some kind of a holistic or community space.”

The Vermont Market was ahead of its time, he said.

The article from the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/nyregion/22store.html?scp=1&sq=filling+in+a+few+blanks+in+an+old+brooklyn+real+estate+mystery&st=nyt

More on the now-gentrified Carroll Gardens neighborhood, from AM New York:
http://www.amny.com/news/local/am-city1002,0,5039159.story

Household Energy Costs Soar

From May to June, residential energy costs in Metropolitan New York went up 10.8%, the biggest monthly increase on record. The cost of electricity -- the main driver in that period -- rose 15%.

As Con Ed passes along surging fuel costs, monthly utility bills are soaring. Con Ed's residential customers will pay 22% more this summer.

Household energy costs are up 18% since last year and grocery costs are up 6.4%, the biggest change in any 12-month period since 2004.

The overall rate of consumer price increases in the last 12 months was 4.5%, the highest annual rate of inflation in two years. From May to June alone, the local inflation rate was 1%.

The only prices that have not risen sharply in the New York metropolitan area are discretionary items like clothing, household furnishings and entertainment.

Another contributor to surging costs is rent increases: rents are up 4.8%.

The article from the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/nyregion/17energy.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=us%20report%20shows%20spike%20in%20energy%20costs%20for%20households%20in%20ny%20region&st=cse&oref=slogin

Related article on soaring consumer prices from Crain's New York:
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080716/FREE/709518801

Re-Dedication or Demolition?

Green Church pastor Robert Emerick is quoted in a Brooklyn Eagle article this week as saying “We’re still moving ahead with our plans with the developer.”

According to Lois Habenicht, secretary of the board of directors, “[The congregation is] waiting for the closing date, which has been delayed, so we can move forward with our plans.”

According to the Eagle, Assemblywoman Janele Hyer-Spencer is considering the possibility of applying for an injunction to halt the demolition of the church.

On Tuesday, workmen told local residents they were disconnecting the gas lines to the church.

According to one rumor, the Sunday school will be demolished first. (According to another, Abe Betesh, holder of the contract of sale, plans to utilize the Sunday school, the three-story brown brick structure in the center of the block recently vacated by HeartShare Human Services.)

The three-story brownstone on Ovington that once served as the church parsonage stands empty. (Reverend Emerick is rumored to be living in a newly-purchased house on Mackay Place.)

A monument, dedicated to the 211 souls whose remains were dug up and moved to Cypress Hills two months ago, was recently removed from the front lawn of the church.

The congregation has moved its records to the nearby Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, where they now hold ecumenical services. “They welcomed us with open arms.” said Habenicht. Good Shepherd will be the congregation's home until at least early 2010, when they hope to have a new church built.

In May, when the church was slated to be demolished, congregation members say they held a private session to “re-envision” the site.

The Committee to Save the Bay Ridge United Methodist Church hopes to see the church, with its 650-seat auditorium and excellent acoustics, re-dedicated as the Bay Ridge Performing Arts Center, a permanent home for Bay Ridge's music, theatre and cultural organizations, many of which have no space of their own.

“Councilman Gentile asked us to give him some time,” said Habenicht. “We said, if you can come up with some money and subsidies, please let us know. But look at the church and its condition.”

The Brooklyn Preservation Council (BPC), founded this spring, has placed the church building on its list of Brooklyn sites worthy of preservation.

The story from the Brooklyn Eagle:
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=31&id=22020

Postscript:

Committee members who monitor the city Department of Buildings database report that the congregation has filed applications for "new building construction at 7002 4th Avenue" -- the 4th Avenue address of the Green Church -- and a "sidewalk shed".

According to Committee sources, neither application has been approved -- to date.

Gov Perplexed

A seemingly exasperated Gov. David Paterson has accused the state's political leaders of failing to appreciate the seriousness of New York's deteriorating economic situation.

Paterson warned yesterday that year-end Wall Street bonuses, which jumped last year, would likely plummet this year by -20% because of the subprime-mortgage crisis and the overall weakening of the state economy, costing New York state $700 million in revenue.

The state loses about $350 million in tax revenues for every 10% drop in bonuses.

Paterson has repeatedly warned that the state faces $20 billion or more in projected deficits over the next three years and that corporate-tax revenues from New York City "are falling and falling at a frightening pace."

The story, from the New York Post:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/07222008/news/regionalnews/gov_warns_of_wall_st__bonus_blow_120943.htm

More on the budget shortfall from the New York Post:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/07282008/news/regionalnews/mayor_bloomberg_warns_of_2_3b_gap_in_cit_121980.htm

Luxury Downtown Brooklyn

Three years ago, the New York City Council approved a massive re-zoning of Downtown Brooklyn, as detailed in the "Downtown Brooklyn Plan".

The re-zoning was supposed to encourage new office development and space for academic expansion within the Flatbush Avenue/Fulton Street Mall/Willoughby Avenue commercial district. The areas surrounding this core district were re-zoned for new residential development and ground-floor retail.

The plan was hailed as a way to ensure that businesses looking for Class A office space would choose Brooklyn over New Jersey.

The office boom has failed to materialize. The “New Brooklyn” the plan envisioned is sprouting luxury residential towers and hotels.

The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, the public-private local development corporation implementing the city's plan, calls Downtown Brooklyn a “world-class cultural hub” and “vibrant business center”, but Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE) has a different perspective.

FUREE, which works with local low-income residents and small business owners, views the re-development through the lens of social and economic equity.

This month, the Pratt Center issued a white paper highlighting the differences between the impacts foreseen in the ULURP1 review of the Downtown Brooklyn Plan and the impacts felt by the people who live and work in the neighborhood.

The report compares the impacts of the re-zoning, as outlined in the plan’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), with the impacts felt on the ground, including some of the harmful effects of re-development on businesses, workers and residents.

The Pratt Center report is intended to serve as an informational foundation for FUREE members in re-framing the public debate about who is actually benefiting from the Downtown Brooklyn re-zoning.

The stated goal of the 2004 Downtown Brooklyn Plan was to transform the area into New York City’s third central business district. Although some negative impacts of the plan were anticipated in the EIS, small businesses and households in the area are experiencing negative impacts beyond those contemplated in the EIS.

By putting the plan in context, analyzing its impact on small businesses and housing, and reviewing how the EIS framed these issues, the report seeks to illustrate how re-development has harmed some residents and businesses in Downtown Brooklyn.

The report, in PDF, via Gotham Gazette
http://www.prattcenter.net/pubs/PrattCenter-Downtown_Brooklyns_Detour.pdf

A related report from the Urban Justice Center and FUREE:
http://www.urbanjustice.org/pdf/publications/oob_31jul08.pdf

More from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=27&id=22242

Related Tom Angotti article from Gotham Gazette:
http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/landuse/20040119/12/841

Brooklyn Bed and Breakfast

The bed and breakfast inn is no longer just a small-town phenomenon. Bed and breakfasts are popping up all over Brooklyn these days.

For out-of-town guests -- or to leave the century without leaving town --here are some of the best bed and breakfast inns in the borough.

The list, from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2008/07/21/2008-07-21_brooklyns_upscale_inns_offer_places_for_.html

All Too Familiar

More than 100 residents of Broadway-Flushing will go door-to-door collecting signatures on petitions asking the Landmarks Preservation Commission to calendar the would-be landmark district for a hearing.

The neighborhood boasts 1,300 Tudor, Colonial and Arts-and-Crafts homes threatened by the wave of development sweeping Queens.

"We don't want to give up," said Sandi Vivianni, president of the local homeowners' association.

Residents plan a postcard mailing to local elected officials, letters to local newspapers and a Web site. Pro-landmarking signs will be posted on lawns in the stately neighborhood, which is listed in the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

"Whatever it takes to push this on," Vivianni said.

The proposal to landmark the neighborhood is backed by local elected officials and was unanimously approved by Community Board 7.

Paul Graziano, president of the Historic Districts Council, said the proposal is the organization's "No. 1 priority."

Last year, the LPC surveyed 2,300 houses in the neighborhood, bounded by Northern Blvd., 155th St., Bayside Ave., 29th Ave. and 170th St. But the LPC has no plans to calendar the neighborhood for hearing, which would start the landmarking process.

The article in the New York Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2008/07/20/2008-07-20_broadwayflushing_residents_to_petition_l.html

Update from Zwire:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20278871&BRD=2731&PAG=461&dept_id=574902&rfi=6

The Hotel Boom

A hotel boom in manufacturing zones has sparked community outrage and efforts by the City Council to apply the brakes.

Councilmembers from Gowanus and Long Island City are pushing to ban new hotels, as are civic leaders in Manhattan's SoHo, NoHo and Hudson Square. Their efforts could lead to the regulation of an industry that, at this point, can build anywhere it wants.

"...There's an incredible loophole in our zoning laws," says Councilmember Bill de Blasio, whose district includes Gowanus. "Maybe 20 years ago, you could have justified...`Any development is good development...' Today, you can't." (Amen.)

There are 396 hotels in New York City, with 227 new hotels in the pipeline. If all of these hotels are built, it will represent a 57% increase in the number of hotels in New York City

Nearly two-thirds of the planned new hotel construction will be limited-service, aimed at budget-conscious tourists and located in unglamorous, industrial and mixed-use areas. Critics say hotels, by locating in industrial zones, squeeze out light manufacturing and higher-paying jobs.

