On Tuesday there will be a chance to have a say and listen to proposals for the future of the threatened Navy Yard Admirals Row buildings. Hosted by Lt. Col. Mike Milord of the Air National Guard, the public hearing will take place ar P.S. 307 (202 York Street @ Gold Street in DUMBO).
Tuesday Dec 11, 7PM - For information call 1-703-607-2780 or view the announcement here.
Scott Witter, founder and curator of Brooklyn's Other Museum of Brooklyn, is fighting to have the historically and architecturally significant buildings landmarked. Maybe you saw his publicity drive at the weekend?
Hot Bird Hanging On: Atlantic Yards Destruction Update
There's a new construction update on the 'Yards over at No Land Grab. We swung past on Saturday to find the Hot Bird building on Vanderbilt has survived so far.
* Demolition is complete at 465 Dean Street (block 1127, lot 54). Clean up and back fill will be completed within this 2-week period.
* Demolition is complete at 814 Pacific Street (block 1129, lot 45). Clean up and back fill will be completed within this 2-week period.
* Demolition is complete at 538 Vanderbilt Avenue (block 1129, lot 46). Clean up and back fill will be completed within this 2-week period.
* Demolition is underway at 546 Vanderbilt Avenue (block 1129, lot 54) and will continue for the next two–three months.
Patricia Jones from the Willets Point Industry & Realty Association wants to spread the word about a short video profiling small business owners in Willets Point who are vulnerable to eminent domain claims.
You can find out more about WPIRA here and below is their recent press release:
LAND OWNERS SET TO CHALLENGE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION'S PLAN FOR WILLETS POINT REDEVELOPMENT AT CITY COUNCIL HEARING
Council Expected to Question Viability of the City's Proposal to Use Eminent Domain to Force Private Landowners to Sell to Developer
(New York, NY) November 20, 2007 – A group of land/business owners from Willets Point are gearing up for a battle with the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) at the final City Council oversight hearing on November 29, 2007, before the city files a Uniformed Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) that would allow the use of eminent domain to condemn and take private properties in Willets Point and sell the land to a developer for a sizeable profit. The commercial and residential redevelopment project in Willets Point and is projected to cost upwards of $3 billion. This will be the City's first Urban Renewal plan in close to 40 years.
Representatives from the Willets Point Industry and Realty Association (WPIRA), a group of the 10 largest land/business owners in Willets Point will testify before the New York City Council's Land Use and Economic Development Committees on November 29, 2007 at 1 p.m. in the Committee Room, City Hall.
The City Council is expected to examine the economic and technical viability of the city's redevelopment plan for Willets Point and seek answers to questions that were posed during the first oversight hearing in June 2007. The city issued an RFP in November 2004 but has not released results of their environmental impact analysis of the area in question nor has it presented a viable plan for the development of the area and/or identified a developer.
"Unlike all other major rezonings during the Bloomberg administration, the EDC is asking the City Council to vote on a condemnation and rezoning of an area before a developer has even been selected and a plan has been presented. It's outrageous and it's undemocratic," said Daniel Feinstein of Feinstein Iron Works Inc.
In May 2007, Mayor Bloomberg announced the city's redevelopment plan for the area that includes building 1.7 million square feet of retail space, 500,000 square feet of office space, a hotel, 5,500 residential housing units and a convention center in the 60-acre neighborhood that is currently zoned for heavy industry. To execute this plan, it would require the condemnation and taking of approximately 45 acres of privately owned land.
Willets Point employs an estimated 3,000 highly-skilled workers in ironworking, construction, sewer parts production, auto repair and service businesses, and the manufacture of bakery and food ingredients that includes the largest distributor of Indian foods in the U.S. The area is mostly blue-collar and has provided a valuable opportunity for local residents to start up their own businesses and live the American dream. Willets Point business owners provide billions of dollars of economic activity and millions of dollars of tax revenue to the City of New York. In spite of this longstanding tax revenue, the city has blatantly neglected the area and withheld municipal services for decades.
"The city wants to redevelop land that has been in my family for three generations without giving us the option of expanding our profitable business that has thrived despite the fact that we've been operating without basic services. We don't have paved streets, sanitation services, street lights, sanitary or storm sewers," says Anthony Fodera, Senior Partner of Fodera Foods Inc. "We've pleaded with the city for the past 30 years and they just say no – we're not giving you these services. The city intentionally created blight in Willets Point, so they can steal our land from us. And to top it off, as soon as they kick us out they will provide the infrastructure and services that they have denied us to the developers."
"Former Queens Borough President Claire Shulman said that she wasn't going to invest in the area because we're not worth it," said Anthony Fodera, "If we're not worth it, then the city shouldn't take our tax dollars."
WPIRA representatives insist that if the city were to provide basic services, the current land owners would invest and expand their businesses and re-develop the area themselves. "The owners would develop the land and the junkyards that are eyesores couldn't afford to be here anymore," said Jerry Antonacci of Crown Container Co. Inc. "Give us a chance to develop the land where our grandfathers built these businesses over 70 years ago."
