Category: Linked

“The Greenpoint” Developer Offers India Street Elevated Walkway for Flooded Ferry Entrance

What happens if you rezone a neighborhood for thousands of new residents, but don’t bother to plan any infrastructure around it?

As I understand it, India Street’s catch basins don’t tie into the City’s sewer system, they never have. And the City doesn’t have plans for these hookups for a number of years out. So people who wanted to get to the India Street Pier (and the ferry) were facing years of having to parkour over the plastic barriers to get to the pier. But now the developer of the “The Greenpoint” condominium is addressing the access to India Street via a temporary raised sidewalk while (as they should, even though the lack of infrastructure isn’t their doing this is literally their front yard).

City Hall’s $369 Million Riverboat Gamble on Ferries

From the newly-minted local news site The City – how the City (of New York) got to the point of owning a fleet of ferry boats for its new public-private partnership with Hornblower. From what the article describes, the city’s Economic Development Corporation passed over local operators with local experience and their own fleet of boats in favor of an out-of-town outfit that was able to offload the purchase of new boats to the city (not even EDC). It sure sounds like the locals got screwed in the bidding process, too.

MTA Shuts Down Independent Review Of L Train Unshutdown Plan

I missed this Gothamist article last week. Despite repeated promises by the head of the MTA (“I have stated a number of times already in this meeting that a third party team will be engaged to report to the board and me, all of us, on what the best path forward is”, Fredy Ferrer – January 2019), the MTA is NOT hiring a third-party consultant to review Governor Cuomo’s L train tunnel plan. In a Trumpian twist, Ferrer now says that was all fake news, and the third-party consultant was only meant to monitor safety and environmental issues DURING construction (“the consultant was never [meant] to come back to the board with a comparison”, Ferrer – March, 2019).

Maybe the consultants first job can be to tell us why all the MTA employees at the Bedford Avenue station are wearing dust masks all the time, but the air is safe to breathe for commuters.

Gowanus Waterfront Activists Can Learn from Past Rezoning Failures

Specifically, “failed” waterfront designs in Greenpoint and Williamsburg. As the article points out, despite a 2009 City Planning text amendment to encourage more creative designs for the required waterfront open spaces, very few developers have actually done so.

Domino being the exception in terms of creativity, and control – but they are fast becoming the rule. I have seen at least three recent waterfront proposals that significantly break from the esplanade-and-railing approach to waterfront design (what Greenpoint Landing is being criticized for in the article and in the Greenpoint community). Developers are starting to recognize the value in creating quality open spaces on the water, and in providing direct access to the water (something Domino does not do, but for site-specific reasons).

So why weren’t developers more creative before? I suspect that part of the reason is that the vast majority of the Greenpoint-Williamsburg waterfront constructed to date was done so under the old rules. That is the case for Northside Piers, The Edge (pretty sure) and The Greenpoint. I don’t know what Greenpoint Landing’s excuse is, though.

(Sidenote – 15 years in, it is kind of remarkable that only these four waterfront developments have been built as part of the 2005 rezoning. And only two are actually complete. Greenpoint – get ready…)