• Condo Tenants Ticketed After Developer Left No Room for Trash

    Condo owners at 59, 61 and 63 Conselyea St. said they have been fined for placing trash enclosures on the sidewalk without a permit since they have no other spot to place their garbage… “[We] have no common area to put trash … The city has no code requiring developers to actually build a garbage room.”

    The amount of garbage (literal and figural) that litters the sidewalks in front of new developments is ridiculous. In an effort to squeeze out every square inch of sellable floor area, developers are putting trash cages and mailboxes in the public way, or worse, just not providing any accommodation for trash, and the city seems just fine with it.

    [The headline of the DNA article blames the architect, but this is driven by developer greed, facilitated by the architects.]

    Halden

    ,

  • SL Green Comes to Williamsburg

    The behemoth Manhattan office landlord is buying the still-not-quite-completed, longest-lived-construction-project on the Northside. I guess this closes the book on the Quadriad saga.

    Halden

    ,

  • More on the Sweater Factory Lofts

    I linked briefly to the New York Times article on the ongoing Sweater Factory saga. Herewith, some more thoughts:

    “It’s not crime and disinvestment that’s the enemy of the working-class jobs here anymore,” said Leah Archibald, the director of the East Williamsburg Valley Industrial Development Corporation, a nonprofit entity that administers the Industrial Business Zone. “It’s gentrification that’s become the enemy.”

    Leah is absolutely right, but what did we expect when the city carved out the Bushwick Inlet industrial zone in 2005? This small enclave of manufacturing is surrounded by new residential zones targeted for luxury housing, so is it really surprising to anyone that manufacturing is not really viable there? Despite calls from many in the community to provide better industrial retention policies, more truly mixed-use zoning and lower densities, this was simply not a priority for City Planning or the loudest voices on the community side. So now this 17-block area now sits isolated and vulnerable amid a sea of new housing. I had a lengthy interview with the Times reporter about the Sweater Factory (alas, no quote!), and made this very point to her. With residential uses unavailable (legally, at least), the highest and best use in this tiny triangle has shifted to bars, bowling alleys and hotels. All as-of-right, but uses that necessarily erode the viability of manufacturing.

    When the City set up the Industrial Business Zones in 2005, they made a commitment to slow the flow of variances and rezonings in M zones. That approach has largely worked in East Williamsburg, where there is enough critical mass and enough distance from residential districts (though all bets are off when Bloomberg leaves office). Yes, there are plenty of loft conversions there, but percentage-wise, manufacturing remains the dominant use. Not so in Bushwick Inlet, where the gentrification is not the Sweater Factory lofts but the host of new as-of-right uses that command rents many times higher than manufacturing. About the only bright lining in this area is the rise of tech jobs.

    “We take all this stuff very seriously. That’s why we’ve been out there numerous times,” said Ryan FitzGibbon, a department spokeswoman. If the owners of 239 Banker continued to flout the law, she said, it would be possible to take them to court. But with the application pending, she said, “The agency will work with the loft board on this situation to try to legalize the conditions.”

    While the DOB tries to defend its embarrassing lack of enforcement, the fact is that they may have been out there numerous times, but they never did much to actually enforce their stop work orders. The DOB has been the prime enabler in this saga, and hiding behind the loft law (which I understand probably doesn’t even apply at this property), is insane.

    Halden

    , , ,

  • Zebulon Closing

    Sad – a very nice place to be, any time of the day. And the people are even nicer.

    Halden

  • New Waterfront Bus Route Connects Williamsburg to LIC

    The MTA has finally released details on the much-needed new bus line that is to connect Williamsburg Bridge Plaza to Court Square in LIC, via the Williamsburg and Greenpoint waterfront. Needed as it may be, though, the proposed route has some problem areas. The worst appears to Wythe Avenue, which would serve as the south-bound route for buses returning from Queens. Ever since Kent went one way, Wythe has been a minor nightmare, with traffic routinely backing up from Broadway to Grand Street during the afternoon rush, as well as backups from North 6th with even the slightest congestion.

