Industrial archaeology is always worth a link, and Gothamist has some photos of the interior of the Domino sugar refinery that are worth a look.

Meanwhile, at the media tour yesterday, developer CPC announced that the affordable housing in the new Domino would be permanently affordable. Good on them – that’s a significant improvement from last week when they told the community board they couldn’t make the affordable housing permanent.

Domino also defended its egregious transportation impact by pointing to… the water taxi. Yes, we’re all “anticipating increased ferry service to the area” (all the while holding our breath that the service isn’t eliminated entirely – again), but that expansion is coming at Northside Piers. So residents of the Domino project can take an 8-minute walk to Schaefer Landing or they can take an 8-minute walk to Northside piers. Either way, the water taxi doesn’t seem like meaningful mitigation for 2,500 new peak-hour subway riders a day.

Neither, for that matter, is the expanded V service to Metropolitan Avenue. Yes, this will be a major boost to the neighborhood’s transit woes in general (you heard it here first). But Domino is a good 10 to 15 minutes from Marcy Avenue (and from the Bedford L), so you still need to figure out how 2,500 peak travelers get to and from the subway every day. And how to get them up (or down) the stairs and onto the platform.

Face it, absent some cooperation from the MTA (and a very large cash donation to the same), there really is nothing that a private developer can do change an “unmitigated significant adverse transit impact”.