John McCain (who is not a celebrity) appeared on the Tonight Show for the 13th time last night. In response to jokes from Jay Leno about McCain’s inability to remember how many houses he owns, McCain (reluctantly, I’m sure) responded by talking about his five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

As you’ve no doubt heard, David Byrne has designed a host of location-specific bike racks for the sidewalks of NYC. Williambsburg is Dead is not impressed, and based on field observations this evening, he clearly speaks for his generation.

This is the Williamsburg bike rack, on Bedford and North 6th Street. Note the bicycles chained to the parking meters (far left and far right). Note the bicycle chained to the traditional bike rack. Note the lost and found hanging from David Byrne’s bike rack. Clearly, the locals don’t know what the hell this is for. And this in the most bicycle-centric neighborhood in the city, where people will chain a bike to anything.

But its not just the kids. I’ll confess that I don’t exactly get the David Byrne bike racks either. And this from someone who bought most of the Talking Heads albums when they were originally released (starting with More Songs). Yeah, I get the big idea – this is art promoting bicycling. Its location specific, so I get why Wall Street has a dollar sign bicycle rack. But why does Williamsburg have a Guitar Center logo for a bicycle rack?

Jacob Neuman is the 5-year-old boy who died yesterday in a tragic fall down an elevator shaft at Taylor-Wythe Houses in Williamsburg.

What makes this tragedy more galling is the fact that it is not all that surprising. The New York City Housing Authority, which runs the City’s public housing projects, has a horrible track record when it comes to elevator safety. In this case, the two elevators at Taylor-Wythe had a history of stalling between floors going back at least six months. Further, the elevators at Taylor-Wythe had been labeled “unsatisfactory” in 17 of 21 inspections between 2004 and 2007. And despite a requirement that elevators be inspected every six months, NYCHA has no records of an elevator inspection at Taylor-Wythe since October, 2007.

And its not just this housing complex. Citywide, NYCHA experienced over 25,000 elevator breakdowns in the first six months of this year (and that’s down 5% from last year). Over 49% of housing authority residents rate their elevator service as poor or bad. The history of breakdowns and fatalities directly or indirectly tied to them is depressing. Last year, Lillian Milán, who suffered from asthma, died when she was forced by a broken elevator to walk up 10 flights of stairs to her apartment at Bushwick Houses. Despite calls to action after that tragedy, little has changed.

NYCHA is pointing the finger at the Federal government, for cutbacks that prevented NYCHA from undertaking upgrades to the elevators at Taylor-Wythe back in 2004. But that is just passing the buck. NYCHA knew it had problems with elevators system wide, and knew that these elevators needed replacing. Rehabilitating these elevators was a life-safety issue, and the responsibility for performing the upgrade rests solely with NYCHA. (Others are pointing the finger at DOB, but this is one case where criticism of DOB is misplaced – the Department does not even have jurisdiction over NYCHA properties.)

Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes has already announced an investigation, and surely there is plenty of blame to be passed around. But the buck has to stop somewhere, and it stops with NYCHA. They knew they had an elevator problem – here specifically and in general system-wide. It is their responsibility to keep their properties safe, wherever the money comes from.

In the same speech in which he denounced Barack Obama’s ambition to become president, John McCain also had this to say:

And in matters of national security, good judgment will be at a premium in the term of the next president

Oh yes, judgement.

Such as Obama’s judgement that we need a reasonable time table to leave Iraq? Status – after being denounced by Bush, McCain and every other victory-at-all-costs wingnut, it now appears that we are – with the support of the Iraqi government – on a path to a time table for withdrawal. A time table which is remarkably close to that proposed by Obama (and which McCain now supports).

Perhaps McCain is referring to Obama’s judgement that Pervez Musharraf was not reliable ally in our war on terror? Status – Musharraf resigned as president of Pakistan today.

Or maybe McCain is referring to Obama’s judgement that we took our eye off the ball in the war on terror, Afghanistan? Status – after years of neglect in favor of an unnecessary war in Iraq, the Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan.

