Today’s Times looks back fondly on the cult of personality that was Rudy Giuliani’s City Hall.
As President, Giuliani would embrace all of the worst traits of George W. The difference being that Rudy would bring a new level of competence to the vindictiveness, pettiness and toadying that has become the legacy of the past 7 years.
I know I’ll hear from Phil on this, but NYFD is reporting that Brooklyn has the fastest response times in the City. The average response time in Brooklyn was four minutes and one second, a five second improvement over 2006. As the News notes, these improvements come after three years of increased response times following the closing of Engine 212 and two other Brooklyn houses. Prior to the closing of these houses, response times in Brooklyn were three minutes and 51 seconds.
The response time measures how long it takes the first fire department vehicle to appear on scene. It doesn’t measure how quickly the NYFD starts putting out the fire.
Yurly Vanchytsky, the concrete worker who died last week at Trump’s Soho Tower, was a resident of Greenpoint.
OK, its a little early notice, but mark your calendars.
Some thoughts on the eviction of hundreds of tenants from 475 Kent (covered extensively elsewhere, see below). First, this is a building I know fairly well. I know (or knew) at least two of the master lease holders, and know (or knew) about half a dozen other tenants. Coincidentally, I rang in the new millennium from the penthouse of 475 Kent; just over a year and a half later, I watched tower 1 of the World Trade Center come down while standing on the roof of 475.
The floors and apartments I have seen in the building were not fire traps. They were, by and large, professionally constructed and divided into reasonable live/work spaces. In other words, they were not a rabbit warren of jerry built cubicles, nor were they large loft spaces shared by multiple tenants. Most of the tenants I know (knew) are working artists, actually living and working in the building. (And most of them are older artists, not what one would term “hipsters” – which should be beside the point, but apparently isn’t to some.)
That said, I don’t know if the building is up to code. And I do believe that some of the violations cited by the Fire Department are very serious. In particular, the lack of a working sprinkler system and the operation of a unlicensed bakery in the basement. The lack of sprinklers is a pretty obvious defect, particularly in a commercial building that has working artists. The bakery has a lot of people scratching their heads, but the key phrase in the articles is “grain silo” – it is reported that there were two grain silos, 10 feet in diameter and 15 feet hight. So a) this was not some small matzo operation, and b) the operators of the bakery were storing a lot of potentially very flammable material. Grain (or any other fine powder1) can spontaneously combust, either as a result of improper storage within the silos, or as a result of proximity of the fine dust to open flames (such as the coal and gas ovens on premises):
Grain dust is an extremely volatile substance that can explode without warning. One such explosion occurred in 1913 at the Husted Mill and Elevator. The explosion killed 33 people and injured 80 others. Exact causes of fires and explosions were very difficult to determine. Sparks from electrical equipment were blamed, so was static electricity built up on moving belts. Overheating or badly aligned machinery caused fires and there was always the problem of careless smoking. [Buffalo History Works]
There are reports that tenants in the building offered to remove the offending grain from the basement of 475 and volunteered to set up an around-the-clock fire watch. Not ideal, but given that the temperature last night was in the low teens, some accommodation should have been found. Longer term, the solution seems pretty straightforward – eliminate the major violations by getting rid of the bakery and repairing the sprinkler system. Then allow the tenants to return to the building while the less perilous issues are addressed. It appears that a number of the tenants and master lease holders are trying to do just that.
Finally, with regard to the motives for the eviction, on the face of it, this doesn’t look like an effort on the part of the building owner to clear the building. I don’t base this on any particular facts or knowledge, but note that in addition to a host of “illegal” residents, the bakery and a school and catering hall were also shut down (the latter two were in an adjacent building). So if the owner, Nachman Brach, did drop the dime on himself, he probably got more than he bargained for, and has lost his bakery in the process. (On the other hand, there is apparently a court case in the works that could give the existing tenants “rent-controlled” status.) Also arguing against the owner’s hand in this eviction is the fact that Brach is also the owner of 146 Leonard Street, the illegal loft where firefighter Daniel Pujdak died while fighting a fire in the building – so clearly NYFD had reason to closely inspect his buildings.
Bottom line: hopefully the tenants can return to their homes and places of work soon.