The current focus of the controversy is a 13-story Holiday Inn planned for 39th Avenue in Long Island City, one of 12 new hotels planned for Dutch Kills, where 2 hotels have already been built. "...Fourteen hotels in a residential neighborhood really affects people's quality of life," says Eric Gioia, the local councilman. "It's caused a huge uproar."

The Bloomberg administration remains committed to allowing hotels to build without special approvals in both manufacturing and commercial areas. "We are aware of concerns about hotels but must balance that against the fact that the hotel industry is important for the city's economy," says a Department of City Planning spokeswoman. "Hotels need to be able to locate where business is conducted, as well as where they can serve demand generated by nearby residential neighborhoods."

Councilmembers are frustrated. "I've asked the question and basically been told they're not going to reconsider the policy," Mr. de Blasio says. But council members are insisting on hotel restrictions as a condition of re-zoning, which requires council approval.

The hotel boom is fueled by surging tourism. Hotels can get financing where condo projects cannot. Developers have targeted neighborhoods like Dutch Kills and Gowanus because they can get relatively cheap land, and because they want to get their buildings in the ground before re-zoning freeezes them out.

"It was like a starting gun for hotel developers to take advantage of this loophole," says Mr. Gioia.

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation has been asking the city to exclude hotels from manufacturing zones since hotels were proposed for the meat-packing district. While historic district designation has kept hotels out of Greenwich Village, two major hotels are going up just outside the district. Hotels have also targeted western SoHo.

Andrew Berman of the GVSHP says "The idea [of manufacturing zones] was to allow industry and business a wide berth to construct buildings for utilitarian purposes,...Hotels are a very different animal."

Residents and businesses say hotels attract traffic, late-night activity and fast-food eateries. (And, in Bay Ridge at least, they have an uncanny tendency to attract the Grim Reaper.)

But hotelier John Lam, chairman of the Lam Group, says "If they stop hotels in manufacturing zones, I think there would be no more hotels to build."

The article from Crain's New York:
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080713/FREE/549858816/1008

Astoria Church to Be Demolished

The Presbyterian Church of Astoria, an 86-year-old gray stone building on a tree-lined residential street, will be demolished for new construction.

Slide Show
A Church, Divided

After a long tug-of-war over its fate, the church will be replaced by elderly housing, with space to be set aside within the new development for church services and other activities.

Development is sweeping Astoria and land is at a premium. The Church's 175-foot strip along 33rd Street near Broadway has soared in value.

Astoria Presbyterian dates to 1846. The Colonial Revival church was built in 1922 and can hold up to 500 people. During its peak years in the 1950s, the congregation numbered 1,200, but, like so many other New York City congregations -- like the Green Church -- it has shrunk in recent years to about two-dozen active members.

The declining congregation has struggled to support its buildings and to pay its rising utility bills. Major repairs, including new wiring and new heating and plumbing systems, have been deferred.

Like many dying urban congregations, Astoria Presbyterian had to decide whether to hang on or cash out, which led to a bitter quarrel that pitted congregants against their minister and against one another -- a scenario becoming all-too common in historic New York City churches.

The article from the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/nyregion/thecity/20chur.html

More, from Queens Crap:
http://queenscrap.blogspot.com/2008/08/two-churches-two-boroughs-two-different.html

The Brooklyn Flea

I love flea markets. Who knew there was a whopper in downtown Brooklyn?

The Brooklyn Flea is open every Sunday from 10am to 5pm—rain or shine—at Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School on Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene, between Clermont and Vanderbilt Ave.

The Flea has 200 vendors of vintage furniture, clothing, collectibles and antiques, as well as new jewelry, arts and crafts by local artisans --and food, of course.

Bikes and dogs are out, for some reason.

More on the Flea, including a list of vendors, from Brownstoner:
http://brownstoner.com/brooklynflea/

Whoa, the Flea has an enemy:
http://www.nysun.com/new-york/brooklyn-flea-markets-future-is-focus-of-town/82545/

More on the fight from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2008/07/25/2008-07-25_a_new_market_for_brooklyn_rage-2.html

Further details from Racked:
http://racked.com/archives/2008/07/25/church_vs_commerce_parishioners_try_to_take_the_brooklyn_flea_down.php

Creeping Unemployment

Unemployment claims inched up in New York City last month. The seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate rose to 5.4% in June from 5.2% in May.

“The rate of job growth continues to slow markedly,” said James Brown, a state Department of Labor economist. “If you look over the year, the picture gets worrisome.”

Despite the yearly seasonal boost from hiring in tourism in June, the city’s economy continues to weaken, with most sectors slowing on a year-over-year basis.

The financial sector has lost some 2,000 jobs over the past year, and employment in the city, healthy when the credit crisis hit, is up just 0.6% from a year ago.

Sixty thousand five hundred New Yorkers were collecting unemployment benefits in June, up from 58,500 the previous month and from 51,000 a year earlier, Brown said.

“We...expect the job losses will continue for some time and could approach 80,000 to 100,000 by the middle of next year," said James Parrott, chief economist at the Fiscal Policy Institute.

Most airlines flying into LaGuardia and JFK have announced layoffs at the end of the summer travel season.

An estimated 22,000 Wall Street jobs have been cut, with more losses ahead, although those numbers will take a while to appear. According to the Comptroller's seasonally-adjusted figure, the city has lost 4,300 jobs in securities.

"We’ve been expecting to see it, and now we’re starting to see things start to line up with our expectations," said Marcia Van Wagner, the deputy comptroller for budget.

The state has announced a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits affecting tens of thousands of New York City residents.

The article from Crain's New York:
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080717/FREE/60513872/1123/information

West Harlem "Blighted"?

The Empire State Development Corp. has agreed, as part of a $7 billion plan to build a new Columbia University campus in West Harlem, to delay the use of eminent domain to seize residential buildings for 10 years, according to the New York Post.

The plan, including a controversial study of neighborhood blight, began its last round of approvals when the ESDC set a schedule of public hearings.

The eminent domain agreement between the state and the university excludes two holdout owners of commercial property who say they will fight any attempt at seizure.

"The battle lines have been drawn," said civil libertarian Norman Siegel, a lawyer for the commercial owners, claiming that Columbia is trying to strong-arm his clients.

Columbia already owns more than 80% of the neighborhood north of 125th Street and west of Broadway, including residential buildings housing 132 families.

Columbia's plan was approved by the City Council late last year. The ESDC is the last hurdle.

The story from the New York Post:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/07172008/news/regionalnews/columbia_deal_avoids_eminent_domain_pain_120277.htm

Birds or Ballfields?

Ridgewood Reservoir, a 50-acre, three-basin site claimed by woods and wetlands, is the site of the city's latest skirmish over parkland development.

The Reservoir, sitting on a ridge in Highland Park just south of the Jackie Robinson Parkway, was identified in Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC 2030 as one of eight underdeveloped park properties to be turned into recreational facilities.

Local residents, environmentalists and parks advocates agree that the reservoir, now officially off-limits to the public, should be more accessible, but oppose a plan by the parks department to put ballfields in one of the reservoir's basins. They want to keep the basin intact as a nature preserve and use the funding for new and improved facilities elsewhere in Highland Park.

They have the support of two local community boards, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, and many other elected officials, including City Comptroller (and mayoral candidate) William Thompson, who co-authored a New York Times op-ed piece on the issue with Robert Kennedy Jr. in May.

But many residents of neighboring Cypress Hills, East New York and Bushwick - areas with very few parks and trees - want the ballfields. On June 19, about 100 people from advocacy group East Brooklyn Congregations (EBC), demonstrated at City Hall and testified at the City Council's parks committee in support of the ballfields plan.

As in several other recent parks controversies, such as using private school funding to build soccer fields on Randalls Island and a restaurant in Union Square Park, the Ridgewood Resevoir controversy raises the question of whether parks projects are determined by the availability of funding, rather than a comprehensive planning process balancing available parkland, community needs, environmental benefits, cost-effectiveness and site suitability.

The (much longer) article from Gotham Gazette:
http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/parks/20080718/14/2583

Grid-Busting Heat

As Con Edison crews have been working over the weekend to repair electrical power lines serving residents of Sunset Park, Bay Ridge, Borough Park and Park Slope, dispatching customer service vans to distribute dry ice to customers in some neighborhoods (though not, apparently, in Bay Ridge).

About 2,000 customers have been affected by the power outages.

Customers in Sunset Park, Bay Ridge, Borough Park and Park Slope have been urged to turn off non-essential electrical appliances, including air conditioning, until electrical cables are repaired. (Are air conditioners non-essential on a 90-degree day?)

You can report power interruptions or service problems online at http://www.coned.com/ or call Con Edison's toll-free customer service number 1-800-75-CON ED (1-800-752-6633).

The article from Market Watch:
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/con-edison-distribute-dry-ice/story.aspx?guid=%7B09B3501A-FD1D-4EA4-8C29-486E21A18A8A%7D&dist=hppr

Related New York Times post:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/power-failure-con-ed-doles-out-free-dry-ice/

Related Brooklyn Paper article:
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/31/29/31_29_jf_con_ed.html

Last week the heat, this week, thunderstorms:
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/07/storms_cuts_power_to_2300_stat.html

Celebrate Brooklyn's 30th Summer

Free music/theatre/dance at the Prospect Park bandshell, all summer.

Tomorrow, the Golem, et al.

The calendar:
http://www.briconline.org/celebrate/2008season.asp

"Racist" Rezoning?

Chinese and Hispanic residents of the lower East Side staged a demonstration at City Hall last week to show their opposition to the City Planning Commission's proposed rezoning of their neighborhood.

