Brooklyn 11211

In terms of quality of life issues, one of the really stupid things about DOB’s BIS system is that IT DOES NOT TRACK WEEKEND PERMITS. There is an assistant commissioner who keeps a spreadsheet of weekend variance applications and permits, but you won’t find the information online. So if you want to know if the building next to you has a permit to wake you up at 8:00 am on Saturday, you can’t. I don’t even know if 311 operators can look up this information.

So we are left with inundating 311 with complaints about off-hour construction, that are then only inspected the following Monday, when the chance of finding illegal weekend construction is pretty much nil. Given the stock the mayor puts into information technology, this is just plain idiotic.

Chances are, your (old) light switch was made in Greenpoint by Mr. Leviton (I always thought Leviton was a trade name). Leviton opened its Greenpoint factory in 1922; I have no idea if they still make anything in Brooklyn, but they have opened a large factory in China.

More about Mr. Leviton at the Leviton site.

Luxury condos in Orthodox Brooklyn (and more gentrification in Crown Heights).

Basil Seggos gets the money quote:

This is a working-class community with a dirty creek in a part of Brooklyn no one really cares about, it would have perhaps been a better thing if these were river otters covered with oil. You’d have had immediate action.

Including Spoonbill & Sugartown.

I hadn’t realized that last month’s tornado and torrential rains had done so much damage in North Brooklyn (the tornado was in far away parts of Brooklyn, not up here). Not surprising, though, given the high water tables and myriad wetlands upon which much of the neighborhood was constructed. In response, FEMA has opened a disaster assistance center on Division Avenue – with information on grants and no-interest loans for repairs.

Good to hear that at least one business in Williamsburg has a long-term lease.

Via Gowanus Lounge and INSIJS, we learn that the buildings at the corner of North 6th and Wythe are really not long for this world. 12 years ago or so I had friend who lived on that block, further over towards Kent (well before Galapagos or anything else). It was a wonderful, desolate block, made incongruously happy by the colored aquarium gravel that was always strewn along the sidewalk.

From the Times, a very selective walk down Grand Street. In general, some nice picks, though why they didn’t walk the extra couple of blocks and visit some of the half-dozen or so furniture stores is beyond me.

They’re on the mark about Aurora, though.

A while back we posted on the DEC/Keyspan agreement to (re)cleanup for manufactured gas plant and gas storage sites in Brooklyn. The Flatbush Courier has more details on the agreement, including some not-very-appetizing information on the below-ground toxic soup left behind by these places. This certainly doesn’t do anything to discourage more theorizing about the Roebling Oil Field and its neighbors.