Author: Halden

Trouble Brewing

The most recent newsletter of the Center for an Urban Future has an article [that’s a pdf] by Steve Hindy, the founder of Brooklyn Brewery, bemoaning the plight of small manufacturers like his. As Hindy points out, the squeeze of rezonings, gentrification and legal non-manufacturing uses in manufacturing zones (such as hotels) is driving up rents to the point that many manufacturers can’t afford New York any more.

This is about more than beer. It is having an impact on our parks and open space (both the MTA and CitiStorage are having trouble finding places to move to, and until they move, Barge Park and Bushwick Inlet Park can’t be completed). Its also having an impact on affordable housing (part of the MTA is one of the city-owned sites slated for new affordable housing). Most importantly, it has an impact on jobs – good paying jobs with benefits. For all the promise of new jobs to come from the rezoning, most of those are temporary construction-related jobs or low-paying service sector jobs. The jobs provided by light industry have supported many Williamsburg and Greenpoint residents for generations, but they are for the most part a thing of the past. The new wave is Ikea, Whole Foods and Duane Reade.

Despite claims of its demise, New York City (Brooklyn in particular) has a thriving manufacturing sector. Its not the leviathan of past centuries, or even of the years immediately after World War II. And its not the traditional sectors we nostalgically think of. It is lighter industry, industry that often benefits from a close proximity to the city, such as food processing, set construction and custom woodworking. Its also specialty manufacturers like Brooklyn Brewery, Aurora Lampworks or IceStone. Industrial enclaves such as the Brooklyn Navy Yard or GMDC have waiting lists for new tenants. This is not the industrial base of your grandparents, it is one that lives more easily with mixed residential and commercial uses.

Williamsburg Walks

Williamsburg Walks* – the proposal to close down a stretch of Bedford Avenue for 4 Saturdays this summer – looks as if it is going to happen. The proposal is to make Bedford from North 3rd to North 9th pedestrian only starting on 19 July and for the three Saturdays following. Stores and restaurants will be allowed to expand into the street.

(* The information on this link is out of date – check back soon for updates.)

Greenpoint/Williamsburg Waterfront: Emerging Development

06/18/2008 | Comment

This Friday, the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects is holding a panel discussion on the Greenpoint/Williamsburg waterfront rezoning. In addition to the star-studded line up of speakers below, the panel includes Howard Slatkin of City Planning and a representative of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance.

The Greenpoint/ Williamsburg Waterfront: Emerging Development

Friday, 06/20/2008, 8:30–10:00am (RSVP)
Recently NYC passed one of its largest rezonings— new regulations for high-rise residential/ mixed use development along the northern Brooklyn waterfront. A panel discussion representing developer interests, city housing officials, and community representatives will present and discuss implementation issues and opportunities.

Speakers:
Ward Dennis, Community Board 1 – Brooklyn
Shirley Jaffe, VP of Development, RD Management
Arden Sokolo, NYC Housing, Preservation & Development

Moderator:
Michael Samuelian, Co-chair, Planning & Urban Design Committee
Organized by: AIA Planning and Urban Design Committee
Location: Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place
Member Price: Free
CES LUs: 1.5, CES HSW: 1.5



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Nate Kensinger at BPL

Brooklyn Public Library is running an exhibit of photographs by Nathan Kensinger documenting the fast-eroding industrial landscape of Brooklyn’s waterfront. Coincidentally (or not), Kensinger’s show opens on the same day that Ikea’s Red Hook store opens (the latter was responsible for the loss of the Todd Shipyard graving dock and is next door to the former Revere Sugar factory.

The exhibit runs today through 22 August, with an opening reception/meet the artist event this evening at 7:30.

Relish Loses Some Green

relish_rajmeanswell.jpg
Photo: rajmeanswell

Walking down Metropolitan this morning I noticed a sidewalk shed had gone up in front of the clover-filled empty lot that has served as Relish’s lawn for many years now. Uh oh.

Took a look through a hole in the fence, and sure enough, there was a pile of steel. Checked out the fence more carefully, and there it was – a new building permit.

So what was once a lovely little urban oasis will soon become condos. Five of them, actually. Probably luxury ones. With off-street parking for one car. All in a five-story-plus-mezzanine package designed by Philip Toscano, RA (no web site for this old school architect).

