On Saturday, John Dereszewski is giving a walking tour of Bushwick Avenue in Williamsburg. Bushwick & Metropolitan is pretty much ground zero for the origins of European settlement in North Brooklyn. Through some twist of historical fate, when Williamsburg was made an independent town from Bushwick, the original Bushwick settlement was included in Williamsburg. Its that part of Bushwick Avenue – from Woodpoint Avenue to Flushing Avenue – that Dereszewski will be discussing.

I had no idea that it had become “the former Lucky Cat space on Grand Street”. Sorry to see that LC is gone, but I hope this another good addition to Grand Street.

As mentioned yesterday, guerilla gardening comes to Williamsburg.

NAG is holding a town hall meeting tomorrow night (26 March) to give an update on its 2009 organizing agenda. I’ve posted a few items on one of these organizing issues, the North Brooklyn Story Project oral history project. Other organizing issues are affordable housing, transportation and improving open space and access to the waterfront (check out their seedballs project – a bit of guerilla gardening for the neighborhood).

The response so far has been great, with more and more people joining the various issue projects every week. Each of these groups will be giving an update on their work to date, and hopefully bringing on even more volunteers.

Among Jewish communities in Brooklyn, Williamsburg has the highest level of poverty, with 64% of households earning less than $35,000, according to a UJA-Federation study.

Wow – more incredible when you consider that household sizes in the Hasidic community probably run at least twice that of the city average.

As much as DOT is doing a good job of proactive planning for better bicycle access, the booming bike population is still putting the agency in a reactive mode.

Beautiful. Hopefully he took in a few Nigerians as well.

SOLARIA A 64-unit building in Riverdale developed by Arc Development, with prices that range from $900,000 to $2 million, the Solaria has three programs: […] and education credits, whereby Arc will offer a one-time $30,000 credit to buyers who have children in private school or an adult who is working toward a graduate degree.

Housing prices are down 30% to 40% nationwide (10% to 15% locally), banks won’t finance purchases in developments that are less 75% sold, and these guys are offering a 1.5% discount to graduate students? Reality-based pricing might be a better place to start.