They carried placards saying: "Stop Racist Rezoning" and "Chinatown/Lower East Side Are Not For Sale."

They brought a box of petitions carrying the signatures of some 10,000 of their neighbors - opposing the rezoning proposal.

It's a familiar story. The sheer number of rezonings - from Columbia University in West Harlem to Hudson Yards to Greenpoint-Williamsburg to Willets Point -- is overwhelming.

Opponents say the LES rezoning targets the largely white, upscale areas below 14th St. and above Houston St. Chinatown, with the largely Hispanic areas east of Avenue D and below Delancey St. being mostly excluded from the proposal.

"Why are they leaving out the Asian and Hispanic areas when we represent 60% of the community board's population?" asked Josephine Lee, spokeswoman for the Coalition to Protect Chinatown/LES.

The rezoning plan would permit luxury condo construction along the length of Avenue D, Chrystie St. and Allen St. - at the border of the new district -- and establish height restrictions for buildings inside the district.

According to attorney Stan Marks of the Asian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the plan will create a veritable fence of luxury buildings between the white areas of the neighborhood and the areas inhabited by low-income Hispanic and Chinese residents who have been there for decades.

"...The city is allowing a Wild West construction climate to prevail below Houston...Hotels and condos are springing up and creating massive displacement without any controls...We want a different plan, one that is more comprehensive and includes the whole community," Marks said.

Rachaele Raynoff, a spokeswoman for the City Planning Commission, said no one is being excluded. The city, Raynoff said, "has worked collaboratively for three years with Community Board 3 on a rezoning plan to protect 111 blocks in the lower East Side and East Village from out of scale development and create new and affordable housing."

Raynoff says those who oppose the rezoning plan don't speak for all of Chinatown.

Under the city's land-use review process, Manhattan Borough President Stringer must first approve the plan before it goes to the City Council for a vote. Carmen Boon, a spokeswoman for Stringer, said the borough president has an open mind.

No matter what Stringer decides, opponents say they'll keep fighting to save their Chinatown.

The article from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/07/15/2008-07-15_lower_east_side_rezone_plan_another_mike.html

More on the rezoning plan from the Villager:
http://www.thevillager.com/villager_283/aslawsuitlooms.html

Gerson, Mendez press for more affordable housing as part of the plan:
http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_289/gersonmendez.html

LES designated one of America's 11 "most endangered places":
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/nyregion/21preserve.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=lower+east+side+endangered&st=nyt

Scooter City

Are Scooters the next big thing in urban transportation?

A reported increase in scooter volume of at least 310% since 1996 has brought controversy. Advocates point to the fact that scooters can squeeze up to 100 miles out of a gallon of gas; opponents call them dangerous pests.

In New York City, the average price of a gallon of gas is around $4.15, about a dollar more than last year, and New Yorkers are on the hunt for gas mileage.

Traffic in New York City appears to be declining, as bus, subway, light rail and commuter rail ridership has gone up by as much as 9% and the popularity of scooters and bikes has surged.

"People [are] coming up to me at gas stations, getting out of their SUVs, and saying, 'Where did you get one of those?'" said Jonathan Perkel, a scooter rider and an organizer for the New York Scooter Club.

The cost of Perkel's fillup? Eight dollars.

Allison Waters, a New York Scooter Club organizer, thinks scooterists seek to avoid mass transit. "You don't have autonomy on the train, but on a scooter you can buzz about, weave through traffic jams, go where you want," she said. "Scooters are small enough to sneak through small spaces and powerful enough to keep pace with traffic on larger roads."

Others like scooters because they fit into tiny parking spaces. In some New York City neighborhoods -- Bay Ridge would certainly be in that category -- vehicles cruising for a parking space account for as much as two thirds of the traffic on the street.

Wiley Norvell, a spokesman for Transportation Alternatives, said, [W]e're in a fluid moment in terms of transportation habits. For the first time we have hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers giving up their cars and we want to encourage them to switch to the most city-friendly, environmentally savvy and spatially efficient modes: biking, walking and transit.

A DOT spokesman agrees: "From our perspective, scooters aren't as clean as mass transit. The primary mode shift we're looking for is from vehicles to transit. That's why we're focusing our efforts on things like Bus Rapid Transit, bike lanes, and pedestrian improvements."

Cyclist Mike Drury said "[Scooters] don't signal. They're in the bike lane. They weave through traffic. They might be smaller than a car, but they're still big, heavy and dangerous..."

Scooters that go over 30 mph -- Class A Mopeds -- are in the same category as motorcycles and have to follow the same traffic laws as cars. They cannot travel in bike lanes or park on sidewalks and operators need a Class M designation.

Some scooterists park illegally on the sidewalk, competing with pedestrians. According to a Brownstoner post last fall, police were impounding scooters parked on the sidewalk along Third Street in Park Slope.

About a year ago, the New York Sun reported that DOT was considering discount parking for scooters in municipal lots, but nothing has materialized, and many garages and parking lots refuse to rent spaces to scooters

In a 2006, Neil Barton, a New York Scooter Club founder, argued in a New York Times op-ed piece for dedicated street space for two-wheeled vehicles, using Toronto as a model. The Toronto City Council passed a law making more parking space available for two-wheeled vehicles and made motorcycle and scooter parking free.

"Toronto obviously realized that it did more harm than good to punish those who reduced congestion and emissions in the city. It's only a matter of time, I hope, before New York City comes to the same conclusions," Barton wrote.

The article from Gotham Gazette:
http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/transportation/20080716/16/2582/

Related article from the Brooklyn Paper:
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/31/29/31_29_viva_la_ivespai.html

Who Dropped the Ball?

The fate of a landmarked Gowanus building at Third Street and Third Avenue is in the hands of natural foods retailer Whole Foods and owner Richard Kowalski -- and the two aren't speaking.

The 134 year-old building has stood vacant and neglected for more than 10 years.

Last summer, a new 68,000-square-foot Whole Foods store was due to open at the site, but, according to the Daily News, toxins were discovered 10 feet below ground that have put the fate of the project, and the landmarked building, in doubt.

"The whole thing is a disaster," said Kowalski, 63, of Beach Haven, N.J.

In 2005, Kowalski and Whole Foods reportedly signed a contract for Whole Foods to repair the building's facade and make structural renovations. "They were supposed to finish in two years," said Kowalski. But the timeline for completion was not in writing.

A Whole Foods spokesperson said that Kowalski and Whole Foods officials have not spoken since July 2007, and declined to answer questions about the agreement with Kowalski.

The landmarked 1873 building was once part of the New York and Long Island Coignet Stone Company, a 5-acre factory complex that stood alongside the Gowanus Canal. The building was later home to the Brooklyn Improvement Company and Pippin, a radiator distribution firm.

Craig Hammerman, district manager of Community Board 6, said "It stinks, because there's great interest by the community in seeing that building stabilized and preserved. It's a beautiful building...."

Kowalski, who bought the building in 1992, said he had wanted to open an art gallery and gift store at the site, but the building needed an estimated $500,000 in structural repairs.

The article, from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2008/07/15/2008-07-15_gowanus_landmark_building_caught_in_repa.html

More from the New York Sun:
http://www.nysun.com/arts/gowanus-where-irony-meets-hope/84295/

More from Curbed:
http://curbed.com/archives/2008/09/29/gowanus_bombshell_whole_foods_sinks_into_toxic_muck.php

More from Gowanus Lounge:
http://www.gowanuslounge.com/2008/09/02/gowanus-whole-foods-marches-onsort-of/

Reverend Emerick and the Crumbling Stone

Perhaps you've been overseas for the past several years or have otherwise missed Robert Emerick's message about the "crumbling stone" facade of the Green Church.

You can still catch up, by viewing Emerick's "crumbling stone" routine as a Flikr photoset:
http://flickr.com/photos/27889493@N02/sets/72157606132013973/

So where's the YouTube video, Bay Rizz?

The Green Church -- Friday, July 18th

The sign, which I first noticed on the front door of the sanctuary on my way to the subway this morning, says:

"WARNING KEEP OUT
POISON BAITED AREA"

Identical signs are posted elsewhere on the building on the corner facing Fourth Avenue and on the corner facing Ovington.

The fact that these signs have been posted means that, despite all of the hopeful talk, the congregation is proceeding with its plans for demolition.

Please take the time to make our local elected representatives aware of your numbers and your vote. Please sign our petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/69887769/petition.html

Landmarked and Left to Rot

At East 125th Street and Park Avenue stands a ruin that was once one of Manhattan's most picturesque buildings: the 1880's Queen Anne/Romanesque Revival Mount Morris Bank building.

"They need to do something, either destroy it or repair it," said Alfred Harris, 50, a deacon who works two doors down from the city landmark, also known as the Corn Exchange Bank building, which has been abandoned for 30 years.

Local landmark designation is supposed to protect historic buildings, but there are dozens of city landmarks being demolished by neglect.

Owners abandon landmarked buildings because they want to profit by selling the land to developers or because they cannot, for a variety of reasons, maintain their buildings to city standards.

In recent years, demolition-by-neglect has claimed the landmarked Smallpox Hospital on Roosevelt Island, New Brighton Village Hall on Staten Island and St. Monica's Church in Queens.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission can fine owners up to $5,000 for not maintaining their properties. The LPC, aided by new local laws, is now more aggressive in filing lawsuits, which has forced some landlords to make repairs, according to John Weiss, deputy counsel for the LPC.

