Author: linked

The Sun:

The city has preserved the “affordable” status of about 40,000 units, more than half of its 73,000-apartment goal.

However, the efforts for creation of affordable housing are less advanced, as the city has claimed the completion of only 25,000 of its target 92,000 units.

The issue of preservation vs. creation of new housing is critical. These numbers are pretty much in line with what has been happening in Williamsburg of late. In fact, the citywide new housing numbers are well ahead of those in the Williamsburg rezoning area.

Lets first admit that Bloomberg is playing catch up on this. He came in midway through a real estate boom, having inherited a host of unfriendly policies from a generally unfriendly prior regime, and, to his credit, at least recognized the problem. He’s been playing catch up ever since. Even given all that, the record is not outstanding. Rezonings are turning out to be massive give aways, with little in return for local communities or long-term residents. What’s working on the waterfront is not working inland. And all of this plays into the hands of the more outrageous proposals from all sides.
Jones is right that the Mayor has often refused to expend political capital in Albany in support of housing. Jones cites the failure to win rent protections for Mitchell-Lama tenants – the same could be said of the 421a reforms.

In a no-brainer, the Daily News supports reform at the Department of Buildings.
While we’re at it, lets stop making deals to legalize all the zoning shenanigans: if its not to code, take it down. That might learn a developer or two.

Francis Morrone on the Brooklyn waterfront, the National Trust’s endangered list and the “mercurial” David Yassky:

This summer may offer the last best opportunity to view parts of the waterfront in the midst of its transition from a gritty industrial environment to phalanxes of tall residential towers with riverfront esplanades and the occasional park.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is the latest (and biggest) organization to sign on in support of preserving Brooklyn’s industrial heritage.

Two very different closing announcements, but both indications that New York City is getting less and less like New York City.

In Williamsburg, the announcement that Galapagos is moving to Dumbo makes it clear that it is not just residents that are being displaced. Galapagos was only 12 years old, but it in itself represented an early transition of the neighborhood – from roving art rave to some sort of establishment. That hey day was short lived, though, as it was almost exactly 10 years that Utne Reader proclaimed Williamsburg officially hip. Now, through rezoning, the city has added so much value to the real estate of Williamsburg that property owners would be foolish not to cash in. The result is that places like Galapagos need some sort of subsidy to survive in the neighborhood.

Meanwhile, with Kurowycky’s gone, yet another one of the East Village’s connections to its ethnic past is lost.

This will certainly start a ham panic among some people we know.

…in 2010 – wah, wah, wah.

While you are waiting to get on the L train, ponder some of these numbers from today’s Times:

The busiest station on the Brooklyn part of the line is Bedford Avenue, in Williamsburg, which had 4.99 million riders pass through the turnstiles last year…

Of course by the time they get to Bedford, the trains are already full. The 5 million people using the Bedford station do not include any new riders generated by the waterfront rezoning. The nearest subway station to those 10,000 (or more) new households? Bedford Avenue.

That was a 139 percent increase from 1995, when 2.09 million riders entered the station…

5,000,000 riders works out to about 14,000 people per day using the Bedford station (assuming ridership is spread equally over 365 days, which it is not). With another 10,000 to 20,000 new adult residents in Williamsburg and Greenpoint over the next decade (probably a lot more), ridership could actually double again.

Over all, subway ridership increased 46 percent in the same period…
…the L line ranked 20th out of 22 when evaluated for the likelihood that a rider would find a seat at rush hour…

At least there are still seats on the J train. (Though even that is getting more crowded lately.)

And this little gem:

…the new signal system was designed in the mid-1990s and that at the time the hefty residential growth in areas like Williamsburg had not been anticipated… In 2002 and 2003, the authority acquired 212 new computerized cars for the line. But last year, officials acknowledged the fleet was not large enough to handle the increased ridership and they began planning to add conventional cars until more computerized cars could be acquired. The conventional cars will be added later this year.

Over the years, community activists have been complaining that the waterfront rezoning did not do enough to accommodate future transportation needs, and that the increase in service from computerized trains originally touted by the MTA was nowhere near enough to handle even the existing ridership. I guess Teresa was right all along.

Have I mentioned how great the water taxi is?

Eleven miles of the waterfront bikeway have been planned. Your three miles have not. Come out and make it happen!

Gowanus Lounge:

We’ve never had it happen to us, but we can only imagine that it sets the blood pressure to spiking.

Fact is, lot line windows are an unprotected luxury. We live in a city of party walls, and, as the saying goes, unless you live directly on Central Park, no view is safe.

Still, I’m with Mr. Lounge; it would suck.

Actually, I think that this has some potential. Though how you cram 20 units into this site will be interesting to see.