Category: Linked

South 2nd and Roebling, this time.

Today was the first installment of Williamsburg Walk, the street closure that is not a street fair. Turnout felt light, and the oppressive heat certainly lent the afternoon a languid tone (except at the hydrants, which were very popular). Whether it was the weather or just the extra space, the afternoon lacked that manic aspect that Bedford often gets on the weekends. (And it certainly helped that the sponsors had people going around emptying garbage cans and generally keeping things in order.) Hopefully, less heat and no Giglio festival three blocks away will mean a greater turnout in the coming weeks.

As it turns out, the closure does not effect any of the cross streets – cross town traffic continued unabated, it was only Bedford that was closed. The regulatory thicket that had to be negotiated for this was pretty incredible, and included multiple city and state agencies. One result was that restaurants and bars could put out tables, but only on the sidewalks. The street tables were all provided by Williamsburg Walks, and clearly, there needs to be more tables. Even without table service in the street, having more tables there would enliven the street. As it is, there is little to bring people into the street, other than the wide open spaces.

Inspired.

Reminder: Williamsburg Walks starts today. From noon until 7pm, Bedford Avenue will closed to vehicles from Metropolitan to North 9th. Its a hot day for the inauguration of this event, but there will be cafe seating at most of the restaurants up and down Bedford. You can also beat the heat (and the crowds) by stepping off Bedford – restaurants along Berry and Wythe will also be open, and in many cases offering some air conditioned comfort.

From Gothamist, a comprehensive map of NYC’s walkability (based on Walkscore, which I linked to in the past). NYC comes in second to San Francisco in terms of overall walkability.

The average home now costs $663,946, and condos are averaging over $650 per square foot. With literally thousands of new units in the pipeline, it will be interesting to see where those numbers are in a year or two.

I thought they owned it already, but apparently not. I wonder if the final purchase price was contingent on the FAR Quadriad could win through their proposed rezoning?

Greenbelt, 361 Manhattan Avenue.
Photo: Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.

I screwed up – in yesterday’s post on the Building Brooklyn awards, I completely missed Greenbelt in the list of award winners. So there was a north Brooklyn project worthy of being the best of Brooklyn architecture. Greenbelt is a fantastic mixed-use project on Manhattan Avenue between Jackson and Withers. It is billed as Brooklyn’s first LEED-rated residential project, and includes arts and cultural space on the ground floor with residences above. The building incorporates much of the single-story building that was formerly on the site (not preservation, but not throwing the entire building into the dumpster certainly has a positive environmental impact). As the project’s website says, “Greenbelt aims for sustainability in relation to multiple ‘environments’ – natural, cultural and visual – by building green, providing space for the arts and community, and launching bold architectural ideas scaled to the surrounding neighborhood.”

All in all, a very interesting and worthy project. Which only goes to reinforce the point I was trying to make in yesterday’s post – given the huge wave of building we are seeing Greenpoint and Williamsburg, why are there so few projects that can be singled out as enriching our neighborhoods? Yes, there are some projects such as Greenbelt that are worthy of accolades, but they are few and far between. Take a look at the list of projects that won awards last night – I think you’d be hard pressed to find too many local projects that rise to the level of these projects.

Miss Heather wonders what’s up at the former Greenpoint Hospital site on Kingsland and Maspeth. A lot, actually, and a lot of nothing.

The big building at the north end of the site (the one Heather was asking about) is a homeless shelter; I believe the smaller buildings north of there contain affordable housing units. The building at the corner of Kinglsand and Maspeth is being renovated by St. Nick’s (the purpose escapes me). That’s a lot.

The lot of nothing is what’s happening east of the St. Nick’s site. The building fronting Debevoise at Maspeth is the former Nurse’s Residence. Community activists have been trying for decades to place a nursing home here, but that seems all but dead. Instead, this is one of the city-owned sites slated to become affordable housing in order to meet the city’s promise of “30%” affordable in the Greenpoint-Williamsburg Rezoning (private sites are supposed to account for 20%; public sites the balance). HPD issued an RFP for the Nurse’s Residence and adjacent parking lot in April, 2007. To date, HPD is still reviewing applications. Hence, a lot of nothing.

NYC elections are still more than a year off (even the primaries), but the races are definitely underway. Tuesday was the deadline for candidates to file disclosure statements with the Campaign Finance Board, and the new numbers are already posted.

The 33rd Council District (David Yassky’s district, which covers Greenpoint to Cobble Hill) is one of the most hotly contested in the city. Isaac Abraham, who only just announced his candidacy, has raised less than $3,000, and Kenneth Baer about $12,000. The other four candidates (Ken Diamondstone, Steve Levin, Jo Ann Simon and Evan Thies) are all over $30,000. Simon leads the way with $55,037, followed by Thies at $38,620, Levin at $31,298 and Diamondstone at $30,238.

The 34th Council District (Diana Reyna’s, covering Williamsburg, Bushwick and Ridgewood) is one of the least contested open seats in the city. Gerry Esposito, the District Manager of Community Board #1, has raised close to $65,000 to date. Esteban Duran, a CB1 member and Department of Ed employee, has raised $3,560. (Duran has not even had a formal campaign announcement, other than a quick reference in the Greenpoint Star.)

Its all very early, though – too early to read too much into the numbers. (If you want to see who’s behind those numbers,