This fugly project looks like it belongs in Dallas.
Once again the Gowanus community is up against a developer looking to make a fast buck in the name of "affordable housing" and "jobs". If approved this development will situate itself on Bond Street between 2nd Street and Carroll Street in the same place as the Toll Brothers proposed to build their project which housed 200 LESS units than this. Toll Brothers abandoned the project when the EPA declared this a toxic waterway and designated it a Superfund site.
The developers, Lightstone Group, are using an Environmental Impact Statement or "EIS" from the days before it became a superfund site and have admitted at a CB6 land use meeting last week to be using non union workers. This is WRONG!
Please sign this petition and pass it on to anyone you know who cares about the environment, over development and profit over community concerns.
The Mars Bar is the latest old school place that is getting the wrecking ball, although not really old in the old sense of the word, the Mars has been around since the late 1980's and has been the last hold outs of the type of east village bar where the punks, the postal workers, the homeless,the artists and all matter of people in between mingled. Things and conversations happen in that shoebox of a place that frequently seemed like hallucinations. It kind of stepped in where another 80's era east village bar, Downtown Beirut left off. Anyhow, it's closing. I don't care what the owner Hank says, the developers are probably not "good guys". Another bar that went on the chopping block this week was Max Fish on Ludlow Street. Also not really old but old compared to everything else on the block. I guess they were the beginning of the onslaught.
Anyway this is a post I did about 3 years ago saluting the Mars or as I like to spell it Marz. How I spent my 7/7/07. Man, am I glad I didn’t go to that drumming thing over at Brooklyn Bridge Park yesterday! Sounded like it turned out to be an over crowded nightmare. It was sort of fascinating to me that the Boredoms had managed to attract such a crowd. Was it the Boredoms or the hype of the importance of the date 7/7/07? OK I just answered my own question, clearly it was the latter….What did we do on 6/6/06? Does anybody remember?! On 7/7/07 I could NOT get out of bed or out of my house, it must have been the centrifugal force of the sun telling me to stay home and meditate or simply exhaustion. So, after the sun set I ventured out and it was quite a lovely evening.
A friend was in town from LA and wanted to meet at the Motor City Bar on Ludlow Street in Manhattan. I ventured out into the 7/7/07 night to join Margie aka Vena Virago and CalmX (long time East Village resident and artist).Well, we lasted about 10 minutes before fleeing. The saturday night bar scene on Ludlow Street is pretty soulless. The music at Motor City was loud yet you still couldn’t hear it. SO the three of us old timers ended up at the Mars Bar, one of the or shall I say THE ONLY old school cheap punk rock NYC bar left. It is now surrounded by what else? Luxury condos! The ugliest tall tower glass and metal kind with Whole Foods just a hop skip and a jump away. The Marz is still doling out the cheap drinks (2 really strong vodka drinks and one beer = $11.00)has ranting bartenders, (this evenings hostess started complaining at the top of her lungs when someone put some jazz type music on…’WHO PUT THIS SH*T! ON!!” Of course she intercepted it and put on what SHE wanted to hear, “Too many creeps’ by the Bush Tetras) and a cast of regulars right out of “Midnight Cowboy” mixed in with an eclectic bunch of others. There is a lot of coming and going at the Marz Bar (it is a total “I’m waiting for my man’ bar, IF you know what I mean) but it's sort of a punk rock "Cheers" for all the "black sheeps" of the family to feel at home.
I salute you Marz Bar, long may you continue to be a zit on the airbrushed cityscape that our town has become. You are REAL.
I am reprinting this article from today's Daily New's because it is so nice to get an honest account about what is going on over the battle between the community & the EPA versus Bloomberg and assorted developers which include suburban home giants and Williamsburg condo blighters, The Toll Brothers.
Bloomberg nor anyone else in the city cared about the Gowanus until developers started snooping around dreaming about building condos like the glass/steel ones on the Bowery in Manhattan. Except these were going to be built on a toxic brownfield on the shores of an aquatic brownfield without a thought to health and environmental risks. I guess waterfront prooperty is waterfront property! For almost 2 years there has been a battle between the developers and environmental activists/historic preservationists concerning a rezoning that would allow over 2,000 new residents into this fragile area which lacks infrastructure (schools?!)and would bring significant traffic into a neighborhood with narrow streets.
Anyway! Surprise surprise, even though 80% of the comments were PRO Superfund on the governments website and there WAS a deadline, Bloomberg is acting like that the city is already the ones who are cleaning it, the pumping station is only PART of the puzzle.....I just don't get it. Condos are empty, constructions projects are abandoned- doesn't it make SENSE to let the EPA come in and clean the canal with money that does not come from us?