Surely McCain is also referring to Obama’s willingness to negotiate from a position of strength with states such as Iran? Status – the Bush administration has entered into direct negotiations with the government of Iran over the issue of nuclear weapons.

McCain is right – good judgement is at a premium. But it will be on display in Denver next week.

Today John McCain chided Barack Obama for his “ambition to be president”.

Just so we are all on the same page:

This is the same John McCain who has been running for president non-stop since 1999.

This is the same John McCain who has embraced not only Bush fils, but has also embraced Pat Roberson and Jerry Falwell, the far right evangelical preachers who eight years ago he denounced as “agents of intolerance… pandering to the outer reaches of American politics”.

This is the same John McCain who in 1999 “would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade“, but who now pledges to appoint Supreme Court Justices who would overturn this ruling.

This is the same John McCain who seven years ago denounced [don’t bother, they took that page down] the Bush tax cuts as “tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us at the expense of middle-class Americans”, but who now promises to extend these same tax cuts indefinitely.

This is the same John McCain who was a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act – an act to grant legal status to illegal immigrants’ children who graduate from high school, but who now opposes this Act.

This is the same John McCain who said that he would vote against his own legislation on immigration reform. (That’s right, John McCain was for John McCain before he was against him).

But according to this John McCain, it is Obama who has an ambition problem. Seems like a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.

349 Metropolitan, pre-EIFS (the post-EIFS view is here.

Today, the Times discovered that a lot of developers are using stucco, in particular EIFS, the stucco-over-styrofoam system that has been all the rage for the last 10 or 15 years. You see it in retrofits – its the new artificial siding in North Brooklyn (often covering up old artificial siding). You also see it in new construction, particularly at secondary elevations and rooftop bulkheads. If you’ve had your back yard snowed with styrofoam shavings, you’ve witnessed the EIFS installation process.

And then there’s this: “EIFS (rhymes with knifes) suffered a bad reputation in the 1990s…”. This is a new one on me – I have always heard it called “eee-fuss” (rhymes with doofus), not “ˈīfes” (or “eye-fiss”, or whatever rhymes with knifes). Maybe the EIFS Industry Members Association is trying a little rebranding?

There are certainly plenty who would say that EIFS still suffers a bad reputation, though EIFS proponents chalk that up to poor installation. But therein lies the rub – anyone ready to slap up a cladding material that is less than half the cost of just about any other exterior finish is probably not springing for skilled labor to do the installation.

Which is not to say that EIFS (or DryVit, or whatever) is evil, but it is ubiquitous. Used properly, it a decent building material that can look decent too. Unfortunately, its rarely used properly – either in design or execution. Though I suppose the same could be said about charcoal-gray brick.

Today is the last day of Williamsburg Walks. Seven blocks of Bedford Avenue will be closed to traffic, and open to the imagination. (And over in Oz, seven miles of streets will be closed to traffic for the first Summer Streets Saturday.)

Food Drive

The Church of the Ascension will be at Tops today and tomorrow (1pm to 5pm) collecting canned food goods for its food pantry this weekend in Williamsburg. The food pantry is in need of cans of tuna, vegetables and soup.

This must rank pretty high in the annals of bad timing in ad campaigns.

NAG – Neighbors Allied for Good Growth (the second “G” is silent) – has started a new blog. NAG’s blog focuses on the issue that matter most to the organization: balanced growth in north Brooklyn. The blog officially went live on Saturday, but they have been posting for a couple of weeks on topics such as brownfields, the Finger Building, industrial retention, Williamsburg Walks (which NAG helped to organize) – so generally, stuff about getting involved in your neighborhood and helping to shape its future.

For those who don’t know, NAG began life as Neighbors Against Garbage (hence the single “G”), fighting against the Nekboh/USA Waste waste transfer station on Kent Avenue (now the site of Northside Piers). During the waterfront rezoning of Greenpoint and Williamsburg, NAG was one of the leading neighborhood advocacy groups. (It was the NAG leadership that coordinated the formation of the North Brooklyn Alliance, an umbrella organization of community groups that fought for affordable housing, open space, jobs and reasonably-scaled development in the rezoning.)

[Full disclosure: I’m on the NAG board.]