Tag: bushwick

Wins and Losses in 2019’s [Brooklyn] Preservation Battles

It can’t be a good year when one of your “wins” involved half of the building getting demolished.

And while it’s always nice to see row houses that are not in Greenwich Village get recognition and protection (nice work, Kelly!), Walt Whitman, abolitionist history and a host of other good priorities (Bushwick, Southside) still languish.

Residents Protest CB4’s ‘Private and Illegal’ Bushwick Rezoning Approval

CB4 continues to try to dig out of its decision to hold a public hearing that the public wasn’t allowed into.

Meanwhile, some CB4 members think that they can build their way to less gentrification:

board member Martha Brown warned that if they voted against the project completely, the developer might still build without providing them the affordable housing they requested… ‘If we vote against this and they don’t work with us, they’ll really come make a Williamsburg’. said Brown

East Williamsburg, Queens

05/16/2013 | 1 Comment

PS71

PS 71, East Williamsburg, L. I.
Photo: via ebay
Map

Last week, Gothamist had some fun with a Kalmon Dolgin real estate listing that purported to be in East Williamsburg when it was in fact in Ridgewood, Queens.

I’m sure Kalmon Dolgin was just fluffing their listing, as Gothamist said, but, there is a bit of historical accuracy to the moniker. Historically, there was a village just over the Queens border that was called East Williamsburg (Long Island!), as the above postcard will attest. This was completely distinct from the enlarged area of the town (and later city) of Williamsburg east of Union Avenue, which was annexed to the original town of Williamsburg (west of Union) in 1835.

Bushwick Mall

Bushwick Daily has pictures from a Massey Knakal brochure marketing a proposed “Bushwick” Mall on Bogart Street in East Williamsburg. It’s not really clear if Massey Knakal is marketing the property (i.e., trying to entice someone to develop it) or if they are trying to market the project (i.e., someone is already planning to build this and is looking for tenants). Either way, this project seems to be more about the Bushwick Hotel than the Bushwick Mall.

Bushwick Bars Given Midnight Curfew on Sundays by Community Board

Suddenly, CB4 in Bushwick seems to going through a lot of the growing pains that CB1 went through 10 years ago or more. Around that time, CB1 tried to institute a moratorium on all new liquor licenses in the Northside (yes, nightlife was once primarily restricted to the Northside). That had no effect, and it is pretty much guaranteed that Sunday curfews will have the same effect.

If CB4 wants to control hours or other aspects of operations, they need to negotiate those restrictions with new licensees and get those restrictions into the methods of operation of the liquor licenses. Just say no doesn’t work with SLA.

[via Wyckoff Heights]

How Will Developers Treat Historic Buildings in Bushwick and Ridgewood?

Nice to see that someone is thinking about historic buildings in Ridgewood and Bushwick.

There is a lot there, and although some of it is designated (mainly in Ridgewood) there is a lot that isn’t. As Wyckoff Heights notes, a lot of the neighborhood on the Brooklyn side is zoned R6, and lacks the contextual height limits of the R6B zone on the Queens side. The density differences between R6 and R6B are usually marginal, but the potential impact on a neighborhood of relatively uniform lower-height buildings can be huge. This issue was called out in a 2011 preservation plan that my students did for Bushwick Avenue. The studio focused on the westernmost end of Bushwick (primarily the avenue itself), but identified the disparity of existing building heights vs. allowed zoning as a looming problem [pdf]. To the west, Bed-Stuy has largely been “contextually” rezoned, as has Ridgewood. But the heart of Bushwick is ripe for pop-ups and finger buildings galore.

Leaders Want Bushwick Rezoning So It’s Not the Next Williamsburg

Bushwick – one of the last unlimited height zones in northern Brooklyn – is ripe for a raft of finger-type buildings. A year and a half ago, the local community board’s land use committee showed little interest in the threat of height-factor buildings. Now, with development on the upswing throughout the area, the community may be too late to the game.