Building Power and a Livable New York
[image courtesy of Runs With Scissors]
Related Wins Armory Rehab Project (NY Daily News)
With Polytechnic Deal, NYU to Gain Presence in DoBro (Brooklyn Downtown Star)
Slow Economy Likely to Stall Atlantic Yards (NY Times)
What Will Be Left of Gehry’s Vision for Brooklyn? (NY Times)
For Troubled Coney Plan, City May Need to Backpedal (NY Observer)
A City by the Sea — or Under It? (Gotham Gazette)
Paterson Could Derail Development: Opposes Use of Eminent Domain (NY Sun)
StreetLevel: Schmerhorn Supermarket Deal Falls Through (Brownstoner)
Super Mart Highlights Fort Greene Condo Plan (NY Daily News)
Some Sort of Building Will Arise at Fulton, M.T.A. Says (Downtown Express)
Outcry as Harlem Rezone Plan Advances (NY Daily News)
New-Look Harlem Clears a Big Hurdle: Furor at Rezoning (NY Post)
The “Impossible Dream” of Rental Development (NY Sun)
Unions Tie Rezoning to Pay Rules (Crains)
Geography of the Mayor’s Affordable Housing Plan (Gotham Gazette)
Ratner Kills Mr. Brooklyn (The Brooklyn Paper)
Groceries Grow Elusive for Many in New York City: With Rents Soaring, Stores are Being Demolished for Condos (The Washington Post)
Good Jobs NY Questions Subsidies, Calls for Community Process for Harlem Park (Community Based Planning)
Resident Input Sought on Fordham Road Shopping District Spruce-Up (NY Daily News)
Growing Pains (Columbia Spectator)
High Rise Condos Divide West Harlem Residents (Columbia Spectator)
Manhattanville Expansion Raises Questions About Aesthetics (Columbia Spectator)
Harlem on the Line (The Indypendent)
A New Way to Kill a Community: Nets’ Ratner, Jay-Z, Barclay’s Bank in $5 Billion Hip-Hop Lawsuit (Chicago Sports Review)
Downturn! Big D’Town project hits the brakes (The Brooklyn Paper)
B’klyn is Making Chain-ge (New York Post)
Promise of ‘new’ school proves false (New York Daily News)
The Fort Greene Association met Monday night to discuss, among other matters, the controversy erupting over the grand but decrepit historic houses on Admirals’ Row, in the Brooklyn Navy Yard… and members think the solution might have a lot to do with freshly baked bread.
Check out last week’s New York Times City Section for the story on the 10 crumbling buildings on Admirals’ Row, which once housed high-ranking officers but now stand vacant. The city wants to purchase the structures from the National Guard and demolish them to make room for a grocery store that would serve and employ local residents, especially those from the nearby Farragut Houses. Historical preservationists, like those who make up the FGA, want the city to grant the 150-year old buildings landmark status and restore them — a project that, according to the Guard, could cost as much as $20 million.
At the meeting Monday night, FGA member Paul Palazzo suggested that the restoration of the houses would be a boon to the community, bringing in profits from tourism that could be used to improve other areas of the neighborhood. “We have a valuable historical asset that can be turned into cash!” he said. Palazzo, well aware that the majority of community members are in favor of the plan to build a grocery store on the site, assured his audience “we can have our cake and eat it too.” (The phrase comes straight from a December post by Brownstoner, which slammed David Yassky, Tish James, and other elected officials for contending that the pricey preservation of the buildings would kill any hope for a supermarket.)
Divisions Over Expansion Intensify Among Manhattanville Groups (Columbia Spectator)
Columbia Closes Real Estate Deal for Displaced Residents (Columbia Spectator)
City’s Sweeping Rezoning Plan for 125th Street Has Many in Harlem Concerned (New York Times)
Harlem Up in Arms, Again (The Real Deal)
Green Arts Complex Neighbor to New Brooklyn Nets Arena (Plenty Magazine)
City Planning: Fourth Avenue a “Missed Opportunity” (Streetsblog)
Plans for Ground-Floor Retail at Brooklyn House of Detention Floated at Meeting (New York Daily News)
Carrion to Meet with Armory Group (Norwood News)
Credit Market Puts Massive Myrtle Avenue Project On Hold (Brooklyn Daily Eagle)
Catsamatidis “Taking a Hard Look” at 162 Myrtle Project (Brownstoner)
Ethics Inquiry Postpones NYU Merger With Polytechnic (New York Times)
Brooklyn Family Sitting on $100M in Property, Air Rights (New York Sun)
Markowitz Dreams of Atlantic Yards (New York Observer)
Kingsbridge Road Gets a Cleanup (Norwood News)
Whether Community Likes It Or Not, Hotel Coming (Norwood News)
Harlem Residents Split Over Development on Fredrick Douglass (Columbia Spectator)
Night Out in Manhattanville Highlights Changing Atmosphere (Columbia Spectator)
Community Board 9 should be proud. Its 197-a plan for West Harlem is having an impact - though unfortunately for board members, it’s on a different neighborhood.
Last week, New York University and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer announced that they’ve agreed to a set of principles guiding the university’s future development. NYU doesn’t have a great track record in involving the community in its expansion, but between the current 2031 Initiative and this agreement, it’s clear that the university is trying to clean up its act (or at least its image) as it goes into another major phase of development.
The City Economic Development Corporation’s four years of careful engagement with Harlem’s local civic organizations around plans to rezone most of 125th Street for new retail and housing development appeared to yield results on Wednesday morning, as the City Planning Commission held a hearing on the proposal.
One group that weighed in, Voice Of The Everyday People (VOTE People), disapproves of the plan entirely and urged EDC to go back to the drawing board, with a larger and more inclusive advisory body from the community. But for the most part, Community Boards 9, 10, and 11 have gotten behind the plan, expressing specific reservations but supporting the overall goal of rezoning and revitalizing Harlem. Accordingly, much of the testimony at the hearing centered on ideas for making a rezoned 125th Street work for Harlem and its residents and businesses. Of special concern was the inevitability — acknowledged by the City in its own Environmental Impact Statement — that rezoning will displace existing businesses.
Things are heating up in West Harlem. According to the Campaign for Community Based Planning, City Council may be voting as early as tomorrow on Columbia’s expansion plan — even though they have until January to do so. The Columbia Spectator reports that rumors have been circulating to this effect since yesterday, and traces them back to an email sent out by The Coalition to Preserve Community encouraging Manhattanville residents to protest the early decision, which they believe will take place at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow.
In other news, we’re still waiting to hear about the Sprayregen Swap, back on the table since Thursday…
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