A Protest Over Poet’s Lifestyle

Seven students from a Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas traveled all the way to Bethesda, Maryland to launch a protest at Walt Whitman High School. Why? Because Whitman was maybe gay. The kids from Bethesda did a good job standing up for Brooklyn’s original literary hero:

At the 2:10 p.m. dismissal, 500 students issued forth from the campus and lined up, several students deep, along the police tape, across Whittier Boulevard from the congregants. They alternately chanted the school name and “Go home!” — drowning out voices from across the street.

28 April: Story Project Fundraiser

04/23/2009 | Comment

Next week is going to be a busy one. On Tuesday, the North Brooklyn Story Project will be holding a fundraiser at Union Pool. The project (which is part of NAG’s town hall initiative, is an oral history project for North Brooklyn. Why the fundraiser? Ask the Driggs:

We need recording equipment so we can enlist volunteers to gather stories from Williamsburgers of all ages, ethnicities and levels of pants-tightness. We’ll then share those stories with you, the Brooklyn community, and it’ll also help us understand some of the concerns residents have so NAG can better address them. Also, future Brooklynites will get to look back at this particularly chaotic time in North Brooklyn’s development. Hello future Brooklyn!

If that’s not enough to convince you to come out, maybe the Blue Album Group, Rebecca Schiffman and the Roulettes will be.

When: Tuesday, April 28, 8:00
Where: Union Pool (Union & Meeker)

27 April: Williamsburg Walks Info Meeting

04/23/2009 | Comment

We mentioned before that Williamsburg Walks is coming back for another year – this time around it will be organized by L Magazine and NAG(g) and will run for eight weeks in June and July. This Monday, there will be an informational meeting on the event. Recently, there has been press about some merchants whose business was hurt by last year’s event, so hopefully this is a time for those businesses (and the many businesses that benefitted) to sit down with the new hosts and figure out ways to make the even work better.

When:Monday, April 27, 7:00pm
Where:Swinging Sixties Senior Center, 211 Ainslie
Street @ Manhattan Ave

Saturday: Greenpoint/Williamsburg Housing Forum

04/23/2009 | Comment

Saturday, April 25th, 2009

10 am-4:30 pm

Boricua College, Northside Campus

186 North 6th Street (between Bedford & Driggs)

Facing eviction? Rent too high? No Heat?

Come hear community leaders speak about the future of your neighborhood (and the history too!)

Highlights:
Affordable Housing, Community Preservation, and our Neighborhood. Featuring Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez

Affordable Housing Opportunities in NYC
Neighborhood Project: Community Mapping.
How to get repairs in your apartment.
Community in Action: Screening of “Metropolitan Avenue” Documentary
Rent Regulation Primer
Loft Tenants, Housing Rights, and Community Displacement
Guide to Housing Court (English with Polish translation)
What Co-op Shareholders need to Know By Rolando Guzman of St Nicks

Sponsored by the Greenpoint-Williamsburg Tenant Anti-Displacement Collaborative:

Neighbors Allied for Good Growth (NAG); People’s Firehouse; Los Sures; St Nicholas NPC; Churches United; Brooklyn Legal Services Corp A; North Brooklyn Development Corp

400 Bedford Avenue Starts Up

04/22/2009 | 1 Comment

400 Bedford Avenue
Architect: Bricolage/Henry Radusky

In the latest installment of “What Recession?” Week, our inadvertent look at projects that are (or may be) starting up, moving forward or finishing despite the iffy housing market, we bring you 400 Bedford Avenue. This is the site at the northwest corner of Bedford and South 6th/Broadway, directly across from the King’s County Savings Bank/Williamsburg Art & Historical Center building. At some point in the 1990s a building was constructed on part of the site (in the Taco Bell style), and as recently as 2004 it was still there (somehow it doesn’t surprise us that neither of these events appear in the DOB record).

Plans were filed for a new building in October, 2007 but only approved in February of this year. A permit was pulled for foundation work in March and since then, progress has been quick – the steel is up to one story and higher.

For the record, the building projected for the site will be six stories tall with retail stores on the ground floor (good move) and an “ambulatory health care facility” on the second (community facility bonus); there will be eight residential units on the top four floors. The architect for the project is Henry Radusky of Bricolage, so it is sure to be a worthy complement to its neighbor across the street, one of Williamsburg’s premier landmarks.

Queens Crap on South 4th Street

From WPA, more ugly on the Southside.

Quadriad Blossoms

04/21/2009 | 1 Comment

A few months ago, Brownstoner had a post wondering about the status of the Quadriad site on Bedford and North 3rd. Things were looking awfully quiet at the time, but shortly thereafter, work picked up. And they certainly have made progress since then – this morning, for the first time, the concrete and rebar could be seen sticking out above the sidewalk bridge. (Hard to see in this photo from a foggy morning, but beyond that orange netting is actual rebar rising to the sky).

Yet another project to add to the “still here” list of development projects in North Brooklyn. Given all the doom and gloom, its nice to see (certainly nicer than a derelict site or a permanent eyesore, like, say, the site immediately to the north).

[For the record, what Quadriad is building is their as-of-right scheme, which will probably come in at four to six stories. As best I know, Quadriad never filed a rezoning application for their proposed tower scheme. The as-of-right scheme (designed by RKT&B) might not be as exciting architecturally as what Stan Allen had proposed. But it is much better for the neighborhood (and far less divisive) than a ride down the slippery slope of trading off responsible development for affordable housing.]

Wednesday Events

04/21/2009 | 1 Comment

Wednesday (22 April) is a busy night for the civic minded.

For Earth Day, Councilmember Diana Reyna, Esteban Duran & the Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn are sponsoring & facilitating a community forum on North Brooklyn’s open spaces, parks & neighborhoods. The event will take place at El Puente, 211 South 4th Street (@ Roebling) in Williamsburg, at 6:30 p.m., and is open to the public.

Further east, Greenpoint Renaissance Enterprise Corporation (GREC) is hosting a meeting about the status (and state) of the Greenpoint Hospital. The City issued an RFP two years ago to redevelop a portion of the site, and in response, a proposal to develop new affordable housing and senior health facilities was submitted. To date, no action has been taken on the RFP. Word on the street is that HPD will be there to give an update on the status of the RFP process and to answer community questions. Also at 6:30, at the Swingin’ Sixties Senior Center, 211 Ainslie Street (corner of Manhattan Avenue).

New Paint Job at Forman

One of Williamsburg’s nicest cast-iron buildings is looking a whole lot nicer lately.

Coal Pockets!

A moment of industrial archaeology, courtesy of the ongoing demolition of the BRT Power Plant on Kent Avenue.