I had an email from Flatbush Gardener chiding me for my earlier post on the geography of South Brooklyn. Mr. Gardener says I was a bit harsh in my assessment of his original objection to Ms. Heather’s description of the boundaries of South Brooklyn. Point taken. He also explains his South Brooklyn position in a comment to the NYShitty post that I linked to originally. And a valid position it is – as Mr. Gardener notes, Flatbush was for many years a separate town from the City of Brooklyn (it was, with Brooklyn and Bushwick, one of the six original towns dating to the Dutch era of Brooklyn).

[Ed note: As Xris found out, I keep comments off on these quick link posts. But you can always email comments to 11211[at]brooklyn11211.com.]

Flatbush Gardener has taken NYShitty to task for her geography. But Heather has it right (even if she doesn’t know it).

Historically, the area from roughly Atlantic Avenue south to Red Hook (including current Carroll Gardens, Boerum Hill and Cobble Hill) were called “South Brooklyn”. This was back when Brooklyn Heights and downtown were just plain “Brooklyn”, and North Brooklyn (Williamsburg, Bushwick and Greenpoint) were the “Eastern District.” I’m not sure where Park Slope, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and Bed-Stuy fit into all of this. But from 1855 to 1898, these areas were “Brooklyn”, and everything else was a separate township. And South Brooklyn continued to be called South Brooklyn through most of the 20th Century.

Chuck Schumer has endorsed Daniel Squadron, a former Schumer aide, in the race to challenge State Senator Martin Connor (D). Connor, a longtime incumbent, has weathered serious challengers in the past, so it remains to be seen if his number is finally up in ’09.

(The Senate district covers the area around McCarren Park south, including the Northside waterfront, Hasidic South Williamsburg, and well beyond (including Brooklyn Heights, South Brooklyn, Red Hook and most of lower Manhattan).

The name alone is worthy of a link, but today is also the 202nd birthday of one the great engineers of the 19th century. As detailed in this Wired article, Brunel designed a number of early suspension bridges, some of which are still in use today, as well as the first transatlantic steamship and the Great Britain, the first trans-Atlantic screw-propeller iron steamship (and the world’s largest ship). His Great Eastern steamship, launched in 1858, was the largest ship in the world until the construction of the Lusitania in 1906.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, one of the three most powerful men in Albany, apparently supported congestion pricing. He just couldn’t convince anyone else to go along with him.

[Silver said] he favored some kind of congestion proposal but that the mayor’s plan simply lacked enough support to pass. “Let me be clear: If I were making the decision alone, I might have made a different decision,” Mr. Silver said.

Right.

No one goes there, its too crowded.

Seriously, we drove by on our way through Fort Greene yesterday, but there was no parking anywhere (it was also prime church-going time). From what we saw, and have seen posted (20,000 people!), it sounds like it was a rousing success.

An interesting infographic from yesterday’s Times on the extent of the subprime foreclosure situation (aka, the shitpile) across the country (there is no direct link to the chart, you need to click on the “Multimedia” link on the left). The big map tells us that the NYC metro area has a an above average number of subprime foreclosures, but that the ratio of subprime loans to total loans in lower in our region than in most. The smaller maps at the bottom are more interesting, though (and more of a silver lining): on a per capita basis, the construction boom in the NYC metro area has seen a below average number of new housing units, and, the area has a below average unemployment rate. Hopefully those numbers mean that there will be a little bit less shit in the shitpile in our area.

(Be careful of the chart junk in the big map. The perspective skews in favor of the southern states, and the area of the extrusions has no meaning. Rather than relying on arbitrary geographical boundaries, it would have been more useful to adjust the area of each bar to indicate the volume of troubled (or total) loans. Then we could better compare, say, St. Louis to New York to Las Vegas, or Barnstable to Minneapolis to Sacramento.)

How long before Toren become “To Rent”?

(I think its interesting that the web site has a “What is a curtain wall?” link. Of course their definition doesn’t really say what a curtain wall is.)

Assemblyman James Brennan thinks the DOB should do a better job policing site safety. According to the Voice, the current system is rigged against the public:

Essentially, current buildings-department regulations create a race between aggrieved citizens and corner-cutting developers: Neighbors have to muster all their energy to stop illegal work, while builders try to outrun them, getting foundations in the ground and walls up before anyone throws a red flag. Then the developers’ lawyers go to work, arguing that so much money has already been expended that civic decency should allow them to continue.