City Launches Brownfield Program in Williamsburg

04/18/2011 | Comment

Mayor Bloomberg was in the neighborhood today, launching the country’s first municipally-run brownfield clean up program. The program, which targets “lightly contaminated” sites, gives developers liability protection in addition to a clean development site.

The City chose 456 Grand Street, at the triangle that intersects Grand, Keap and Borinquen, and which is to be the site of a 6-story apartment building with ground-floor commercial, as the location to launch the program. This is the same site that was supposed to have broken ground – either as a retail or a residential development – almost exactly a year ago.

Mable’s Smokehouse

Mmmm, brisket
Photo: Village Voice

An Oklahoma-style barbecue restaurant has opened at 44 Berry (the old NY Quinine Co. building). Bob Sietsema is impressed:

If someone had told me five years ago that Williamsburg would become the city’s foremost barbecue destination, I would have guffawed. After all, most of the BBQ joints in town then—which numbered about a dozen—were located in Manhattan, whining that they couldn’t do the job properly because of city regulations against airborne emissions. The “smoke scrubbers” required to meet environmental guidelines were prohibitively expensive, the owners maintained. Turns out they were full of crap, saving themselves money by brushing baked meats with cloying sauces and calling it ‘cue, figuring nobody in New York could tell the difference. They were wrong.

(He was so impressed that he also posted pictures.)

Transmitter Park Before It Was a Park

04/15/2011 | Comment

WNYC Transmitter, 1937
Painting by Alan Gordon Lorimer
Source: WNYC

Once upon a time, there was an actual transmitter at Transmitter Park (the park to be at the base of Greenpoint Avenue). The transmitter was for WNYC, which was then a City-owned radio station. The station still exists (AM 820, FM 93.9 and online), though it is no longer owned by the City and it no longer uses the Greenpoint transmitter site.

WNYC’s Archives & Preservation project has a post about the Greenpoint transmitter, including two paintings by artist and architect A.G. Lorimer (no mention of whether or not he was related to the Lorimers of Greenpoint). The image above shows Lorimer’s gorgeous map of the transmitter site, complete with distances to five local airfields (all of which, with the exception of North Beach (aka LaGuardia Airport), are now closed). The second painting, a view of transmitter building and towers, can be seen on WNYC’s site.

Let There Be Music

04/13/2011 | 6 Comments

Brooklyn Vegan has a statement from OSA on the summer concert park series, basically saying that the show will go on. (Not that there was really any doubt about that – the concerts are popular, profitable and well beyond the jurisdiction of the local community board.) And Brooklyn365 has a similar statement from Assemblyman Joe Lentol, with similar sentiments. Like everyone else (myself included), Lentol is unclear as to exactly what the board said last night, but this is his interpretation:

I believe that there were complaints about the noise and drunkenness of some concert goers afterwards on the neighborhood streets. There were also some requests for information about how much money has been raised and where those funds go.

That last bit is pretty important. Four (?) years in, and the community isn’t seeing the benefits of these concerts. Not that they aren’t there – OSA does tremendous work on behalf of the community. But clearly they can do a better job of publicizing that work.

Williamsburg Bans Music?

04/12/2011 | 13 Comments

So, apparently threatening to cut off the hootch is a good way to pack a community board meeting. Tonight’s CB1 was certainly packed, and the press was out in full force to see what went down. NY1 was there, as was the Huffington Post and all the local press (even local press alums came out).

People spoke passionately about liquor licenses, generally and specifically. CB1 Chairman Chris Olechowski presented his case – which is a very good one. Our community has seen a massive increase in the number of bars and restaurants, and nightlife is becoming the single biggest quality of life issue in the area. In response to this issue, the board leadership has called for a moratorium on new liquor licenses. Which, of course, is what led to the all the video cameras and all the people at tonight’s meeting.

And then … nothing happened.

The board took no official position. The committee responsible for overseeing liquor licenses will take the matter under advisement. The board itself approved four new liquor licenses and renewals for a dozen or more establishments. The cameras moved out into the hallway, and a lot of people went home.

And then … something actually did happen.

A number of local residents got up during the public session (which usually happens after most of the public has left) and complained about the concerts at East River State Park (the “OSA” concerts). Basically, their complaint was that all the things that Greenpoint residents were afraid would happen if the Brooklyn Night Bazaar went down were already happening to them. Loud music (very loud music if you happen to live right there). Crowds of people walking to and from concerts (and much less steadily on the from side). ~~In other words, a regular shitshow 10 or 15 times each summer.~~

So, the Community Board voted (unanimously) to ban the waterfront concert series from East River State Park.

