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May 2008 Archives
28 May 2008
- ◉ Big Brown's Greenpoint Roots
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Big Brown's owner runs a trucking company in Greenpoint.
- ◉ Gravity Defying?
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Greenpoint condo prices are up 40% over last year? Sounds like not enough data points (7 sales last April vs. 25 this April). The data are even sillier for South Park Slope (3 sales vs. 21 sales).
- ◉ ESPO the Fulbright Scholar
- A former bar colleague makes it big (really, he's been making it big for years).
26 May 2008
- ◉ The What in NY Mag
- Everyone's favorite Brownstoner commenter gets his day. (And, of course, you can read all the comments here.)
- ◉ G Train Rally
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Once Haberman gets over making fun of the train that Manhattanites have never heard of, he has a decent summary of last week's G train rally. (And its not just Haberman - even David Yassky gets in on the schtick: "You can’t spell ‘neglected’ without G, you can’t spell ‘ignored’ without G".
(Slightly dated.)
- ◉ 84% of Self-certified Plans Flawed
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Between September, 2007 and January, 2008, the Department of Buildings audited 662 self-certified plans and found zoning-related objections to 556 of those plans. During the same period, another division of DOB that targets repeat offenders found a similar rate of objections: 171 of 207 plans filed, or 83%. With almost half of all plans that are filed being self-certified, that means that as many as 27,000 of the 61,000 plans filed so far this year could be flawed.
Given the convoluted nature of the City's zoning and building laws, and the fact that so much of zoning can be open to interpretation and reconsideration, it probably should not come as a surprise that the "experts" get it wrong so often. In all likelihood, the vast majority of the errors are probably not of the nefarious variety, though a good many of them probably do result from an aggressive interpretation of the codes.
Still, the rate of "failure" has always been high under the self-certification program, and is only going up, not down: in a 2001 audit, 59% of the plans reviewed had objections.
22 May 2008
- ◉ Ognibene Not Duped By Global Warming
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Another independent thinking Republican (this one a local) who refuses to be mislead by science.
- ◉ Check Your Bag?
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When I lived in Ecuador in the 1970s, they had these wonderful buses that basically amounted to a crude wood cabin on an old truck chassis. I imagine that would be a step up from the American Airlines experience these days.
21 May 2008
- ◉ See the Big Apple Any Way You’d Like it Aboard New York Water Taxi
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Here's some great tourist advice - hop aboard the New York Water Taxi and check out "the historic, artsy and vibrant neighbourhoods of Brooklyn including DUMBO and Williamsburg..."
Better pack a sandwich or two, though - the Water Taxi won't be stopping in DUMBO or Williamsburg until July.
- ◉ Florent
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Bruni has a wonderful reminiscence of Florent, and by extension downtown and New York before it was all business class. I first went to Florent in the late 80s, probably after a night downtown. When we moved to Hudson Square (nobody called it that then) in '89, Florent was a frequent dinner or breakfast choice. It wasn't exactly nearby, but everything west of Greenwich felt like the same neighborhood.
I spent most of the '90s tending bar on Spring Street, and after a good night, we'd head to Florent for breakfast - usually around 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning, sometimes later, rarely earlier. After mediocre nights, we'd hit the Waverly Restaurant for cheap eats, but whenever possible, it was to Florent for steak and eggs (and more drinks). (After slow Sunday shifts, I'd usually hit Blue Ribbon and spend my shift pay with Alonzo at the raw bar, but that's a different story.)
Hetero, homo or trans, Gansevoort has been over for close to a decade now (ditto "Hudson Square", or that part of Spring west of Hudson). And no, its not the fault of Sex and the City - that was but one symptom, never the cause. I really hope that Florent got a good settlement out of his landlord.
20 May 2008
- ◉ Kennedy Has Malignant Brain Tumor
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Very sad news - I hope its not as bad as they say. But I've thought that about others before.