In May, a state Supreme Court justice issued a preliminary injunction ordering the owners of the Windermere, Manhattan's second-oldest large apartment complex, to repair the abandoned 127-year-old landmark.

Weiss maintains that of the over 25,000 buildings in New York City that are in historic districts or individually-landmarked, only a handful are candidates for demolition-by-neglect litigation.

10 crumbling historic New York buildings Photos

The article, from AM NY:
http://www.amny.com/news/local/am-landmarks0718,0,7001958.story

Uncovering the Past

Stripping off the modern brick facade of the 10th Church of Christ, Scientist on Macdougal Street to expose the 19th-century building beneath poses a curious preservation question: if destroying the old in favor of the new is sometimes unacceptable, what about destroying the new in favor of the old?

The 1891 building, designed by Renwick, Aspinwall & Russell, was originally a printing plant. With high ceilings and a three-bay front, it was almost unornamented, except for brick details and a terra-cotta cornice.

In 1927, the 10th Church of Christ, Scientist bought the aging structure and moved in, using the lower part as a sanctuary.

In 1966, the church hired architect Victor Christ-Janer, a modernist with a mystical streak, who refaced the structure with a plain orange brick veneer, blocking the upper windows, removing the cornice and leaving a slot in the middle of the facade to admit light.

The AIA Guide to New York City, by Norval White and Elliot Willensky, praised the renovated building’s “great corbeled brick openings in an austere facade.”

Christ-Janer’s permit application in 1966 noted that the veneer “may be removed at any time.” That time came in 2006, leaving one of the most unusual sights of New York.

The church has sold the upper floors of the building to a developer for conversion to condominiums, retaining the lower section for a new sanctuary.

With the permission of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, Christ-Janer’s brick has been stripped off, exposing what is left of the original facade. Any projecting brickwork was removed in the 1960s, but the front is otherwise intact.

The church, working with condominium developer Property Markets Group, will substantially restore the facade. The TRA Studio is the architect for the upper floors; the church has commissioned Hanrahan Meyers.

The interior design of the church is sophisticated, with a curved sanctuary wall, patterned 0penings admitting light and a glass-walled rear garden.

No one objected to the elimination of the 1967 facade. The Historic Districts Council and the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation support the reinterpretation.

The building is landmarked. The Landmarks Preservation Commission said, in its 2006 approval letter, that Christ-Janer’s “severe modern brick facade detracts from the scale and architectural character of the streetscape.”

The LPC did not mention that, in its 1969 designation report, it had described the spare, moody facade as “handsome.”

The article from the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/realestate/13scap.html

New Landmark Designations

On Tuesday, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated a number of new landmarks across the city, including a small, 1892 Queen Anne building in Tottenville, formerly the George G. Cunningham Store, called by LPC chair Robert Tierney “a rare example of 19th-century commercial construction.”

The LPC also designated the West Chelsea Historic District in Manhattan, including 30 buildings built from 1885 -- 1930, when New York was a manufacturing center. The newly-designated district runs from about West 25th to 28th Street between 10th and 12th Avenues.

Manhattan's Morningside Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, which opened in 1895, was designated the city’s 10th scenic landmark.

The story from the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/arts/17arts-NEWLANDMARKS_BRF.html

In a related New York Post article, the LPC claims to have 1,000 new designations in the pipeline: http://www.nypost.com/seven/07282008/news/regionalnews/landmarks_bloomblitz_121878.htm

Manufacturing Space in Short Supply

Local businesses have criticized early plans for the re-development of the Federal Building in Sunset Park. Time Equities, winner of a contract with the Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation (EDC) to develop the site, will set aside as little as 41% of the 1.2-million-square-foot building for manufacturing. The rest will be developed as retail and office space.

Business advocates argue that the project was intended to create industrial and manufacturing jobs and that the percentage set aside by Time Equities is below that called for by the city's request for proposals (RFP).

Plans for the "Sunset Marketplace", a 1.9-million-square-foot project, include an adjoining parking lot and two other buildings. The EDC will buy the entire parcel from the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) as part of the deal.

Carl Hum, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, points out that the need in Brooklyn for light manufacturing space, primarily furniture and food production, has risen in recent years. Hum said that the city's original intent was to use the property for industrial purposes.

Joan Bartolomeo, president of the Brooklyn EDC, says that changes can still be made and that the objections are premature.

The article from Crain's New York Business:
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080708/FREE/444740779

Brooklyn Brewery's struggle to find light manufacturing space in Brooklyn:
http://bayridgejournal.blogspot.com/2008/07/trouble-brewing.html

The city's "anti-industrial" zoning policy, from Gotham Gazette:
http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2008/08/26/the-anti-industrial-zone/

Adverse Possession Harder to Prove

This week, Gov. David Paterson signed a new law making it harder to prove adverse possession in New York State. A non-structural encroachment such as a fence crossing a deeded property line will no longer suffice as proof.

New York statute requires that an owner claim back land from encroachment within 10 years. Under the old law, an adverse possessor who “usually cultivated or improved” the land, which could mean regular maintenance like mowing or a fence, could claim adverse possession. Under the new law, the encroachment must either be “sufficiently open to put a reasonably diligent owner on notice” or a “substantial enclosure."

Republican Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward, who sponsored the bill, said her intent was to prevent people from claiming land when they know someone else holds the deed. According to Sayward, adverse possession will now require something like a garage or a house addition that goes unchallenged for more than 10 years.

Adverse possession derives from English common law and allows a person to get title to land from the actual owner through use over time.

Denise Przybylo, who lost an eighth of an acre to a neighbor in Queensbury in Warren County, appealed all the way to the New York Court of Appeals, and lost. Przybylo believes she would have won under the new law, which took effect upon signing.

“In my case, [the adverse possessor] just mowed [the land],” Przybylo said. “ Now, an adverse possessor would have to cultivate the land or build a structure.

Republican State Sen. Betty Little, a co-sponsor of the law, said that Gov. Spitzer vetoed similar legislation last year. The sponsors re-wrote and re-introduced the legislation this year.

"It’s really a big change in property rights,” said Little.

No doubt. I wonder if the new law made the "legalese" of adverse possession any easier to understand. I'll try to find a copy of it.

The article from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=4&id=21752

The New York State Bar opposed the new law:
http://www.nyrealestatelawblog.com/RPLS%20Memorandum%20%2326.pdf

Brooklyn Building Awards

The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce will host the 2008 Building Brooklyn Awards cocktail reception and presentation ceremony on Thursday, July 17 at Steiner Studios, Stage 6, at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The owners, developers, architects and builders of 17 Brooklyn projects will recieve awards at the event, which takes place from 6 to 9 p.m.

Mike Baker of IKEA and Mary Brennan of the Community Preservation Corporation will also be honored.

Call the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce at (718) 875-1000, ext. 142 for tickets.

The article -- including a slideshow of the 17 award-winning buildings -- from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle: http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=5&id=21765

Brooklyn Home Sales Decline

According to a report released by the brokerage firm Prudential Douglas-Elliman, second-quarter sales of apartments and houses in Brooklyn fell and median prices declined as banks become skittish about lending and consumers worry about the economy.

Borough-wide, the number of sales fell by 2,031, down 43.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Median sales prices fell to $525,000, 1.9% lower than the comparable period of 2007.

Among the most expensive apartment deals, the average sales price was $1.4 million, down slightly from $1.5 million a year ago.

“The new product...entering the market is skewed toward luxury apartments,” said Jonathan Miller, chief executive of Miller Samuel Inc., the real estate appraisal firm that prepared the report. According to Miller, more than half of Brooklyn’s new condos are labeled "luxury", marketed to Manhattanites moving to Brooklyn and Brooklynites trading up.

With a per-square-foot sales average of $575, Brooklyn condos are still a relative bargain compared to Manhattan, where condos average $1,442 a square foot.

Median co-op apartment prices rose just 1.3% in the second quarter to $255,000. The number of transactions slowed by 53% to just 314.

The market is expected to slump further as banks, still smarting from the subprime debacle, demand bigger down payments and scrutinize buyers for credit flaws, said Dottie Herman, CEO of Prudential.

“The banks are so nervous, they’re cherry-picking,” Ms. Herman said. “They want 20% to 25% down instead of 10%, and that’s going to make a big difference in prices.”

The article, from Crain's New York Business:
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080710/FREE/310776106

A Blogger's Nightmare

Room 8, a blog devoted to local politics, was served with a Bronx grand jury subpoena earlier this year seeking information leading to the identity of a blogger known as "Republican Dissident", who posts anonymously to the site.

The subpoena warned, in capital letters, that the disclosure of its very existence “could impede the investigation being conducted and thereby interfere with law enforcement.”

“We were totally perplexed,” said Ben Smith, co-founder, with Gur Tsabar, of Room 8. The two immediately hired a lawyer. “We knew enough to be scared.”

The Bronx D.A. eventually withdrew the subpoena and lifted the gag after the bloggers threatened to sue, but the fact that the subpoena was served alarms first amendment advocates.

The gag raised the prospect that anyone posting comments online could be secretly criminally investigated, and that bloggers would not have the option of outing the legal attack to the online community.

Disputes over information posted online usually take form of civil lawsuits by private citizens or companies trying to prevent disclosure. Courts balance First Amendment protections against the harm caused by the post.

But there are few precedents for criminal subpoenas, either because prosecutors are cautious about the First Amendment and issue fewer of them or because the subpoenas are confidential.

