The beginning of the end?

The beloved light blue warehouse on Bond Street gets a fence to be prepared for demolition. I left this morning to this.

And came back to this.

 

Damn I'll miss this building.

 

Gowanus Waters Surge and Fill Bond Street

This scary footage was taken last night as the waters surged from the Gowanus Canal and began to fill Bond Street at a frighteningly quick speed.

The brave person who took this footage (I live on Bond and I was cowering in the middle of my apartment with the lights off having anxiety attacks!) has a very sane and logical message for Lightstone Properties , who wish to build a 700 unit apartment complex on this stretch of block which is "DON'T BUILD HERE!"

Snow Noir

This is F.I.B's 800th post. Crazy.

Found on Bond Street

Ten orderly years of National Geographic up for grabs....

Found on Bond Street

all the way from Panama!

Five O'Clock Shadow on Bond Street

Toll Brothers want to knock this building down, what a sad day that will be (IF it happens!). It's a calm strip of block and I love the painterly imperfect paint splotch grafitti cover ups. So abstract expressionist!

O.K, I never claimed to be a mature adult...The Tolls are Trolls!

A Belated Happy New Year!

I haven't had much to say in the New Year except that if anyone has lost a hula hoop on Bond Street it's up in the tree across from the N.Y.F.D E.M.S station. Yup, and that is that Scarano building I've yammered on about several times behind it too.

I've been using the free time that I have not spent looking for work (YES. F.I.B still needs a job, this temping life barely pays the bills, any tips (or donations) greatly accepted!) has been spent getting the Art and Music extravaganza together over at Freddy's. Not only is the group of artists I've got together excellent there are also quite a few blogosphere notables such as Miss. Heather, Adam "Big Sky Brooklyn", Brian "Who Walk in Brooklyn" Berger and Art Dog included in the bunch. Also, some fab bands will playing. So far F.I.B's got the always groovy Les Sans Cullotes and the highly entertaining Susquehanna Industrial Tool and Die Co. on board. Stay tuned for the third band!

But yes, the best of everything to everyone who reads this in 2008. May you have a roof over your head, some food in your fridge, good health, great friends and more than a couple extra bucks if you need it. Have a great '08 Babies!!!!

Art Dog has an Arch Nemesis!

I noticed that demolition started up again on the corner of Third & Bond Street. The developers actually have a blog on Brownstoner chronicling the trials and tribulations of their quest to build housing on toxic land. Are they also trying to be down with the street artists while they are at it?

I am no fan of real estate blogs as I see them as part of the problem of the borification and homogenization of NYC (check out their advertisers!) but I do check Brownstoner out about once a month to see what the progress is on this fantastically interesting project as it up the street from me. What type of sinks will they use?! Who will do the gardening?! A real cliffhanger, I tell you.

Apparantly they've got an artist that works on many of their projects which include the fabulous NYU dorms on 12th Street in Manhattan. I guess she is the anti- Art Dog! They rarely mention the fact that they are opening up earth in the midst of toxic brown and aquatic brownfields but hey, it’s really no big deal. The fact that Whole Foods probably won’t ever be setting up shop a couple hundred yards away due to environmental reasons is a non issue.I just find it a shame that times are so tough in this city for artists that they find themselves employed by the very people that would displace them.

Unless that is, they make over 80K a year which seems to be the income that qualifies one as eligible for "affordable housing" in these types of units.

Found in Brooklyn

I'm just musing here...has anybody noticed that almost the entire block on Bond Street between 2nd & 3rd Streets is for sale all of a sudden? Both sides of the street! I know that the corner building (Bond & 2nd) was architecturally unsound, friends of mine were forced to move out of that building for that reason about 10 years ago. The floors were completely slanted. It was sinking. They said that the building was in danger of collapsing. Then it looked like they put some sort of support beams in and new people moved in. I guess who ever owns those building's knows that it probrably the right time to cash out on them as I heard that "luxury brownstone" style buildings will be built on that vacant corner. Question, why are all condos "luxury", is it mandatory that those two words go together? What makes them so "luxurious"? Do they have saunas, hot tubs, maids, nanny's,elaborate security systems what?! Those luxury condos or whatever are going to be right smack in the middle of traffic going to and from the new Whole Foods. Bond Street is going to become very busy once that is built. That is if they ever clean up the toxic waste dump that it is going to be sitting on!

I'm confused-Is there a Toll ahead?

Last week I read on the Gowanus Lounge that someone put a sign "Toll Ahead" on the corner of 1rst Street and Bond Street, when I walked by it the same night I noticed that someone had hastily spray painted it with rustoleum. I figured the person who put up was a graphic designer type into subtle double ententres and the person who sprayed it out was working for Toll or or one of the other developers around these days. Tonight I was riding back from the park (which was really lush and luuuvvly this evening) and I took a turn down the alley. Well, they don't like "art" either.
They sprayed out the face on this piece by Teo.and sprayed out some of this one too. (Who is this artist? I know it's not Swoon, right, it's like her in scale, in body but not color and the nose & flower ain't her, but I could be wrong) The funny thing was when I was snapping a picture of the sign, one of those well heeled Smith St. type couples (that I love so well, I like to call them "Biff & Muffy")strolled by walking a dog , the boyfriend/husband said very sarcastically "artists".
Maybe HE did it!

Public Service Announcement-Gowanus Rezoning Meeting on Monday.

I received this email from "Friends of Bond" about a FROGG meeting.

"There is supposed to be a report on the City planning Rezoning of Gowanus meeting. Also on their agenda is 'How Bond Street will be affected by zoning change.We are planning a meeting for FOB sometime after memorial day. I will keep you posted."

Monday May 21
6:30pm
Smith and Vine tasting room
268 Smith Street

Friends & Residents of Greater Gowanus Meeting Monday April 16th.

Here's some info passed on from "Friends of Bond Street"

"The FROGG meeting is Monday April 16, at 6:30 in the Old Can Factory on 3rd and 3rd.
They plan on having a strategy session for the meeting that is happening on the 19th.
I think both meetings are important and should be well attended.

The Community Board 6 meeting is happening on Thursday, April 19 at 6:00 to be held at P.S. 32 at 317 Hoyt Street (brwn Union and President.)

As a separate group—Friends of Bond Street—we will be going to City Planning ourselves, to voice our concerns for the neighborhood, specifically Bond Street. I will plan on setting this meeting up for sometime after April 19 meeting."

More Developments on Bond Street

The neighborhood group I blogged about last week now has a name. "Friends of Bond". They are looking for a public space to meet that can hold about 40 people. The nursing home is going under renovation. Any ideas?

Hello

First off, this my block. My beautiful desolate block. I like to call it Tobacco Road, it's off the beaten path yet minutes from civilization. I decided to start this Blog today, this FREEZING cold February day and because of that I will begin posting photos of stuff I've found starting 2 weeks ago. I usually find stuff on the weekends as that is when people usually clean and clear stuff out. Eventually I hope that this will become more of a real time journal with me posting within a day or so of finding my treasure (or trash!)