HELP USA and the owner of 400 McGuinness Boulevard have withdrawn their proposal for 200-bed “assessment center for homeless adults” – the shelter that the community has been up in arms about. HELP USA cited an inability to come to an “agreement regarding the operating budget for the project”.
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Expanded Ferry Service Coming in June
Map: NYT
More details are emerging on the new expanded East River ferry service, and it is mostly very good news (unless you are NY Water Taxi, which seems to be getting cut out of the picture). This doesn’t solve the myriad transportation issues for Greenpoint and Williamsburg, but for people who can use the service, it will be a huge benefit.
Come June, the service will expand from Greenpoint (India Street) and Northside Williamsburg (North 5th Street). Existing stops at LIC, East 34th Street, Schaefer Landing, Fulton Ferry and Wall Street will remain. Having more stops will alleviate the biggest problem with the profitability of the existing Water Taxi service – lack of critical mass. Face it, Schaefer Landing is a great convenience for residents of those buildings, but the stop isn’t going to draw big numbers. Greenpoint and Northside will.
The service hours will also expand, with the ferry running from 7:00 in the morning to 8:00 at night, and running every 20 minutes during peak commuter hours (service will be every 30 minutes off-peak during the summer, and every hour off-peak winter). And there will now be weekend service. (The Water Taxi runs hourly, three boats in the morning and three in the evening, with a seasonal hop-on service on Summer weekends.) The new weekend service will also include stopes at Pier 6 (Atlantic Avenue) in Brooklyn Bridge Park and Governors Island during Summer months.
At least one of the transportation break issues is addressed too – there will be a free shuttle bus taking riders west on 34th Street in Manhattan. (The Post is saying that the bus service will include Bryant Park, Rockefeller Center and Grand Central (all well north of 34th Street), which would be even greater news.) This means that people who work near 34th Street won’t have to pay two fares to commute to work. (Health care workers of North Brooklyn rejoice!)
For others, the commute might at least be getting cheaper. Fares will now range from $3 to $5 each way (vs. $4.50 and $5.50 on the Water Taxi today). There will be two zones – a Downtown zone covering the Williamsburg stops, Fulton Ferry and Wall Street, and a Midtown zone covering Greenpoint, LIC and 34th Street. Trips within the zone will be $3, out of the zone $5. (The Post says the zones will be three stops, rather than fixed areas, which would mean that a trip from North 5th Street to India Street won’t cost $5.) Part of the lower cost is thanks to a $9 million City subsidy over three years (though the existing Water Taxi service is subsidized to some extent).
The new service will be run by a subsidiary of NY Waterway (subject to an approval from EDC, which is expected today). The Post reports that NY Water Taxi, which bid on the RFP for the new routes, will likely discontinue its East River commuter service on April 30, leaving commuters with at least one month without service. What this means long-term for NY Water Taxi is not at clear – they are a much smaller operation than NY Waterway, and will probably now have to focus on seasonal tourist/recreation business (which they’ve always said was the subsidy for the commuter service).
In the news:
Long-Awaited East River Ferry Will Finally Dock in June [Curbed]
New York Water Taxi Squeezed Out of East River Routes by NY Waterway [Post]
Ferries to Ply East River Far More Regularly Soon [NYT]
New Ferry Service Floated for East River [WSJ, $] -
That Suburban Feel
So if Williamsburg is going suburban, why not buy a surban-feeling townhouse there?
Yes, NY Observer, nothing says suburban like a 140-year-old brick row house in a neighborhood that hasn’t been a suburb for 175 years.
Question: exactly how many (or how few) fruit trees does it take to qualify as a “fruit orchard”? And doesn’t a “fruit orchard” evoke a more rural sensibility? Perhaps this is really a farm house?
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A Month-Long Farewell for Rose Live Music
Rose Live Music, on Grand Street just west of Marcy, is closing down.
(via Brownstoner)
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The Domino Effect
The Domino Effect (Trailer) from The Domino Effect on Vimeo.
This is the trailer for a new movie by Megan Sperry, Brian Paul and Daniel Phelps. Megan and Dan doggedly followed the approval process for the Domino rezoning in 2009 and 2010, and this is a taste of what they put together.
They are about 25% of the way to meeting their kickstarter goal, which will fund the completion of the movie. A worthy cause – support them.
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Williamsburg, It Is Like Rock ’n’ Roll for Kids
Well this is sure to fan the Williamsburg-is-dead flames into a full-fledged bonfire of the inanities.
Yes, the NY Times (the paper of record, whose discovery of Brooklyn clearly is not letting up) has anointed Williamsburg safe for children.
Through his living-room window, Mr. Signer can see the Domino Sugar factory and the Williamsburg Bridge, partly obscured by the steel beams of new construction — just the industrial feel he wanted.
The “steel beams of new construction”? Yes, that would be the rusted hulk of a stalled project on North 1st Street that has seen no activity for a year and a half, ever since construction workers nearly brought down a 175-year-old building next door. (They weren’t actually humming along prior to that, either.) Enjoy that view, though. Someday, that building will be completed (odds are it won’t be anything to look at) and the Domino factory and Williamsburg Bridge will obscured by the towers of the New Domino.
For an article all about raising kids in Williamsburg, it’s pretty light on the school situation. In an article all about 80 Met, Warehouse 11, The Edge and Northside Piers, there is praise for PS 132 (well east of BQE) and PS 34 (in Greenpoint), probably the two best elementary schools in North Brooklyn. But no mention of PS 84 or PS 17, the schools that most of the people interviewed would be zoned for.
It’s also interesting to hear all the developers talk up their family-sized apartments – when most of these buildings broke ground, they were focused entirely on studios and one-bedrooms.
Full disclosure: I have two kids, and I actually do think that Williamsburg is a good place to raise them. Even though the schools aren’t that great, and the ones that are pretty good are way over crowded. And even though there aren’t enough proper playgrounds or parks (yeah, Play and Miss J’s and Klub for Kidz are great in the middle of January, but come springtime, they don’t make up for one of the lowest per-capita open space ratios in the City). Hopefully these new families in the neighborhood will get involved with some of the local groups that are trying to make the neighborhood better.
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Rafael Cestero Resigns as HPD Head
Going to L&M Development Partners, an affordable housing developer (locally responsible for the affordable housing at Cook Street, Northside Piers and Schaefer Landing.
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A Walk in NY With the Ramones
Chris Stein, the Ramones and a walk in midtown, ca. 1986.
As Bob Guskind used to say, because we can.
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Former Williamsburg Co-op Board President Convicted in $1.6 Million Mortgage Fraud Scheme
Fernando Maldonado was the chairman of his co-op board, until he was evicted from the building in the late 1980s. His name was never removed from the the deed of 242 South 2nd Street, so he was able to take out a mortgage on a property he hadn’t lived in in 20 years.
