Stimulus $$ Funds Transportation Projects

Mayor Bloomberg and members of the city's congressional delegation have announced that $271 million in federal stimulus funds will be used to upgrade the city's transportation infrastructure.

The transportation projects, in all 5 boros, are worth a total of $1.1 billion and are expected to generate 32,000 jobs.

Funded projects include the following in Brooklyn and Staten Island:

• Rehabilitation of Saint George Ferry Terminal Ramps and Retail Area


• Rehabilitation of the Brooklyn Bridge


• Rehabilitation of 12 Roadway Bridges, including 15th Avenue over the Long Island Rail Road;13th Avenue over the Long Island Rail Road and NYCTA;East Drive over East Wood Arch, Prospect Park;Albee Avenue over the Staten Island Railway


• Rehabilitation of the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge over Newtown Creek


• Improvements to Brooklyn Navy Yard


• Streetscape Improvements to Flatbush Avenue


• Reconstruction of Nassau Avenue and Monitor Street (Greenpoint)


• Reconstruction of Coney Island Boardwalk


• Reconstruction of Belt Parkway East 8th Street Access Ramp, Bath Beach


• Reconstruction of Eastern Parkway, Prospect Heights


• Improvements to Bedford-Stuyvesant Gateway Business District


• Replacement of Protective Coating on Steel Structure of 6 Belt Parkway Bridges


• Citywide Sidewalk Repairs -- to repair damage caused by tree roots.

The article from Gotham Gazette:
http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2009/03/30/stimulus-transportation-projects-annouced/

The press release from NYC.Gov:
http://nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fnyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2009a%2Fpr145-09.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1

After the Gold Rush

In a recent post, New York blogger Tom Engelhardt ponders what has become of his Upper West Side neighborhood, as new high-rise apartment towers sit vacant and forlorn and familiar businesses close.

What's strange, says Engelhardt, in a city that has regularly "cannibalized itself", is that those empy storefronts aren't being repopulated.

Engelhardt describes upper Broadway as looking like "an archeological dig in the making", with dead commercial spaces that feel like "black holes". The fast food restaurants, the banks and chain drugstores are still there, but the mom & pops are disappearing.

New York City is still living on profits taken before the stock market crash, but its zoos, public hospitals, museums, jobs, property values, and affordable mass transit are all threatened.

For the last seven years, says Engelhardt, we've been waiting for "9/11 II" to rain hellfire down on us from the Middle East, but maybe, just like on 9/11, we've missed the real threat.

This time, it's our economy that has been hijacked -- by financial "terrorists".

And this time, instead of retribution, there'll be bailouts.

The post from TomDispatch:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/

Easter

When I was a kid, Easter meant getting a brand-new Sunday outfit -- with new shoes and a new hat --to wear to Easter service at Trinity Methodist.

The sanctuary would be packed with families decked out in their new Easter finery. The bottom panels of the tall stained glass windows would be swung open to the spring breeze, and the altar would be luminous with fragrant white lilies, as we sang "Christ the Lord is risen today...".

Afterward, there would be Easter dinner, with ham and sweet potatoes and a dozen other good things to eat, and Easter egg hunts in the rock garden behind our house.

By the Western Calendar, Easter falls on April 12 this year -- and on April 19 by the Eastern Orthodox Calendar.

At right, an Easter display in an office window on 5th Avenue.

Daily News: Albany a "Mess"

A recent Daily News article summarizes the latest crop of reasons why Albany deserves its reputation as the nation's most dysfunctional state legislature.

In the past two weeks alone, we've seen a massive corruption scandal in the state comptroller's, office leading to an indictment, a secret budget deal by the governor and the legislature containing massive tax hikes, and a state senator indicted on felony charges stemming from a domestic assault on his girlfriend.

Corruption and favoritism rule Albany. According to Thomas Kirwan, a former Republican assembly member from Newburgh, "If the average person saw what's going on, they'd descend on Albany with torches and pitchforks like in the old Franken-stein movies."

