Category: Articles
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Uncovered: 142 North 1st Street
For the past year or two, the nondescript garage on North 1st between Berry and Bedford has been under renovation. A few months ago, the work revealed something a bit more descript – the ghosts of an old city health clinic. The clinic was constructed in 1938 on the site of what was the village…
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Drink Up
CB1’s Public Safety Committee is meeting this evening to review liquor license applications. There are 26 applications on the docket (11 new, 14 renewals and 1 alteration) – a pretty light month by CB1 standards. Here’s the full list: Alterations: Small Giants Inc. – 197 Bedford Avenue (alteration) New: 302 Metropolitan Avenue Inc. – 302 Metropolitan…
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Happy Rezoning Day
For those of you that forgot to mark you calendars, tomorrow is Rezoning Day. That’s right, it is five years since the City Council approved the Greenpoint-Williamsburg Waterfront Rezoning. On May 11, 2005, the City Council and the Mayor’s office finalized a package of promises that paved the way for the enactment of the rezoning. Since it’s…
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How Much Profit at Domino?
Just how much money are the Domino developers making off of their project? No one knows, and CPCR, the lead developer of Domino has refused to say. But the Greenpoint Star’s Dan Bush has found an answer. And if the numbers he has dug up are remotely based in reality, that answer is a lot.…
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Subway Ridership Down
NYC Transit released its annual ridership report, and to no one’s surprise, ridership is down across the system. Except in North Brooklyn. Of the 423 subways stations in the system, only 65 saw an increase in ridership in 2009. More than half (38) of those stations are on lines that pass through Williamsburg and Greenpoint.…
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Rose Plaza Deal Reached
The Brooklyn Paper is reporting this morning that a deal has been reached on the Rose Plaza development. The final deal is very much along the lines of what I intimated last night – 30% affordable housing, 74 apartments at 3 and 4 bedrooms, and all of those larger, family-sized, apartments at below-market rates1. The…
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The Census (Again)
Seems like everyone is having fun with the whole hipsters-hate-the-census meme – even NPR got into the act over the weekend. The funny thing is, “Williamsburg” as the City is defining it pretty much equals Hasidic South Williamsburg. Not that the hipsters are doing that well – the response rate for most of North Brooklyn…
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The Census
According to Gothamist, Brooklyn has the lowest response rate for filling out Census forms, and Williamsburg is dead-ass last in the borough. This is not good. You’ve heard it all before, but the census is used to determine all sorts of things for the next 10 years. If Williamsburg’s response rate remains low, Williamsburg will…
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DN ♥ Domino
The Daily News thinks that Marty Markowitz should approve the Domino rezoning. In an error-filled and poorly-reasoned editorial that sounds like it came straight out of the developer’s press release, they pretty much say that it is the City’s responsibility to ensure the developer’s profit: The project would resurrect the 11-acre tract occupied by the…
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112 North 6th Street Followup
In the Brooklyn Paper, Aaron Short has this quote from one of the few legal tenants in the building: “It’s horrible!” said Ralph De La Rosa of Go Yoga, which occupies a first-floor business space. “The city should be doing something else instead of vacating them in this way.” Let’s review, shall we. This is…