In April 2006, Dr. Tom Angotti of the Hunter College Center for Community Planning and Development conducted a land use study of Willets Point that described the area as a "unique business incubator that provides jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities to diverse new immigrant populations." The study recommended that the city establish
a public-private planning partnership in which Willets Point businesses, workers and city agencies would be equal partners in a process that would develop plans that could accommodate existing businesses and promote new commercial and industrial development.
"It's a disgrace the city didn't come to us first to discuss redeveloping this area—we could have worked together. We want it to change as well, nobody wants the status quo," said Dan Scully of Tully Construction Co. Inc.
At the November 29th hearing, WPIRA will question why the city has not considered the creation of an industrial business zone to accommodate the already profitable businesses in the area. While the city promises assistance with relocation, moving is simply not a viable option for most businesses that require M3-1 manufacturing zoning, which is quite scarce in all five boroughs. And for many of these businesses, their current location in Willets Point is essential for the daily operation of their business and the distribution and transportation of their products. Preliminary discussions have taken place, but the city has very little to offer the landowners.
WPIRA has produced a compelling 15 minute videotape profiling the business/landowners whose livelihoods would be placed in serious jeopardy if eminent domain was to be instituted by the city. Moreover, it would have a major adverse impact on the employees who work at these corporations. WPIRA seeks to enter the video as testimony during the November 29th hearing.
Dumbo
From our friends at CUP:
The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), in conjunction with Artists Space, is pleased to present Lofty Pursuits, a live talk show featuring sociologist Sharon Zukin and Jed Walentas, vice-president of Two Trees, the principal land owner in DUMBO. In conjunction with On Being an Exhibition, now showing at Artists Space, Zukin and Walentas will discuss culture, capital, and urban development from SoHo to DUMBO.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007 at 8pm
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue (at 2nd St.)
F/V to 2nd Ave
New York, NY
Unity Plan architect Marshall Brown
The alternative Unity Plan for Atlantic Yards was officially unveiled to the public today at the Soap Box Gallery, Dean Street. There is also a community forum from 6pm tonight at the gallery.
More images here.
Council member Letitia James
It's that time again: another demolition update is out for Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards project.
There's more drilling and surveying underway at the corner of Vanderbilt and Pacific, block 1121.
Sunday was set to be the last day ever for Astroland. Thor Equities are keen to flatten the site so they can get on with their plans to build time-shares.
As Gowanus Lounge puts it:
"Our sadness isn't so much that Astroland is going, but that it may be going long before its replacement comes along. Next year, if developer Joe Sitt uses the land as a bargaining chip to pressure the city or exacts revenge for a rejected plan or evicts the former owners because he couldn't squeeze an extra $500,000 in rent from site, the vacant land surrounded by a blue wall of plywood will sit as a dagger through the heart of one of the most diverse destinations in all of Brooklyn."
This piece of graphic art from the Atlantic Yards footprint will brighten up any pc desktop. If you have not done so, please let us know what size monitor you use by voting in our desktop poll on the right.
InstructionsLeft-click on the image first to open up the large version.
Windows PC: Right-click on the large image and select 'set as desktop background'. You can also right-click and 'save as', then use your desktop properties settings to add the file you just saved and format it how you prefer. There's more info on customising your PC desktop here.
With message boards and internet chatter on the Bergen St. story growing by the hour, where better to go for an in-depth and rational investigation than Atlantic Yards Report.
(Image, from left to right, Sillather Bullock, councilwoman Letitia James and a cop)
A dragon lives forever but not so little boys
Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys.
One grey night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more
And Puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar.
JRG Cafe when it was still open for business
"Demolition is underway at 175 Flatbush Avenue (block 1118, lot 6), and 177 Flatbush Avenue (block 1118, lot 5); 177 Flatbush Avenue will likely be completed within this period."
From the ESDC construction update.
The space where JRG Cafe was, photographed today.
In the Guardian, Ed Pilkington takes a look at Gehry's IAC building and gives the Yards a wee mention:
"As the project's lead architect, Gehry is at the centre of the [Atlantic Yards] dispute. On the one hand, he is being tugged by a highly organised protest movement that has managed to whittle down some of the more ambitious elements of his design, if not kill it off altogether. On the other, he is having to please a famously hard-nosed developer, Bruce Ratner, who will only stomach so much risk-taking from an architect. It doesn't bode particularly well for the outcome that Gehry has christened the tallest building in the scheme, a 511ft tower of glass and metal, 'Miss Brooklyn'. He says it is his 'ego trip.
"It is a gamble indeed. Gehry has finally arrived in New York. But when Atlantic Yards is completed in 2017, will he wish he had never done so?"
This week we present a victim of the Atlantic Yards project. Our version is Ratner-proof and is sized as a PC wallpaper.
InstructionsLeft-click on the image first to open up the large version.
