Month: December 2010

Post #500

12/09/2010 | Comment

As you might have noticed, things have been quieter than usual around here. In addition to a flood of work, a busy semester and a lot of local activity, my Movable Type installation went haywire on me a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, MT support has declined to almost nil (at least for semi-pro bloggers like myself who don’t want to pony up a few hundred a year for paid support) – it now consists of two or three very knowledgable people on the MT forums. I suppose Six Apart knows what it’s doing, but I don’t want anything to do with it (maybe that’s their point).

So, after more than 8 years using Six Apart’s Movable Type, I’ve now moved everything over to WordPress. Bit the bullet and figured out PHP. I started out by launching a side project (because I don’t have enough to do), and then worked on shifting Brooklyn 11211 over – 499 regular posts and over 1,000 linked list posts since I relaunched the site in 2007. I’m still getting used to it, and there are still some kinks (don’t click on the “Archives” link), but for the most part I’ve been able to recreate the functionality of my MT design and add new functionality (pushing to Twitter!).

Hopefully, with all this new functionality, I’ll be able to get back to my volume of semi-regular posting.” At least I now have one less excuse for not posting.



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Ark Restaurant Coming to the Edge

12/09/2010 | Comment

According the Wall Street Journal (but behind a pay wall), Manhattan-based Ark Restaurants is going to be opening a new eatery at the Edge’s waterfront-side retail space. Ark operates 9 establishments across the river, including Bryant Park Grill. The 7,000 sf restaurant would be the first to open on the waterfront (two restaurants are already under construction along Kent Avenue, one at Northside Piers and the other at 110 Kent Avenue).

The new restaurant would open in late 2011 at the earliest, and would overlook the public waterfront esplanade – which might even be open to the public by then.

UPDATE: Here is a link to the full article behind the pay wall (thanks @withers).

UPDATE #2:Oy. The link above won’t get you past the pay wall. Google “williamsburg by water wsj” and follow the first result to see the article. (Again, thanks @withers)

Shuttered Greenpoint Nightclub to Become Artist’s Private Lair

259 Banker Street (you remember it as the former home of nightclub Studio B) has sold, and it doesn’t look like it is coming back as a nightclub. According to Curbed, the sales price was $2 million, which sounds cheap for a building of this size and in this location. But it is zoned for manufacturing and within the Greenpoint-Williamsburg IBZ, both of which severely limit the development potential.

Brooklyn Paper has the word on the buyer – Matthew Day Jackson. (via L Magazine).

Rent hike! Bedford Avenue’s Deli Mart is Closed

Mike Al-Humaidi, proprietor of Deli Mart, which has been on the southeast corner of Bedford and N. Seventh Street for 25 years, shuttered on Wednesday after rejecting a proposed $25,000 per month lease — up from the current $18,000, which had already been hiked from $12,000 earlier this year, according to neighborhood sources.

I bet the landlord is holding out for an Apple Store.

Hostel move? Hotel owners buys iconic Williamsburgh Savings Bank

One of Williamsburg’s true architectural gems – and a landmark twice over – is changing hands. No word on what the new owner has planned for the building or the vacant lot next door. But apparently “Apple wasn’t interested” in moving in to a large landmark interior space with poor transit connections and little foot traffic nearby. Go figure.