889 Broadway
Photo: PropertyShark

NY1 reported earlier in the week that DOB had issued a vacate order for an illegal conversion on Broadway in Bushwick, but since they didn’t include an address, it was hard to follow up. Today, BushwickBK reported that the building was 889 Broadway, which led me to this more detailed report on CBS TV.

Its still hard to piece everything together, but it looks as though FDNY filed the complaints that led to the vacate order. According to the DOB records, the owner was in the process of converting the building (its actually at least three interconnected buildings) to 15 apartments. NY 1 and CBS both say there were 20 units in the buildings. BushwickBK claims that the building, like its neighbors, was residential already – that this was not a traditional loft conversion. However, the legal use of the building is not clear – the existing CO [pdf] is for three stories of light manufacturing above a ground-floor store. On the other hand, the Department of Finance classifies the building as a walk-up apartment. If the CO is correct, and the building was being cut up into apartments, that is a pretty big deal for the FDNY, particularly since two firemen died fighting a fire in an illegal apartment in the Bronx in 2005.

The buildings also have a host of violations, including two unsafe building notices (in 1988 and 1992) and 77 DOB violations since 1972. CBS reports

In a statement to CBS 2, the landlord said: “Neither the ownership nor the management had any prior knowledge” of the violations, and pointed out there have been no violations in the past 11 years.

Actually, there have been 28 DOB violations issued in the past 11 years, and 27 of them are still active (and that doesn’t include the four violations issued on Thursday). These recent violations include 2 for work without a permit (in 2003). In that period, there has not been a single application for work – the most recent DOB permit dates to 1997, and tellingly, was to correct prior work that had been done without permits. (The first part of the landlord’s statement is probably technically true, in a weaselly way – the “violations” in this case were issued on the same day as the vacate order. But that should not in any way be construed as a statement of innocence on the owner’s part.)

Of course as usual the real tragedy here is that “dozens” of residents are out on the street with three hours notice. The real kick in the teeth is this closing statement in the CBS report: “Tenants say they believed the apartments were being rented legally”. In this case, that is entirely believable.

444 Graham Avenue
Photo: Curbed

Yesterday, the City Council held its first hearing on the Greenpoint/Williasmburg Contextual Rezoning. That rezoning would eliminate, once and for all, finger buildings in most of North Brooklyn.

But there are a few sites that are trying to get in under the gun. One of those is 444 Graham Avenue, the former Marino Tile building. The owner would like to erect a 14-story 69-unit building on a site that, under the new zoning, would only allow a 4 to 6 story building. (The block, by the way, is mostly two and three-story row houses.)

You would think, with a stop-work in order in place since July 15 that 444 Graham would have a tough time beating the clock (which could ring any day now). But the SWO is only partial – the owner is allowed to dig test pits, load-test an existing beam and remove a “non-load bearing CMU wall by hand”. According to neighbors who have been watching the site, this allowed work requires numerous trucks going in and out of the site with stacks of cement mix and many, many, many workers.

DOB, for its part, says that they are inspecting the site a few times a week, and that all work is in compliance with the SWO.

We’ll see when the vesting application comes through.

Around 9:00 tonight Rosenwach Tanks (makers of the ubiquitous rooftop water tanks) caught on fire. It was an intense fire, and an hour later flames could still be seen leaping up from the building at the corner of North 9th and Wythe. A lot of fire trucks were on scene, along with police for crowd control. There aren’t a lot of buildings on the property, but there is a lot of wood stored there.

As the Gazette reports, construction has finally begun on a portion of Bushwick Inlet Park. As I noted previously (and as originally reported by NAG), in May the City upped its commitment to building out some of the promised area parks. Here’s a rundown and status check of what the City said in May:

• Manhattan Avenue Street end greening is open to the public as of today. Check.
• Northside Piers (at North 5th St/Kent Ave.) will be open 7 days per week within the next two weeks. Check (though it was closed this morning).
• Transmitter Park will be opened for use this summer, with interior fencing that provides as much safe site access as possible. Slated to open in July (though the groundbreaking that was once promised for Summer, 2009 won’t be happening).

We are working to improve Newton Barge Terminal Park to provide waterfront views this summer. Unclear – anyone?

• Mayor’s office will proceed with an independent study to further the relocation of the MTA. In progress, from what I hear.
• Parks Dept. will hold regular public listening sessions about the parks commitments of the rezoning. Haven’t heard anything about this happening.
• We will break ground on the first phase of Bushwick Inlet Park, a soccer field, between North 9th and North 10th, in June. Check. Ground was broken and some construction was started in June.

