• Feeling Safe

    The great Prospect Park West bike lane wars are even greater than the great Kent Avenue bike lane wars of ’09. Unlike Kent Avenue, PPW has lawsuits, studies, polls and the attention of the entire city.

    In the latest development, Assemblyman Jim Brennan has commissioned a poll to see what his constituents think about the bike lane. It turns out that more people are for it (44%) than against it (28%), but that a lot of people don’t feel safer with the bike in place.

    Pedestrians may FEEL less safe with the new bike lane/traffic pattern, but ARE they less safe? Do they FEEL less safe because of the bike lanes or because of the unfamiliar traffic patterns (of which the bike lane is only one part)?

    One thing that makes me feel less safe – as a driver or ped – is crossing a two-way bike lane next to a one-way street, with a line of parked cars in between. This is essentially the setup on PPW, the same as it is on Kent Avenue. The only difference is that on Kent, cars also have cross the flow of bike and ped traffic. The result, for drivers, bikers and pedestrians alike, is that you now have to a) look both ways for bike traffic; b) look one way for car traffic; and c) hopefully look for pedestrians too. Oh, and a) and b) are blocked by a line of parked cars, so can’t actually see from one to another.

    Like I said, it makes me feel less safe, even though it probably is safer.

    Halden

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  • Building of the Day: Domino Refinery

    Brownstoner’s building of the day (always a good read) for Friday was the Domino Refinery. The refinery is one of three buildings that date back to the 1884 rebuilding of the Havemeyer & Elder complex (the Adant Building and the Power House are the other two).

    For a more complete history of the building and the rest of the site, check out the Waterfront Preservation Alliance’s write up from 2006.

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  • Every Building Has a Story

    Urban Oyster does some great tours.

    Halden

  • Williamsburg Waterfront Projects Reborn

    Interesting (as in reality-challenged) take on the state of the Williamsburg waterfront by Crain’s:

    The seven-block stretch of Kent Avenue running from North Third Street up to North 10th along the waterfront in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is making a comeback. Activity on the strip—which became one of the borough’s hottest areas for residential development during the boom years, and something of a ghost town during the recession—is picking up again.

    With the exception of 111 Kent (the zig-zag condo at North 7th and Kent), there wasn’t a single stalled project on the Williamsburg waterfront. 175 Kent started post-boom, and has been progressing steadily; same with 157 Kent, the skinny condo next door to the north. For the record, 80 Metropolitan, 56 Metropolitan, 175 Kent, 184 Kent, 157 Kent, Northside Piers 2, Edge South and Edge North were all constructed during the recession; Northside 1 and North 8 were finished before the recession (and 184 Kent was a condo-cum-rental well before the bust).

    Four years after the opening of the Northside Piers luxury high-rise—the first of Toll Brothers Inc.’s planned three-building complex—55% of the 180 units are sold or in contract. Sales also are perking up next door at The Edge, where deals on 160 of the 565 units have closed and 100 are in contract.

    I had to check the dateline on the article, but it really is April, 2011 (and not April 1). Clearly the numbers they are running for Northside Piers are for tower #2, which opened in 2010; tower #1 (was it really finished four years ago?) sold out long ago.

    (At the Edge, the innumeracy seems to run in the opposite direction – according to their math (swallowed whole by the Eagle):

    160 / 565 = .5

    (OK, they did say “almost” 50% – I guess 28%, rounded up, is closer to 50% than 0%).)

    Things are looking up on the waterfront in other ways too:

    other pieces of the new residential strip are also coming together—including a soccer field in Bushwick Inlet Park along the waterfront, which is expected to be available to the public shortly.

    Who were all those people playing on the field all last summer??

    To reach trendy restaurants and hip bars, however, the new crowd still must walk over to Bedford Avenue or North Sixth Street and mingle with the old crowd.

    OK – you didn’t really go to Williamsburg, did you? Maybe this really is an April 1 dateline after all.

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  • RIP Brooklyn Night Bazaar

    The organizer behind this Brooklyn Night Bazaar concept has decided not to go forward with the project this year. I was actually supposed to meet with him yesterday morning, but got a call that the whole thing was being put off until next year. Hopefully next time around he’ll have a better organized (and communicated) plan in place – after hearing from opponents and supporters and reading through everything that the organizer published, I still have no idea whether or not this was a serious endeavor, what it really was (a market? a concert venue? an open-air night club?), and what the impact on/benefit for the neighborhood was.

    I guess we’ll see.

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  • Armed Robbery at Bedford Avenue HSBC

    Wow – an armed robbery at the new HSBC branch on Bedford Avenue. Luckily no one was hurt, but scary stuff indeed.

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  • Brooklyn Night Bazaar

    Bazaar

    I don’t know what to make of this whole Brooklyn Night Bazaar thing. Apparently, the powers that be behind it have been working on the project for 8 months. They’ve raised some money, but the whole thing has a sort of slapped together feel to it (except the website, which looks like some attention was paid to it).

    The details are fuzzy and malleable, and it’s not clear if this is a drinks venue, a flea market or a concert venue. A lot of people are freaked out about the potential crowds, noise and drunkenness, but many others are supporting the project. It’s also not clear if there is a lease (the promoter claims to have an “agreement” with the landlord), or even if this proposed use is allowed under zoning (grandfathered manufacturing, but zoned for high density residential with a commercial overlay along West Street only – picture Northside Piers or the Edge).

    So stay tuned, I guess. This ride might be a bit bumpy.

    Halden

  • Brooklyn Flea Expands to Williamsburg this Weekend

    At the Edge.

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  • Bushwick BK Redesign

    A little busy for my tastes, but it looks good, and more important, does a great job of organizing what is becoming a font of content.

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  • Digital Subscription Prices Vizualized

    Via Gruber (again), a handy infographic on what’s wrong the Times online subscription pricing. For what the Times is charging, you could subscribe to the Economist and the Wall Street Journal (both quality publications) and still have enough left over for a Netflix account.

    Halden

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