It happened before an empty house – I guess the press left before the news happened.

UPDATE 1:So now there is confusion about what the Board’s actual resolution was. I was there, and I think the resolution was against the concerts. Nothing was written – there was a vocal and passionate plea “do something” about the problem, a very strong sentiment from the Board members there (which was very few) that the collateral damage from the concerts was a problem, and a call for a resolution. But to be clear, there is no application before the CB or any other item that they can take direct action on.

UPDATE 2:And I’ve deleted the “shitshow” comment above – that was certainly the sentiment of the people who spoke out about this issue, but it is not my opinion, even though it read that way.

Nitehawk Cinema to Open on Metropolitan (Soon)

04/12/2011 | Comment

Nitehawk Cinema Building
Photo: via Curbed

Nitehawk Cinema has been in the news a bunch lately. The Journal ($$) had a piece the other day, followed by Curbed (“finally opening soon”) and now the Brooklyn Paper. The project has been development for ages (I think the residential development was originally approved as a variance prior to the 2005 rezoning), and the Brooklyn Paper reports that the most recent delays in finishing it were due to financing problems that arose in (surprise, surprise) 2008. I have also heard that the table-service-at-a-movie-theater concept took a long time to get approved. The model – popular in the south (I first came across it in Tennessee, where you can get a pitcher of beer while you watch a movie) – apparently did not mesh well with NY liquor laws.

But all those problems have apparently been resolved, and now the lights are on (literally – go by at night and check out the light up facade) and the place is ready to open.

PS 84 Revisited

04/11/2011 | Comment

I am way behind on a lot of things, but high on the list is linking to this excellent Capital NY piece on the past and future of P.S. 84. Written by Greg Hanlon (an article Matt Chaban called the “first good article [he’s] read about gentrification in a while“. It covers old ground – the academic problems at 84, chronic under enrollment and the ethnic divisions behind past efforts at improvement. But it looks at these old issues anew and smartly delves into what the future might hold.

In a recent tour of the school, we were very impressed with the improvements that had been made under the newest principal. The change in attitude from our last tour two or three years ago was immediately apparent. So hopefully the school is turning the corner. P.S. 84 has probably the best physical plant of any elementary school in the neighborhood – the community deserves to have a quality school there.

65 Commercial Street Update

04/08/2011 | 2 Comments

Below is a copy of the letter from MTA Chair Jay Walder to Deputy Mayor Robert Steel, confirming the MTA’s acceptance of alternate sites for the Paratransit and EMS vehicles currently located at 65 Commercial Street. Of note is the MTA’s commitment to use the Maspeth Paratransit site for vehicle storage only, not as depot. In other words, vehicles won’t be going in and out on daily basis, which should make the use of the site (which, after all, is zoned as parking lot in a manufacturing zone) less of an issue to local residents.

BTW – if there is an unsung hero in all of this, it has to be Rami Metal, who, as the Greenpoint rep for CM Yassky and his successor CM Levin, has kept after this issue for years.

LetterfromWaldertoSteel.pdf

MTA Ready to Leave 65 Commercial

04/08/2011 | Comment

In a letter to the Mayor’s office, the MTA has finally agreed to move the operations currently housed at 65 Commercial Street. The sticking point on the move – which the MTA agreed to almost exactly 6 years ago – was the MTA’s refusal to accept the compensatory sites offered by the City. Today, the MTA finally agreed to move part of their operations to a site on the Southside beneath the Williamsburg Bridge, and the remainder to a lot in Maspeth, Queens.

So Greenpoint is one step closer to having the new park that the City (and the MTA) promised in 2005.

Williamsburg To Go Dry?

04/08/2011 | 9 Comments

On Tuesday, the Executive Committee of CB1 Brooklyn voted unanimously to institute a moratorium on new liquor licenses in Williamsburg, Greenpoint and the rest of North Brooklyn. The vote was a response to what the leaders of CB1 see as an over saturation of liquor licenses in the area.

The Board’s Public Safety Committee, which reviews liquor license applications, met last night to discuss the issue, and left with more questions than answers. The Committee did not vote on a moratorium, but the issue is sure to come at next Tuesday’s full board meeting.