Category: Linked

Northside, this time.

The president and vice president of Bushwick Associated Supermarket have been indicted for various crimes related to underpaying (or not paying at all) workers at its supermarket (located at 220 Knickerbocker).
Sleazy.

Even Australians can see it – Williamsburg is becoming “white collar”. Or as Dave Sitek put it:
> a lot of people have left Brooklyn to flee the jocks

Shocking news! Changing term limits will disrupt the great musical chairs tournament of 2009.

From Gowanus Lounge (welcome back, Bob), the slowest Karl Fischer building in the neighborhood (at North 8th and Roebling).
I still say the slowest project in the neighborhood is 80 Metropolitan. Karl moving backwards would still be faster than 80 Metropolitan. This is a project that has worked six days a week for two years, and is still is not closed up (the first windows were installed two weeks ago).

In light of recent reports about long-time ethnic retailers getting priced out of Manhattan Avenue, apparently one kielbasa shop has found a way to make ends meet…
[via LH]
**Update:** At least this operation managed to bring together Poles and Dominicans. It _is_ a small world, after all.
**Later Update:** Kudos to the *Post*, for the best headline on this story: “Wurst Gang Ever“.

Funny thing is, the Finger Building is nowhere near McCarren Park (at least not in the sense of this article). And yet it is the only picture in the article, and it is the “lede”.
I actually think that the condos around McCarren (those actually facing the park, not the ones seven blocks away) will fare better in a down market. There will be a flight to quality, and park views with light and air pretty much guaranteed represent quality. (I’m not vouching for the quality of construction, though – you’re on your own there.) Likewise, water views and well-designed apartments in well-built buildings (OK, not so may of those up here in the Eastern District, but there are some).
Oh, and in actual news about the Finger Building, there was a BSA hearing today. No decision, but reportedly, BSA seemed skeptical of DOB’s open space calculations. Stay tuned – round three is scheduled for November 17.
[via Brownstoner]

NAG (Neighbors Allied for Good Growth) is having a Town Hall Meeting on 10/2 to mobilize the community on issues facing Greenpoint & Williamsburg. In the past, NAG fought against waste transfer stations on the waterfront, against Radiac, and for intelligent rezoning that protects jobs and housing. Looking to the future, NAG has organized this meeting to take the pulse of the community and to identify the issues the community needs to organize around in the coming years.

The Town Hall will take place at the Holy Ghost Hall, 159 North 5th St (between Bedford and Driggs) on Thursday, 2 October at 7:00. The meeting will be over before 9:00, so you can get home to see the Palin-Biden debate (or head over to Teddy’s – they’ll be showing the debate, with sound).

Again, I think term limits are good in theory, bad in practice (and particularly bad in practice here in NYC). I also think that Bloomberg has been a very good mayor (which isn’t to say Thompson, Wiener, et al wouldn’t also be).
But I don’t think this is the way to undo term limits. The people have spoken (twice) – they (we) may be horribly misguided, but the people have have spoken.

Manhattan skyline, circa 1940s.
Photo: via New York Architecture Images

In the process of continuing to hate the Museum of Art & Design, Nicolai Ourousoff puts forth his list of the 10 worst buildings in New York City. Not just plain old ugly, but ugly on a urban scale – truly ruining-the-city ugly:

To be included, buildings must either exhibit a total disregard for their surrounding context or destroy a beloved vista. Removing them would make room for the spirit to breathe again and open up new imaginative possibilities.

I have to say its to hard to argue with any of the buildings on his list, but applying his criteria I think he misses a major blight on the city – lower Manhattan. Compare the before, above, with the after, below. What was once a skyline of narrow skyscrapers, permeable from within and without, is now obscured by a wall of banality.

(The tallest building in the 1940s photo is the former City Services Building, for about a week or two the tallest building in the world (and at least for the moment, the AIG building. In the contemporary photo, you can barely see the gorgeous spire of City Services peeking out over the glass trapezoid at the foot of Pine Street.)

Manhattan skyline, circa 2008.
Photo: Virtual Tourist