Robert Guskind Memorial Gathering: Saturday, April 4

From Phil DePaolo by way of CORD:
A memorial gathering to honor the memory of Robert Guskind will be held from 2 pm to 5 pm Saturday, April 4 at the Brooklyn Lyceum, 4th Avenue between Union and President Streets in Park Slope. Senator Daniel Squadron and Assemblymember Joan Millman have sponsored a resolution to honor the life and work of Gowanus Lounge founder Bob Guskind.

I am pleased to announce that Resolution 1131 passed in both houses on Tuesday. The video shows Squadron speaking on the resolution. Among the quotes: “He took this new form of communication and really took it to a new level. He was able to take community concerns, describe them, and distill them, and distribute them in ways that never could’ve happened without him. We’re going to miss him sorely.”



Please RSVP if you can, since that helps with planning for refreshments. (There is an opportunity to sign up to speak.)

Please try to arrive around 2 pm. There will be an opportunity to get seats and get refreshments before the program starts. Also, the program will not last until 5 pm, so there will be an opportunity for those attending to talk informally.

If you’d like to make donations in Bob’s memory, four charities have been designated.

Thanks to the many people volunteering their time and donating goods and services. Thanks to Juventino Avila at Get Fresh Table and Market in Park Slope and Rafael Soler of the Red Hook Vendors for generously donating food. Thanks to Eric Richmond of the Brooklyn Lyceum for generously donating the space.

Gary here. Bob was an inspiration to me and many others, and he did a tremendous service to Brooklyn. His legacy deserved to be officially recognized - this was a classy move by Squadron and Millman.

Iconic Brooklyn Blogger Bob Guskind, RIP

Wow. I just read the news on Brownstoner that Bob Guskind, well known for his Gowanus Lounge blog and for his contributions to Curbed, has passed. OTBKB has a more detailed post on Bob's untimely passing. Katia also has a piece in memoriam.

This is truly a black day for Brooklyn. Bob's blogging was partly responsible for my own foray into blogging. I was inspired by his passion for Brooklyn's neighborhoods and his love of "iconic" structures that hearkened back to our industrial past.

I first met Bob at a CGNA meeting at Scotto's funeral home in 2007. He was an outsized, softspoken, friendly man with an output I could never hope to match.

We are all poorer for this loss. You'll be missed, Bob.

May 7th Packed with Carroll Gardens Meetings

This is a pretty tight schedule in the local meeting circuit, but a lot of important stuff being covered. From Maria Pagano, CGNA President:

Acknowledging the interest and concern we have expressed, three separate meetings have been scheduled for next week by city agencies,elected officials and KEYSPAN.

The members of the CGNA Board encourage everyone to attend at least one
of the meetings. Bring a family member, a friend, a neighbor! (I don't
think pets can be accommodated).

These three meetings are all scheduled for Wednesday, May 7.

In time order:

1. Check your mail. A notice was sent out from KEYSPAN/NATIONAL GRID.
They will hold the first public meetings to "discuss the remedial
investigation
of a former manufactured gas site located at DeGraw near the Gowanus
Canal".
This is the beginning KEYSPAN's participation in the public discussion
on cleaning up the
Gowanus gas sites. There are a total of 17 sites. Meetings on Public
Place,
the Toll Bros site, etc to follow.
Meeting site: PS 32 (317 Hoyt St at Union)
Times: 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM and 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM
[ED. NOTE: more on this at Gowanus Lounge]
2. Borough President Marty Markowitz will hold a public meeting to
discuss the pending text amendment proposed by the Department of City
Planning. This text amendment will correct the inappropriate "wide
street" designation currently applied to the Place blocks; they will be
designated as narrow streets, as they were originally defined by law
when
they were created, and will match the bulk permitted on the other
residential blocks of Carroll Gardens.
Meeting site: Borough Hall, Community Room
Joralemon St entrance
Time: 5:30 PM
[ED. NOTE: more on this at Gowanus Lounge]

3. Plan for the Future Forum: The Gowanus
Sponsored by City Councilmember Bill DeBlasio,
CB6, Gowanus Dredgers, Gowanus Canal Development Corporation and the Gowanus Canal Conservancy Representatives of the NYS Departments of Environmental Conservation,
Education, City Planning, Buildings, NYPD, FDNY and NYC Parks and Recreation
will be on hand to answer questions.
For more info and to pre-register questions,
call Tom Gray at 718 854 9791.
Meeting site: 2nd St at the Gowanus Canal (off Bond)
There will be a tent at the site if the weather is bad.
Time: 6:30 PM-8:30 PM

Once again, we urge everyone to attend at least one of these meetings!