It's nothing that reformers haven't been making a fuss about for years. In 2004, a report by the New York University Law School's Brennan Center for Justice called the state legislature "dysfunctional". In 2006 and again last year, the center, in follow-up reports, charged that interim "reforms" did little but "codify the status quo", leaving the structural problems untouched.

There was hope that a Democratic majority, which now controls both houses of the legislature and the executive branch, might bring change, but it hasn't arrived. So far, Democratic control has brought us only the "gang of three" and the MTA doomsday budget.

The lobbying industry in Albany has roughly doubled in size over the past decade -- from $92 million in 2003 to $171 million in 2007. Lobbyists schmooze with lawmakers by day and flit from one campaign fund-raiser to another by night, dropping off donations at each one.

High-rolling lobbyists and their clients have a stranglehold on the legislature, which passes the laws they want with virtually no notice, discussion or dissent.

Legislative leaders use committee chairmanships and other leadership positions as conduits for loyalty-building "lulus", despite the fact that committees rarely, if ever, meet. Members usually vote as they're told, and are rewarded with pork.

Lax campaign finance laws allow legislators use campaign cash on meals, travel, cars, gifts. Financial disclosure forms allow legislators to hide their outside income and clients.

Unlike other states, the New York state legislature is completely under the control of its leaders. Public hearings are rare, committees do what the leaders want, and neither house holds joint committee meetings to reconcile bills.

Seymour Lachman, a former state senator, said that most of the problems he experienced in the legislature were the product of the godlike power of the party leaders. Lachman saw members forfeit their votes for favorable committee assignments, staff allocations, office space, pork, and campaign resources.

A single ray of hope: Senate Democrats have formed a bipartisan committee to develop rules to provide greater transparency and more access by rank-and-file members.

The article from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/state_of_shame/2009/03/29/2009-03-29_the_dysfunctional_government_in_albany_y.html

Lobbyists call the tune that members dance to, from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/state_of_shame/2009/03/29/2009-03-29_a_limitless_line_of_lobbyists_still_pull.html

Party leaders wield iron-fisted control over the rank-and-file, from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/state_of_shame/2009/03/31/2009-03-31_no_laws_passed_without_party_leaders_app.html

Members lard in the pork, from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/state_of_shame/2009/03/31/2009-03-31_new_york_state_lawmakers_play_hide_the_p.html

It takes only "three men in a room" to pass a whopping budget, from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/03/31/2009-03-31_rotten_sausage_paterson_silver_and_smith.html

Spring Comes Again

"Little darling, it's been a long, cold lonely winter..."

Feedback

New York City transit riders and advocates are flooding state legislative leaders with phone calls protesting the looming fare hikes and service cuts due to start arriving May 31 -- unless Albany bails out the MTA.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith said all options, including tolling the Harlem and East River Bridges, are still on the table.

Whether it's tolls, higher registration fees or some other new revenue source, drivers are not likely to be spared.

Two elements of the Richard Ravitch plan: modest fare hikes and payroll tax on businesses, will be part of any bailout.

Smith has met off the record with Gov. Paterson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and the three will continue working out the details of a bailout next week -- outside the state budget, due on Tuesday.

Silver said the MTA's tactic of adopting the doomsday budget on Wednesday worked: it got Albany's attention.

Transit advocates report an outpouring of public anger -- and urge riders to keep the heat on.

The article from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/03/27/2009-03-27_state_legislators_to_offer_up_plan_to_de.html

Scotto on 5th Avenue

This past week, Bay Ridge native Rosanna Scotto, of Fox's Good Day New York, returned to the neighborhood to see how shop owners and residents are weathering the recession.

The local shopowners Scotto interviewed said they are struggling to stay in business, and people on the street said they were cautious about spending money.

At Scotto's favorite pork store, A&S Meats, at 274 5th Avenue, the owner said that although the lunch crowds are gone, he is toughing it out -- as a lot of New Yorkers are.