Yes, its all as of right, and its private property that the owner can do with what he or she wants. But it is one little slice of Eden that will be missed.

Oh well.

Digester Egg Lighting Ceremony

From the inbox:

Please join the Newtown Creek Monitoring Committee & DEP for the Digester Egg lighting ceremony.
Tonight. June 3, 2008, 8 p.m.
Newtown Creek Wastewater Pollution Control Plant Nature Walk
(entrance gate located at Provost St & Paidge Ave. )
Greenpoint, Brooklyn 11222

Which gives me a good excuse to post this picture again:

lens650.jpg

Photo: Fred Conrad (via NYT)

Walkscore

05/24/2008 | 1 Comment

Walkscore is a pretty nifty website that calculates how “walkable” your neighborhood is. On a scale of 0 to 100, I come out as an 88 – not really a surprise, given that we are in the middle of New York City (my office gets a 100, but most of the places I could walk to from there aren’t worth the trip). The 88 means that just about everything I need is within 7/10 of a mile of my house. Six or seven years ago, this would not have been the case – there was not a restaurant next door, a bar two blocks away, a bookstore within four blocks or a pharmacy within 10 blocks. It was still a walkable neighborhood, you just had to be a little more ambitious.

There are a few idiosyncrasies about the site (which is intended as a real estate marketing tool). For instance, the nearest movie theater to my house is the Riverside Dance Festival in East River Park, Manhattan. In fact, all of the “nearby” theaters are in Manhattan. Fair enough, but the site lists the walking distance for Riverside as 6/10 of a mile, which I’m pretty sure would require walking on water to be true. I took the bridge, it would be easily twice that distance. Also, some of the locations are just plain wrong – the site tells me that the nearest pharmacy is a Rite Aid on Metropolitan and Kent. (Its really referring to a Rite Aid on Metropolitan in Ridgewood, but for some reason.)

Strangest of all, though, is that the “walkability” score takes no account of public transportation. There are two bus lines within three blocks of me, and two subway lines within about 10 blocks, giving me walking access to all of New York City. Yet nowhere is public transit mentioned.



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Fat City

05/22/2008 | Comment

People in Williamsburg and Bushwick are, on average, more overweight and more obese than the citywide population. This has resulted in much snark on the interweb about skinny hipsters, but the problem is real, and likely tied in to the socioeconomic realities of our neighborhoods.

The report, “Keeping Track of New York City’s Children”, was prepared by the Citizen’s Committee for Children (an executive summary (pdf) is here). The picture it paints for north Brooklyn is not pretty – in just about every measure, our community districts come out in the bottom quartile. This is particularly true of the districts that comprise Bushwick and Bed-Stuy; Williamsurg and Greenpoint proper fare slightly better.

At least some of the blame lies with economics. According to City-Data.com, the median income the five north Brooklyn zip codes is barely half that of the comparable New York City figure. In order from low to high, the median household incomes (2005) are:

  • 11206 (East Williamsburg and Bed-Stuy): $21,679
  • 11221 (Bushwick and Bed-Stuy): $25,912
  • 11237 (Bushwick): $26,840
  • 11211 (Northside and Southside, some areas east of the BQE): $27,378
  • 11222 (Greenpoint): $39,0081
  • Kings County: $37,332
  • NYC (all boroughs): $43,434

Those bottom three zip codes roughly correspond to the Bed-Stuy and Bushwick community districts tracked by CCC (its not a direct correlation, though). In the CCC study, these districts consistently fall in the lowest quartile for all measures of children’s health. Overall, the children in these districts are at the highest risk to their well being.

  • 44% to 58% of children live below the poverty line
  • 13% to 16% of adults have diabetes
  • 22% to 26% of adults had no fruits or vegetables in the previous day
  • 26% to 30% of adults are obese

As noted, Williamsburg (north) and Greenpoint fare slightly better. In terms of obesity, these northern community districts fall into the third quartile, at 22% to 26%. In the other measures noted above, these districts also generally fall into the third quartile.

All of north Brooklyn (all five zip codes) fall into the fourth quartile in terms of number of grocery stores and supermarkets per square mile.

Given all this, its no wonder that north Brooklyn has such high levels of obesity.

1. The difference between Greenpoint’s median income and the rest of north Brooklyn is striking.↩



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