What’s Going on at 65 Commercial?

03/10/2011 | Comment

A few weeks ago, all of the powers that be in North Brooklyn seemed to be aligned behind a single vision – getting the MTA to live up to its commitment to get out of 65 Commercial Street. Now, any deal to turn 65 Commercial seems about to founder on the rocks.

65Commercial protest

Photo: Queens Ledger

65 Commercial Street is the MTA property in north Greenpoint that was rezoned to parkland in 2005. As part of the agreement between the City Council and the Mayor’s office to allow the zoning to go forward, the Mayor’s office got the MTA to agree to give up the property in exchange for comparable land nearby.

For almost 6 years now, the MTA has been dragging its feet, claiming the land swaps offered by the City weren’t comparable and generally doing anything they could to not live up to their end of the bargain. Local politicians, especially David Yassky and Joe Lentol, pushed the City and the MTA to come to an agreement and turn this property as parkland. Steve Levin, who succeeded Yassky in 2010, took up the banner and kept the pressure on. Just last month, District Leader Lincoln Restler organized a protest at the site that drew renewed attention to the issue, and included the support of Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez.

Levin and the Mayor’s office, meanwhile, were pushing the MTA behind the scenes, and finally, in January, the MTA agreed to a series of swaps that would finally start the process of turning 65 Commercial into a park. The first swap was that the MTA would take about 42,000 square feet of former parkland under the Williamsburg Bridge, between Wythe and Berry, as the new location for their emergency response vehicles (ERVs). This aspect of the deal seems to have been in place for some time (I had heard about it going back at least a year, if not much longer). The sticking point all along was where to put the MTA’s 150 or so Access-a-Ride vehicles. Finally, in January, the City reached a deal for the MTA to take a block of property in Maspeth for these vehicles.

So now we have the structure of a deal in place, and all of the local pols on board – problem, solved, right?

No. It appears that the deal – and Greenpoint’s future park – is in jeopardy from two different directions.

First, at this week’s CB1 meeting, Velazquez staffer Evelyn Cruz announced that the Congresswoman is opposed to BOTH land swaps (both of which are to (and from) sites in her district, so these are issues that she should weigh in on). The Maspeth site for the Access-a-Ride vehicles is in an area that is zoned and used for heavy industry. The vehicles are already traveling through the district, and many will continue to travel through CB1 as well. So the distribution of burden there is shifting slightly, but all within an area that already has the burden. Yes, it would be ideal to get the vehicles out of our lives for good – less traffic, less pollution, less congestion for both Maspeth and Greenpoint – but shifting the burden a mile or so away, to an area that is zoned for such a use, seems reasonable given that where the vehicles are located today is zoned for parkland.

In other words, don’t throw out the good for the perfect. And focus on the real problem, which is where the second monkey wrench comes in.

This one is coming from the Mayor’s office, and it concerns the second land swap – putting the ERVs on a former playground site underneath the Williamsburg Bridge. If the City gets it way on this, it would basically screw over the Southside in favor of Greenpoint.

The Berry/Wythe site under the Williamsburg Bridge once held a playground, and it is still zoned for parkland. But the playground was closed in the early 1990s because paint stripping on the Williamsburg Bridge was covering the playground in lead-paint chips. At the time, the City agreed that the park would be reopened after reconstruction on the bridge was complete.

Here’s the thing – that piece of property is a horrible place for a playground. It is directly under the bridge, upland from the water. If it gets more than an hour of sunlight a day, I’d be amazed. What would make a great park is the DOT/DCAS site two blocks to the west – what I’ve taken to calling Williamsburg Bridge Park. Yes, part of it is under the bridge too, but all of it is on the water. And all of it extends down to Broadway, so eventually, there could be a waterfront esplanade running from Broadway to Grand Street. If Parks doesn’t like open space under a bridge, that area could be used for recreational structures or community facilities. But all of it should be publicly accessible.1

Instead of a substandard park inland, the Southside could get real waterfront access, a larger waterfront esplanade and substantially more open space. For a neighborhood that has one of the worst ratios of per capita open space (a ratio that will drop when Domino gets built), this would be a huge step forward.

Because the Berry/Wythe site is mapped as parkland, the City can’t just take it away – under State law, it has to provide comparable new parkland to offset the loss of this parkland. As I noted above, swapping Berry/Wythe for the DCAS/DOT site would to just that – and more. The neighborhood – the immediate neighborhood – would get more and better parkland, open space, recreation space, in the process reinstating park space that was lost almost 20 years ago and making up for some the reduction in per capita open space from the huge rezonings of the past 6 years. Win-win.

