Month: April 2011

Rogue Construction on North 7th Street

Residents of N. Seventh Street in Williamsburg are fuming over a new condo being built so close to its neighbors that its scaffolding juts into their terraces and bits of building debris fall onto their property. … The four-story concrete structure developed by Greenpoint contractor Michael Siwiec is [next to] a four-story stone building constructed before World War II.

permastone.jpg

Not a stone building.

Permastone, that is. Odds are it is wood frame underneath. And from well before World War II.

Yeah, it sucks to have a sidewalk bridge installed in front of your house. Sucks more to have a brick fall on your head, though. Seems to me the owner should embrace the sidewalk bridge (it might even be their legal responsibility to allow it), particularly if the builder is the nightmare that they claim he is.


Bike Lane Slowed by Boats

The problem with the bike lanes on Greenpoint Avenue? It’s all the damn boats:

“The traffic situation on Greenpoint Avenue has become worse and worse,” said [Broadway Stages owner Tony] Argento. “And when those bridges open, everything gets back up over half an hour — for boats.”

Boathouse Plan Moves Ahead in Greenpoint

The City Parks Foundation has released its recommendations for projects related to the Newtown Creek sewage plant settlement. Tops on the list is the Greenpoint Boathouse, a boathouse and community facility that is proposed for the ground floor of the GMDC building at the top of Manhattan Avenue (technically, I think the $3 million for this project would go to bulkhead repairs, not the boathouse itself). Topping the second tier of projects is a study for renovating the Pulaski Bridge. Further down the list is a proposal for improvements to pedestrians paths in McCarren Park (something that is certainly needed, but probably not something that money for Newtown Creek mitigation should be paying for).

CPF has been charged with making recommendations for the disbursement of a pool of $7 million set aside as part of the settlement for the City’s pollution of Newtown Creek that occurred during the construction of the new sewage treatment plant.

The Edge’s New Math – Now Over 50% Sold!

04/05/2011 | Comment

Earlier this week, I questioned the numeracy of the Edge’s PR team. This was based on an article in the Brooklyn Eagle, which said the Edge was “approaching 50 percent sold” with only 160 of 565 units sold (which works out to 28% sold in the real world).

Today, Brownstoner reports that the Edge has sent out a press release announcing that they are now over 50% sold. Sounds like a good week for the Edge.

Well, not that good.

The latest numbers include contracts signed as well as closings (presumably the Eagle’s numbers should have included contracts as well). Adding contracts (100) to closings (165 now), the Edge says that it has “sold” 53% of its 500 units.

So, if you count your chickens before they hatch and lower your denominator, you too can increase your sales from 28% to 53% in a matter of days!

(Clearly, it is the Eagle’s math I should have been questioning, not the Edge’s.)

Feeling Safe

04/04/2011 | Comment

The great Prospect Park West bike lane wars are even greater than the great Kent Avenue bike lane wars of ’09. Unlike Kent Avenue, PPW has lawsuits, studies, polls and the attention of the entire city.

In the latest development, Assemblyman Jim Brennan has commissioned a poll to see what his constituents think about the bike lane. It turns out that more people are for it (44%) than against it (28%), but that a lot of people don’t feel safer with the bike in place.

Pedestrians may FEEL less safe with the new bike lane/traffic pattern, but ARE they less safe? Do they FEEL less safe because of the bike lanes or because of the unfamiliar traffic patterns (of which the bike lane is only one part)?

One thing that makes me feel less safe – as a driver or ped – is crossing a two-way bike lane next to a one-way street, with a line of parked cars in between. This is essentially the setup on PPW, the same as it is on Kent Avenue. The only difference is that on Kent, cars also have cross the flow of bike and ped traffic. The result, for drivers, bikers and pedestrians alike, is that you now have to a) look both ways for bike traffic; b) look one way for car traffic; and c) hopefully look for pedestrians too. Oh, and a) and b) are blocked by a line of parked cars, so can’t actually see from one to another.

Like I said, it makes me feel less safe, even though it probably is safer.

Williamsburg Waterfront Projects Reborn

Interesting (as in reality-challenged) take on the state of the Williamsburg waterfront by Crain’s:

The seven-block stretch of Kent Avenue running from North Third Street up to North 10th along the waterfront in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is making a comeback. Activity on the strip—which became one of the borough’s hottest areas for residential development during the boom years, and something of a ghost town during the recession—is picking up again.

With the exception of 111 Kent (the zig-zag condo at North 7th and Kent), there wasn’t a single stalled project on the Williamsburg waterfront. 175 Kent started post-boom, and has been progressing steadily; same with 157 Kent, the skinny condo next door to the north. For the record, 80 Metropolitan, 56 Metropolitan, 175 Kent, 184 Kent, 157 Kent, Northside Piers 2, Edge South and Edge North were all constructed during the recession; Northside 1 and North 8 were finished before the recession (and 184 Kent was a condo-cum-rental well before the bust).

Four years after the opening of the Northside Piers luxury high-rise—the first of Toll Brothers Inc.’s planned three-building complex—55% of the 180 units are sold or in contract. Sales also are perking up next door at The Edge, where deals on 160 of the 565 units have closed and 100 are in contract.

I had to check the dateline on the article, but it really is April, 2011 (and not April 1). Clearly the numbers they are running for Northside Piers are for tower #2, which opened in 2010; tower #1 (was it really finished four years ago?) sold out long ago.

(At the Edge, the innumeracy seems to run in the opposite direction – according to their math (swallowed whole by the Eagle):

160 / 565 = .5

(OK, they did say “almost” 50% – I guess 28%, rounded up, is closer to 50% than 0%).)

Things are looking up on the waterfront in other ways too:

other pieces of the new residential strip are also coming together—including a soccer field in Bushwick Inlet Park along the waterfront, which is expected to be available to the public shortly.

Who were all those people playing on the field all last summer??

To reach trendy restaurants and hip bars, however, the new crowd still must walk over to Bedford Avenue or North Sixth Street and mingle with the old crowd.

OK – you didn’t really go to Williamsburg, did you? Maybe this really is an April 1 dateline after all.