Anyway a long lead in to an article, honestly reported.
"Advocates of Superfund cleanup of Gowanus Canal denied entry at city launch of $150M cleanup"
BY Erin Durkin
Gowanus Canal advocates charge they were shut out of Mayor Bloomberg's kickoff of a canal cleanup because they support designating the polluted waterway a Superfund site.
The group of eight was barred by police from entering the Friday event, at which Bloomberg launched a $150 million project to improve water quality.
Some members of the group had hoped to attend as members of the Department of Environmental Protection's Flushing Tunnel Rehabilitation Stakeholders Committee, formed in 2002 to work with the city on plans to rehab the canal's flushing tunnel.
"It was really a private party," said committee member Marlene Donnelly. "They wouldn't let us through the gates. They actually told us we weren't allowed to stand on the sidewalk there because this was a private event."
Bloomberg has lobbied vigorously to stop the federal Environmental Protection Agency from making the canal a Superfund site, saying the city can do its own cleanup faster and without driving away potential development.
"I had my Superfund sign with me. I'm not going to deny that," said Linda Mariano, another committee member, noting that local activists who oppose a Superfund designation and representatives of developer Toll Brothers were let in. "It was an extremely sad scenario there on Friday."
Bloomberg spokesman Marc LaVorgna said the event was "for invited guests and the media .... They [those denied entry] were permitted to be just outside the event on the street and make their voices heard."
The city project includes fixing the canal's flushing tunnel, upgrading a pumping station so less sewage will be dumped into the canal, and dredging part of the waterway.
Sabine Aronowsky and Steve DeSeve the duo behind Freddy's Brooklyn Roundhouse, have released their latest episodes this week and they can be viewed on BCAT & Manhattan cable tomorrow (Tuesday)night at 8:00 and in Manhattan on Thursday. The next two episodes focus on the words and ideas of Jane Jacobs and the current developments happening in NYC today.
As per their press release: "The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs’s most famous book, helped change the blind acceptance of urban planners and their grand schemes to remake cities into unlivable places. Jacobs ended Robert Moses’ reign of bad building and urban destruction. With the misguided development of the Bloomberg administration today, Jane Jacobs's work is as important as it ever was. Freddy’s Brooklyn Roundhouse presents two new episodes based on readings from Jane Jacobs, filmed at the Judson Church, NYC and hosted by Green Party Mayoral Candidate Rev Billy.
You can watch these episodes on TV in Brooklyn and Manhattan , air dates below, also on YouTube now here.
Episode 1: Features neighborhood activists, Michael Premo from Picture the Homeless, Philip Dipaolo from The People's Firehouse and Joy Chatel, Defender of the Duffield House Brooklyn Underground Railroad landmark.
Episode 2: Features neighborhood activists, Cathryn Swan of the Washington Square Park Blog and Save Union Square, Melanie Joseph of the Foundry Theatre and Christabel Gough, NYC preservationist hero.
Bob Holman, of the Howl Festival & Bowery Poetry Club and former City Councilwoman, Carol Greitzer, are other activists who spoke at the event and were not included in the above shows, due to lack of time, will be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/communityevents
In solidarity to all of you working to stay “neighbors” in our neighborhoods, keep up the good work!
I know they evicted people and knocked a building down at this site. Then the artist that sold her soul to the developers put up her trademark flowers and inane words like "Thank you!" on the wall. On this one she actually wrote "What is humility?"
Don't ask a developer! Or perhaps that was a meditation for herself to make her feel better for putting a folksy face on glass and steel to come. By the way most of the "luxury" condo around 4th avenue have no charm and look like NYU dorms in the east village, which, my "favorite" artist has also adorned their wrecking walls with her inanity.
Anyway, back to Fourth Ave. It looks like the big plans fell through and now this piece of property at the toney local of fourth avenue and 7th Street is for sale and her artwork is the legacy of hope of the year 2008.
Read and see the art & bad poetry about dead revolutionary war soldiers done by this very same clueless artist on 3rd Street and Bond as a ploy to want to live there here.
HELP US! July 29: SAY NO TO ATLANTIC YARDS - PROTEST Against Ratner’s Rip-off Wednesday. July 29. 2pm. Start Gathering at 1pm. Outside Klitgord Auditorium of NYC Technical College 285 Jay Street, Near Tillary (A/C to Jay St./Borough Hall. 2/3 to Borough Hall)
The Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC, which is the state agency overseeing the Atlantic Yards proposal) is holding a public hearing on the Atlantic Yards project on July 29th. Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn urges you to join a protest against Ratner’s destructive project outside the hearing and then to testify at the hearing. This is it! There will be no more public hearings on Atlantic Yards or protests like this one.
