Brooklyn 11211

Yesterday, I posted about yet another delay in the resumption of water taxi service at Schaefer Landing, and almost immediately had a comment noting that the dock installation was imminent. And then this morning, another post from the same commenter stating that the dock was going in at that moment (2:00 p.m.). Sure enough, when I went across the bridge this afternoon, there was a barge and crane in place in front of Schaefer. If it wasn’t installing a dock, it was certainly getting ready to. Clearly, my post shook things up and jump started the process…

Seriously, though, this is great news, and hopefully means that NYWT will be operating at Schaefer come next Monday morning. Though given the track record of the past few months, its far from a safe bet.

UPDATE: Yesterday afternoon, Curbed posted photos of the arrival of the dock and barge, including this one:

The Water Taxi dock arrives!
(The dock is the small thing floating in front of the tug; the larger barge is doing the installation.)
Photo: Curbed.

This would have been a little more effective last week, when every construction site in the city was rushing to meet a 421-a deadline.

The “downtown” music scene is slowly shifting across the East River, and much of the activity is happening in Williamsburg (with the Southside once again leading the way). The Knitting Factory – a Tribeca mainstay back to the ’80s – is moving into the space recently occupied by Luna Lounge (itself a Manhattan transplant). Elsewhere,

multiplicity defines much of what is happening in Brooklyn, whether it’s at a Bushwick loft or Williamsburg bars such as Monkey Town or Zebulon, or in Park Slope at Barbes or the Tea Lounge. Such neighborhood focal points juggle jazz with experimental or world music, chamber strings or bluegrass, selling beer all the while to make the rent.

And not in Williamsburg, the Issue Project Room (now in Gowanus) is slated to take over the ground floor space at 110 Livingston.

I mentioned back in February that Isaac Abraham would be entering the very crowded race for Yassky’s 33rd Council seat. I missed posting on Abraham’s official announcement this past week, but now the Voice has an somewhat extended profile of the latest official entrant into the race.

Food in the Garden Spot, from the Times. I will admit that I’ve only ever been to Lomzynianka.

Yes, we’re recycling this image, but its the same
old story.

For those of us who have been waiting for July, and the return of NY Water Taxi’s East River Service, life continues to be a good news/bad news kind of thing.

The good news? As of today (30 June), NYWT has supposedly resumed its East River service.

I say supposedly, because as a Williamsburg resident, I would have no way of verifying this. That’s because the bad news is that – according to the NYWT website – East River service will not include Schaefer Landing until 7 July.

Riding across the East River on the J train today, I noted (as I do just about every day) the singular lack of any docking structure at Schaefer Landing. Yes, the dock that was supposed to arrive in May, is still not there. Nor is there any activity around the area where one might expect a dock to be indicating that anyone is remotely interested in actually building a dock-like structure.

Not that I don’t believe NYWT when they say service will resume on 7 July. Its just that we’ve all been, uh, mislead a few times over the past few months.

Meanwhile, I encourage everyone to try out the Ikea Express. It departs every 20 minutes from Pier 11 in Manhattan and runs right to Ikea’s new Red Hook store. And its free! No purchase necessary. 36 boats a day – gratis (or fri, if we are getting in the Ikea spirit)! Amazing what a little subsidy will do. As far as I know, you don’t even have to set foot in the big blue store. Go to the ball fields and get a taco. Go to Pier 41 in Red Hook for delicious key lime pie. Go to Baked on Van Brunt for more dessert. Go to Lenelles’s for some good hootch. Go to Fairway for a decent selection of food (you won’t find that in Williamsburg). Consider it your steal-this-book moment while you wait for NYWT to show up at Schaefer Landing with four pitiful boats every morning and four more in the afternoon.

Via Daring Fireball, Jerry Seinfeld had this to say about George Carlin:

His performing voice, even laced with profanity, always sounded as if he were trying to amuse a child. It was like the naughtiest, most fun grown-up you ever met was reading you a bedtime story.

One of the great unexpected pleasures of fatherhood has been learning that George Carlin is the narrator for all of the Thomas the Tank Engine videos. Makes them a hell of a lot more fun to watch.

(I guess Seinfeld doesn’t watch Thomas with his kid; nor Gruber for that matter.)

We have the best tap water in the world. Drink it.

[And don’t panic, its a very limited recall – about 150 gallon bottles of Nestlé water sold at ShopRite only. But still, drink tap water.]

The most recent newsletter of the Center for an Urban Future has an article [that’s a pdf] by Steve Hindy, the founder of Brooklyn Brewery, bemoaning the plight of small manufacturers like his. As Hindy points out, the squeeze of rezonings, gentrification and legal non-manufacturing uses in manufacturing zones (such as hotels) is driving up rents to the point that many manufacturers can’t afford New York any more.

This is about more than beer. It is having an impact on our parks and open space (both the MTA and CitiStorage are having trouble finding places to move to, and until they move, Barge Park and Bushwick Inlet Park can’t be completed). Its also having an impact on affordable housing (part of the MTA is one of the city-owned sites slated for new affordable housing). Most importantly, it has an impact on jobs – good paying jobs with benefits. For all the promise of new jobs to come from the rezoning, most of those are temporary construction-related jobs or low-paying service sector jobs. The jobs provided by light industry have supported many Williamsburg and Greenpoint residents for generations, but they are for the most part a thing of the past. The new wave is Ikea, Whole Foods and Duane Reade.

Despite claims of its demise, New York City (Brooklyn in particular) has a thriving manufacturing sector. Its not the leviathan of past centuries, or even of the years immediately after World War II. And its not the traditional sectors we nostalgically think of. It is lighter industry, industry that often benefits from a close proximity to the city, such as food processing, set construction and custom woodworking. Its also specialty manufacturers like Brooklyn Brewery, Aurora Lampworks or IceStone. Industrial enclaves such as the Brooklyn Navy Yard or GMDC have waiting lists for new tenants. This is not the industrial base of your grandparents, it is one that lives more easily with mixed residential and commercial uses.

Of course Williamsburg figures prominently.