The neighborhood meeting hosted by
Friends of Bond regarding the SCOPING hearing for the Toll Brothers project along the Gowanus Canal between Carroll and 2nd Streets drew quite a large and concerned crowd from the immediate area around Bond Street. The whole premise of the meeting was to discuss how to strategize for the upcoming Scoping Hearing on March 13th with City Planning. Why does the neighborhood need to strategize you may ask?
Well, mostly because the neighborhood currently lacks the infrastructure for an influx of about 1,000 new residents, especially with potentially more coming in with all the other development projects that will descend once the zoning is changed. Why are the current residents justifiably concerned? Schools, traffic, FIRE HOUSES (response time?! C.G. lost their fire house) shopping and at the top of the list seemed to be the uh…..
sewage problem.A big unexpected surprise was that at about 15 minutes into the meeting, we learned that
the Toll Brothers themselves or at least some representatives of the Toll Brothers were in attendance. I give them credit for putting themselves out there. What did they have to say? Well, they still haven’t closed on the property where the condo development is slated to be built. The sale is contingent on the rezoning. Rezoning? Well, right now the land between the Gowanus Canal and Bond Street is not zoned for residential, the zoning is for light industry and manufacturing. This upcoming Scoping meeting will have a lot to do with whether that zoning change goes through or not.
Special guest speakers Craig Hammerman (District Manager Community Board 6), Queens Councilman Tony Avella and Williamsburg community organizer Phil DePaolo of the NY Community Council spoke plainly about what the community needs to do in order to fight this thing. It is VERY IMPORTANT that people from the community SHOW UP at this scoping meeting on March 13th. It is everybody’s chance to speak his or her mind. Mind you, make sure when you speak you can back up everything you say with statistics, YOU HAVE GOT TO BE SPECIFIC, which was a very important pearl of wisdom. Tony Avella is actually ON the NYC zoning committee and painted a very depressing picture about how money talks, that’s why big projects like these get pushed ahead of things like the brownstone area of Carroll Garden wanting rezoning as their streets are too narrow for big condo projects. It’s all about the moola. And Toll Brothers has PLENTY of that! BUT he did say that we shouldn’t just give up and go along with the process.
I urge anyone who lives around this area and is concerned to PLEASE come up with a statement to read at the Scoping meeting on March 13th. Relate your personal experiences and be VERY specific.
The Scoping Hearing will be on Thursday, March 13, 2008 from 2:00 to 5:45 PM and from 6:00 to 8:45 PM at the City of New York Department of City Planning, Spector Hall, 22 Reade Street, New York, New York 10007
Craig Hammerman can be reached
here if you need get help in framing your objections.
If you have any questions or need any other help email here at lisannemct at yahoo dot com. and I can direct you to the right people.
Get the whole Public Scoping Document
here.If you want to read about some of the Toll Brothers more unsuccessfull projects click
hereNeighborhood blog,
Pardon Me for Asking and
Brownstoner also attended the meeting, check their synopsises.
What?! You say?! ANOTHER film review over at that renegade blog Who Walk in Brooklyn?! Yeah, it's true. He's good bad but he's not evil. This time around I've been assigned the cinema classic "Teenage Gang Debs" shot in 1966, Brooklyn USA.
I can count on one hand the amount of times I have been in this neighborhood. I felt like I was on vacation in another state and sort of like I was in a Norman Rockwell painting. I walked through the area on my way home from Vox Pop in Flatbush (I am going to be in an art show there, details upcoming!). The streets were so quiet, the birds were singing, the flowers were blooming,the houses so big and beautiful. I was waiting for a cartoon butterfly to whiz past my head. Or maybe walk by a lemonade stand. Is it ALWAYS like this or did they slip a mickey into my coffee at Vox Pop?!
Camaro on Rugby Road looks like it's in upstate New York! 
It just seemed so country like!
Also spotted when I hit Prospect Park, was the most patriotic 18-wheeler I ever laid my eyes on. And they weren’t even from out of state, the truck company is from Brooklyn!
Hey..I know many of you Brooklynites enjoyed the Anabolics back in February at Freddy's, check them out tonite in Manhattan should you need another fix!
