65 Commercial Street Update

04/08/2011 | 2 Comments

Below is a copy of the letter from MTA Chair Jay Walder to Deputy Mayor Robert Steel, confirming the MTA’s acceptance of alternate sites for the Paratransit and EMS vehicles currently located at 65 Commercial Street. Of note is the MTA’s commitment to use the Maspeth Paratransit site for vehicle storage only, not as depot. In other words, vehicles won’t be going in and out on daily basis, which should make the use of the site (which, after all, is zoned as parking lot in a manufacturing zone) less of an issue to local residents.

BTW – if there is an unsung hero in all of this, it has to be Rami Metal, who, as the Greenpoint rep for CM Yassky and his successor CM Levin, has kept after this issue for years.

LetterfromWaldertoSteel.pdf

MTA Ready to Leave 65 Commercial

04/08/2011 | Comment

In a letter to the Mayor’s office, the MTA has finally agreed to move the operations currently housed at 65 Commercial Street. The sticking point on the move – which the MTA agreed to almost exactly 6 years ago – was the MTA’s refusal to accept the compensatory sites offered by the City. Today, the MTA finally agreed to move part of their operations to a site on the Southside beneath the Williamsburg Bridge, and the remainder to a lot in Maspeth, Queens.

So Greenpoint is one step closer to having the new park that the City (and the MTA) promised in 2005.

Williamsburg To Go Dry?

04/08/2011 | 9 Comments

On Tuesday, the Executive Committee of CB1 Brooklyn voted unanimously to institute a moratorium on new liquor licenses in Williamsburg, Greenpoint and the rest of North Brooklyn. The vote was a response to what the leaders of CB1 see as an over saturation of liquor licenses in the area.

The Board’s Public Safety Committee, which reviews liquor license applications, met last night to discuss the issue, and left with more questions than answers. The Committee did not vote on a moratorium, but the issue is sure to come at next Tuesday’s full board meeting.

Rogue Construction on North 7th Street

Residents of N. Seventh Street in Williamsburg are fuming over a new condo being built so close to its neighbors that its scaffolding juts into their terraces and bits of building debris fall onto their property. … The four-story concrete structure developed by Greenpoint contractor Michael Siwiec is [next to] a four-story stone building constructed before World War II.

permastone.jpg

Not a stone building.

Permastone, that is. Odds are it is wood frame underneath. And from well before World War II.

Yeah, it sucks to have a sidewalk bridge installed in front of your house. Sucks more to have a brick fall on your head, though. Seems to me the owner should embrace the sidewalk bridge (it might even be their legal responsibility to allow it), particularly if the builder is the nightmare that they claim he is.


Bike Lane Slowed by Boats

The problem with the bike lanes on Greenpoint Avenue? It’s all the damn boats:

“The traffic situation on Greenpoint Avenue has become worse and worse,” said [Broadway Stages owner Tony] Argento. “And when those bridges open, everything gets back up over half an hour — for boats.”

Boathouse Plan Moves Ahead in Greenpoint

The City Parks Foundation has released its recommendations for projects related to the Newtown Creek sewage plant settlement. Tops on the list is the Greenpoint Boathouse, a boathouse and community facility that is proposed for the ground floor of the GMDC building at the top of Manhattan Avenue (technically, I think the $3 million for this project would go to bulkhead repairs, not the boathouse itself). Topping the second tier of projects is a study for renovating the Pulaski Bridge. Further down the list is a proposal for improvements to pedestrians paths in McCarren Park (something that is certainly needed, but probably not something that money for Newtown Creek mitigation should be paying for).

CPF has been charged with making recommendations for the disbursement of a pool of $7 million set aside as part of the settlement for the City’s pollution of Newtown Creek that occurred during the construction of the new sewage treatment plant.

The Edge’s New Math – Now Over 50% Sold!

04/05/2011 | Comment

Earlier this week, I questioned the numeracy of the Edge’s PR team. This was based on an article in the Brooklyn Eagle, which said the Edge was “approaching 50 percent sold” with only 160 of 565 units sold (which works out to 28% sold in the real world).

Today, Brownstoner reports that the Edge has sent out a press release announcing that they are now over 50% sold. Sounds like a good week for the Edge.

Well, not that good.

The latest numbers include contracts signed as well as closings (presumably the Eagle’s numbers should have included contracts as well). Adding contracts (100) to closings (165 now), the Edge says that it has “sold” 53% of its 500 units.

So, if you count your chickens before they hatch and lower your denominator, you too can increase your sales from 28% to 53% in a matter of days!

(Clearly, it is the Eagle’s math I should have been questioning, not the Edge’s.)

Feeling Safe

04/04/2011 | Comment

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.