Video from Fox News:
http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/good_day_ny/090330_Rosannas_Neighborhood_and_the_Economy

Link Roundup

Mayor back in the good graces of the Independence Party:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/nyregion/27independence.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion

Mayor, after being endorsed by Brooklyn Republicans, endorses gay marriage: http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20090326/FREE/903269997

Mayor opens campaign offices in all boros, drops $3 million:
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/03/mayor_bloomberg_opens_campaign.html

Mayor once had friend on Todt Hill:
http://www.politickerny.com/2756/bloomberg-searches-old-friend-staten-island

Polls: Bloomberg, Weiner, Thompson:
http://www.politickerny.com/2667/poll-weiner-leads-thompson-both-lose-bloomberg

Letitia James' opponent a Bruce Ratner front:
http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2009/03/ratner_money_be.php

Multi-family housing sales tank:
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20090323/FREE/903239981

Open houses start to draw crowds:
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20090317/FREE/903179969

Brooklyn Paper starting to morph?
http://joshingpolitics.blogspot.com/2009/03/brooklyn-paper-already-showing-signs-of.html

Green Church Bulletin

A friend who monitors the DOB BIS database told me yesterday that Abe Betesh, holder of the contract of sale for the Green Church property, has re-submitted his plans for a condo development twice since February.

And the DOB has disapproved the plans -- twice. They were rejected on February 18 and again on February 23.

It appears that the DOB has disapproved the plans about a dozen times since last year.

Wasn't the School Construction Authority supposed to be acquiring the site to build a new school?

So why would Betesh be re-submitting his condo plans to the DOB?

The plan examination on the DOB BIS Database:
Plan Examination Overview for Job #:310162070

Synergy

In addition to a food co-op and a CSA, our fresh food options this year will include the Bay Ridge Greenmarket, which re-opens May 2 at the former Key Food parking lot on Third Avenue and 95th Street.

According to the Brooklyn Paper, Walgreens, which will replace Key Food at the site, has given permission for the greenmarket to continue.

The details of the arrangement are still being worked out, but the market will feature 5 or more vendors and will likely be open on Saturdays through December.

A Walgreens spokesman called the market not just “good for the community” but good for the new pharmacy as well, citing the "synergy" that will be created -- people can get their prescriptions filled while they shop for produce.

Last year, vendors offered fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers, bread, honey and buffalo meat.

The article from the Brooklyn Paper:
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/32/13/32_13_bm_br_greenmarket.html

Losing the B37

The MTA's doomsday budget, if it goes into effect, will strand elderly bus riders who rely on the B37 bus to shop and eat on Third Avenue in Bay Ridge.

Many seniors who ride the B37 and can't walk the 2 long blocks over to the next closest bus line on Fifth Avenue will be all but housebound.

On a typical weekday, only about 3,524 people ride the B37, compared to the 56,723 who take the M15 to Manhattan's East Side, the 53,231 who the B46 between Kings Plaza and Williamsburg or the 14,200 who take the B63 on Fifth Avenue in Bay Ridge.

Losing the B37 would put an end to 145 years of mass transit on Third Avenue. According to CB 10 historian Lawrence Stelter, there has been some form of transportation on Third Avenue, a busy commercial street, since the 1860s.

The loss of the B37 would hurt Third Avenue businesses, which will lose their older customers who rely on the bus to get to shopping and restaurants -- or see them a lot less frequently.

The article from the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/nyregion/27bigcity.html?ref=nyregion

Historic Preservation FAQ

The New York Times has posted answers from Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council, to readers' questions about neighborhood-based preservation.

Bankoff has headed the HDC, a historic preservation education and advocacy organization, since 2000.

Bankoff's 15-year historic preservation background includes positions at the Historic House Trust, the Historic Landmarks Preservation Center and the New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation.

Bankoff's first set of answers:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/answers-about-preserving-new-yorks-neighborhoods/

Bankoff's second set of answers:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/answers-about-preserving-new-yorks-neighborhoods-part-2/

The article from the New York Times:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/23/ask-about-preserving-new-yorks-historic-districts/

That Smell

The smell still lingered this morning in Bay Ridge after an estimated 108 gallons of #6 fuel oil was spilled about a mile northeast of the Staten Island Ferry Terminal at Bay Ridge Anchorage earlier this week.

The Coast Guard is monitoring the cleanup.

