Brooklyn 11211

Department of Buildings is apparently cracking down on some kinds of construction abuse in the neighborhood, but not all. According to an article in today’s Post, the stepped-up DOB oversight concerns sitework and excavation only, which is great, but only goes so far. It certainly does not cover all of the other bad construction practices in the neighborhood, like unsafe construction sites and illegal work on the weekends. But its a start.

Gowanus Lounge has lots of coverage of Duke Riley’s Red Hook submarine. Breached security zones aside, its a brilliant piece of work (it must be brilliant if its offended the sensibilities of the >Post).
But the Post did get the money quote of the whole misadventure:

After speaking with a reporter briefly, Bushnell said, “I’m super-drunk so I want to stop talking.”

And KeyLime Steve has a great set of photos up on the sub’s maiden voyage (assisted by my friend Tom P.).

Tom Gilbert’s promised two-part series on the sordid history of Domino Sugar turns out to be a three-part series. Part two is here, though there’s not much there.

Jamaica Bay is losing marsh land at a faster rate than previously thought. The (perhaps tenuous) connection to north Brooklyn? As part of the relocation of the Newtown Creek sewage plant’s sludge barge from the East River to the Creek, the City will be filling in a portion of the Creek. This will result in a loss of wetlands at Newtown Creek, which the City proposes to remediate by creating new wetlands in Jamaica Bay.
Somehow, I don’t think that our 1,200 square feet of new wetlands is going fix Jamaica Bay. But at least Greenpoint will get a new waterfront park (and get rid of the shit barge).

Egad.

Despite what the Post says, DOB did not slap Scarano with a stop work order for the Modern – they slapped the SWO on the owner and his contractors. Unless Scarano was digging the hole, its the contractor who is responsible for the work. And if all the posts at GL are any indication, neither the developer nor the contractor give a shit.
(And no, this is not an apologia for Bob Scarano, just a polite reminder that architects design building, they don’t build them.)

The Real Deal:

Some developers pay water taxi operators annual subsidies to guarantee they get docking barges and stops.

I love the water taxi from Schaeffer Landing (it sure beats the L train), but lately its been unreliable as hell. Just last night the boat was 25 minutes late – the boat that finally showed up was a mess, and seemed to be piloted by a someone on a learner’s permit.

Via Curbed, GKA’s latest addition to the neighborhood. This one has potential, if only they’d lose the foolish balconies (are we waiting for a cruise ship to pull up? maybe this one?). And as one commenter has already noted, what’s up with the silly cross bracing at the base of the building? It makes getting in and out a bit of a challenge. Oh, and lose the curved piece at the base.

Last month, the NY State Siting Board ruled that TransGas Energy was required to get NY City approval to use the millions of gallons of East River water necessary to run their proposed electric plant at the Bushwick Inlet (the Bayside Fuel site). The City, which has opposed the project, probably would not grant this permission, thus killing the project (and moving us one step closer to a public park on the site). Trans Gas Electric, not expectedly, has filed an appeal of the Siting Board’s ruling.
Unfortunately, no one seems to be able to put TGE (definitively) out of its misery, so they continue to spend buckets of money on a project that absolutely no one wants to built.

First of a two-parter by Tom Gilbert of The Brooklyn Paper. I’m looking forward to part 2, but I get the feeling that Mr. Gilbert has only just skimmed the surface of the sordidness.
On a related note – the Department of City Planning holds its scoping hearing for the Domino site tomorrow.