A few months ago, Brownstoner had a post wondering about the status of the Quadriad site on Bedford and North 3rd. Things were looking awfully quiet at the time, but shortly thereafter, work picked up. And they certainly have made progress since then – this morning, for the first time, the concrete and rebar could be seen sticking out above the sidewalk bridge. (Hard to see in this photo from a foggy morning, but beyond that orange netting is actual rebar rising to the sky).

Yet another project to add to the “still here” list of development projects in North Brooklyn. Given all the doom and gloom, its nice to see (certainly nicer than a derelict site or a permanent eyesore, like, say, the site immediately to the north).

[For the record, what Quadriad is building is their as-of-right scheme, which will probably come in at four to six stories. As best I know, Quadriad never filed a rezoning application for their proposed tower scheme. The as-of-right scheme (designed by RKT&B) might not be as exciting architecturally as what Stan Allen had proposed. But it is much better for the neighborhood (and far less divisive) than a ride down the slippery slope of trading off responsible development for affordable housing.]

There is good chart junk and there is bad chart junk. In the realm of good chart junk (small though it may be), is this. Although the chart is clearly biased – Jefferson did get 800+.

Pirates are clearly a meme of the day – just ask Aaron.

[Chart via gmpdx]

Bob Guskind’s memorial was held this afternoon at the Brooklyn Lyceum. There was a very nice turnout, and it was a very nice event. I was glad to meet a lot of people I have only known virtually, and I was particularly glad to meet Bob’s wife Olivia, of whom I heard much from Bob. And, of course, I was glad to have the opportunity to learn more about Bob.

Kudos to Heather, Jake and Phil for organizing and running the event, and to everyone else who contributed.

28 March: Grand & Berry.

Another building to get a for rent sign is the Finger Building on North 7th. It will be interesting to see what the new owners have planned for this location (other than 20,000 square feet of retail opportunities).

About a month or so ago, a for rent sign went up in the window of Slick’s old shop. Nice location, nice building and a nice corner storefront.

Aaron Short, of the erstwhile Greenpoint Courier is right back into the Brooklyn/Queens news stream with a new blog. I guess now his work won’t be buried behind a paleolithic web interface. (Plus, he might be the only local blogger with a proclamation from the City Council.)

Aaron starts things out by liveblogging last nights CB1 meeting (doesn’t get more exciting than that). Exciting stuff, but regrettably, very few pictures of the executive committee. Clearly, bloggers have no respect for hierarchy.

I’m not sure if Aaron is going to be doing any investigative pieces, but he might want to start with this: is it possible that there are two Maritza Davilas in the NY metropolitan area, and that both of them are running for City Council seats? What are the odds? 300:1? Also, a tip for Aaron (from one blogger to another) – follow your links, never know where they’ll wind up.

Opened Twitter this morning and saw the usual flood of auto-links from Gowanus Lounge. It almost made yesterday seem like a bad dream – it looks as though someone got GL back online, with Bob’s last posts up, which is what generated the auto-tweets. I hope that something will be done to archive Bob’s work at GL.com for the long term.

The last post was on the third. Fittingly, it is a street couch.

When you own 7 blocks of street frontage, shoveling your sidewalk can be a chore. Still, 48 hours after the last snow flake hit Kent Avenue, the New Domino has only cleared one block of sidewalk. Which means there is a huge stretch of Kent Avenue where pedestrians have to choose between walking on an impassable sidewalk or walking in traffic on Kent Avenue.

If you want to try your hand at luge, I suggest you check out the corner of Grand and Kent, which is sheer ice. Heading downhill. Maybe CPCR is trying to make blight an Olympic sport?