This is the community’s chance to tell ESDC and Ratner:
We Don’t Want Atlantic Yards. We Want Development That Works for the Community! Not at the Expense of the Community. Atlantic Yards Must Be Scrapped!
Join DDDB, other community groups, residents, clergy, union members, and elected officials for the 2pm protest. Please start gathering at 1pm.
(**Protest will start up again at 6pm.)
The hearing is scheduled from 2-5 and 6-8. The protest will start at 1. Then DDDB asks the public to sign in and testify against the project. (If you are unable to come for the afternoon protest and hearing, DDDB urges you to come for the late afternoon/evening hearing; we will be there from 1 until the end at 8 or later. Look for us.)
Bring Protest Signs. Speak your mind about the project.
Atlantic Yards is a rip-off for taxpayers, A rip-off for straphangers, A rip-off for those in need of affordable housing, A rip-off for those in need of employment. A rip-off for Brooklynites and a rip off for New Yorkers
It is a boondoggle for Bruce Ratner... No More Bailouts for Billionaires
OK. I apologize for being so last minute on this. Bottom line is the city wants to close the amusement area in with high rise hotel towers. Save Coney Island thinks the amusement area should be expanded and the hotels moved OUT of the amusement area. There is a meeting today, Tuesday July 21st, at City Hall where The Zoning and Land Use Committees are now scheduled to vote on revisions to the Coney Island rezoning plan so, If there was ever a time to fight for your right to Save Coney, it’s now. The City Council’s Land Use Committee is expected to vote on the rezoning plan this week. The full Council vote is scheduled for July 29. In a last ditch effort to save the People’s Playground, Save Coney Island is asking New Yorkers to call their elected officials and request changes to the City’s plan.
Here is what YOU can do:
Two Phone Calls to Save Coney Island.
The Bloomberg administration’s plan to shrink Coney Island’s amusement district and to block it off with four high-rise hotel towers is now before the City Council. There isn’t much time left to request changes to the City’s plan. If you want to save Coney Island, PLEASE CALL your City Council member TODAY (the sooner the better!). To find your City Council member and their phone number, plug in your street address and borough here. Call their LEGISLATIVE OFFICE number first. Try calling during the workday. * Tell them you live in their district. * Tell them that you’re calling about the plan for Coney Island currently under review by City Council. * Tell them Coney Island is an issue of CITYWIDE concern and that the current plan would RUIN Coney Island forever. * Tell them that the area for open-air amusements needs to be EXPANDED and that the proposed high-rise hotels need to be MOVED out of the amusement area. * Tell them to urge the Department of City Planning and Coney Island Councilmember Domenic Recchia to FIX the City’s plan. * Tell them your address and tell them you would like to know what their position is on this issue. * Tell them to check out Save Coney Island for more information. Be polite. Be brief. Be passionate. Leave a message if nobody answers.
AND I know it's raining this morning but if you can your presence is needed at City Hall TODAY!
WE NEED YOU TO ATTEND AND MAKE OUR PRESENCE FELT! When: 10:30 am Where: City Hall Chambers. PLEASE, GET THERE EARLY TO GET THROUGH SECURITY.
Bring a sign! The last time, they gave us a hard time about anything bigger than 8.5 x 11. You can download one no bigger than that here(pdf).
The vote by the Land Use Committee is the last chance for the plan to be fixed. If council members choose to vote on the plan without significant amendments dealing with the amusement area, we will know that they ignored your calls and that they are indifferent to the destruction of the “People’s Playground”. The vote by the entire City Council is scheduled for July 29th.
The Fabulous Insectavora! While the Coney Island Film Festival was a fun event you couldn’t help but getting a sad vibe when you looked around the area surrounding the Coney Island USA building. Although it is closed for the season anyway the vacant lots surrounded by chain link fences bulldozed by Thor Equities last year intensify a feeling of impending doom only amplified by the rainy weather. Coney was enveloped in a surreal mist for most of the weekend. Correct me if I’m wrong me but aren’t at least the Cyclone & the Wonder Wheel still operating on the weekends at this time of year?
I attended many screenings over the 3 days, unfortunately it was impossible to see them all as the screenings (over 125 shorts!) were done simultaneously between the Freak Show Stage and the Coney Island Museum but I managed to take in a lot.
