Via Phil, the $100K house project. A whole site dedicated to developing affordable new construction (or new construction that the rest of us can afford). The concept price doesn’t include land, but it does include simple, modern design. A great concept for low-scale infill housing.
To talk about bike lanes on Kent Avenue.
One star from Bruni.
“It may be the end of this market.”
Sounds like hyperbole to me. I like the market where it is. I liked its old location. I’m sure I will like the new location. Particularly since there are tables and chairs nearby. And no mud puddles to negotiate.
I guess, in short, I like the Greenmarket.
In a recent comment, “Vito” wondered why I haven’t posted anything about the Broadway Triangle contretemps (or near riot, as Vito put it) at last week’s CB1 meeting. A fair question. I’m not pretending like nothing happened, I just haven’t posted much of anything in the past week – the result of a busy week at work and long weekend away.
To commenter John and others who have not been playing along at home, the Broadway Triangle is a long-simmering proposal to rezone a portion of the neighborhood north of Flushing and west of Broadway. Local community groups representing a broad array of residents have worked with HPD to put together a rezoning plan. Other local community groups (which were not allowed a role in the process) representing a broad array of residents oppose this plan and have a plan (or plans) of their own. The latter group showed up in force (50 by the Observer’s count, over 100 by the Courier’s count) at last week’s CB1 meeting and shouted down the presentation being made by the City. The goal of the protest, according to one organizer, was to “shut [the hearing] down” – which to a great measure it did. Its a questionable tactic in my mind, as the process already began a month ago when City Planning certified the rezoning, and “shutting down” the presentation last Tuesday would do nothing to derail the ULURP train. The real result of all the shouting is that most members of the Community Board, who ultimately will have to vote on the City’s proposal, don’t know what the City’s plan is or what the opposition’s plan is.
Feel free to comment.
For past coverage, look here:
Triangle Feud Grows Acute [Courier]
Bizarro Zoning Fight in Williamsburg [Observer]
The Fight for the Triangle [Gazette]
Pratt Students Wade into Broadway Triangle Storm [Gazette]
Bloomberg’s Politics Over People [El Diario]
Broadway Triangle Certified [11211]
New Broadway Triangle Vision Unifies Community [11211]
Broadway Triangle Follow Up [11211]
Build it Taller [11211]
Cleric Who Fought Land Deal Axed [11211]
A partisan view (including links to alternate plans):
North 5th and Driggs, June 28th
Photo: .hello foto via 11211 flickr pool
Bob Scarano has pretty spot-on architectural criticism (though I withhold judgement on Toren).
By adding a left-turn signal at Greenpoint & McGuinness, most truck traffic could easily turn onto McGuinness (thick red line), greatly reducing the traffic on truck routes west of McGuinness (thin red line).
Map source: Google Maps.
The new DOT plan to fix Kent Avenue does a lot of things right. First and foremost, it makes business on Kent Avenue viable again. It retains the future Greenway’s bike lanes, and separates bike and car traffic. It acknowledges that Kent Avenue – and the neighborhood as a whole – is changing from manufacturing to residential. It mostly keeps truck traffic on existing truck routes.
But the plan could be better. The chief complainers about the new plan are residents along North 11th Street. On the one hand, North 11th Street has always been a truck route, so its a bit disingenuous of people to buy a condo on a mapped truck route and then complain when trucks use that truck route. On the other hand, North 11th Street has never been a good truck route, and as the neighborhood becomes more residential, is even less so. The big problem is not so much the presence of (new) residential buildings, but rather that North 11th is a crosstown street – all the stop signs and avenue crossings will create backups and increase chances for accidents.
There are solutions. The single biggest (and simplest) change that DOT should make is to add a left-turn arrow onto McGuinness Boulevard for traffic westbound on Greenpoint Avenue. DOT should be shifting as much southbound traffic onto McGuinness and Meeker as possible. Trucks coming down Greenpoint from Long Island City and the Greenpoint IBZ have plenty of room to make the left onto McGuinness (which is in effect three lanes wide in the eastbound direction there), but probably not enough time given the heavy eastbound traffic on Greenpoint.
By diverting traffic at McGuinness, we would reduce truck traffic from the narrow block of Greenpoint between McGuinness and Manhattan, reduce the number of trucks making the tight left off of Greenpoint onto Franklin, and reduce the number of trucks going down North 11th Street. The only trucks that should be going west of McGuinness are trucks making very local deliveries. Everyone else should be using McGuinness to get to Meeker, and from there taking either Union south (or getting on the BQE at McGuinness and Meeker).
Another thing that DOT should be doing is adding traffic lights and stop signs. Kent Avenue has to have traffic lights in the area between North 4th and North 14th. It is insane to have residential towers and public parks (well, plural in the future) that are only accessible by crossing a mini-freeway1. Wythe Avenue needs more stop signs and other traffic-calming measures in the area south of North 11th Street. Since truckers tend to prefer a straight unhindered route, this will discourage truck traffic in the area of Wythe that is not a truck route. The existing stop signs and avenue crossing on North 11th Street will probably have a similar effect – trucks won’t want to take North 11th if they don’t have to. But to make the intersections safer, there needs to be stop signs or traffic lights on the avenues too (there is already one at Berry and North 11th).
And finally, as I’ve said before, there needs to be enforcement of the truck routes. With the exception of the BQE, all of the truck routes in CB1 are for local traffic only. Trucks shouldn’t be using our neighborhood as a shortcut around the BQE. DOT, NYPD et al also need to step up and ticket trucks that use Wythe south of North 11th Street (despite the scare-mongering I hear in the neighborhood, DOT is NOT turning Wythe Avenue into a truck route).
1. In their presentation last night, DOT said the top speed on Kent was 46 mph. The reality is probably closer to 60 mph. ↩
Malcolm Smith continues his quest to make David Paterson seem like an effective leader. To think, only a year ago we thought Sheldon Silver was the worst thing that could happen Albany.
There is a rally at City Hall tomorrow to protest the proposed $35,000 budget cut proposed for each of the City’s 59 community boards. The cuts are small in dollar term – $2 million in the overall city budget. But given that each board operates on less than $200,000 per year, which has to cover all salaries and office expenses, these cuts do real damage – after years of smaller nicks, most boards are now facing personnel cuts in order to meet these latest cuts.
If I didn’t know better, I’d think the administration was trying to starve the beast.
All five Borough Presidents and all 59 community boards will rally tomorrow at 11:00am at City Hall to urge the City Council to fully restore CB funding for the coming fiscal year. If you are in a particularly Brooklyn mood, meet at Brooklyn Borough Hall at 10am for a march across the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall for the 11am rally.
