Interesting scoop by Dan Bush – I would love to know what the settlement offer was that the city supposedly rejected. Was it just reopening the bid process, or was it to upend the entire rezoning?
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Tenants Complain About Chicken Slaughterhouse
Maybe the tenants should have taken that “Live Poultry Slaughter” sign a bit more seriously.
Or at least done a little Googling.
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Ditch Witch Out?
The Ditch Witch, a fixture at Ditch Plains for 17 years, may be on its way out. Ironically, it is the victim of the proliferation of food trucks – a lobster roll truck will probably replace it. (Elsewhere in Montauk, another newcomer, a taco cart from Manhattan, is taking the place of 30-year stalwart Beach Dog.)
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Southside Firehouse to Close?
First they came for the teachers, now it’s firefighters (or at least firehouses) that are on the budgetary chopping block.
There are 20 firehouses on the City’s list of potential firehouse closings released today, and 40% of them are in Brooklyn. Three of the eight Brooklyn houses slated for closing are in North Brooklyn:
- Ladder 104 at 161 South 2nd Street on the Southside (one engine company would remain at the house)
- Engine 206 at 1201 Grand Street in East Williamsburg (not clear if the foam unit will remain at this house)
- Engine 218 at 650 Hart Street in Bushwick
In addition, Ladder 128 at 33-51 Greenpoint Avenue in Long Island City is a backup unit for many parts of Greenpoint.
So basically, every neighborhood in North Brooklyn is cut. Well, every neighborhood except the Northside – it lost its firehouse in 2003. At least that one didn’t go down without a fight.
Brooklyn fire houses
Source: Brooklyn.comI haven’t delved into the numbers behind all of these closings in our community, but the removal of Ladder 104 from the Southside will leave only three units in Williamsburg west of the BQE (Engine 221, which will remain at South 2nd Street and Engine 229/Ladder 146 on Richardson Street just south of McCarren. This in a neighborhood with a booming population and many tall buildings that can’t be reached by a regular engine company.
The Southside has some of the largest concentration of tenements in the area, and most of these are 5 and 6 stories tall. The area west of the BQE has also seen the largest concentration of new mid- and high-rise apartment buildings in the 2000s housing boom. One would think that would be an area that could use a ladder company.
Meanwhile, the area directly served by Ladder 104 (roughly from Broadway to McCarren Park, west of the BQE) has seen a population increase of 22.5% (over 6,300 people) in the past 10 years. And the area immediately surrounding Ladder 104’s house is among the most densely populated areas in North Brooklyn (over 21,000 people live in Ladder 104’s census tracts or one of the 5 abutting census tracts).
Wood frame buildings are prevalent in Bushwick
Map: Bushwick Avenue StudioOver in Bushwick, the closing of Engine 218 will leave no company in the center of a neighborhood that has a large percentage of wood frame houses (which, as we learned last week, go up quickly). And that wasn’t the first fatal fire in that neighborhood this year.
But I’m sure all of this has been thought through.
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Illegal Hotel Crackdown
Among the 15 hotels shut down by the city in the past few weeks is Williamsburg’s Hotel Toshi (three other Toshi branches were also closed by the city).
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2011 McCarren Park Summerscreen Announced
The L Magazine and EPIX, co-sponsors of the 6th annual Summerscreen movie series in McCarren Park have announced their 2011 line up. The shows, which run Wednesday evenings from July 6 through August include Wayne’s World, Ghost World, Ferris Bueller and Clueless.
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East Williamsburg Foodways Tour
Urban Oyster, which runs some of the more intelligent tours in Brooklyn and beyond, is adding a “foodways” tour centered around Moore Street Market and the Latino foods around Graham Avenue.
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2011 Building Brooklyn Awards – North Brooklyn Represents
Wyckoff Exchange
22-28 Wyckoff Avenue
Andre Kikoski Architect
Photo: DezeenThe Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce announced its Building Brooklyn awards (Brownstoner has the details; they’re not up on the BB site yet). For a change, North Brooklyn has some really good projects in the mix, including the Newtown Creek sewage plant (Ennead Architects), the Austin Nichols & Company Warehouse (aka 184 Kent Avenue; SLCE Architects with Walter B. Melvin Architects preservation architect), the Mason Fisk Building (72 Berry; Meshberg Group), the Brooklyn Brewery (Fradkin & McAlpin Architects) and the Wyckoff Exchange (Andre Kikoski Architect).
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CB1 Supports OSA Concerts
CB1 voted tonight to partially overturn the recommendation of the Parks Committee and not recommend a reduction in the number of OSA concerts or the number of concert attendees.
This came after OSA Secretary Adam Perlmutter made the case for OSA and it’s concert series. Perlmutter pointed out that last year’s promoter was out and that OSA would be running quieter and shorter shows this year. Long before the community spoke out on the issue, OSA had already decided to cut the number of shows from 22 to 15, the number of attendees from 7,500 to 6,500 and the number of bands per show from 5 to 2. And of the 15 shows, two will be children’s concerts, one will be a comedy show and one will be a philharmonic show, so there will be only 11 rock concerts (the Parks Committee recommended 10).
These changes seemed to be acceptable to some of the park’s neighbors, and since they brought the concerts more in line with what the committee had recommended anyhow, it was agreed to drop the numerical requirements and give OSA a chance to run a more neighborhood-friendly concert series.
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What’s Up At Slick’s?
Photo: NYShitty
Someone has been doing some decorating. Miss Heather has a photo of Slick’s old shop on Wythe and North 3rd. The space has been empty since Slick (R.I.P.) died in 2008 – is this a sign of an impending retail establishment?