Month: July 2008

924 Metropolitan.
Photo: RealDeal

Another condo (940 Metropolitan) opts for the gray brick look and goes rental.

Is gray brick the new white brick?

See item #1 (apparently, Brooklyn Papers thinks North 5th Street is in Greenpoint).

(And regarding #4, I don’t know about you, but when I’m walking around with 21 grand, I tend not to leave it on random park benches. Maybe that’s just me.)

This Saturday (26 June) there will be a benefit party for “Bummer”, a large-scale sculpture that has officially been selected by the Burningman cultural committee. The benefit runs from noon to midnight, and will be at Grace Space, 840 Broadway (near the Flushing J/M/Z stop). There will be a bunch of live bands, a host of DJs and an art exhibit. More details here.

324 Bedford Avenue.

[See update, below – ed.]

There is a lot of vestigal crap in the City’s zoning code, as one might expect for a document written in 1961. Its a code written for a time and a place that have long since passed.

One area where this is the case is the requirements for off-street parking. By now, its pretty well established [pdf] that when it comes to parking, if you build it, they will come. And park. When the zoning code was written, however, cars were seen as the answer to the City’s problems and congestion was a problem that could be solved by just building more highways.

The new project at 324 Bedford Avenue epitomizes the stupidity of off-street parking requirements. The building sits at the corner of Bedford and South 2nd. It is designed by Bob Scarano, and is slowly inching its way toward completion (a stop-work order was issued in March, 2007 and the permits have all been revoked). Architecturally, it is quite nice (even if it is an overbuilt collection of quasi-legal mezzanines). Its size and massing fits in well in this more densely built up section of the Southside.

As required by zoning, 324 Bedford includes on-site off-street parking. According to BIS, that works out to two spaces for a project of seven units. To get those two spaces, though, the developer has put in two curb cuts – one on Bedford and one on South 2nd. The net result in terms of parking spaces is zero – the community loses two on-street parking spaces, and gains a virtual guarantee of two additional cars. Oh yes, and the soul-deadening experience of roll-down gates where there might be another retail establishment.

Parking requirements might be a good idea in lower density neighborhoods, where cars are needed on a more day-to-day basis, but in densely built up sections of the City such as this, they contribute nothing.

UPDATE: As noted in the comments, its not the zoning that is creating the parking here. Which makes it that much more ridiculous. I’m not sure what the development angle is, as I would think there would plenty of FAR to turn the parking into retail, and I have to believe that retail at this location ($25 to $40 a foot?) is worth more than two parking spaces. On the zoning side, its silly to even allow this in a densely developed urban area. As noted above, this is essentially privatizing public space. “We” are losing two on-street parking spaces, and the developer now has the right to sell those two spaces. It might be different if the public were losing two spaces in exchange for 25 off-street spaces (though I still believe most of those off-street spaces would result in incremental cars, and not take many cars off the street). But that’s not what’s happening here.

And yes, I still think that required off-street is a losing proposition for the city as a whole. The result is a net increase in cars, congestion and pollution.

As reported elsewhere, the construction ongoing at the foot of South 5th Street is for the installation a “bladder” to hold water from large storms (like tonight’s). The idea is that the bladder would hold the large runoff from flash storms until it can be safely passed onto the sewage system. Under the current system, that storm surge goes straight to the East River.

If you go by the site now, you will notice a not-very-pleasant smell, which is the result of this little bit of infrastructure porn – the old brick sewer basin beneath South 5th Street.

As Robert posted on Curbed today, the rehabbed Grand Ferry Park has been open for about two weeks now (the opening was put off a couple of weeks to miss the Fourth of July and the huge n-ewplant-killing crowds it would bring). The renovation was funded by the New York Power Authority, as part of the mitigation package for the gas generating plant next door.

The new park came out very well. There is a lot more green than the old park (the wood chip piles are now grass), and the plantings are now clustered to make more intimate spaces. Along the water there is now a walkway, so you no longer feel as though you are falling into the East River. Making lemonade from lemons, the new design adds a ravine filled with small stones to move storm water flowing downhill from Grand Street (no more Grand Ferry canyon).

Overall, it is a very successful new design, one that manages to make a very small park feel much bigger. Be sure to check out the more complete set of photos here.

A really good overview of what WW is (and isn’t) all about (with a cameo by yours truly).

More on Williamsburg Walks and Yvette Helin’s Pedestrian Project.

South 2nd and Roebling, this time.

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.