New Transportation Committee Chair at CB1

02/11/2009 | 1 Comment

At last night CB1 meeting, Chairman Vinnie Abate announced that he was appointing Teresa Toro as chair of the Transportation Committee. She replaces Teresa Toro, who was let go late last year in a controversy rooted in the Kent Avenue bike lanes. Teresa’s appointment is great news, although she will have large shoes to fill if she is to match the work that Ms. Toro did in making the Transportation Committee one of the most effective and well-run committees on CB1. I wish her luck.



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Mark Green Wants His Old Job Back

“In a time of crisis, the City needs leaders who combine proven experience with new ideas.”

“I need to hear what you think are the key issues and key solutions.”

I guess he’s still working on the new ideas.

Building Brooklyn

WPA has some nominees for the Building Brooklyn Awards. We’ve been obsessed with this award in recent years, and the lack of love for north Brooklyn’s architectural legacy in the making. Maybe this is our year.

Moon Over the East River

02/09/2009 | Comment

moonrise.jpg


There was a beautiful full moon rising over the East River bridges this evening. Unfortunately, the point and shoot was not up to the task.



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LCOR Secures $69m Construction Loan at 34 Berry Street

“Situated on an exciting crossroads in one of New York’s hottest neighborhoods, 34 Berry St. is one of the first ground-up rental properties in Williamsburg in memory,” said David Sigman, LCOR senior vice president.

Its nice to be first, but there’s a hell of a lot of product in front you, and if it doesn’t sell on the condo market, it will show up on the rental market.

Supply, meet demand.

Bike Lanes Run into Opposition

Gotham Gazette has a long article on both the Kent Avenue and Grand Street (theirs, not ours) bike lanes, and the controversy surrounding them.

Interestingly, the blog Jewish Breaking News had reprinted the article verbatim (links, photos and all) with virtually no attribution (there’s a link to the Gotham Gazette at the very bottom, but if you weren’t looking for it, you’d swear “a few Jewish news reporters” had written it themselves).

LightLane’s Lasers Make an Instant Bike Lane

Via Wired, the high tech solution to Kent Avenue.

Pretty cool, actually. Although as its inventor notes,

LightLane is only effective at night, of course, something [Evan] Gant said underscores the need for proper bike lanes. “Permanent lanes are much more proactive and LightLane is more of a reactive solution to the problem,” he said.

This Week’s Courier

02/08/2009 | Comment

Among the other good articles you’ll miss if you look for the February 6th Courier online are these:

Owners: Stores Still Suffering – Business Along Kent Avenue Has Not Improved Despite DOT’s Efforts

By: Greg Hanlon

This long, in-depth discussion with Kent Avenue business owners includes a great exchange with David Reina of David Reina Designs regarding the special side-street loading zone DOT especially for his business. Reina manufactures very large speciality hydraulic presses. DOT never asked Reina if a side-street loading zone would help his situation. And surprise, it turns out it doesn’t – wheeling 20′ sections of steel and large speciality machinery on a slow-moving forklift on fast-moving Kent Avenue doesn’t exactly strike Reina as safe. Plus, he doesn’t even own a street-legal forklift. The upshot is that DOT has eliminated three parking spaces on Grand Street to create a loading zone that will probably go unused.

New Start for Williamsburg Venue: Chez Bushwick to Receive $150,000 Cultural Fund
By: Aaron Short

The Rockefeller Foundation has given the East Williamsburg arts venue a $150,000 NYC Cultural Innovation Fund award.

Oh, and the Moore Street market has been saved and three more Greenpoint sites located over the Meeker plume have been given superfund status. But you can read about those online (on other papers).



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Velazquez Weighs in on Bike Lane Controversy

02/08/2009 | Comment

The February 6 edition of the Williamsburg Courier has a couple of good articles on the Kent Avenue bike lane situation. Unfortunately, you won’t find these articles online.

First up, Greg Hanlon has quite a scoop from Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez:

Rep. Nydia Velazquez, who secured funding for the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, has weighed in on how to solve the problems along [sic] associated with the proposed Greenway and temporary bike lanes installed as placeholders.
Her solution? Remove the southbound lane of traffic on Kent Avenue and replace it with a lane dedicated to parking and loading zones for the light manufacturing businesses along the strip.

Wish I had thought of that.

(Hanlon notes that DOT, citing safety concerns, is reluctant to move the bike lanes to one side of Kent. The concerns are legitimate, but only because DOT has chosen to this whole project on the cheap. The issue is this – if a two-way bike lane is located on the west side of Kent, cars leaving the new residences on that side of the street will have to look both ways for peds, then look both ways for bikes, and then look both ways for cars. The solution is simple – install traffic lights. In December, DOT announced that they were considering traffic lights at North 6th and North 7th.)



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