Today was the first installment of Williamsburg Walk, the street closure that is not a street fair. Turnout felt light, and the oppressive heat certainly lent the afternoon a languid tone (except at the hydrants, which were very popular). Whether it was the weather or just the extra space, the afternoon lacked that manic aspect that Bedford often gets on the weekends. (And it certainly helped that the sponsors had people going around emptying garbage cans and generally keeping things in order.) Hopefully, less heat and no Giglio festival three blocks away will mean a greater turnout in the coming weeks.
As it turns out, the closure does not effect any of the cross streets - cross town traffic continued unabated, it was only Bedford that was closed. The regulatory thicket that had to be negotiated for this was pretty incredible, and included multiple city and state agencies. One result was that restaurants and bars could put out tables, but only on the sidewalks. The street tables were all provided by Williamsburg Walks, and clearly, there needs to be more tables. Even without table service in the street, having more tables there would enliven the street. As it is, there is little to bring people into the street, other than the wide open spaces.
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Reminder: Williamsburg Walks starts today. From noon until 7pm, Bedford Avenue will closed to vehicles from Metropolitan to North 9th. Its a hot day for the inauguration of this event, but there will be cafe seating at most of the restaurants up and down Bedford. You can also beat the heat (and the crowds) by stepping off Bedford - restaurants along Berry and Wythe will also be open, and in many cases offering some air conditioned comfort.
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Photo from BushwickBK of 326 Melrose, used in here conjunction with a blog post commenting on a blog post at BushwickBK.
Over at BushwickBK, Jeremy has gotten himself into a "hep of poop" - sorry, "HEP OF POOP" - over the posting of this picture. Seems the broker, one Janet Corona of Flushing, did not appreciate the free advertising BBK's blog posting was giving her project, even if the title of post described the building as "attractive". Nor did she appreciate the fact that commentary on a building, or even on the listed broker's complete inability to have a working web link, is not the same as poaching someone's EXCLUSIVE listing. BBK would need to be a realtor to do that. Janet also did not appreciate the fact that taking a picture of a building is, in fact, legal; nor did she appreciate the fact that including an image of an artists rendering from a publicly available website as part of that commentary constitutes fair use.
As a result of Janet's rants, Googling "326 Melrose Street" will not lead you to any information about Janet's listing; instead, it will take you directly to the two BushwickBK posts in which Janet's rants figure prominently (better still, the BushwickBK posts are also the first two hits if you Google "Janet Corona"). Also high up on the front page of 326 Melrose hits is a link to the Real Deal with the headline "Broker lashes out at blog". Only at the bottom of the first page do you find any link to the project itself, and that is a link to Leecon Construction*, the design/build outfit for the project. You will not find on any page any links the real estate listing for this building. It must be very EXCLUSIVE, indeed.
(* Which, based on their website, seems to be a pretty decent firm. See, Janet, it pays to have a good web presence.)
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Greenbelt, 361 Manhattan Avenue.
Photo: Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.
I screwed up - in yesterday's post on the Building Brooklyn awards, I completely missed Greenbelt in the list of award winners. So there was a north Brooklyn project worthy of being the best of Brooklyn architecture. Greenbelt is a fantastic mixed-use project on Manhattan Avenue between Jackson and Withers. It is billed as Brooklyn's first LEED-rated residential project, and includes arts and cultural space on the ground floor with residences above. The building incorporates much of the single-story building that was formerly on the site (not preservation, but not throwing the entire building into the dumpster certainly has a positive environmental impact). As the project's website says, "Greenbelt aims for sustainability in relation to multiple 'environments' - natural, cultural and visual - by building green, providing space for the arts and community, and launching bold architectural ideas scaled to the surrounding neighborhood."
All in all, a very interesting and worthy project. Which only goes to reinforce the point I was trying to make in yesterday's post - given the huge wave of building we are seeing Greenpoint and Williamsburg, why are there so few projects that can be singled out as enriching our neighborhoods? Yes, there are some projects such as Greenbelt that are worthy of accolades, but they are few and far between. Take a look at the list of projects that won awards last night - I think you'd be hard pressed to find too many local projects that rise to the level of these projects.
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NYC elections are still more than a year off (even the primaries), but the races are definitely underway. Tuesday was the deadline for candidates to file disclosure statements with the Campaign Finance Board, and the new numbers are already posted.
The 33rd Council District (David Yassky's district, which covers Greenpoint to Cobble Hill) is one of the most hotly contested in the city. Isaac Abraham, who only just announced his candidacy, has raised less than $3,000, and Kenneth Baer about $12,000. The other four candidates (Ken Diamondstone, Steve Levin, Jo Ann Simon and Evan Thies) are all over $30,000. Simon leads the way with $55,037, followed by Thies at $38,620, Levin at $31,298 and Diamondstone at $30,238.
