G-W Contextual Rezoning

10/29/2008 |

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Greenpoint-Williamsburg Contextual Rezoning
Study Area



Last night City Planning and Community Board #1, in conjunction with Council Members Yassky and Reyna, held an informational session on the proposed contextual rezoning of 175 blocks in Greenpoint & Williamsburg. As in previous rezonings (Grand Street in 2008, Northside in 2005), the aim of the zoning is to limit building heights to the four to five story range (and thereby eliminate finger buildings).
There is another informational session this evening at Greenpoint Savings Bank on Manhattan Avenue. The formal public review is expected to begin in January or February.



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Arizona: Toss Up?

A slew of recent polls have the presidential tightening (considerably) in Arizona. But the latest pool from Arizona State University has the race as *very* tight – McCain 46% to Obama 44%.
This is McCain’s home state. This is a state Bush carried by 10 points in 2004. If you know someone in Arizona, **call them**. If you have free night and weekend minutes, call them a lot.
Let’s put some karma on the Straight Talk Express.

Diwali

Speaking of parking, alternate side of the street parking rules (aka street cleaning rules) are suspended tomorrow (28 October) for the celebration of the Indian holiday Diwali. Diwali is the Hindu (and Sike, Buddhist and Jainist) festival of lights. The festival itself is five days long, with the main day – Diwali – timed to fall on a moonless night. The festival is celebrated by lighting candles and fireworks.
Read more here – something to do while you’re not moving your car.

Changing Rules Mid-Sabbath

This is really nothing new – the only thing newsworthy is that it happened on Saturday morning, thereby catching a lot of Hasidim unawares and unable to move their cars. But DOT often changes signs, and the traffic agents always seem to follow the maintenance trucks like a pack of hyenas, ready to scavenge a few more tickets to make their monthly quota. This seems to be a particularly common occurrence in Williamsburg, where parking regulations change more frequently due to commercial changes and, um, “missing” parking signs.
Luckily, if you park your car legally and come to find it to now be parked illegally, you can *usually* get out of the ticket – Jew or Gentile. Unless, you know, its a week later.

Council Overturns Term Limits

The City Council voted 29 to 22 to overturn the term limits law that was twice supported by public referenda. David Yassky introduced an amendment that would have required the convening of the Charter Commission and a third referendum (the right way to change the law, IMO) – that amendment failed 28 to 22 with 1 abstention. Ultimately, Yassky was one of the 29 votes in favor of overturning the term limits. Diana Reyna also voted to overturn term limits, and voted *against* the public referendum amendment. (I thought that Reyna had been solidly in the opposed to term limits camp, but maybe I got that wrong.)

Evan Thies at WiD

Williamsburg is Dead interviews City Council candidate Evan Thies.
I have a shorter answer to one question:
Q: Why is it so hard to get high voter turnout in local elections?
A: Because we hold city elections in off years. 2008 will see record turnout, probably even in a non-competitive state such as NY. 2009 will not see a record turnout, even in a competitive council race such as the 33rd.