More Rosenwach

Walked by Rosenwach this morning, and am happy to report that the damage is surprisingly limited. A lot of charred wood, but a lot that didn’t burn. I suspect this was because a lot of the wood was bundled in pallets and (thanks to FDNY) water got onto the fire pretty quickly. This is the same theory behind heavy timber mill construction – thick sections of wood take a surprisingly long time to burn. Greenpoint Terminal Market was mill construction, and there was still a lot of good left when that fire was put out.

At Rosenwach, the small brick building at the center of the lot is still standing and looks unharmed. The sheds at the south corner are standing but heavily damaged, and all of the cladding on the street side is gone. Workers there are busy cleaning up and sorting good wood from bad. Hopefully they will be back in business soon.



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Four Square

Hard fought, but I’d call it a draw.

I suggested that Yassky, Katz, Liu and Weprin settle the comptroller race by a game of four square. David was up for it – think of all the taxpayer matching money that would be saved.

Mister Softee Means Business This Holiday

Greenpoint is ground zero for counterfeit Mister Softee trucks.

Conway [of the real Mister Softee] said he spotted the trucks parked in a junkyard as he was going over the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge in Brooklyn. The environment, he said, was unsanitary for a food truck and “it makes us look bad from head to toe.”

UPDATE: Rosenwach Fire

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photo: everyplace on flickr

Regarding the fire last night at Rosenwach, I have heard via a third party that a resident of the loft building across the street said that the fire was started by fireworks – white kids in their 20s shooting Roman candles off near Rosenwach, and that some of those fireworks landed in the yard. Since the yard was a big huge pile of wood, predictable things happened.

On flickr, everyplace has a photo set of fire pictures from last night (including video). As I said last night, the fire was intense – and I assume pretty damn scary for the residents nearby. You can see in everyplace’s photos that the flames rose up to at least the height of the loft building across North 9th Street. According to another eyewitness, fireman were still working to contain the fire at 11:40 (two and a half hours after the first trucks reposonded). (Thanks to mikkipedia for the flickr link.)



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Fire at Rosenwach

Around 9:00 tonight Rosenwach Tanks (makers of the ubiquitous rooftop water tanks) caught on fire. It was an intense fire, and an hour later flames could still be seen leaping up from the building at the corner of North 9th and Wythe. A lot of fire trucks were on scene, along with police for crowd control. There aren’t a lot of buildings on the property, but there is a lot of wood stored there.



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Broadway Holy War

The latest on the Broadway Triangle, the Lopez and Markey bills and the Catholic church. Aaron Short owns this story.

PS – Now that it finally has content online, yournabe.com has upgraded it web design. Its still a UI nightmare, but at least its one circle of hell removed from the old version. Keep trying, folks.

Tour de France 2009

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Prologue tomorrow morning, 9:30 local time. Great course this year – four countries plus the prologue in Monaco, stopover in Barcelona, and a finish at Mont Ventoux the night before the ride into Paris. And, it seems as though there is less of flat stages up front (only four days of flats before the Pyrenees).




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Palin Says She Will Resign as Alaska Governor

I understand not running for reelection as a prelude to mounting a presidential campaign, but quitting midstream? Quitting midstream through your first executive position above the municipal level?

Strange.