The 34th Council District (Diana Reyna's, covering Williamsburg, Bushwick and Ridgewood) is one of the least contested open seats in the city. Gerry Esposito, the District Manager of Community Board #1, has raised close to $65,000 to date. Esteban Duran, a CB1 member and Department of Ed employee, has raised $3,560. (Duran has not even had a formal campaign announcement, other than a quick reference in the Greenpoint Star.)
Its all very early, though - too early to read too much into the numbers. (If you want to see who's behind those numbers,
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Its that time of year again. Time once again for the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce to honor the best architecture of the borough with its Building Brooklyn Awards. And once again, north Brooklyn gets the short end of the stick. Yes, once again, not a single project in Greenpoint or Williamsburg was deemed worthy of merit.
Pretty amazing, when you think about it - Williamsburg and Greenpoint are home to the biggest building boom in the borough. There is more "architecture" happening here than anywhere else in Brooklyn. And yet, by the standards of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, all of that architecture sucks.
They obviously have good standards.
UPDATE: Oops, there was a north Brooklyn project honored. More here.
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It appears that that whole moment-of-truth thing might have been a tad premature. I just learned that the owner's attorney's have requested a one-week adjournment. No word yet on BSA's response to the request.
Developing, as they say.
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For those unaware, Bedford Ave between Metropolitan Avenue and North 9th street will be open as a pedestrian mall from noon to 7pm for the next four Saturdays (July 19th, 26th, August 2nd & 9th) as an experiment in re-imagining the use of public space in the neighborhood.
Neighbors Allied for Good Growth (NAG) is one of the organizers of the event, and they are looking for volunteers for Williamsburg Walks to help with either with event logistics or with non-partisan voter registration, especially for this upcoming Saturday (July 19th). If you are interested, contact NAG at (718) 384-2248 or email mfs at mikebot dot com.
More information about the event is available at http://www.billburg.com/walks/about/
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NY WATER TAXI
Photo:Cassandra
Also while I was away, the Water Taxi returned to Shaefer Landing - finally! Months late, and more than half a year after the initial "seasonal" shutdown, service was finally restored to the full East River route on the 7th. And today, I enjoyed my first summer evening ride up the East River - as a special bonus, the voyage now includes an up-close look at the waterfalls.
Not that there's nothing to complain about - since last winter, NYWT has adjusted its afternoon commuter schedule, eliminating the 7:00 p.m. boat and adding a boat at 3 p.m. I'm not sure if that's for the bankers or the tourists, but it sucks for anyone who doesn't work in the financial sector (a growing proportion of downtown's workforce).
Still, it was a beautiful evening, and a great ride.
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No Gas.
The last post, in particular Will Femia's photo, reminds me that Mobil sign in Will's photo is no more. Above is a picture I took on 1 July, showing the new chain link fence and the decapitated Mobil sign. The sign itself was lay in the parking lot, freshly cut, the day I walked by. I have no idea when a Mobil (or any other gas) station last operated at this site - never in my Williamsburg life. The service station moved out in 2001 or so (they're now at McGuinness and Java).
Based on this recent activity, the site is being prepped for work. Shockingly, it will not be luxury housing. The owner wants to open a Tibetan cultural center of some sort. This requires a partial rezoning, as part of the site does not allow commercial uses as of right.
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144 North 8th Street (aka The Finger Building)
Photo: A Test of Will
The moment of truth for the Finger Building may finally be at hand. On 22 July, the Board of Standard and Appeals will hear an appeal by community residents on the BSA's previous decision to allow the construction of the building to go forward. (That decision is still pending resolution of the partnership dispute over air rights between developer Mendel Brach and the owner of the adjoining properties, Scott Specter.) The hearing will be at the BSA, 40 Rector Street in Manhattan, 10 a.m. on 22 July. By mass transit, take the J/M/Z to Broad Street or the 1 via the L to Rector Street.
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Pretty soon, the marketers are just going to run out of words.
Case in point - Urban Green (as far as I can tell, not a "green" project), which is the new development going up on North 5th and North 6th between Bedford and Berry. The broker's website includes the requisite "Neighborhood" tab, which describes their location as "perfectly located at the confluence of Wiliamsburg’s two most exciting streets, Bedford and Berry...". There is (sort of) a confluence of Bedford and Berry, its just 10 blocks north in Greenpoint (and its really Nassau and Bedford crossing).
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