Some links –
Tuesday:
…An Uncertain Future [Times]
Residents of Brooklyn Loft Evicted for Fire Code Violations [amNY]
A First-Person Account of an Eviction [amNY]
A Holdout Stays in Brooklyn Loft [Metro]
Monday:
475 Kent Avenue Evacuated [Gothamist]
Dispatches From the Frigid Mass Eviction… [Gowanus Lounge]
City Evacuates 11-Story Building in Brooklyn [Times]
Illegal School, Matzo Factory Shut [Daily News]
Matzo Bawl at Building [Post]
Dear Senator Connor… [Albany Project]
1. This type of spontaneous combustion was also common in sugar refineries, and is believed to have been the cause of the fire that destroyed the original Domino refinery in 1882.↩
I was very disappointed to learn that last year’s Building Brooklyn Awards did not include a single North Brooklyn project. Given the sheer volume of new construction in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, you would think that there was at least one decent new building. But alas, no – North Brooklyn was shut out in 2007 (as we were in 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001 – remarkable, eh?1).
But its a new year, and hope springs eternal. So imagine my excitement when I read that the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce is accepting nominations for the 2008 Building Brooklyn Awards. Surely this will be our year.
The contest regulations require that a project have a temporary or final CO issued in calendar 2007. So such favorites as 20 Bayard, North8 Condos, 207-211 South First Street and the Lucent are eligible. Others, in that grand Brooklyn tradition, will have to wait until next year. Oh, and I suspect someone will be submitting a nomination for a lifetime achievement award to a certain local developer.
The deadline for submissions is 15 February 2008; I’ll be accepting nominations in comments.
Remember – vote early and vote often.
1. To be fair, a number of North Brooklyn rehabilitation projects won awards, including 37 Greenpoint Avenue, a GMDC project and the Smith Gray Building, Kay Development/Scarano Architects (both in 2003); the Doe Fund project, Santoriello & Groom Architects (2004); and the Williamsburgh Branch Library renovation, Vincent Benic Architect/Westerman Construction (2005).↩
Via Gothamist, word that Pies ‘n’ Thighs is, as of tomorrow (the 16th), no more. Seems they were unable to withstand the juggernaut that is the Department of Health, and are throwing in the towel.
DOH has been on a rampage ever since those rats showed up in that KFC in the Village – unfortunately, their standards seem wholly incompatible with good esoteric restaurants such as this (and such as Brick Oven Gallery, which lost a lot of business to a DOH closure). At some point, we’re going to be left with nothing but industrial food purveyors, and there will be nothing left to eat in this city.
(By the way – its interesting to watch the vigor with which DOH has pursued restaurant food safety since the KFC rat attack incident, and compare that to the Department of Buildings and the rash of worker deaths and adjacent building collapses a year or so ago. But then DOH is there to protect the public, whereas DOB is there to protect development.)
More election quirks – in addition to allowing crossover votes, Michigan also allows people to vote “uncommitted”. I think its pretty remarkable that almost 15,000 would go out of their way to pull the lever for “uncommitted”. That’s almost as many people as went out of their way to vote for Rudy (who is making a career of sixth place).
And for those of you playing along at home, Romney won (and handily, at that). So the six ring circus moves on to South Carolina and Florida. Rudy better hope “uncommitted” isn’t on the ballot in Florida.
From yesterday’s Post, news that the New York Water Taxi is still running – to Yonkers. With the help of $1.2 million from a State and Federally-funded grant to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, NYWT is running daily commuter service to Yonkers (Westchester County) and Haverstraw (Rockland County). The larger grant, which totals $4.2 million, is intended to expand ferry service between Lower Manhattan and the suburbs. Its not clear from the article, but presumably most of the rest of the grant is going to New Jersey service. Rockland county is also contributing an additional $1.2 million subsidy to ensure that service goes as far Haverstraw.
The Rockland County subsidy runs through April, 2008. Based on past experience, the passengers to Haverstraw should enjoy the ride while it lasts. Come May, its back to the rails (or roads) for you.
Today’s Brownstoner report that the rates at Hotel Le Bleu in Gowanus prompted me to see what was going on at our own Le Jolie (on the BQE). Looks like more of the same – a room for two this weekend starts at $169 per night – a fair drop from the opening day rates of $250 and up.
(European and Canadian visitors are getting a double bargain, given the huge drop in the value of the dollar lately…)