    This isn’t really a “bus” problem, but rather a planning problem. For years, there have been calls for DOT to tackle North Brooklyn’s changing transportation needs in a comprehensive fashion. Instead, we’ve been handed piecemeal changes over and over again, with each change causing a knock-on effect elsewhere in the community. Absent a broader and more comprehensive approach to transportation planning in Greenpoint and Williamsburg, this new bus route – great as it may be – is in danger of being just another piecemeal change.

    Halden

  • At Loft Conversion, City ‘Stop Work’ Order Failed to Stop It for Long

    The Sweater Loft saga continues…

    Halden

    , , ,

  • Above the Flooded Plain – Did New Waterfront Developments Fare Better?

    Sandy’s high tide receded, and the buildings on the waterfront in Long Island City stood like sentries on the coast—dry, fully inhabited and powered up almost as though no superstorm had ever occurred.

    The situation was much the same in Williamsburg, best as I can tell. The new buildings came through relatively unscathed, despite flooding around them. I don’t know if any of the new Williamsburg buildings took special measures to mitigate 100-year flood conditions, but I know that 184 Kent did, and they worked.

    One caveat here (and in LIC) is that the flooding was relatively light. There was definitely flooding, but compared to what was happening across the river and in places like Red Hook and even DUMBO, we seem to have gotten the least of it. Still, like LIC, none of the Williamsburg waterfront developments had to be taken out of service.

    Halden

    , , ,

  • Rethinking Building Code, Post Sandy

    From the Times, some opening thoughts on revamping the building code in a post-hurricane city. The focus for now is on how to build better in a rising-sea level world, versus just not building in Zone A at all (as a rather silly recent “resolution” from Community Board 1 wants).

    As the Times notes, some projects have already gone beyond the current City code requirements for construction in a flood plain, and at least one of those (a recycling plant in Sunset Park) avoided flooding during Sandy as a result. Locally, the new development on the Williamsburg waterfront has also fared comparatively very well. While the flooding on this side of the river seems to have been less severe than it was just across the river, there was flooding. But Schaefer’s Landing, 184 Kent, Northside Piers and the Edge all came through the storm much better than a lot of other newer developments. Unlike many high-rises in lower Manhattan that remain unoccupiable and will be so for months, the systems in the Williamsburg developments survived and the buildings were occupiable pretty much as soon as the evacuation orders were lifted. I know at least one of our waterfront buildings took on a substantial amount of water during the storm surge, but had storm-surge mitigation mechanisms in place that worked, thus avoiding major damage within the building.

    Are there lessons to be learned from the local experience, or were we just lucky? (Some of both, I suspect.)

    Halden

    , , ,

  • Getting to Work

    The L train is still out, but getting to Manhattan from North Brooklyn should be a little bit easier tomorrow. The M and the J trains are both going over the Williamsburg Bridge. The J will only go as far as Essex Street, but the M will have its full route through midtown reinstated. The 7 train is also running to Manhattan, though you’ll have to a bus to L.I.C. to pick it up – the G train remains suspended (the only line completely out of commission now). The full rundown of service changes is posted at the MTA website.

    If you need to get downtown, the East River Ferry is probably your best bet, what the the shortened J and no L service to Manhattan. With the exception of Greenpoint’s India Street landing, the ferry was running regular service as of today (Sunday), and they expect to have India Street open Monday morning. Expect long lines at the ferry, but if it is like last week, everyone will get on.

    Halden

    , , ,

  • West Street Land Sells in Greenpoint

    Another potential development site north of Greenpoint Avenue moves forward. On tap is a 35,000 square-foot development for 50 new residential units.

    Halden

    ,
About
Flickr Photo Pool
Archive

email:

brooklyn11211 [at]

brooklyn11211 [dot] com

copyright:

© 2001-2023

brooklyn11211.com