Yes I know this is not Mag Field but it IS Les Sans Cullote!
Want to hear about the possible Toll Brothers project on Bond Street from a representative from the company? You can on Thursday night at 6pm.
Frank Shifreen is one of the artists in the show at Freddy's, which will be up for another 3 weeks. I have gotten to know Frank since the show and I have to say he is a true artist who believes in collaboration and community in art. A rare bird these days. He has participated in hundreds of shows and curated many himself. Just google him, you'll see! (Hey, this a blog not Art News!)
Frank will be participating in the Pool Art Fair at the Chelsea Hotel this coming weekend. Please check it out. The Chelsea has a rich history in not only housing but suppporting artists. I had mentioned in a blog post many months ago when I was upset about the recent changes at the Chelsea, it's going corporate and many of the long time residents are being forced out.. This art show could be the last of it's kind there so make an effort to check IT and also the Chelsea Hotel out.
Insectivora
The deadline is Monday if you care to comment on the proposed Toll Brothers project on Bond Street. The Friends of Bond blog has some excellent instructions to guide you through the complicated task and provide links to the Scoping document and Technical manual. Click here for that.
Although I always have my guard up when I walk home late at night, the silent Saints and Madonnas I pass by are some added protection that I appreciate. I like how it looks like Mary is commanding the vine to grow.
A hippie bus! From Vermont! 
Great News! F.R.O.G.G (Friends and Residents of the Gowanus Canal) have received $275,000.00 grant from the state to investigate the aquatic brownfield and upland brownfield contaminants in and around the canal. As so many public officials and developers are chomping at the bit to rezone so they can dig and construct along this canal, the timing on this could not be better.
Unrelated photo but Joyce was nice enough to not make it mandatory (the right to remain silent) if one didn't want to read at her blogade, and also I just love Jackie's 5th. Happy Early St. Paddy's Day!
Just because it's still winter doesn't mean nothing is going on out at Coney! 
This is a typical hunk of raw sewage that appears on the Gowanus Canal after a good rain. Imagine HOW much more there is going to be once there are 1000's of new residents in the area? Clean up of the canal is not slated to happen until after construction starts! FUN!
"Found in Brooklyn" by Gail Rothschild.
The neighborhood group called "Friends of Bond" who put together the meeting to discuss the potential Toll Brothers condo development now have a blog. 
My work has been taking me into the neighborhood of my old stomping ground of the East Village lately. It has me an emotional wreck some of the time seeing many of the landmarks of my life knocked down and turned into glass and steel. I know the East Village has been an alcoholic Disneyland with all the bars that the NYU kids have been flocking to for the past twenty years or so, but it somehow has retained a flavor until the last couple years. I actually lived on St. Marks Place briefly in 1984, when there used to be more Ukrainian businesses and that guy John Spacely otherwise known as Gringo (once immortalized on a mural the building at the start of St. Marks Place) used to constantly be roaming the block in his frilly shirts. I was a young punk and used to spend my nights hanging out in Tompkins Square Park and going to shows and odd performance events in abandoned buildings and after hours around Avenues B & C. One of my favorite places to go was a place called 8 B.C (8th Street between B & C) anybody out there remember it? It was common to see Quentin Crisp, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Smith, Dee Dee Ramone, Richard Hell, ANDY WARHOL! showing up in the weirdest places at the weirdest times. I am so grateful to have experienced that. There are not many of people of that ilk around anymore. Mostly because back then it was slightly less difficult to be an artist and live here, Berlin wasn't as much of a seriously realistic option as it is now. The only one around out of that bunch now is Richard Hell and I actually did see him in that neighborhood two years ago looking healthy. He must have a rent controlled apartment. I am digressing again, I am in such a melancholy mood these days. Just so sick of hearing about and seeing things disappear in the name of "progress".
The neighborhood meeting hosted by Friends of Bond regarding the SCOPING hearing for the Toll Brothers project along the Gowanus Canal between Carroll and 2nd Streets drew quite a large and concerned crowd from the immediate area around Bond Street. The whole premise of the meeting was to discuss how to strategize for the upcoming Scoping Hearing on March 13th with City Planning. Why does the neighborhood need to strategize you may ask? 
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