This article is almost two-and-a-half years old, but it is still pertinent. Are community groups buying in or selling out when they team up with for-profit developers and endorse large luxury developments in exchange for affordable housing?
Cultivate the Grassroots
Big Williamsburg Condo Project Faces Foreclosure
Crain’s has the latest on the Warehouse 11 saga (which ultimately ties into 20 Bayard and Rose Plaza).
This little bit made me smile – a lot:
…the 120-unit condo, built atop the former Roebling Oil Field…
Emphasis added.
Climate-Change Debate is Heating Up in Deep Freeze
Skeptics of global warming are using the record-setting snows to mock those who warn of dangerous human-driven climate change — this looks more like global cooling, they taunt.
This is great news – 150+ years of human-induced climate change has been reversed with just two snow storms! And, we all get to make fun of Al Gore again!
New Domino” “Authenticity” and Affordable Housing
Despite misgivings on the authenticity front (“new businesses cannot help but name themselves for whatever working-class business used to exist at the same location. It has always struck me as being an inside joke that’s in poor taste…”), author Willy Staley finds some hope in the New Domino proposal.
Gays in the Military: Fisking Bill Kristol
“Abstract” is of course a way to dismiss the bookish Mr Obama, as opposed to Mr Kristol,
a decorated Afghanistan veteran and noted military tacticianthe editor of an opinion magazine.
City Reliquary Needs Your Help
The City Reliquary is a fantastic local institution. Unfortunately, they are caught up in the bureaucracy of City funding, which hits small, legitimate non-profits the worst.
You can send them money directly, or go to their Fire Sale: NYC Firefighter Date Auction at The Knitting Factory (361 Metropolitan Avenue) on February 18th. Doors are open at 6:00 PM/ Show opens at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $20 and available at the door.
Talking Trash
In other … neighborhoods, leaders say their litter problem could be ameliorated if they had more public garbage cans and if the sanitation department swung by more often.
You can walk for blocks in Northside or Soutside Williamsburg without seeing a public trash receptacle. And where there are public trash cans (Bedford throughout the Northside, e.g.), they are often overflowing.
Warehouse 11 Races Against the Clock
If you are thinking of buying at Warehouse 11, here is a new incentive to bid low. Way low.
The Chrystie Street Cut
Remember my post about the V train coming to Williamsburg? Old news, it turns out – as linked above, Second Avenue Sagas had full post on it two weeks ago. As I surmised, the switch from the BMT to the IND is west of the Delancey/Essex station, but what I didn’t know is that the transfer has a name – the Chrystie Street Cut.
Clearly I don’t read enough blogs.
Artists, Artworks Sought for Public Plazas in Brooklyn
The city is looking for artists to design new public artworks for public plazas citywide, including three local sites: Knickerbocker Plaza in Bushwick; Humboldt Plaza in East Williamsburg; and Myrtle Avenue Plaza in Clinton Hill.