Sunday afternoon, Domino developer CPC is opening the site to the public. The wharf area, which is slated to become a waterfront esplanade under CPC’s rezoning plan, will be open to the public from 2 pm to 6 pm.
Not coincidentally, CPC’s rezoning application is about to certified by City Planning. Which means that the real public review for CPC’s proposed massive rezoning of the Domino site will probably begin in early December.
In the meantime, whether you are pro, con or indifferent on the Domino rezoning, this Sunday may be your only opportunity to see the Domino site and enjoy some free hospitality.

Further to my post yesterday on term limits, if you want to make your feelings known to CM Yassky, you can call him at (718) 875-5200 (or send him an email). If you don’t live in the 33rd Council District, you can find your council person’s contact info here.
Give ’em a call – it’s still a democracy, after all.

NAG (Neighbors Allied for Good Growth) is having a Town Hall Meeting on 10/2 to mobilize the community on issues facing Greenpoint & Williamsburg. In the past, NAG fought against waste transfer stations on the waterfront, against Radiac, and for intelligent rezoning that protects jobs and housing. Looking to the future, NAG has organized this meeting to take the pulse of the community and to identify the issues the community needs to organize around in the coming years.

The Town Hall will take place at the Holy Ghost Hall, 159 North 5th St (between Bedford and Driggs) on Thursday, 2 October at 7:00. The meeting will be over before 9:00, so you can get home to see the Palin-Biden debate (or head over to Teddy’s – they’ll be showing the debate, with sound).

Manhattan skyline, circa 1940s.
Photo: via New York Architecture Images

In the process of continuing to hate the Museum of Art & Design, Nicolai Ourousoff puts forth his list of the 10 worst buildings in New York City. Not just plain old ugly, but ugly on a urban scale – truly ruining-the-city ugly:

To be included, buildings must either exhibit a total disregard for their surrounding context or destroy a beloved vista. Removing them would make room for the spirit to breathe again and open up new imaginative possibilities.

I have to say its to hard to argue with any of the buildings on his list, but applying his criteria I think he misses a major blight on the city – lower Manhattan. Compare the before, above, with the after, below. What was once a skyline of narrow skyscrapers, permeable from within and without, is now obscured by a wall of banality.

(The tallest building in the 1940s photo is the former City Services Building, for about a week or two the tallest building in the world (and at least for the moment, the AIG building. In the contemporary photo, you can barely see the gorgeous spire of City Services peeking out over the glass trapezoid at the foot of Pine Street.)

Manhattan skyline, circa 2008.
Photo: Virtual Tourist

A funny thing happened on the way to the aircraft carrier…
This morning, John McCain was claiming credit for getting the bailout bill passed. By his own account, McCain was a man of action, “in the arena” and not just “phoning it in” (even though he was, in reality, just phoning it in).
Oh, and later this morning the Republican caucus voted two to one against the bailout package and the stock market dropped over 7% of its value on the day.
John McCain’s “Mission Accomplished” moment?

Run awaaayyyy. Run awaaayyy.