Coast Guard helicopter flyovers and shoreline searches in Staten Island and Brooklyn reported "no visible sheen" on the water.

A 290-foot barge from KSEA Transportation Inc. reported that while it was transferring oil to the freight ship Mariano Lauro on Monday, some of the oil spilled from a vent into the water.

The barge crew immediately deployed a 50-foot section of absorbent boom between the barge and the ship.

The Mariano Lauro has to scrub its hull before it can leave port.

The Coast Guard press release

http://www.piersystem.com/go/doc/802/262567/

Bloomberg: "Get Mad"

Mayor Bloomberg, who has been silent on the MTA's doomsday budget, has called on straphangers to tell Albany they're "mad as hell" that Albany has failed to bail out the MTA.

To me, Bloomberg's last-minute protests -- that straphangers shouldn't have to bear the brunt, that the doomsday budget isn't good for the economy, that mass transit is necessary, and that we can't walk away from it -- ring hollow.

Sure, I'll call my state legislators and tell them I'm "mad as hell" that we've taken the brunt, but where has the mayor been?

The article from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/03/24/2009-03-24_mayor_bloomberg_tells_straphangers_to_ph.html

Brooklyn rages:
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/32/12/32_12_fare_hike_anger.html

Doomsday

The board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has voted to enact fare hikes, toll increases and service cutbacks they say are needed to keep the MTA from going broke.

The lone dissenter was Norman Seabrook, president of the 9,500-member New York City Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association.

Board members called their plan a disaster, but said they could no longer wait for a bailout from Albany.

Subway and bus fares will go up to $2.50 on May 31; commuter rail fares will go up on June 1; and bridge and tunnel tolls will go up in mid-July.

Thirty-five bus routes and two subway lines, the W and Z, will be eliminated, and off-peak and weekend subway, bus and commuter rail service will be cut back.

Former MTA chair Richard Ravitch put forward a plan to raise revenues by imposing a new tax on payrolls and tolling on the East River and Harlem River bridges. The plan got lip service from Governor Paterson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, but Senate Democrats blocked the rescue package.

A last-minute compromise is possible, but doesn't look likely.

The cuts will deal yet another blow to the city's middle class, already struggling through a recession.

The article from the New York Times:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/mta-board-meets-to-vote-on-fare-hikes/?partner=rss&emc=rss

More from the New York Post:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/03242009/news/regionalnews/new_mta_fare_hikes_161114.htm

Five Days Left to Vote!

The Brooklyn Hall of Fame needs your vote to determine who its first 5 inductees will be.

Here's the field:

• Lauren Bacall


• Ruth Bader Ginsberg


• Elaine de Kooning


• Lena Horne


• Harry Houdini


• Sandy Kofax


• Vince Lombardi


• Norman Mailer


• Arthur Miller


• Henry Miller


• Jackie Robinson


• Emily Roebling


• John A. Roebling


• Mae West


• Walt Whitman

To cast your vote, click here:
http://www.brooklynhall.blogspot.com/

On Doomsday Eve, Silver Blames Smith

Gov. David Paterson admitted this morning that Albany will not bail out the MTA before its Wednesday, March 25th deadline -- tomorrow.

The MTA plans to drop massive fare increases and service cuts on New York City commuters in order to meet its projected $1.2 billion operating deficit.

Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith has called for a forensic audit of the MTA before he will move on a long-term financial solution.

Smith and other senators have called the MTA's bluff.

Paterson denies any responsibility for the impasse.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver called an MTA fare hike "unacceptable" and blamed Smith for the impasse.

According to Silver, the assembly majority is ready to pass a plan to save the MTA and prevent proposed cuts and fare hikes by sharing the burden of transit costs.

Silver's plan would toll the East River bridges and impose a payroll tax.

Fare hikes and service cuts would have a "devastating effect on all New Yorkers", said Silver.

The story from Politicker NY and Wonkster:
http://www.politickerny.com/2681/silver-blames-smith

http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2009/03/24/dont-blame-silver/#more-3197

http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2009/03/23/doomsday-not-deferred/

Paterson Axes State Workers

According to the Associated Press, Gov. David Paterson this week ordered the layoff of nearly 9,000 unionized state workers -- up to 4% of the state workforce.