8 May 2008
7 May 2008
- ◉ McCain Wins Indiana
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John McCain won the Indiana Republican primary with just over 75% of the vote. That's right, almost one in four Republicans (in this very Republican state) went to the polls to vote for someone else. He actually fared less well in North Carolina, where - running unopposed - he received less than 75% of the votes (ditto for Pennsylvania two weeks ago).
- ◉ Eggs
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Photo: Fred Conrad (via NYT)
A stunning image of the (almost complete) digester eggs at Newtown Creek WPCP. Designed by Polshek Partnership, this is probably the pinnacle of contemporary design in Greenpoint.
3 May 2008
- ◉ Microsoft Store?
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The Williamsburgh Savings Bank (the one on Flatbush, not ours) may soon be home to the world's first Microsoft Store. [Insert joke here.] That, at least, according to the new broker for the landmarked space. Its not clear if this is actual news or just an attempt by a broker to get Apple's competitive juices flowing.
But really, a Microsoft store? A 33,000 square foot Microsoft store? In a landmark interior? In a building with no street-level retail presence? For $2 million a year in rent? With your only store in the world on Flatbush and Atlantic? I'm no fan of Microsoft, but even I don't think they're that dumb.
This space would make a great Apple store. But Apple already has three other stores in the city, in very high traffic areas. Apple also has the goods to sell - once you get past Zunes and XBoxes, what's left? The Vista Bar?
- ◉ Parking Tickets
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David Yassky is pushing a bill that would extend most-favored-parker status for some large businesses in the city. As I understand it, businesses that agree to give up their right to contest tickets are given a break on the total fines of the tickets they are issued. Yassky says this bill makes it a little bit easier for businesses making deliveries to do business in the city. Opponents say the law increases traffic and congestion and gives large businesses preferential treatment.
As part of the congestion pricing plan, I thought that parking fines for commercial vehicles should be reduced in the city. This would have offset the cost of entering the congestion zone for commercial vehicles, and, combined with the benefits of less congestion, would have addressed much of the "working class" objection to Blomberg's plan.
2 May 2008
- ◉ A New Isetta?
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Via Wired, news that BMW looking to reintroduce its Isetta as a zero-emissions electric car. The original Isetta (seen at Wired ) was a three-wheeled ugly duckling that fit into the era of other classic post-war Eurocars (2CV, Morris Mini, 500, et al). Unlike the new Mini Cooper, the new Isetta concept (seen in the Autocar link, above) pales in comparison (the 500 has been in more or less continuous production, for better and worse).
Also intriguing: BMW is considering using this as the base for a "range of city cars", including internal combustion models based on its motorcycle engines.
- ◉ Art on the Pier
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This one's a little stale, but via the Real Estate, an article on the artist behind the sculpture that is to go on the pier at Northside Piers.
- ◉ Lollipop, Lollipop
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Whether or not it was Landmark worthy, I sure do miss the old 2 Columbus Circle. In photos at least, its replacement is nothing to get excited about, and its reuse of the lollipop structure leaves me scratching my head. The old building had a dignity that I find lacking here - it would have been better to just tear it down (there are, as a friend of mine likes to say, worse things you can do to a building than to tear it down).
- ◉ Fiscal Responsibility
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The Times likes Bloomberg's latest budget, and rightly so. Unlike his predecessor, this Mayor is not leaving his successor with a fiasco. The proposed budget attempts to live within the means of the City, which is sure to upset many in the short term but benefit the city in the long term.
One reason that I have always liked Bloomberg was his willingness to put forward a draconian budget in his first year. It was necessary, given the recession at the time (in retrospect a mild one) and the economic fallout and uncertainty following 11 September. That year of budgetary pain (along with a string of external factors) helped to put the City in the position to enjoy five years or so of healthy budget growth.
Contrast the Bloomberg approach with that of the national Republican party (remember Bush's trifecta?), and the notion of Republican fiscal responsibility is quickly exposed for the joke it is.
- ◉ Bird Blog
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Apropos of the Grand Street retail renaissance I discussed a week or two ago, Brownstoner has started a new renovation blog. This one covers the owners of Bird, who have rented a 2,500 space at 203 Grand Street. So now everyone can follow along as the latest Grand Street success story takes shape.