The selections seemed a bit darker this year. Sunday afternoon’s Coney centric shorts viewing were bittersweet as nostalgia has set in big time already. Will the recent economic developments halt Joe Sitt & Bloomberg’s big dreams of condos and Nike towns? Save Coney Island by Peter LiPera is a doc (and winner of the festival!) chronicalizing the “Save Coney Island” Movement, from the organization of the protest at City Hall last year till the unknowing period of now. Of course it’s open ended as the fight is still going on. (go here to see what you can do to help.) One Coney short unrelated to the amusement park that I really liked was by Alexis Neophytides called “Coney Island’s for the Bird’s” a doc about the underground world of Brooklyn pigeon racing, looked like it was filmed on Neptune Avenue. And as usual the festival closed Sunday night with the filmmakers claiming their awards at Eldorardo Auto Skooters, as I am SURE they do in Cannes as well! Click here for the Coney Island Film Festival website for a complete list of winners!
Recently added to the building on 3rd and 3rd. Very timely.
The Toll Brothers comes before the Community Board 6 on Thursday night for the next round in the rezoning process. Be there if you care and you can speak for or against if you want to. Read the details below for the specifics.
Discussion and formulation of a recommendation on ULURP No. C090047ZMK, an application for an amendment of the Zoning Map.
Discussion and forumation of a recommendation on ULURP No. C090048ZSK, an application for a special permit to modify height and setback requirements, rear yard regulations and inner court regulations at 363-365 Bond Street (Block 452, Lots 1, 5, 15, 19 and Block 458, Lot 1).
Also! Has any one read this pro-Toll Brothers editorial in the Brooklyn Paper? I always knew they were all for it as their journalism has been slanted throughout (under reporting the amount of people that show up for community meetings for one example!) They claim that the Toll Brothers are saving "the soul of the Gowanus"! What a load of raw sewage Batman!
This Toll Brothers rep is just SO excited to build build build on toxic land! Say good bye to that background cause it's gonna be all glass and steel if he gets his way!
If you live in the Gownaus Canal area and care about the POSSIBLE upcoming zoning changes which would allow some very large condominiums to be built starting on Bond Street with the Toll Brothers, I urge you to attend a meeting held by local citizens activist group F.R.O.G.G. (Friends and Residents of the Gowanus Canal) on Tuesday. To be discussed is the upcoming meeting with CB6 Land Use Committee meeting on Thursday, Sept. 25. regarding this matter. F.R.O.G.G has been pouring over the Enviromental Impact Statement that the Toll Brothers have released (which is the size of two phonebooks by the way) and this will most likely be the major topic. From what I hear it is not complete. Traffic rather than environmental issues seem to be more important to them. To quote a F.R.O..G.G member who has been studying the tome since it's been released.
"525,309 zoning square feet, 447 dwelling units with 268 Parking spaces and all they need to do is get the DOT to adjust traffic light timing. (Oh and of course, make sure that the DEP rehab's that Flushing Tunnel so the concentrations of hydrogen sulfide in the air is brought under control--they hope.)"
F.R.O.G.G Meeting: Tuesday September 16 at 6:30 in the back room at Smith & Vine, 268 Smith Street.
Also check out this excellent but chilling video posted over at Pardon Me For Asking regarding another toxic brownfield site in the hood called Public Place - Brownfield of Dreams.
And another thing, if someone invites you to the Gowanus Dredgers Benefit "Bacchanal" sponsored by the Toll Brothers amongst others, don't go. It happens to be on the SAME night as the CB 6 land use committee meeting by the way! They will do anything in order to have a dock and storage area like even believe that corporate developers will clean up the canal correctly! If i had the time I want to photoshop into their invite which depicts a peaceful moonlit canoe ride with low buildings along the canal and replace it with the cold glass structures that MIGHT be built.
F.R.O.G.G Meeting: Tuesday September 16 at 6:30 in the back room at Smith & Vine, 268 Smith Street.
F.I.B spends some time at the Bay Parkway subway station a couple times a week. For those that don't know it overlooks Washington cemetery. The cemetery is densely packed with the tombstones on land divided in half by the subway/Bay Parkway and bordered by a sanitation station, housing and ironically a "Wholesale Liquidators". This particular tombstone is a mystery to me. Most of the people buried here are jewish, going back to the early 1900's. The newer stones have photographic images on them, mostly Russian Jews. Reserve your spot now!
R.I.P - Astroland.
I guess as Lawrence Ferlinghetti wrote there is a part of Cony Island that is of the mind and I feel that is a major part of it's mystique. Hopefully that spirit will not be overtaken by Niketown although it wouldn't suprise me if some corporation would co-opt the beat poem into their ad campaign eventually.