The City Planning Commission held a public meeting on Wednesday and advanced two important Greenpoint-Williamsburg land use actions. The biggest was the approval [pdf] of the Greenpoint-Williamsburg Contextual Rezoning. The 175-block rezoning now moves on to the City Council, which will hopefully approve it by the end of July. Which means that we are about a month away from the end of finger buildings, community facility bonuses and other sources of zoning abuse in most of CB1.

The other important action by CPC was the approval of the Fillmore Place Historic District (the Planning Commission reviews all historic designations). Which puts that designation one step away from the force of law, and Williamsburg one step away from its first historic district.

By adding a left-turn signal at Greenpoint & McGuinness, most truck traffic could easily turn onto McGuinness (thick red line), greatly reducing the traffic on truck routes west of McGuinness (thin red line).
Map source: Google Maps.

The new DOT plan to fix Kent Avenue does a lot of things right. First and foremost, it makes business on Kent Avenue viable again. It retains the future Greenway’s bike lanes, and separates bike and car traffic. It acknowledges that Kent Avenue – and the neighborhood as a whole – is changing from manufacturing to residential. It mostly keeps truck traffic on existing truck routes.

But the plan could be better. The chief complainers about the new plan are residents along North 11th Street. On the one hand, North 11th Street has always been a truck route, so its a bit disingenuous of people to buy a condo on a mapped truck route and then complain when trucks use that truck route. On the other hand, North 11th Street has never been a good truck route, and as the neighborhood becomes more residential, is even less so. The big problem is not so much the presence of (new) residential buildings, but rather that North 11th is a crosstown street – all the stop signs and avenue crossings will create backups and increase chances for accidents.

There are solutions. The single biggest (and simplest) change that DOT should make is to add a left-turn arrow onto McGuinness Boulevard for traffic westbound on Greenpoint Avenue. DOT should be shifting as much southbound traffic onto McGuinness and Meeker as possible. Trucks coming down Greenpoint from Long Island City and the Greenpoint IBZ have plenty of room to make the left onto McGuinness (which is in effect three lanes wide in the eastbound direction there), but probably not enough time given the heavy eastbound traffic on Greenpoint.

By diverting traffic at McGuinness, we would reduce truck traffic from the narrow block of Greenpoint between McGuinness and Manhattan, reduce the number of trucks making the tight left off of Greenpoint onto Franklin, and reduce the number of trucks going down North 11th Street. The only trucks that should be going west of McGuinness are trucks making very local deliveries. Everyone else should be using McGuinness to get to Meeker, and from there taking either Union south (or getting on the BQE at McGuinness and Meeker).

Another thing that DOT should be doing is adding traffic lights and stop signs. Kent Avenue has to have traffic lights in the area between North 4th and North 14th. It is insane to have residential towers and public parks (well, plural in the future) that are only accessible by crossing a mini-freeway1. Wythe Avenue needs more stop signs and other traffic-calming measures in the area south of North 11th Street. Since truckers tend to prefer a straight unhindered route, this will discourage truck traffic in the area of Wythe that is not a truck route. The existing stop signs and avenue crossing on North 11th Street will probably have a similar effect – trucks won’t want to take North 11th if they don’t have to. But to make the intersections safer, there needs to be stop signs or traffic lights on the avenues too (there is already one at Berry and North 11th).

And finally, as I’ve said before, there needs to be enforcement of the truck routes. With the exception of the BQE, all of the truck routes in CB1 are for local traffic only. Trucks shouldn’t be using our neighborhood as a shortcut around the BQE. DOT, NYPD et al also need to step up and ticket trucks that use Wythe south of North 11th Street (despite the scare-mongering I hear in the neighborhood, DOT is NOT turning Wythe Avenue into a truck route).

1. In their presentation last night, DOT said the top speed on Kent was 46 mph. The reality is probably closer to 60 mph. ↩

291 Kent Avenue, 20 May
South 3rd Street building

291 Kent Avenue (S. 2nd Street building in background)
Photo: Brownstoner

Brownstoner asked what’s up with 291 Kent – here’s what I know. This site is actually three buildings – the small commercial piece on Kent (seen in Brownstoner’s photo), and two four-story residential buildings on South 2nd and South 3rd respectively. The project was the subject of a somewhat contentious variance fight a few years ago (before blogs, apparently – I can’t find any links). The owner originally came in with a proposal for a 16-story building. The owner claimed they couldn’t possibly make a profit at anything less than 16 stories. The community board rejected the application and the neighbors fought it every step of the way. When the City refused to approve the variance, the owner came back with a slightly lower plan. The absolute minimum, and all that. Again, no CB approval and strong community opposition. That too was rejected by the city, and ultimately the owner came back with a variance application for four-story buildings on the side streets. That was approved [danger – pdf].

