In a story first reported by Aaron Short…
Looks like the Times left that part out. And make no mistake, the story was reported by Aaron, even it was “only” published in a blog. If you read Aaron’s BushwickBK post, there was clearly a lot of shoe leather put into the effort of connecting the dots. The Times should have acknowledged that.
Yesterday’s Brooklyn Paper piece on the Kent Avenue bike lane greenway controversy (linked on Brownstoner) seemed awfully familiar to me. After a bit of Googling, I figured out why – they ran the exact same story last week.
Its a good article, possibly worth reading twice. But let’s not make a weekly habit of it (even if there is a certain ground-hog day quality to Kent Avenue at this point).
Contrary to Brownstoner, I’m not so sure that the slow pace of demolition at the former BRT power plant (500 Kent Avenue) is the result of environmental concerns. Remember that Con Ed’s assessment of the site found very little in the way of environmental issues (contrary to the story they were passing off to the community last year). Watching this from the water side, the issue might be how to dismantle the huge iron coal pockets. They have been taking that down in large sections and then doing the dismantling on the ground.
Gee, I didn’t see this coming.
As expected, Ratner has dropped the Frank Gehry design for a new Nets Arena in favor of a new design by Ellerbe Becket. The new design is charitably described as bearing a “likeness to an ‘airplane hanger'”. Hardly the lofty civic gesture Brooklyn was promised. (Williamsburg has seen its own bait and switch, on a lesser scale – as soon as the 2005 rezoning was approved, Enrique Norten was dumped as the architect for the Edge; the result has not been pretty.)
In related news, Nicolai Ourousoff has a review of Thom Mayne’s new building for Cooper Union, praising the “civic value of a bold statement”. Perhaps civic value and bold statements are just for Manhattan.
239 Banker Street is a former sweater factory located in the manufacturing zone in the Bushwick Inlet area. Residential use is, therefore, not allowed as of right. Transient hotel use is allowed as of right (and the owners have permits to convert this building to such), but as Heather documents, the owner is marketing this is as apartments (“each apartment is unique within itself” – wtf?), not even going through the pretense of calling it a hotel. From the owner’s website:
you can carve out your own space with an original style. All apartments have new kitchen appliances and bathroom fixtures for your maximum comfort.
There are even floor layouts on the website, complete with kitchens (not a usual hotel amenity), but lacking beds (a more common hotel amenity).
(The fact that people are moving in when the project doesn’t have a CO for either transient hotel use or residential use is a separate, probably more enforceable, issue.)
The City’s IBZ program was supposed to stop this kind of stuff and help maintain industry in our manufacturing zones. It was one of the promises of the 2005 zoning. Who would have though that leaving a small island of manufacturing at the Bushwick Inlet would lead to hotels, bowling alleys, night clubs and other non-industrial, non-job-generating uses. Hard to fathom.
Via Heather, a new blog devoted to both sides of the creek. Gorgeous photography, history, infrastructure and industry – what’s not to love?
About those parks we promised you…
The City seems to be saying that it will still fund the acquisition of sites (such as Bayside Oil and 65 Commercial), but won’t have the money to build anything there. Since acquisition itself is taking years, the construction money was just being carried on the books, and probably wouldn’t have spent for a few years yet anyhow. Which doesn’t change the fact that four years ago we were promised parks and affordable in exchange for thousands of new market-rate units. So far, all we have is thousands of market-rate units.
Kellogg’s is Brownstoner’s Restaurant of the Day. By all accounts, it still sucks.
Probably the worst restaurant I’ve ever been to. And I was drunk. And starving.
The intersection of Greenpoint Avenue & Manhattan Avenue is being renamed in honor of Edmund and Larry Charno, the longtime proprietors of Harrico Pharmacy.
From Phil DePaulo, confirmation of a rumor I had been hearing – the Finger Building (now the Albero) will not grow any taller than its current 110′. Still big, but a finished building is better that a rusting colossus.
