Mapping what is affordable to who, a very cool – and sobering – web site. For North Brooklyn, the median income in 2006 was $35,300 (for a family of four, I believe), which less than half the citywide median income for a family of four.
Envisioning Development
80 Metropolitan Approaching 50%
80 Metropolitan is approaching the 50% mark for sales (roughly 51 of 114 units), another good indication that there is still a market for condos in Williamsburg. According to StreetEasy, the recorded sales (only 9 to date) are in the high $700/sf range, and the available listings are in the low $800/sf range. That represents a fair premium over developments like NV, which is selling in the low $700/sf range – I like to think that is a reflection of the better design of 80 Met1, but I’m sure it’s more about amenities or other tangibles.
1. While it is a nicely-designed project, that still does not make up for the loss of the Old Dutch Mustard factory. And despite what Douglas Steiner says, nothing about this design reflects “the fabric and history of Williamsburg”, unless by fabric and history we are talking post-2005.↩
GOP Fuming Over Rape Vote
Lindsey Graham (R-SC – who voted against the Franken amendment):
I think it would be helpful for Sen. Franken to come forward and say, ‘I’m not suggesting that anybody who votes for [sic] my amendment is indifferent to crimes against women or anybody else,’
Al Franken has never suggested that anybody who voted against his amendment is indifferent to crimes against women or anybody else. But the Republicans who voted to support rape (75% of the caucus) are catching a lot of heat for their vote and they have to blame someone – surely they can’t take responsibility for voting against a woman’s right to sue her sexual assailants and the company’s that protect them.
Party Like Your Neighborhood Depends On It
Next Thursday (10 December) from 7 to 10 pm there is a benefit for NAG (Neighbors Allied for Good Growth – the second G is silent) at the Woods on South 4th Street. No cover, but donations are welcome. There will be plenty of booze, and a silent auction featuring goodies from local institutions, such as:
- Third Ward
- Word Bookstore
- The Brooklyn Kitchen
- Alter Clothing
- The North BK Compost Project
- Three Kings Tattoo Parlor
- Charm School Design
- Transient Pictures
Bedford Avenue Stripped of Bike Lanes
FREEWilliamsburg says it’s bullshit, and they’re right. The removal of the bike lane on a section of Bedford Avenue – the section that runs through the heart of the Hasidic community, was a bad decision, made for bad reasons. Gothamist says that the Bedford Avenue bike lane was “relatively noncontroversial”, but that is not the case at all. The bike lane was hugely unpopular with the local community, in part because it made double parking illegal, and in part because (for one rabbi in particular) of the “problem” of scantily-clad women riding through the neighborhood.
Now Bedford Avenue is a heavily-trafficked and crowded street – south of Division Avenue and North of it. Which is why south of Division the bike lane – which connects north Brooklyn to central Brooklyn neighborhoods like Clinton Hill, Bed-Stuy, Prospect Heights and Crown Heights as well as connecting all of those neighborhoods to Prospect Park and the Williamsburg Bridge – runs a block west along Berry. But there is no viable detour north of Division, which is why the City – correctly – put a bike lane on Bedford Avenue. Now that Kent Avenue has a bike lane running all the way north from Flushing, it does make sense to encourage bikes to take that route – it is safer and more protected, albeit much more indirect.
What doesn’t make sense is removing the Bedford Avenue bike lane in its entirety (and I think DOT’s “quiet” removal of the lane reinforces that). As Transportation Alternatives correctly points out, bikers have a right to ride on any public street. Removing a bike lane entirely – particularly bowing to NIMBY pressure to do so – sends exactly the opposite message. If DOT really wanted to make responsible “bike network adjustments in the area”, it would have converted the Bedford Avenue bike lane to a shared arrow (sharrows) lane – at least would have reinforced the message that drivers (and neighborhoods) need to share the road with bikers.