“In the criminal context it’s trickier because it’s the government asking for stuff, and I think it’s going to be harder to fashion a rule, especially when the government is not exactly willing to part with the reasons”, said Jonathan Zittrain, a Harvard law professor.

Without knowing the prosecutors' motives, he continued, judges may be hard-pressed to balance their needs against the importance of free speech.

Bloggers may want to check their Internet service provider's privacy policy to see whether the provider will notify them if their site is targeted by a subpoena, Zittrain said. With this knowledge, the blogger can fight the subpoena in court.

Room 8 is a group blog. Some of the bloggers are named, but many post anonymously.

Smith said he called the Bronx A.D.A. who issued the subpoena to try to find out more about why prosecutors wanted the I.P. address of "Republican Dissident", but could not get any information.

An I.P. address, together with the date and time of an online comment, can help identify the computer from which a post is made.

“Was somebody found face-down on their keyboard and the I.P. address was going to help identify the killer?” Smith said. “We’re not free speech absolutists here.”

The article from the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/technology/15law.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Tom Duane introduces Room 8 legislation:
http://www.r8ny.com/blog/ben_smith/duane_introduces_room_eight_legislation.html

Community Impact Reports

A bill recently introduced in the City Council grew out of the controversy created by mega-developments such as Yankee Stadium, Ground Zero, Atlantic Yards, Coney Island and Willets Point.

City CouncilIntro No. 801 of 2008, entitled "Community Impact Reports", would require that developers who receive public subsidies address the public impact of their projects.

The bill, aimed at developers seeking direct subsidies, low-interest financing, tax benefits, tax-exempt financing, and tax-exempt bonds and grants, promises to provide a stronger public review and approval process.

The bill would require that each developer report to the City Council on the intended social and economic impact of the project on surrounding communities. (City contractors exclusively providing social services or affordable housing would be exempt from the requirement.)

“We need to have a way to monitor the benefits that are given to developers,” said Councilman Thomas White Jr., a Queens Democrat who chairs Council's Economic Development Committee.

In fiscal year 2006, the New York City Industrial Development Agency alone granted at least $700 million in tax breaks to developers.

Councilman Albert Vann, with Councilmembers White, Bill de Blasio, Tish James and others, created the bill to "help us to understand how city funds are being used in communities..." said Vann’s legislative director, Dottie Conway.

Introduced June 29, the bill has not yet been calendared for a hearing.

To increase transparency, the bill would require that reports be submitted to the Council 60 days before any city agency or authority approved any public subsidy. The information gathered would be available to potentially-affected communities so that they -- and their councilmembers -- would have time to react.

“The reports disclose information that can be used by communities and legislators to leverage outcomes, which will strengthen communities by way of affordable housing, improving neighborhood services, and creating jobs," Conway said.

The legislation originated around the time that the mayor's Five Borough Economic Development Plan was released, as part of a strategy to articulate economic development and poverty issues.

The required reports would contain an exhaustive level of detail about the social and economic effects of development within a given neighborhood.

The bill also addresses displacement of residents and businesses, a common concern of those living in areas facing re-development.

Tom Angotti, director of the Center for Community Planning and Development at Hunter, says that the bill fails to distinguish between direct and indirect displacement -- between the people who lose their apartments and businesses that are forced to relocate by the development itself, and the people and businesses eventually forced out as a result of rising rents and prices.

Says Angotti, “...They need to look at the fine points, the details of projects, not just fill in tables and numbers.”

Angotti praises the goal of Intro 801, but says the bill isn't the best path to that goal. “...I think the best way to increase transparency and accountability is by changing the way that the city does development, engaging community planning and consultation.”

Hope Cohen, deputy director of the Center for Rethinking Development at the Manhattan Institute, also wants more detailed wording and is not sure the legislation will be effective. “...[M]ost economic development projects are going to have mostly state funding, which City Council won’t have any jurisdiction over,” Cohen said.

That depends on the project, according to Bettina Damiani, project director for Good Jobs New York, a group that focuses on public subsidies and that welcomes increased accountability for developers. “I am excited by...any effort to...put together the impacts of economic development...Right now it is...in silos, with ULURP working over here, and MOUs [memoranda of understanding]...over there,” Damiani said.

Good Jobs New York has just released a new web utility to view the location in each community district of companies receiving subsidies.

The city's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), and SEQRA, the State Environment Quality Review (or CEQR, the city’s process for implementing SEQRA), are the primary interface between communities and developers. CEQR reviews social and economic impacts, but only to assess whether or not an environmental impact study is necessary.

Intro 801 is, according to its sponsors, distinct from these other methods in the level of detail it requires and its focus on local social and economic issues.

Michael Slattery, a senior VP at the New York Real Estate Board, thinks Community Impact Reports would be unnecessary, saying "...I think this is one more way to make it more difficult for projects that [provide community] assistance to receive it."

The article on City Limits:
http://www.citylimits.org/content/articles/viewarticle.cfm?article_id=3589&content_type=1&media_type=3

Newtown Creek a Superfund Site?

Democratic congressional representatives Anthony Weiner and Nydia Velazquez have asked the feds this week to declare Newtown Creek, an estuary between Queens and Brooklyn, a Superfund site.

Newtown Creek, used for decades as an open sewer for domestic and industrial waste, is one of the most polluted places in the United States. As many as 30 million gallons of oil have been spilled there.

Superfund designation would start the flow of the up to $15 million in federal funds needed for a cleanup process that would take 10 years.

Velazquez and Weiner want the Environmental Protection Agency to immediately begin tests at the site.

"The contamination of Newtown Creek is nothing short of a human tragedy," Velazquez said. "The time to act is now."

The article from the New York Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/07/13/2008-07-13_lawmakers_want_feds_to_declare_newtown_c.html

Related post on Queens Crap:
http://queenscrap.blogspot.com/2008/08/hillary-clinton-wants-newtown-creek.html

AY vs. LPC

Opponents of the Atlantic Yards mega-development have deployed a new weapon against Forest City Ratner's $4 billion project: the City's landmark process.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) will hold a hearing this week to calendar Prospect Heights for consideration as a historic district, the first step to landmarking.

The proposed Prospect Heights landmark district includes portions of the area bordered by Flatbush and Washington Avenues and between Atlantic Avenue and Eastern Parkway.

A designation hearing would likely occur in the fall.

While the proposed designation would not affect the footprint of Atlantic Yards, it would contain the development by creating a buffer zone around it.

AY developer Forest City Ratner hopes to build 16 skyscrapers, an 18,000-seat basketball arena for the Nets, and thousands of apartments at a site at the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues.

City Councilmember Tish James, who represents Prospect Heights, has been pushing for landmark designation for the district for years.

The Municipal Arts Society (MAS), Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn and the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council have applauded the city's move to calendar Prospect Heights.

"The pressure from the Atlantic Yards project and other recent developments are of grave concern to the hundreds of local residents who have written in support of historic designation for Prospect Heights," MAS said in a recent statement.

Calendaring requires that the buildings in the proposed historic district be entered into the Department of Buildings (DOB) database, so that any work requiring a permit must be reviewed by the LPC.

Forest City Ratner had no comment.

The LPC will also consider designating West Chelsea, creating another historic district just south of the West Side Rail Yards — site of another multi-billion-dollar development project.

Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council (HDC), said the trend of designating historic districts next to mega-developments may stem from resident concerns that such projects may not succeed.

The article, from New York Sun:
http://www.nysun.com/new-york/landmarks-may-stem-atlantic-yards-area-development/81791/

Nathan Kensinger at BPL

The Brooklyn Public Library has mounted an exhibition of Park Slope photographer Nathan Kensinger's photos of Brooklyn's fading industrial waterfront.

Kensinger has a stake in what was once America's most vital waterfront -- and is now at the top of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s “Most Endangered” list. He grew up within view of the San Francisco Navy Yard and became fascinated early with the industrial edges of port cities.

Kensinger lives two blocks from the Gowanus Canal.

The BPL exhibition of Kensinger's photos is titled “Twilight on the Waterfront — Brooklyn’s Vanishing Industrial Heritage,” and features rare indoor photographs of the Domino Sugar Refinery and Admiral’s Row.

Ironically, the Kensinger exhibition opened the same day as the new Red Hook IKEA, and will run until August 30.

Says Kensinger, “My photographs bring you inside places you may have walked by a thousand times and always wondered about. These fenced-off factories, refineries and shipyards lining our waterfront are often beautiful and full of surprises … Many of the places in my photographs have already been torn down as the pace of development quickens.

Another inspiration for Kensinger's work: the anonymous photographers of the international Urban Exploration movement who explore tunnels, factories and military bases — the off-limits parts of cities — to document the “true history of the urban landscape.” He has befriended and explored with several guerilla documentarians.

For more information, visit http://www.kensinger.blogspot.com/

Link to the article on the Brooklyn Eagle: http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=12&id=21789

More on Nathan Kensinger from the New York Times: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/have-camera-will-trespass-on-brooklyns-waterfront/

Preservation Legal Action

Landmark West invites preservation advocates to observe Whitney North Seymour's oral argument before the New York Supreme Court on Wednesday, July 16, at 10 AM, in the matter of the Citizens Emergency Committee to Preserve Preservation v. Robert Tierney, the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and others.

At issue is the treatment of requests for evaluation (RFEs) filed with the LPC that -- as in the case of the RFE submitted on behalf of the Green Church -- are never calendared for hearing.

