Category: Linked

In a prophylactic move, Zip112, the “legal” hostel at 112 North 6th Street has decided to close its doors before the city DOB inspectors return and potentially close it down for good.

Zip112 was spared from closure during the city’s initial inspection when the owner was able to convince a city inspector that a ladder hung off the 5th floor wooden deck constituted a second means of egress. Think about that – a fifth-floor walk-up apartment with no CO for residential use was deemed legal because there was a ladder – not a fire escape, a ladder – leading from a wooden (i.e., combustible) deck. That was their second means of egress?

Maybe someone should speak to that inspector?

Last Thursday [Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY)] received a chilling recorded message at her campaign office. “Assassinate is the word they used…toward the children of lawmakers who voted yes.”

I see the Blackshirts are out in force.

Moishe Indig, owner of 684 Flushing Avenue, leads off the Voice’s list of New York’s 10 worst landlords.

Everything that could go wrong in this building has gone wrong,” [tenant Michael] Juliano says.

That includes over 130 violations (according to the Voice – DOB lists a lot less), a stop-work order that is almost three years old, and more.

Matt Chaban nails it:

but it all basically boils down… that the project is just too damn big

OSA announced a series of paid concerts to be held at East River State Park this summer. The series kicks off on July 5 with a reunited Faith No More, with all proceeds for the paid events benefitting OSA and their work to preserve and create parks in North Brooklyn. (These concerts are in addition to the free “Pool Party” concerts, of which there will be eight this summer.)

Streetsblog has a good article on the impending disaster that is Domino’s parking proposal.

That’s 1,700 cars and it’s going to really overwhelm the community; there’s no doubt about that.

1,700 or 1,500, we’re still going to be overwhelmed. Domino claims it is matching the rate of ownership in the immediate area, but their study area includes a) immediate blocks that are very sparsely populated; and b) a good swath of Hasidic Williamsburg, which has inordinately high rates of car ownership. If Domino was acting responsibly, they would limit parking to under 50% – that matches the rate of ownership for CB1 at large (and coincides more or less with the zoning minimum).

Coincidentally or not, yesterday was the anniversary of Bob Guskind’s death.

“This bus is a little bit like going back to the New York of the ’70s or ’80s, when it wasn’t about the money, it was about the spirit,” said Richard Mark Jordan, an actor from Bushwick who was gyrating in the aisle with friends and high-fiving strangers.

If by “the New York of the ’70s or the ’80s” you mean the Upper East Side frat-boy scene, then yes. Otherwise, it’s nothing at all like the New York of anytime.

I suppose the silver lining here is that the bus is taking these people OUT OF the neighborhood.

This article is almost two-and-a-half years old, but it is still pertinent. Are community groups buying in or selling out when they team up with for-profit developers and endorse large luxury developments in exchange for affordable housing?