Category: Linked

Inaction and Delays by New York as Storm Bore Down

The Times looks at what went wrong in the run up to Sunday’s blizzard. Plenty of blame to go around – both for the City and for the MTA.

One gap in the system was the lack of private contractors to help in the clean up effort. The city put its call out late in the game, but I wonder if part of the problem was Christmas weekend and many of the privates being unavailable as a result of the holiday.

This Shrine to Steak Deserves a Little More Respect

Bless you, Sam Sifton:

I want to be perfectly clear about something before moving along to answer this question: Peter Luger is not a casual restaurant. It is true that you can go there for dinner and see people dining in Giants jerseys and mom jeans, as if the dining room were an airport gate filled with Americans waiting for a delayed flight to Las Vegas. But these people are to be derided and have done much to drag the restaurant down. Peter Luger at its best is a meat church, a restaurant to attend in suit and tie or cocktail wear, the sort of place where maybe you can’t get a reservation on the phone, but where you can always get a table with the help of a firm handshake and perhaps some understanding at the door. Children shouldn’t be in there until they’re 10, at least.

Brooklyn Flea Coming to Williamsburg Waterfront

Next summer, the Brooklyn Flea will be spending Sundays in Williamsburg. The flea market, which runs on Saturdays in Fort Greene, will be at the Edge on Sundays (occupying the portion of the property that will someday be a third tower). The operators of the Flea (who include the proprietor of Brownstoner.com) are also looking into how to program the space for Saturdays.

It would be nice to use this as an opportunity to enhance public accessibility to the waterfront. Maybe keep the food vendors on Saturday and leave the rest of the space unprogrammed? And I know it’s asking a lot, but the developer of the Edge could get the ball rolling by finishing his entire waterfront esplanade

New Movie House Slated for Film-Starved Williamsburg

Grand and Driggs seems rather a strange place for a movie theater, and 6 theaters and 850 seats seems like a lot to cram into a three-story (50′-high) building.

But the owner seems serious about it.

They’ve already filed an application at DOB (no permits have been pulled – the plans were disapproved at the most recent plan exam, which is nothing unusual). The architects are out of Philadelphia, and specialize in, among other things, movie theaters (including a quite stunning restoration of the Amber Theater in Pennsylvania).

This is not the first application to be filed for this property – prior to the Grand Street rezoning, a previous owner had plans for a mini-tower. That job was approved, but no permits were ever pulled and the project never got into the ground. More recently, Winick was shopping around this Karl Fischer design (conjectural only) for a two-story retail building.

76% of Brooklyn Residents Want Walmart

I find it hard to believe that 76% of Brooklynites could agree on anything, let alone wanting a Walmart. The poll was commissioned by Walmart, and only interviewed 250 Brooklyn residents. There are no internals, and no margins of polling error. And best as I can tell, the question was not whether Brooklynites want Walmart in Brooklyn, but rather whether they favor Walmort coming to the city. As Nate Silver has taught us, it’s all in how you ask the question.

So, you know, take it with a bag salt.

But the Eagle seems to have swallowed the hook whole – they breathlessly report:

Based on these facts [the poll and NYers spending habits in Walmarts outside the city], it appears Brooklyn could soon have a Walmart store. But Steve Restivo, director of community affairs for Walmart and a spokesperson, told the Eagle yesterday that, despite the rumor about a possible site in Bushwick, the company has not announced any specific plans.

Whoa – Bushwick? Everyone else is putting their money on East New York. Either the Eagle doesn’t know the difference, or they have a scoop on their hands.

Retail Rumor: Apple Still Not Coming to Williamsburg

Speaking of rumors that just won’t die, the Brooklyn Paper tells us that there is still no Apple store in Williamsburg (and Francisco Franco is still dead).

For the record, that means that there is no Apple store at the Edge (but the developer swears that Apple was “interested”), and there is no Apple store at the Salvation Army, just as there wasn’t two years ago. There also won’t be an Apple store at the Williamsburgh Savings Bank (either one, for that matter). For some reason, Apple seems uninterested in isolated neighborhoods that could cannibalize business from their existing 14th Street store.

The source of this month’s Williamsburg/Apple rumor? The Salvation Army has hired a good architect to redevelop their property at the corner of Bedford and North 7th. The Salvation Army didn’t hire Apple’s talented architect, just a talented architect (one that has worked with the Salvation Army before – there’s a breadcrumb no one bothered to follow).

Besides, I hear Apple is looking at the former Deli Mart space on the opposite corner. It’s true – I read it online.

Shuttered Greenpoint Nightclub to Become Artist’s Private Lair

259 Banker Street (you remember it as the former home of nightclub Studio B) has sold, and it doesn’t look like it is coming back as a nightclub. According to Curbed, the sales price was $2 million, which sounds cheap for a building of this size and in this location. But it is zoned for manufacturing and within the Greenpoint-Williamsburg IBZ, both of which severely limit the development potential.

Brooklyn Paper has the word on the buyer – Matthew Day Jackson. (via L Magazine).

Rent hike! Bedford Avenue’s Deli Mart is Closed

Mike Al-Humaidi, proprietor of Deli Mart, which has been on the southeast corner of Bedford and N. Seventh Street for 25 years, shuttered on Wednesday after rejecting a proposed $25,000 per month lease — up from the current $18,000, which had already been hiked from $12,000 earlier this year, according to neighborhood sources.

I bet the landlord is holding out for an Apple Store.