The courtroom is at 80 Centre Street, Room 278 (Justice Marilyn Schafer).

For more information about Landmark West: http://www.landmarkwest.org/

Bay Ridge Chino

China: The Whole Enchilada.

I dunno, but the guy who wrote it is a local blogger (Left in Bay Ridge).

For more information about Mark Brown's new musical -- or to hear some of the music from the production (part of the Fringe Festival), visit the Website:
http://e2ma.net/go/1190595501/1081462/39628338/goto:http://chinathewholeenchilada.com.

Call the box office at 212-420-8877 or 1-888-fringenyc, or visit:
http://e2ma.net/go/1190595501/1081462/39628339/goto:http://www.fringenyc.org

Performances take place at:

The Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts
3 Spruce Street (East of Park Row, near the corner of Gold Street)
New York, NY 10038

Performance schedule:

FRI 8/8 @ 9:30
TUE 8/12 @ 3:45
SAT 8/16 @ 6:45
FRI 8/22 @ 5:00
SUN 8/24 @ NOON

All tickets are general admission -- $15

For more information on the Fringe Festival:
www.fringenyc.org

Staten Island Tourist

On July 14, the Gray Line will launch a 55-minute Staten Island Discovery Tour as part of the city's Go Local initiative, designed to promote city attractions to New Yorkers as well as visitors.

The Go Local campaign, led by NYC & Company, New York City’s official marketing organization, will promote local attractions and summer programs, including a Summer in the City savings program and Summer Restaurant Week.

Department of Transportation (DOT ) Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and Councilmember Vincent M. Ignizio joined Mayor Bloomberg for the announcement, which took place outside the St. George Ferry Terminal in Staten Island.

“The Staten Island Ferry is one of New York City’s great attractions, but each year hundreds of thousands of people who enjoy it never spend any time on the Island outside the terminal, missing out on Staten Island’s diverse attractions, beautiful environment and unique history,” said Mayor Bloomberg.

The one-hour Discover Staten Island Tour will leave from near the St. George Ferry Terminal and make stops at the Staten Island September 11 Memorial, Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden, Forest Avenue Shopping Area, Staten Island Zoological Society, Fort Wadsworth, Alice Austen House Museum and Park, and St. George Ferry Terminal, offering stunning views of New York Harbor, the Statue of Liberty, the Verrazano Bridge, the Brooklyn Waterfront and the Manhattan skyline along the way.

The tour will run hourly from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and costs $15. Live tour guides will accompany each tour. Vehicles will be climate-controlled and – with 48 hours advanced notice – wheelchair accessible.

Pre-launch, free limited service is available from July 8-13.

Information will also be available online at nycvisit.com, by phone through 311, and in person at NYC & Company visitor information centers and kiosks.

Since 2000, New York City has seen a 34% increase in overseas arrivals while the U.S. as a whole has seen an 8% decline, and the U.S. Department of Commerce just released statistics for the first quarter of 2008 showing that New York remains the country’s top destination for foreign visitors.

New York City forecasts an estimated 12.5 million visitors this summer, up from 12 million in 2007. In June, New York City had an 89 percent occupancy rate with an average daily room rate of $325. (Ow!)

The press release from NYC.Gov:
http://home2.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fhome2.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2008b%2Fpr267-08.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1

Related article from Staten Island Live:
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/07/so_far_staten_island_trolley_t.html

Death of a Pub

Prospect Heights has lost Mooney's Pub, a beloved neighborhood bar.

"I knew all of my customers...it was such a pleasure to know them,” said Kevin Mooney of those who gathered to drink and socialize at his bar. His clientele was a wide cross-section of Brooklyn, with people of every age, race and economic background.

“You had...lawyers, cops, firemen, correction officers, and just regular working people -- all of different ethnic backgrounds -- and everybody just mixed well together,” said Eric Alleyne, a loyal customer.

But Mooney's popularity couldn't save it from gentrification. Prospect Heights is no longer the "tough neighborhood" it once was. Long-time Flatbush Avenue store owners face huge rent increases that are driving them out.

“The changes were for the good, but the landlords got greedy.” The owners of the building doubled the bar’s rent last fall. “After 21 years, it was a kick to the face." said Mooney.

“We were a very big part of the community,” said Mooney. “A lot of the customers were upset when they heard we were closing. It was very sad.”

Mooney's may have been the last of the neighborhood bars in Prospect Heights, but Kevin Mooney owns another pub -- in Bay Ridge.

Link to the post on Brooklyn Downtown Star:
http://www.brooklyndowntownstar.com/StoryDisplay.asp?PID=4&NewsStoryID=8181

Sexy Jesus Tours the Ridge

This old post, from blogger Sexy Jesus (who may have ascended, because he doesn't seem to be posting anymore), features an ideosyncratic tour of Bay Ridge architecture circa 2006, with lots of photos of notable buildings in Bay Ridge:

http://emilyrides.vox.com/library/post/archirectural-tour-of-bay-ridge-brooklyn-or-willensky-white-and-emily-dickinson.html

Alien Invader

Ten years ago, the "alien" High School of Telecommunications in Bay Ridge dropped temporary classrooms onto an adjacent park (hmm, like a pod or something?)

The temporary classroom space is no longer needed, but the principal and the "sluggards, deadbeats and do-nothings of the New York City Education Department" won't move the trailers.

(Maybe the incubation period isn't over yet?)

The rant doesn't end there.

The post on the Bay Ridge Blog:

http://bayridgebrooklyn.blogspot.com/2008/07/occupation-of-leif-ericson-park-to-end.html

Green Church Spin

The Brooklyn Eagle reports in a recent article that the Committee to Save the Bay Ridge United Methodist Church has "gone on the offensive" to save the historic Bay Ridge United Methodist Church building from demolition. (I thought that had been the case all along, actually.)

The Eagle reports that the Committee recently delivered an "adaptive re-use" message to CB 10 and the Bay Ridge Community Council, envisioning the 1899 church as a premier cultural arts center for Southwest Brooklyn -- a “Bay Ridge Performing Arts Center”.

The Eagle quotes Committee Coordinator Kathleen Walker as saying at the CB 10 meeting that “The demolition of this church would be an utter disgrace. We feel Bay Ridge can do much better than demolition...A cultural center for youth and the elderly, the performing arts and greenmarkets would be a perfect fit.”

Neighbors have reported seeing the church site being prepared for demolition, but the Eagle reports that buyer-developer Abe Betesh is "looking at other options" for the property.

The church congregation has signed a 2-year lease with the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd on Fourth Avenue at 74th Street, with the expectation that the new, smaller “eco-friendly green church” promised for the site of the former Methodist parsonage will be built.

Betesh has reportedly told the Eagle that he may preserve and renovate the three-story brown brick Sunday school building on the Green Church site as “an educational facility.” (It is not known whether the site would be used for public or private educational purposes.) The 11,000-square-foot building, leased for many years to HeartShare Human Services, is now vacant.

The article quotes local preservationist Victoria Hofmo as saying that the Narrows Community Theater, the Ridge Chorale and at least two other groups have expressed an interest in sharing the church as a local performing arts and cultural center. “We can work together to find a more suitable buyer,” Hofmo is quoted as saying.

Link to the article in the Brooklyn Eagle:
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=27&id=20079

High Line Designs Unveiled

Newly-released drawings of the High Line, a slide show from the New York Times:

High Line Designs Are Unveiled - City Room - Metro - New York Times Blog

Mugging Makes a Comeback

On the border of Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuyvesant in recent months, people walking or biking alone have been punched, kicked -- in one case hit with a baseball bat -- and had their cellphones or purses stolen.

The head of security at Pratt Institute, located in the neighborhood, said that at least 6 Pratt students had been mugged since April.

The 88th Precinct, covering Clinton Hill, has recorded a 26 % increase in robberies so far this year, up from 99 in 2007 to 125 for the period ending on June 29.

The muggers have mostly caught their victims unaware, sometimes with a blow to the back of the head.

The muggings have revived memories of a seedier time in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, reminding new arrivals that for all the realtor hype, they're not in the 'burbs anymore.

The post, from Queens Crap:
http://queenscrap.blogspot.com/2008/07/mugging-like-its-1989.html

Water Taxi Returns

Ferry service has been restored to Brooklyn's Shaefer Landing, allowing riders from DUMBO, Williamsburg and Long Island City to ferry to Midtown and Wall Street.

Riders say:

“Most of us are taking the subway, have to make a couple of changes, and it’s like an hour. Now it’s 20 minutes to my office,”

“I’m thrilled. I just hope more and more people ride it because I want it to be economically viable, so that it can continue.”

“Well who wouldn’t want to ride to work every morning on the water? “It’s beautiful, with good views. It’s relaxing, kind of meditative.”

The post, from Green Brooklyn:

http://greenbrooklyn.com/

Starbucks Downsizing

Starbucks is closing 600 stores nationwide in response to a 24% loss in the value of its stock.

Thousands of layoffs loom.

The post on Gothamist:

http://gothamist.com/2008/07/02/starbucks_to_close_stores_fire_1200.php

More from the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/nyregion/18starbucks.html?bl&ex=1216526400&en=4bebfb6f9f18891c&ei=5087%0A

Bay Ridge loses one, from the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/nyregion/18starbucks.html?bl&ex=1216526400&en=4bebfb6f9f18891c&ei=5087%0A

More from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?id=22016

Trouble Brewing

The Center for an Urban Future reports in a commentary entitled "Trouble Brewing" on the Brooklyn Brewery's frustrating search for a site to expand its operations in Brooklyn, begging the question whether there is a place in New York City for light manufacturing.