But what the Mayor’s office is saying is that the new park space at 65 Commerical Street – all the way up in north Greenpoint – is the offsetting open space. Remember, 65 Commercial was promised as incremental park space as part of the 2005 rezoning – specifically to mitigate the impact of all the new residential development. The Berry/Wythe parkland should have been part of the baseline that 65 Commerical added to. The City committed to replace that parkland years before the rezoning was even a glimmer in anyone’s eye. To now say that 65 Commercial is Berry/Wythe is a cruel bait and switch that ultimately pits the open space interests of Greenpoint (a community that is sorely lacking for open space and a publicly-accessible waterfront) against the Southside (a community that is sorely lacking for open space and a publicly-accessible waterfront).

The Williamsburg Bridge site is a reasonable place to relocate the ERVs, and Velazquez should support that. The City has made commitments both to Greenpoint (65 Commercial) and to the Southside (reopen Berry/Wythe), and if it is going to close Berry/Wythe, it has a legal obligation to replace that parkland. What every local politician – our Congresswoman, State Senator, Assemblyman, both Councilmembers and our district leader – should be fighting for is an equitable land swap that benefits both the Southside and Greenpoint. Giving up unused, unlit parkland beneath the Williamsburg Bridge is a smart way to do that. Pushing for a good deal on 65 Commercial, even if it means keeping Access-a-Ride vehicles in the district, is also a smart way to do that.

Again, we’re in danger of sacrificing the good for the ideal – let’s not go there.

_____

1. There’s been a rumor going around that this DCAS/DOT property is where the MTA was headed – that was never the case. As I’ve said, the Berry/Wythe land swap has been on the table for ages, and there was never any discussion of the waterfront site as part of a 65 Commerical swap. Ever.↩

400 McGuinness – Back to a Shelter

03/10/2011 | 1 Comment

So that rumor going around about a Federal prisons halfway house at 400 McGuinness Boulevard?

Unfounded.

Turns out, it is back to being a (potential) homeless shelter. The Bowery Residents Committee, a Manhattan-based housing and homeless services group, is proposing to put a 200-bed shelter into 400 McGuinness. BRC does not provide any details as to what type of shelter (citywide, serving specific local needs, etc.), so right now that is all we have to go on.

This is, on its face, very similar to the Help USA proposal that generated so much community opposition earlier this year. Hopefully BRC will learn from that experience and bring in a proposal that addresses some of Greenpoint’s very real homeless issues. And hopefully Greenpoint residents will recognize that those isses really do exist and need to be addressed.

400 McGuinness – Now a Federal Case??

03/08/2011 | 1 Comment

Remember the homeless shelter that was supposed to go into 400 McGuinness? Help USA, the group was going to run it, told the city that it was backing out.

So no homeless shelter in Greenpoint. Problem solved, right?

~~Well not if the latest rumor from tonight’s Community Board 1 meeting is true. Apparently, the site is now being eyed as a halfway house for former Federal convicts~~.

Developing, I guess…

UPDATE: Here’s the latest.

The Northside Gets a Supermarket

03/06/2011 | 6 Comments

Food Town

The Northside is getting its first supermarket.

OK, technically, the Northside has a supermarket in Tops on the Waterfront. But as endearing (and enduring) as Tops is, there’s nothing “super” about it, even grading on the curve that is NYC supermarkets.

Maybe “Williamsburg Food Town” won’t be a proper supermarket either. It might be a supersized Khim’s Millenium Market (open this week at two new locations on Bedford Avenue!!) – a well stocked, overpriced bodega. It might be another Tops – a poorly stocked, reasonably priced not-so-super market. It may or may not sell condos (Williamsburg has a Food Town across the street from a Duane Reade – I’m moving there!). And it may soon be eclipsed by an actual supermarket (Whole Foods(!), Trader Joes(!), Shop Rite(!), or dare we dream – Fairway(!!!)) somewhere on the waterfront1.

But right now, Williamsburg Food Town has the inside track for being the first supermarket on the Northside. And if it is, it is way overdue.