So in response to my earlier post, former Astroland owner Carol Albert did not receive her lease from Thor Equities yesterday and true to her word has thrown in the towel, rather than shut the park as usual in October this Sunday is the last day for Astroland as we know it. In a word - sad. (and why the hell did she sell it?!)
Democracy was in action in more places than Denver this evening as Carroll Gardens residents voiced their opinions before Community Board 6 regarding “out of scale development” which they have been continuously fighting against for over a year at 360 Smith Street. Residents spoke once again about maintaining the current quality of life (which is what makes CG so desirable) and asking that the scale of the new buildings be sensitive to the historic architectural character of the 19th century brownstones in Carroll Gardens.
Favorite quotes from commenters:
“The engineers of the Titanic thought the ship would sail, but THEY WERE WRONG!” from a passionate C.G resident who also worked for the MTA regarding Stein’s trust that a 7 story building with a parking garage is perfectly fine to build on top of a subway station.
And some Oscar Wilde..
“People know the price of everything and the VALUE of NOTHING” regarding the quality of life issues. (At least that was my interpretation.)
Also! C.O.R.D member Triada Samaras spoke and dropped off 500 signed letters against building this structure called “The Oliver” out of scale. The majority of the speakers were against Stein ignoring the recently passed text amendment and building under his previous “AS OF RIGHT” (so obnoxious!) position pre-text amendment change. About 4 people were all for Stein, at least half’s last name was Scotto, go figure! One very pompous, confident fellow dressed in shades of white named Peter Piper or Pauper or something was particularly repulsive in his “AS OF RIGHT” stance. Read fab blog Lost City’s take on this scene!
In the end CB 6 rationally decided that developer Billy Stein shouldn’t continue with his current plan until another hearing takes place in mid-September. Until then…
After all my build up I could not make in out in time for the 6pm scoping meeting tonight at Lincoln High regarding the fate of the development of Coney Island. I later watched the NY network news cover the story with (their) laughter and indifference. I guess they are looking foward to buying some Nikes and getting on the Cyclone and THAT's IT! I don't get NY1 so I don't know if they were as obnoxious. The networks must be afraid of pissing off Bloomberg or people really are that plastic. So enjoy some Amos Wrengler, the troubadour of Coney Island, who states the issues simply.
Why would anyone want to change this? Tomorrow there is a very important meeting for Carroll Gardeners who live in the historic brownstone narrow street areas. The narrow "Place" blocks are in danger of becoming crowded with out of scale building developments. There is an ridiculous piece of text in the zoning code that says that the front gardens, ie: the "GARDENS" of Carroll "GARDENS" are really part of the street.
If you have the time and you care about the unique beauty and history of these buildings and do not want out of scale tall buildings to destroy the existing aesthetic and character of this historic neighborhood, do try and attend the meeting. If you can not attend you can submit a comment.
Read more at the C.O.R.D blog, which is right here to read more info and read testimonies from local residents.
Where:City Planning Commission Wednesday, June 4th at 10 AM Spector Hall 22 Reade Street New York, New York 10007 Re : Carroll Gardens Zoning Text Amendment N 080345 ZRK
The public is encouraged to sign up to speak in front of the commission, but written testimonies will also be accepted. Please send your written comments to:
City Planning Commission Calendar Information Office Room 2E 22 Reade Street New York, NY 10007
I was in Manhattan today and passed by these sweet buildings on 2nd Avenue and 20th Street which look like they are ready for the wrecking ball. Just thought it was sad.
The Executive Committee of Community Board 6 is pleased to host...
What’s Going on at “Public Place”?
An informational update by representatives for the City on the developer selection process and the next steps for planning the site.
From February through May 2007, Brooklyn Community Board 6 and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) hosted a series of public visioning sessions on how the “Public Place” brownfield site at the southeast corner of Smith and 5th Streets could be redeveloped. In July 2007 the City of New York officially issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) which began the formal search for a developer to work with the City and community on planning and redeveloping the site. Responses were due in October 2007. The City is currently in the process of selecting a finalist from the proposals received. At this meeting we expect to hear a report from HPD on the types of responses they received to the RFP, where the City is in the decision-making process, and what the next steps in the process are.
DATE: Monday, February 25, 2008 TIME: 6:30 pm PLACE: P.S. 32 Auditorium 317 Hoyt Street (between Union/President Streets)
Bring your neighbors! Bring your friends! Find out what’s going on.
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