The layoffs, unless averted by early retirement and attrition, could begin July 1.

Nearly 200,000 people work for the state government.

The article from Crain's New York:
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20090324/FREE/903249971

More from Politicker NY:
http://www.politickerny.com/2689/report-paterson-8900-layoffs

Double Whammy

With the Fort Hamilton branch at the corner of Fourth Avenue and 95th Street closed for rehab for year now, the Brooklyn Public Library library is closing the Bay Ridge branch at 73rd and Ridge Boulevard from April 17 to May 11.

Machines will be updated, a circulation desk will be taken out, and a new checkout desk and book return will be installed.

The work is being done now because the BPL has capital funds from the state that will expire at the end of the fiscal year.

While the Bay Ridge branch is closed, there will be bookmobile service in front of the library on Tuesdays from 1 to 6 pm and Thursdays from 11 am to 4 pm.

The article from the Brooklyn Paper:

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/32/12/32_12_bm_br_library.html

Bay Ridge St. Patrick's Day Parade 2009

A spontaneously-formed line of stroller moms brings up the end of the parade at the bottom of 5th Avenue.

Pipers.

Falun Dafa practitioners show off their moves.

Decked-out girls perch on a cable box. (The peekaboo shamrock tights are a nice touch.)

Young Arab-Americans march.

Boy in a flat cap buys cotton candy.

Irish step dancers go into a routine.

Eyes smile.

Little blonde girl in a red dress eats a green bagel.

The Conservative Club brings their mascot.

NYPD officer's cap rides high atop her extensions.

Green shoes rule.

The new Bay Ridge Food Co-op represents.

A reminder of how good playing dress-up used to feel.

Pipers.

Serious kid in a green coat.

Pipers.

A woman watches the parade from a bench on 5th Avenue.

Those benches -- and the street life they foster -- are among my favorite things in this neighborhood.

Lime green vintage car. I think it's a Camaro.

Lively Brownie troop.

Suspicious kid with a green crewcut.

Pipers.

I didn't see Mayor Bloomberg, but I heard he may have been in the parade. Someone was distributing lots of these campaign posters all along 5th Avenue.

It's interesting to me that Bloomberg has incorporated "NYC" into his campaign logo, as though Bloomberg and NYC were part of the same brand now.

An Irish princess runs with her doll.

On the sidelines, it was business as usual for the shops on 5th Avenue -- with a touch of green.

A supermarket cart chock full of parade gear rollin' down the avenue.

The ubiquitous Marty.

Irish lady eating a green bagel on upper 5th Avenue.

Big brown dog -- who looked to be a St. Bernard Chocolate Lab cross -- in a tiny green bowler.

A brown and white pup in a green tee shirt seeks further instructions.

Brooklyn Shops Top Vacancy List

New York City has more than 200,000 small businesses, which provide about two-thirds of the city’s private sector jobs.

The recession has hit small businesses, particularly retail shops, hard -- with Brooklyn the hardest hit of the boros.

According to a new study of vacancy rates in the outer boros commissioned by U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, the vacancy rate in Brooklyn stands at 14.1% among locally-owned stores.

The citywide average is 12.1%.

In Queens, with shopping strips in Astoria and Forest Hills still busy, 12.2% of shop fronts are vacant.

Vacancy rates in Staten Island and the Bronx are lower than average, at 9.7% and 9.1%, respectively.

Weiner's office worked with BIDs and local officials to compile the first-of-a-kind study

In a press release, Weiner expressed concern for the future of retail shops in the outer boros. Of the 5,991 outer boro stores surveyed, 726 are either closed or are in the process of closing.

The Obama economic stimulus package will bring some relief for New York City's small businesses. It will allot $730 million to expand and create SBA loan programs, and will increase the write-off for equipment and property expenses to $250,000.

Weiner believes that the stimulus program will save or create more than 90,000 jobs in New York City.

The article from Crain's New York:
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20090318/SMALLBIZ/903189986