Something to remember when Domino tells you they absolutely, positively must have 14-stories on the block to the south in order to make their project work.

And I have no idea what the retail space will be used for. Sorry, Jon.

223 Kent Avenue
Collapse was at the far left in photo
Photo: Property Shark

As reported on Curbed, there was a partial wall collapse at 223 Kent Avenue (48 North 1st Street) this afternoon. I went by after work, and it was a pretty amazing sight.

As Curbed alluded to, the new building under construction next door was pouring concrete for a side wall. This side wall was supposed to abut against 48 North 1st, but when the concrete started pouring, the end wall of the old building did not hold. As a result, the end wall at the third floor collapsed, dumping all of the concrete into the building. Most important, no one was hurt (and there were people in the building when this happened). By the time I got there (around 7:00), DOB had things remarkably under control. I could see shoring being installed inside the building, and DOB’s forensic engineer was running the stabilization effort. It is possible that wall itself will be fixed by this time tomorrow, although how soon the residents will be able to move back in is not clear.

So let’s see if we can end parks week on a (slightly) up note, by highlighting some of the good news out there.

Transmitter Park, original (2008) design.
Image via Newyorkshitty

First off, Transmitter Park, which is slated to go in at the former WNYC transmitter site at the foot of Greenpoint Avenue. The property is owned by the City, so acquisition is not an issue. A design (above) was issued more than a year ago. That has required some modification to comply with NYState DEC regulations, but that has all been worked out, and the fish are protected. So everything should be poised to move forward, right? Well sort of – the Daily News reported this week that Transmitter Park is expected to be completed in Summer 2011. And it’s not clear to me that the money for this capital project has even been allocated. Which in this economic environment spells trouble.

McCarren Park Pool, preliminary design
Rogers Marvel Archtiects

One project where the money has been allocated and construction has started is McCarren Park Pool. The Department of Parks & Recreation selected an architect over a year ago and held a successful series of community charettes to get ideas on programming, etc. That resulted in an exciting design, which the City has allocated funds to construct – $50 million in funds, in fact. Unfortunately, $50 million does not go as far today as it did two years ago, so the diving pool has been value engineered out of the project. But the main pool and the restoration of the landmarked pool house is going forward.

Photo: vidiot on flickr

Jeremiah takes a walk down Franklin Street and doesn’t exactly like what he sees. Things like “outdoor cafes packed with wafer-thin women cradling chihuahuas in their laps, bars with clever names, ‘craft brew’ beer stores [where is that?], and coffee shops filled with bearded men peering at Mac laptops through chalk-white Wayfarer shades.” In short, everything he saw as authentic on his tour of Manhattan Avenue is threatened by the renaissance of Franklin Street.

Personally, I think the dichotomy of Manhattan Avenue and Franklin Street is a fascinating – and so far positive – urban study. Yes, Franklin Street is gentrifying, but what’s interesting is that it is not gentrifying at the expense of Manhattan Avenue. The two really exist as parallel universes. Nor is the gentrification of Franklin Street pushing out local stores. 100 years ago, Franklin Street was filled with locally-owned ground-floor retail stores. Ten years ago, most of Franklin Street was not retail – the old storefronts were vacant or had been converted to apartments. As new people came into the neighborhood looking to open businesses, they found a ready stock of underutilized commercial space. The same thing has been happening along Grand Street west of the BQE – storefronts that had been vacant for decades are suddenly being reborn as bars, restaurants, boutiques, bicycle shops, book stores and much more. Local businesses owned by local residents, and by and large, none of it is displacing older businesses.

Layers of history – former storefronts that had been bricked in are now being reopened.
Photo: ashfordesign on flickr

This is exactly the kind of development most urbanists would love to see. And it came about not through some planner drawing a line on a map, but rather as a result of a series of individual decisions, all of which started with a recognition of a quality, underutilized building stock. Instead of boarded up storefronts, it’s eyes on the street in the classic Jane Jacobs sense. It’s economic development from the bottom up. It’s more local jobs where none had existed for decades. It’s more income for building owners, many of whom are also locals (and long-timers). Sure it’s (generally) serving one segment of the population, but it can be benefitting many segments. And sure it’s a fragile ecosystem that needs to be carefully nurtured. It could all go to pot and become Soho, or expand east to Manhattan Avenue and displace long-time businesses there.