1. For the record, I have absolutely no information in this regard. Seriously, nothing.

DOE School Layoffs

02/28/2011 | Comment

Last night, the Department of Education released a list of teacher layoffs [warning – Excel file] by school, district and area of study. The lists don’t say which teachers will be impacted, but you could probably read between the lines and figure out if your kid’s teacher was on the line.

Overall, DOE is cutting the teacher rolls by 6%, but the pain is by no means evenly spread. District 14 schools (Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick and Bed-Stuy) will see an overall 7% cut; District 1 (Lower East Side and East Village, where a fair number local families send their kids) will see a 10% cut. District 31, which covers Staten Island, has the smallest number of layoffs in percentage terms – 3%. The layoffs are seniority-based, so schools and districts that have hired a lot of young, new teachers are particularly hard hit. Schools and districts with older, more senior faculty are hit far less, if at all. (And these are layoffs, not cuts – schools that lose teachers may be able to fill vacancies from the pool of senior teachers; schools that are not facing layoffs may lose senior teachers to schools that are heavily impacted by the layoffs.)

326 of 1,569 schools will see no cut at all, and another 162 will see a reduction of 2% or less (usually one or two teachers). That leaves about two-thirds of city schools shouldering about 95% of the layoffs. Here is a select list of local schools and their layoffs:

PS 17 – no layoffs
PS 31 – 5% (2 teachers)
PS 34 – no layoffs
PS 84 – 3% (1 teacher)
PS 132 – 10% (5 teachers)
El Puente Academy – 8% (1 teacher)
Automotive High – 7% (5 teachers)

And in the East Village:

East Village Community School – 10% (2 teachers)
Children’s Workshop – 17% (4 teachers)
The Neighborhood School – 4% (1 teacher)
The Earth School – 10% (2 teachers)
NEST +M – 20% (19 teachers across 12 grades)
Bard High School – 6% (2 teachers)

UPDATE: The Times has a good rundown on the layoffs, their impact and the bigger picture (including the politics of brinksmanship at play). This post was edited to make the distinction between cutbacks and layoffs a bit clearer.

Pfizer Plant Sold

02/15/2011 | 1 Comment

Two years after abandoning an attempt to redevelop its sprawling former manufacturing complex in Brooklyn, drug giant Pfizer announced Monday that it had reached a surprise agreement to sell a piece of that property to Acumen Capital Partners of Long Island City.

Surprise move indeed. Then talk for a long time was that this site (the massive industrial building on the south side of Flushing Avenue) would be used for a non-profit industrial development and jobs training project – along the GMDC or Navy Yard model. The good news, though, is that Acumen is a developer of light industrial properties, and their acquisition of the building has the potential to bring a lot of jobs to the neighborhood.

For a company with a 159-year history in the neighborhood, Pfizer has managed to leave town very quietly. In the process, they have demolished significant historic buildings, taken tens of millions in tax credits from the City, and killed a 1,000+ local jobs.

But what about the rest of their property north of Flushing? Will that become affordable housing? Or does Pfizer have another surprise up its sleeve before it packs up its tent and quietly leaves town?

400 McGuinness Shelter Nixed

02/04/2011 | Comment

HELP USA and the owner of 400 McGuinness Boulevard have withdrawn their proposal for 200-bed “assessment center for homeless adults” – the shelter that the community has been up in arms about. HELP USA cited an inability to come to an “agreement regarding the operating budget for the project”.

Expanded Ferry Service Coming in June

02/02/2011 | Comment

Map: NYT

More details are emerging on the new expanded East River ferry service, and it is mostly very good news (unless you are NY Water Taxi, which seems to be getting cut out of the picture). This doesn’t solve the myriad transportation issues for Greenpoint and Williamsburg, but for people who can use the service, it will be a huge benefit.

Come June, the service will expand from Greenpoint (India Street) and Northside Williamsburg (North 5th Street). Existing stops at LIC, East 34th Street, Schaefer Landing, Fulton Ferry and Wall Street will remain. Having more stops will alleviate the biggest problem with the profitability of the existing Water Taxi service – lack of critical mass. Face it, Schaefer Landing is a great convenience for residents of those buildings, but the stop isn’t going to draw big numbers. Greenpoint and Northside will.

The service hours will also expand, with the ferry running from 7:00 in the morning to 8:00 at night, and running every 20 minutes during peak commuter hours (service will be every 30 minutes off-peak during the summer, and every hour off-peak winter). And there will now be weekend service. (The Water Taxi runs hourly, three boats in the morning and three in the evening, with a seasonal hop-on service on Summer weekends.) The new weekend service will also include stopes at Pier 6 (Atlantic Avenue) in Brooklyn Bridge Park and Governors Island during Summer months.