Back to my voice: be sure to check out the new and improved Gowanus Lounge at www.gowanuslounge.com. Bob's work has contributed immeasurably to the flow of information in our neighborhood. Looks great, too!

Cement Factory, or Public Space?

I had known for some time that discussions were under way for cleaning up the large, overgrown empty lot at the corner of 5th Street and Smith abutting the Gowanus Canal. When we lived on 4th Place (up until earlier this year), we passed this parcel on a regular basis.

What I was not aware of was the plans to boot the cement factory adjacent to the parcel as well. Via the Brooklyn Paper, that is part of the plan for the site.

But now, as the city moves forward with a plan to build residential towers and parkland on the 5.8-acre Public Place site, the 35-year-old company could be evicted within the year, with not a cent of reimbursement.

Gowanus Lounge also has blogged about this project on occasion, but I wasn't a regular reader back in the day (now, it's at least a daily visit).

On one hand, it will be nice to clean up that parcel and do something positive with it. On the other hand, it is a very industrialized area with working businesses. The cement factory is busy, which I can attest to having lived a block and half away for a couple of years. Where are these businesses supposed to go?

This, along with the American Stevedoring business and countless other industrial uses, are also a part of the community. Like it or not, we need cement, we need working waterfronts, and we need the jobs they provide.

If they do end up booting the cement factory however . . . how about the grain silo in Red Hook? Recently a Mr. Quadrozzi was proposing that site as a cement storage facility, the site is dormant, arguably in an even better location, and conveniently, could be leased from the city.

CORRECTION/UPDATE: The Columbia Street Grain Elevator and surrounding acreage were sold by the Port Authority in 1997 to a private entity called the Gowanus Industrial Park, Inc. The President of Gowanus Industrial Park is none other than John Quadrozzi, Jr., who also owns Quadrozzi Concrete. Quadrozzi's own proposal for re-use of the grain terminal as a cement storage facility makes a lot of sense, and he presumably would not be inclined to hand over the plum site to Ferrara Brothers.

UPDATED AGAIN:
From the Google, this Village Voice article from 1998 yields an interesting spippet:

One mob-tied company, Quadrozzi Concrete, gave $3000, starting with $1500 in November 1996, at the very moment that Marlin approved the no-bid, discounted sale of a 43-acre, authority-owned grain terminal to the firm. John Quadrozzi, who was awaiting sentencing for making payoffs to the Luchese crime family when the deal closed, was allowed to buy the site even though he was barred from doing business by another state agency, as well as the federal government. The law firm that represented Quadrozzi on the transaction, which was approved by Marlin, donated another $500.

Every time I think I'm done with this post, they keep pulling me back in.

360 Smith Update: DOB Disapproves Plan

Per the DOB website, the most recent plan for the 360 Smith site was disapproved as of yesterday. The disapproved plan called for six stories with a height of 70 feet, encompassing 46 dwelling units.

Yesterday was not a good day for Robert Scarano Architects; Bill DeBlasio also held a rally against not only the project, but the architect in front of the 360 Smith site. While DeBlasio may have his own agenda, the rally yesterday should bring some positive attention both to this site and to Scarano's other egregious abuses of the zoning laws.

I'm looking forward to the CGNA meeting at Scotto's funeral home (1st and Court!) on Monday 6/11 at 7:30pm.

Everybody needs to make a living, I understand that. What I don't get is someone putting their thumb in the eye of an entire neighborhood to squeeze out extra profits. At some point, the greed becomes repulsive.

UPDATE:
Ahh, a link from Brownstoner! I've finally arrived. Don't know how I missed this article from the Brooklyn Paper (h/t Brownstoner commenter ActionJackson) on the brouhaha. Also added above, a picture from the Brooklyn Paper / Greg Mango.