Link to the CUF report in PDF:
http://www.nycfuture.org/images_pdfs/pdfs/TroubleBrewing.pdf

Related post from Queens Crap:
http://queenscrap.blogspot.com/2008/07/large-nyc-manufacturers-face-space.html

"Starved in So Many Ways"

A New York Assembly hearing last week on tax-exempt bond financing for the New York Yankees echoed the Atlantic Yards controversy.

The hearing room, in lower Manhattan, was packed with construction workers who arrived by the busload at least 45 minutes before the hearing started at 10 am, crowding out people who arrived later, not expecting a full house. (The hearing room holds fewer than 150 people.)

At the hearing, New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) President Seth Pinsky was interrogated for 3 hours, ending with this statement from chairman Richard Brodsky:

“I dislike public benefits for private parties when the public at large is being starved in so many ways.” And if that’s a description of sports facility finance, he added, “so be it.”

In another AY parallel, a purported benefit of the Yankee deal was new jobs. The documents Brodsky received did not support that conclusion.

According to Daily News columnist Juan Gonzales, Mayor Bloomberg announced at the groundbreaking in August 2006 that the new stadium would "result in about 1,000 permanent jobs."

The job figures the Yankees submitted in their IDA application show that the Yankees had only 104 full-time permanent employees in 2005, including all team executives, ballplayers, office workers and maintenance personnel. Just under half were city residents.

The Yankees project that the number of full-time permanent jobs would increase to 140 by 2009, the year the new stadium is projected to open -- a gain of just 36 permanent jobs.

The post from DDDB:
http://dddb.net/php/latestnews_Linked.php?id=1547

"Plain, Old-Fashioned Neglect"

According to a report released by New York City Comptroller William Thompson, the scandal-plagued Department of Buildings (DOB) failed to re-inspect 20% of buildings with multiple violations last year.

"The Buildings Department has permitted buildings with multiple open hazardous violations to go uncorrected for years," Thompson said in releasing his report.

The Comptroller's audit found that 33% of the time, the DOB failed to assess compliance with a much-abused "honor system" that allows property owners to certify that they have fixed violations without re-inspection.

Thompson termed the findings "discouraging" and blamed the department for "just plain old-fashioned neglect."

The DOB is reeling from a record 20 construction deaths in the city since January, the forced resignation of Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster, and the arrest of the city's top crane inspector in a bribery scandal.

Thompson's auditors examined 1,449 violations targeted for re-inspection under the department's Hazardous Re-inspection Program last September. In 20% of the violations, inspectors could not get access to the buildings, and no further action was taken.

"Those were properties - most of them occupied - the department had targeted as 'the worst of the worst,'" Thompson said. Yet DOB inspectors did not make a second attempt [to inspect] due to a claimed lack of resources, according to Thompson.

Inspectors who cannot gain access must leave a forms telling the property owner to arrange for re-inspection, but, according to the audit, there is little follow-up.

Thompson urged Mayor Bloomberg to support changes to the City Charter and administrative code giving inspectors access to properties for re-inspection purposes, and giving the DOB the power to withhold permits where there are outstanding violations.

The DOB maintains that it "re-inspects every hazardous violation" in the city and called the report "misleading".

The article from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/06/24/2008-06-24_worst_buildings_escape_reinspection_desp.html

Mayor Bloomberg's press release on NYC.Gov announcing recommendations to strengthen the safety, oversight, coordination, demolition and abatement operations in New York City:
http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2008b%2Fpr277-08.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1

More from Queens Crap:
http://queenscrap.blogspot.com/2008/10/nyc-officials-announce-strict-crane.html

Another crane accident -- near Bryant Park:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/10/17/2007-10-17_crane_bucket_falls_near_bryant_park_8_pe.html

Designs for Living: Historic Buildings

The AIA New York Chapter is sponsoring a program on Monday, July 14th from 5:30–8:00 pm entitled "Architecture: Designs for Living".

The program will explore current design trends that will become the building blocks of the new growth envisioned by the Mayor's PlaNYC.

A panel of four architects will discuss their design philosophies and how to work within a landmark designation.

Robert Tierney, Chair of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, will be among the presenters.

The event is free, at the Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place.

Link to the AIA event calendar:
http://www.aiany.org/calendar/event.php?id=1005691

The Cool-Down

Manhattan's once red-hot commercial real estate market is cooling. Vacancy rates are rising, new lease signings are flagging, and sublease space is flooding the market.

For the first time in six years, effective rents are falling.

This trend will accelerate as financial firms, about 1/3 of Manhattan's commercial tenants, continue to feel the credit crunch.

A 15% drop in commercial rents is predicted as demand falls and more sublease space is marketed. Financial firms, swallowing billions in losses from sub-prime loan write-downs, are shedding space, laying off 22,000 people since last year, according to one estimate. Wall Street is forecast to lose 33,300 jobs within the year.

An estimated 4 million square feet of sublease space are forecast for midtown alone. J.P. Morgan Chase may be among the biggest space shedders, eventually unloading 1 million square feet of space as it digests the Bear Stearns sacrifice. Lehman Brothers may unload roughly 600,000 square feet of space and Citibank nearly 240,000 feet.

In a 5-month period there has been a 51% increase in sublease space, a trend which may eventually affect all rental prices. The tipping point could come within months, as rising oil prices and the soft economy continue.

Brokers expect that the gap between landlords' posted prices for space and what tenants actually pay will continue to widen.

The Manhattan vacancy rate is still only 6.8%, low by historical standards, but has already risen 1.3 % this year.

"It's clearly a more balanced market," says Brian Gell, a vice chairman at CB Richard Ellis Inc. "Tenants are more cautious..."

The price of commercial buildings is falling, but financing is hard to get. Lenders now demand 30% -- 50% in cash, up from 10% -- 30% a year ago.

Sales of office towers are down 63% from a year ago, according to one estimate. Worries about a weakening economy have sidelined buyers who are waiting to see what happens.

The article from Crain's:
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080622/FREE/295758802

More, from NYC Housing Bubble:
http://nychousingbubble.blogspot.com/2008/07/manhattan-2q08-apt-sales-plunge-22.html

More, from the New York Observer:
http://admin.observer.com/2008/real-estate/equilibrium-tremens-manhattans-vacancy-rate-could-hit-highest-level-03

In Our Prayers

Its congregation has fled, its contents stripped.

A beautiful gift carelessly abandoned, the graceful church sits silenced on its green corner, mourning its dead.

Its windows are filmed over with dust, its lawn, uncut, overgrown.

Its gaping crypt is sheeted in plywood. Torn netting sags from the clocktower.

Its lordly cedar trees, defaced by blue scaffolding, and its tall wrought-iron fence, ruined by careless workmen, stand faithful guard.

Our beloved Green Church is in our prayers.

Related Brooklyn Daily Eagle article:
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=31&id=21618

"It's Happening in Every Park"

In Manhattan Wednesday night, an organization called the Union Square Community Improvement District staged an action called the "Push Back Picnic" to protest the agenda behind the remodeling of the Union Square Pavilion.

Their target was celebrity chef Danny Meyer, chair of the the Union Square BID and the suspected source of an anonymous $7-million donation to the city, given on the condition that the the park’s pavilion be privatized as a restaurant.

Construction on the renovation has been halted by an injunction obtained by the community group.

Wednesday's action included gathering signatures on a petition against the project, sermonizing by Reverend Billy, and a mock exorcism of private interests from the park.

“BIDs are constantly trying to convince communities that they have their interests in mind—in fact they have business in mind...” said commnity activist Savitri D.

Wednesday's action played up the connection between public space and the First Amendment freedom of expression. The Stop Shopping Choir chanted and sang the First Amendment while Reverend Billy regaled greenmarket passers-by with the Pavilion’s free speech history as the staging ground for a long line of activists, including Emma Goldman.

“If we let them turn [the Pavilion] into a restaurant, we will lose where we came from” Rev. Billy said. “This is a place where our rights were defined and defended.”

The Stop Shopping choir performed an exorcism of Danny Meyer, called the ‘privatizer.’ Afterwards, small pine trees and plots of grass were brought in a procession to the entryway of Meyer's Union Square Cafe.

Councilmember Rosie Mendez, accused of selling out to the privatizers, defended herself in a letter distributed at an earlier rally, claiming that building the restaurant would secure funding for playground renovation and actually reduce the space used by private businesses in the park.

Savitri D. called Mendez' argument illogical and the private-use claim a simple misstatement of how much space the restaurant will require.

The event drew a broad base of support. Organizers say they got thousands of signatures on their petition.

Mary Lynch, of the Washington Square Park CID, came because she saw a connection between the renovation of Washington Square Park and Union Square Park. Bill Dipaloa, director of Times Up!, said the Union Square Park renovation could impact Critical Mass rides. Judy Francis, President of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defenders, came out against public space encroachment.

“It’s happening in every single park — quietly and in major ways” Francis said. “We can’t get any traction with our public officials because they take so much money from real estate.”

The article on the Village Voice Runnin' Scared Blog:
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2008/07/union_square_pa.php

Link to the Save Union Square 2007 blog:
http://saveunionsquare2008.blogspot.com/

The BID gets punk'd, from Gothamist:
http://gothamist.com/2008/07/03/plans_for_restaurant_at_union_squar.php

McMahon vs Harrison

The Staten Island Advance reports that City Councilmember Michael McMahon has raised $500,000 in his campaign to replace retiring Congressman Vito Fossella.