At least one of the transportation break issues is addressed too – there will be a free shuttle bus taking riders west on 34th Street in Manhattan. (The Post is saying that the bus service will include Bryant Park, Rockefeller Center and Grand Central (all well north of 34th Street), which would be even greater news.) This means that people who work near 34th Street won’t have to pay two fares to commute to work. (Health care workers of North Brooklyn rejoice!)

For others, the commute might at least be getting cheaper. Fares will now range from $3 to $5 each way (vs. $4.50 and $5.50 on the Water Taxi today). There will be two zones – a Downtown zone covering the Williamsburg stops, Fulton Ferry and Wall Street, and a Midtown zone covering Greenpoint, LIC and 34th Street. Trips within the zone will be $3, out of the zone $5. (The Post says the zones will be three stops, rather than fixed areas, which would mean that a trip from North 5th Street to India Street won’t cost $5.) Part of the lower cost is thanks to a $9 million City subsidy over three years (though the existing Water Taxi service is subsidized to some extent).

The new service will be run by a subsidiary of NY Waterway (subject to an approval from EDC, which is expected today). The Post reports that NY Water Taxi, which bid on the RFP for the new routes, will likely discontinue its East River commuter service on April 30, leaving commuters with at least one month without service. What this means long-term for NY Water Taxi is not at clear – they are a much smaller operation than NY Waterway, and will probably now have to focus on seasonal tourist/recreation business (which they’ve always said was the subsidy for the commuter service).

In the news:

Long-Awaited East River Ferry Will Finally Dock in June [Curbed]
New York Water Taxi Squeezed Out of East River Routes by NY Waterway [Post]
Ferries to Ply East River Far More Regularly Soon [NYT]
New Ferry Service Floated for East River [WSJ, $]

The Domino Effect

01/26/2011 | 1 Comment

The Domino Effect (Trailer) from The Domino Effect on Vimeo.

This is the trailer for a new movie by Megan Sperry, Brian Paul and Daniel Phelps. Megan and Dan doggedly followed the approval process for the Domino rezoning in 2009 and 2010, and this is a taste of what they put together.

They are about 25% of the way to meeting their kickstarter goal, which will fund the completion of the movie. A worthy cause – support them.

(There’s a Tumblr too.)

Williamsburg, It Is Like Rock ’n’ Roll for Kids

01/22/2011 | 1 Comment

Well this is sure to fan the Williamsburg-is-dead flames into a full-fledged bonfire of the inanities.

Yes, the NY Times (the paper of record, whose discovery of Brooklyn clearly is not letting up) has anointed Williamsburg safe for children.

Through his living-room window, Mr. Signer can see the Domino Sugar factory and the Williamsburg Bridge, partly obscured by the steel beams of new construction — just the industrial feel he wanted.

The “steel beams of new construction”? Yes, that would be the rusted hulk of a stalled project on North 1st Street that has seen no activity for a year and a half, ever since construction workers nearly brought down a 175-year-old building next door. (They weren’t actually humming along prior to that, either.) Enjoy that view, though. Someday, that building will be completed (odds are it won’t be anything to look at) and the Domino factory and Williamsburg Bridge will obscured by the towers of the New Domino.

For an article all about raising kids in Williamsburg, it’s pretty light on the school situation. In an article all about 80 Met, Warehouse 11, The Edge and Northside Piers, there is praise for PS 132 (well east of BQE) and PS 34 (in Greenpoint), probably the two best elementary schools in North Brooklyn. But no mention of PS 84 or PS 17, the schools that most of the people interviewed would be zoned for.

It’s also interesting to hear all the developers talk up their family-sized apartments – when most of these buildings broke ground, they were focused entirely on studios and one-bedrooms.

Full disclosure: I have two kids, and I actually do think that Williamsburg is a good place to raise them. Even though the schools aren’t that great, and the ones that are pretty good are way over crowded. And even though there aren’t enough proper playgrounds or parks (yeah, Play and Miss J’s and Klub for Kidz are great in the middle of January, but come springtime, they don’t make up for one of the lowest per-capita open space ratios in the City). Hopefully these new families in the neighborhood will get involved with some of the local groups that are trying to make the neighborhood better.