Windows PC: Right-click on the large image and select 'set as desktop background'. You can also right-click and 'save as', then use your desktop properties settings to add the file you just saved and format it how you prefer. There's more info on customising your PC desktop here.
Sitt and Thinkwell: The Future of Coney Island Presentation
Joe Sitt (Thor Equities) teamed up with Thinkwell Design to share their Coney Island vision with residents. The United Community Baptist Church was full beyond capacity and so not everyone had their questions answered. It did help, though, if Mr Sitt or the chap with the mic already knew your name.
Crowd pleasers: Videos of theme park rides, promises of jobs and careers, and free rides for kids with grade improvements.
In-depth coverage here.
Carlton Avenue, Brooklyn
The below information comes from a press release posted by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn.
New York City Property Owners, Tenants and Advocates Unite to Fight Eminent Domain Abuse After Second Anniversary of Infamous U.S. Supreme Court Kelo Decision
TIME/DATE: 1PM, Wednesday, June 27
PLACE: City Hall Steps
PARTICIPANTS:
Home and business owners, and tenants from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn; Duffield St., Brooklyn; West Harlem, Manhattan; Willets Point, Queens;
Councilmembers Tony Avella and Letitia James;
and activists from:
-- Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
-- NoLandGrab.org
-- Historic Districts Council
-- Fifth Avenue Committee
-- New York Community Council
-- Society for the Architecture of the City
-- NY Solidarity Coalition with Katrina and Rita Survivors
-- Willets Point Business Association
-- Harlem Tenants Council
-- Coalition to Preserve Community
-- West Harlem Coalition
-- 550 Riverside, 55/69 Tiemann Pl. Tenants Alliance
-- Coalition To Save The East Village
-- Coalition for a Livable West Side
-- Lower East Side Residents for Responsible Development
-- Duffield Street Block Association
-- Green Party of Brooklyn
-- Park Slope Greens
-- United Neighbors for Brooklyn
-- Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association
-- Brownstone Revival Coalition
-- Fans for Fair Play
and more...
Willets Point, Queens
We had to check the calendar to make sure it hadn't rolled back to April 1, and we haven't verified this ourselves, but here goes...Kinetic Carnival has received some news from the Marino Organization, Thor Equities' PR firm. Thor has "completely eliminated the residential component of its proposed plan," according to a spokesman. Now they want to concentrate on the amusement part of the plan, which Thor previously declared unsustainable. (The "residential component" was the huge condos planned for the boardwalk.)
Very weird.
This week a view of Willets Point, or the Iron Triangle, where hundreds of mechanics recycle the city's cast-off autos. If you click on the image you can open the large version, which is sized for your computer desktop wallpaper.InstructionsLeft-click on the image first to open up the large version.
Windows PC: Right-click on the large image and select 'set as desktop background'. You can also right-click and 'save as', then use your desktop properties settings to add the file you just saved and format it how you prefer. There's more info on customising your PC desktop here.
The JRG Restaurant is slated for demolition in preparation for the Atlantic Yards development. Today they were having an "everything must go" sale.
I wish I had snapped a picture of the glowing orbs that would light up the canopied deck at night, when the sound of music, laughter, and clinking glasses would waft through the otherwise sparsely appointed lots -- always a welcome accompaniment on the walk home from Atlantic-Pacific station.
This handsome 1911 white terra cotta clad beauty is scheduled for demolition as part of the preparation for the Atlantic Yards development. If you feel it should be developed rather than destroyed you can sign an online petition.
Work began this morning on the 'demolition' of the old bus depot in preparation for the Atlantic Yards development. Not that there was much to demolish but there was a hole to be dug through the stubborn surface.
Apparently later this week this red land mark, below, will also be flattened for Ratner's project. The Brooklyn Record reports that the JRG Fashion Cafe (white facade) is set to rise again inside the Nets Arena complex.
The Muffler Men are creations of the welders of Willets Point, Queens. This wedge of land next-door to the Shea baseball stadium is a few blocks of intense automotive activity.
Scarred with pot holes and huge puddles, this is a recycling zone for the corpses of dead cars and trucks. Among vast displays of shining chrome wheels and replacement mufflers, workers whistle or shout to grab the attention of drivers as they cruise (or bounce) past.
Of course, an area that sustains many livelihoods but yields low tax revenues cannot go unnoticed by developers. The vultures of Forest City Ratner are circling.
On Tuesday there will be a chance to have a say and listen to proposals for the future of the threatened Navy Yard Admirals Row buildings. Hosted by Lt. Col. Mike Milord of the Air National Guard, the public hearing will take place ar P.S. 307 (202 York Street @ Gold Street in DUMBO).
Tuesday Dec 11, 7PM - For information call 1-703-607-2780 or view the announcement here.
Scott Witter, founder and curator of Brooklyn's Other Museum of Brooklyn, is fighting to have the historically and architecturally significant buildings landmarked. Maybe you saw his publicity drive at the weekend?
