Author: Halden
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Grades
The Department of Education released its schools report card today. By and large, the local schools fared very well, almost without exception earning strong As and Bs. The one exception is the much-maligned PS 84 (Jose de Diego), which lives up to its reputation with a D. 84 has been the subject of a nasty…
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Cranes
Dueling cranes on North 5th Street. To the right, 90 North 5th Street is loading in more steel; to the left, 154 Berry is pumping in concrete. If you’re keeping score at home, 90 North 5th is Robert Scarano & Associates, 154 Berry is Karl Fisher Architect. The Northside in a nutshell – at least…
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Eminent Domain Abuse
I am a big fan of Brownstoner and the community he has created on his blog, and usually I am in tune with his thinking on issues of development, design and so on. Today, though, he has staked out a position on the question of eminent domain that is, quite simply, off base. Writing about…
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Housing Boom
Good news on the housing shortage front: Crain’s New York Business reported yesterday NYC is on pace to issue permits for 34,000 new housing units this year. That would be the highest number of permits since the early 1960s (the last high was 33,084 in 1972). The vast majority of those will be in Brooklyn…
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Foreshadowing
The Firpo Building, ca. 2006 (aka, the glory days). As long as we’ve lived in Williamsburg there has been a decrepit tin-sided house on Roebling at the head of Fillmore Place. The pitched roof has been sagging for over 15 years, and the siding has been slowly peeling away all that time. To us, it…
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They’re Back…
As we predicted, Quadriad is back. Henry Wollman of Quadriad made a brief informational presentation to Community Board 1 tonight. Mr. Wollman professed his fondness for the board, and stated that the as-of-right project is being permitted now and will start construction “next week”. That is the five-story project that requires no rezoning and no…
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Gandar’s Bookstore to be Demolished!
What’s left of the building, at least. The demolition fence is up at 227 Grand Street, as seen above. What’s interesting about this site is not that it will be (yet another) finger building, nor that it will be (yet another) Karl Fisher joint. What’s worth noting here is the building’s history, dating back to…
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Town Hall
Mayor Bloomberg, looking for answers in Greenpoint. So the Mayor came to Greenpoint, and Greenpoint (mostly) behaved itself. The show was organized by North Brooklyn Development Corp., and was not open to general questions. As it was, fewer than half the planned questions were put to the Mayor. (As predicted, there were plenty of soap…
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Changes
The Mayor is coming to Greenpoint to talk about Greenpoint. As we said earlier, this is an opportunity not to be squandered. We will have the Mayor for a very brief amount of time – probably an hour or so – so this is no time for soap boxes, breast beating, grandstanding and hyperbole. Get…
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The Mayor Is Coming
Mayor Bloomberg and his Commissioners are holding a town hall meeting in Greenpoint this coming Thursday, 4 October, at 7:00 PM. The meeting will include an opportunity to ask the Mayor questions about issues affecting Greenpoint, and hopefully to get some answers. This is a once-in-an-administration opportunity for the community to get its key issues…