His campaign touted a deluge of donor dollars as proof that the term-limited McMahon can win Fossella's seat, although he won't officially file papers with the Federal Election Commission until the July 15 deadline.

McMahon's opponent for the Democratic nomination, Bay Ridge lawyer Steve Harrison, admitted that his campaign has raised only about $150,000. "If dollars could vote, he wins," said Harrison. "But they don't. It's a classic grassroots campaign against a machine campaign, and we'll see what happens."

The post on Daily Gotham:
http://www.dailygotham.com/blog/bouldin/mcmahon_claims_500k_raised

McMahon snags Chuck Schumer's endorsement, from the Brooklyn Eagle:
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=27&id=21819

Vito Lopez to Harrison's Bay Ridge supporters: "He's not electable", from the Brooklyn Eagle:
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=27&id=21497

McMahon opposes gay marriage? From the Albany Project:
http://www.thealbanyproject.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3313

Harrison a Gloria Steinam associate? From the Bay Ridge Rover:
http://www.bayridgerover.com/2008/07/harrison-schumer-endorsement-of-mcmahon.html

More from the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/nyregion/28seat.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin
Straniere takes an opening jab at McMahon:
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/31/30/31_30_mm_straniere.html

McMahon on the stump with Marty Markowitz at the 86th Street subway station:
http://blog.silive.com/politics/2008/08/mcmahon_pitches_transit_propos.html

More from the Brooklyn Paper:
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/31/32/31_32_mm_harrison.html

Related post from Bay Ridge Rover:
http://www.bayridgerover.com/2008/08/markowitz-throws-weight-behind-mcmahon.html

Democrats for Change endorse Harrison, from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=27&id=22513

McMahon stumps with Marty, from Staten Island Live:
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/08/staten_island_pol_brooklyn_bp.html

McMahon leads Harrison in the polls, from the Brooklyn Eagle:
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=27&id=22858

McMahon takes 74% of the primary vote:
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/31/36/31_36_primary_dem_13.html

Bay Ridge HOVer

If you've ever wondered (and I have) what it would be like to take a break from the often-troublesome "R" train and commute to Manhattan on the express bus, the Bay Ridge Blog has the story.

As with every transportation option in New York City, there is an upside and a downside to taking the bus, but it's nice to know -- because no one in this city can take their commute for granted -- that you have options.

The post on Bay Ridge Blog:

http://bayridgebrooklyn.blogspot.com/2008/07/riding-express-bus.html

Related post from Brooklyn Eagle:

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=27&id=21843

From Frenzy to Fizzle

According to four major brokerage reports released last week, the Manhattan residential real estate market is slowing, as evidenced by falling sales against a sharp uptick in inventory.

Brokers say the dive was predictable given falling consumer confidence, increasing mortgage rates and announced layoffs, especially among the Wall Street executives who are such an important driver of the residential market, noting that JP Morgan’s recent purchase of Bear Stearns Cos. in a fire sale, which threw about 7,000 people out of work, took a psychological toll.

“This year we have a Bear Stearns hangover,” said Pam Liebman, president of Corcoran Group. “There is a lot more news to make people more hesitant (about buying) than they were before."

The article, from Crain's:
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080702/FREE/248085512/1059/breaking

More from New York City Housing Bubble:
http://nychousingbubble.blogspot.com/2008/07/manhattan-2q08-apt-sales-plunge-22.html

Consumer Woes

The gloom facing American workers is growing.

The recent fall-off in home prices has put hundreds of thousands of people, from bankers and real estate agents to construction workers and furniture manufacturers, out of work. Tight money following a wave of foreclosures has cut consumers out of the credit market that fueled the real estate boom.

Consumer spending makes up 70 %of the American economy. But joblessness and shrinking work hours and paychecks are hitting over-extended consumers. Auto sales plunged in June — Ford by 28%, Toyota by 21% and GM by 18%, indicating that consumers are pulling back, that manufacturers will likely cut production, and that more layoffs will result.

Economists project that the recent economic troubles run deep, and that tight credit and scarce jobs will last into 2009. “It’s a slow-motion recession,” said Ethan Harris, chief United States economist for Lehman Brothers. We're in for two years of sub-par growth -- not enough to generate new jobs.

Harris projects slow economic growth and a shrinking labor market through the fall of 2009. Goldman Sachs forecasts that the unemployment rate will peak in late in 2009 before the picture improves, meaning that the the job-shedding may be only halfway complete.

“The labor market is clearly deteriorating, and it’s highly likely to keep deteriorating,” said Andrew Tilton, an economist at Goldman Sachs. “Clearly, there are more jobs to be lost in housing, finance and construction — hundreds of thousands of more jobs to be lost collectively.”

“Slowing wage growth and falling employment is absolutely toxic if your business is selling anything to consumers,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief United States economist for High Frequency Economics.

The job market appears to be in the grip of a sustained downturn. The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey, which tracks attitudes about business and personal finance, has dropped to a depth last seen in 1980.

But export sales, fueled by the weak dollar, are humming.

The article from the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/business/02jobs.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=deepening+cycle+of+job+loss+seen+lasting&st=nyt&oref=slogin

Save Coney Island Video

Local celebrities Rosie Perez and Murray Hill were, um, too busy partying to attend the hearing on June 24th, or did I miss something?

But the burlesque atmosphere of the video seems right for the subject matter.

Link to Lola Starr's video on Gothamist:
http://gothamist.com/2008/07/03/video_of_the_day_starr_co.php

Who Belongs in Brooklyn?

When Shanaz Habib moved to Red Hook, she was was relieved and delighted to be in a "real, grown-up neighbourhood".

She said to a regular she met in a neighborhood bar, "It's a pity the waterfront is not accessible."

"What's the point of an accessible waterfront?" he said.

"Well, you know, it would be much prettier."

He shook his head. "If that was a pretty little waterfront with cafés and gardens, we wouldn't be sitting here. You and me would be in Bay Ridge."

After two years, Shanaz' life has become entwined with the streets of Red Hook. She is a part of the gentrification that will eventually price her out of Red Hook. Her building has been sold. An Ikea opened last month.

Red Hook inspires both retail dreams and "the meandering delicacy of a bike ride". (Lawrence Osborne, Brooklyn was Mine). But the two cannot co-exist.

Bed Bath & Beyond is rumoured to be moving in next to Ikea.

Shanaz Habib's post on the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/02/usa.ikea

"It May Be the End of My Practice"

The city may use its power of eminent domain to take a commercial strip on Fifth Avenue between 91st and 92nd Streets to expand PS/IS 104 at 9115 Fifth Avenue.

"I'm really screwed," said Dr. Roy Appel, who owns the Fifth Avenue Veterinary Hospital. "I bought this business back in 1982, and it may be the end of my practice if they force me to leave."

The strip includes a bagel shop and a glass supply store, Windows We Are, owned by Margaret Turnboll, who got a letter from the Department of Education warning her that her family-run business may be forced out.

"We have been here for 25 years. This is our livelihood and it is not for sale," said Turnboll.

The city is considered other sites to accomodate growing enrollment at PS/IS 104, according to DOE spokesperson Margie Feinberg.

"We have sent a letter informing those businesses that we have the right to do some tests on their property through eminent domain, but a final decision has not been made," said Feinberg, who wouldn't identify the other sites DOE is looking at.

The need for expansion is driven by the growing population of nearby Fort Hamilton.

The article from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2008/06/23/2008-06-23_fort_hamilton_school_expansion_threatens.html

Correction: the planned expansion is not for "Ft. Hamilton High School", as originally reported in this post, but for PS/IS 104 at 9115 Fifth Avenue.

Grace Period

A proposed 90-day grace period before historically significant buildings more than 50 years old could be demolished has received the tentative support of City Councilmember Tony Avella, an outspoken critic of big development who is running for mayor.

"Clearly something needs to be done," said Avella, a Queens Democrat. "A slight delay before a building is demolished and the investigation of an alternative use can only be in the public interest."

The New York Real Estate Board of New York has (no surprise here) come out in opposition, as reported on Curbed.com.

The proposal was drafted by the 93rd Street Beautification Association, which is behind a drive to extend the Carnegie Hill Historic District and preserve the Marx Brothers' home at 179 East 93rd Street between Lexington and Third. Co-chair Susan Hefti said the proposal is modeled on a Boston ordinance that helps preserve historic homes.

"There is nothing radical here. It has been done before," she said. "I can't understand why anyone would oppose this."

Similar legislation has been enacted in a number of other American cities.

Michael Slattery, a REBNY senior vice president, said the proposal was "an attempt to stop development." Slattery said that similar efforts over the years have all failed.

Under the Beautification Association's plan, the Landmarks Preservation Commission could declare a property historically significant, triggering a 90-day demolition delay.

Earlier this month, the 93rd Street Beautification Association sent the proposal to the chair of the council's powerful land use committee, Queens Democrat Melinda Katz, the city Landmarks Preservation Commission, and several other council members.

Avella said he expected to work with Hefti's group. He said he wants to give more power to the LPC and supports allowing the commission to overrule a Buildings Department demolition permit.

Demolition review ordinances, such as the one under discussion, were the topic of an April 13 post on this blog:
http://bayridgejournal.blogspot.com/2008/04/demolition-review-ordinances.html

The story from Real Deal:
http://ny.therealdeal.com/articles/demolition-review-gains-support