CGNA Meeting Tonight

7:00pm - 9:00pm, Rain or Shine
Hannah Senesh Community Day School
342 Smith Street between 1st and 2nd Places

AGENDA
Introduction and Welcome

Report from 76th Precinct Community Affairs Officers:
Det. Paul Grudzinski and Officer Vincent Marrone

Elected Officials, representatives:
Jonah Blumstein, Liaison, CCmember Brad Lander; Tamar Smith, State Assemblywoman Joan Millman; Alex DeLisi, Sen. Dan Squadron; Dan Wiley, Rep. N. Velasquez; Luke DePalma, BP Marty Markowitz.
Introduce: P. Rheaume and Veronica Aveis, Cong. Yvette Clarke

SPEAKERS:
City Councilmember Brad Lander:  State of the Borough updates and plans.

Mr. Isaac Fischmann, developer 333 Carroll St.:  Update on plans for the 333 building

CGNA Committee Reports
Health & Hospitals: Colleen Giunta
Land Use/Landmarks: Glenn Kelly and John Hatheway
Parks: Barbara Brookhart (BBP)
Transportation: Gary Reilly

Everyone welcome!

NEXT MEETING: Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2011._,_.___

The CGNA listserv is an all volunteer community forum serving Carroll Gardens. Everyone from the neighborhood - renters, owners, business owners and others who work here - are welcome.

The CGNA meets at the Hannah Senesh Community Day School, 342 Smith St (1st & 2nd Pl) on the Fourth Wednesday of each month (except for school holidays in *February and *April).

The 2011 calendar: Wednesday, *Feb. 16, Mar. 23,* Apr. 13, May 25, June 22.

The Intersection of Luxe & Fail

The once mighty Boymelgreen empire continues to crumble. Boymelgreen's bank LibertyPointe last week became the first New York Bank to fail in 11 years; a win by a nose, as the FDIC devoured another NY institution, Park Avenue Bank, the very next day. Unlike Park Avenue, however, LibertyPointe's failure was not immediately followed by criminal indictments. So they've got that going for them.

Boymelgreen is perhaps best known in Brooklyn for foisting the NOvo on 4th Avenue, as well as developingt 75 Smith (aka Luxe & Pop, across from the jail), and the ill-fated Gowanus Village concept that was never developed. A good thing, actually, since the Gowanus Village site will almost certainly require significant remediation during the Superfund process.

Boymelfail Link
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20100312/FREE/100319964

Park Avenue Bank
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62E2Y520100315

Carroll Gardens Downzoning: CB6 Thursday

From Tom Gray of Councilman Bill deBlasio's office, a reminder to turn out in support of the long-awaited Carroll Gardens downzoning at the CB6 Land Use Committee meeting on Thursday night. The rezoning will protect the community from out of scale new development and preserve the character of Carroll Gardens and the Columbia Waterfront District.

Jun 25 Landmarks/Land Use Committee Meeting
PUBLIC HEARING on Carroll Gardens/Columbia Street Contextual Rezoning plan (ULURP No. C 090462 ZMK)
Discussion and formulation of a recommendation on an application submitted by the Department of City Planning (ULURP No. C 090462 ZMK) to contextually rezone Carroll Gardens and a significant portion of the Columbia Street District neighborhoods to protect the existing built form environments.

Long Island College Hospital
339 Hicks Street
Brooklyn NY 11201

6:00 PM

Carroll Gardens Downzoning Process Under Way

City Planning gave us a wonderful preview presentation; now they issued a press release announcing the start of the public review period for the downzoning of Carroll gardens and Columbia Waterfront. Brownstoner has the entire press release posted. A snippet:

Initiated in response to community requests and developed in close consultation with Community Board 6, local community groups and Council Member de Blasio, the rezoning was crafted block by block to:

 Preserve the row house character of over 80% of the study area by introducing a contextual zoning district (R6B) with height limits of 50 feet. R6B would be mapped on predominately residential east-west side streets as well as the north-south streets of Smith, Hoyt, Bond and Hicks Streets and portions of Henry, Clinton and Columbia Streets.
 Match new zoning to preserve the established built character by mapping contextual zoning designations (R6A and R7A; height limits of 70 feet and 80 feet, respectively). Along the mixed-use corridors of Court and Columbia Streets as well as other more densely built blocks, R6A zoning would more accurately match the existing built context. On Tiffany Place between Kane and Degraw Streets where existing 7-story manufacturing buildings have been converted to residential use, the proposed R7A would better match the built character.
 Promote vibrant, mixed-use corridors on certain local commercial thoroughfares. C2-4 overlays
would be mapped to promote an expanded group of ground-floor commercial uses at specific locations along Smith, Henry and Hicks Street where commercial uses already exist, but where no commercial zoning is present to permit new or expanding businesses.
 Reduce the depths of commercial districts to reflect existing development patterns and preclude commercial intrusions into residential side streets. In certain locations where no commercial uses currently exist and where such uses would be inappropriate with existing land use patterns, commercial overlays would be removed.

All in all, a great proposal. And it wouldn't have been possible without the tireless work of CGNA and others, especially John Hatheway and Glenn Kelly.

Toll Bros Chopping Prices At Northside Piers

Per Curbed, Toll Bros. is slashing prices at its Northside Piers project in Williamsburg. They are currently building an entire second tower to add to that development.

While the penthouses and most-expensive units at One Northside Piers were left unharmed, a large crop—over 30 units—are a bloody mess. A quick scan of StreetEasy to survey the wreckage shows reductions up to 25 percent in some cases, including this 11th-floor 3BR unit, marked down to $894,990 from an ask of over $1.2 million.

Critical thinking exercise: what do you think this means for the Toll bros. Gowanus project?

Amanda Burden At CB6 On The Gowanus Rezoning, Carroll Gardens Downzoning

We couldn't attend last night's meeting due to a family commitment, but Pardon me For Asking and the Gowanus Lounge provide the details.

While I'm encouraged to hear that the Carroll gardens downzoning has been faststracked and should be unveiled next June, we'll need to be vigilant and carefully scrutinize the terms, and make sure to turn out in force for every meeting. Bill deBlasio should be commended for elbowing CG to the front of the line; there's no question in my mind that we would not have achieved what we have so far without his efforts on Wide Streets and downzoning.

On the other hand, I think it's a mistake to put 12 story buildings on this side of the Gowanus Canal. (The Public Place site is a different matter, given the viaduct that circumscribes the site.) The Gowanus should not be a trade-off for a downzoning of Carroll Gardens.

Lastly, (for now) I was disappointed with the earlier CB6 approval of the Toll Brothers plans along the Gowanus. We have truly put the cart before the horse in taking this one developer's parcel and spotzoning it ahead of the entire Gowanus framework. The result of this is a bootstrapping of the ultimate framework itself, and a skewing of the analysis of development impacts in favor of the developers.

Will Imploding Real Estate Bubble Sink Toll Gowanus Plan?

First yesterday was the Bloomberg headline: Toll Brothers Revenues Plunge 41%.

Then there was the unseemly grasping of CEO Bob Toll for a handout from the federal government. Believe it or not, Bob Toll, who cashed out stock to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars at the height of the bubble, is now asking for a federal handout for LUXURY home builders. Can't blame him for trying, what with every investment bank and now the automakers squealing at the trough, but this would be utterly wrongheaded policy. The problem in the housing market is that home prices detached from fundamentals (household incomes and rental value) due to easy monetary policy and lax regulation.

Now to top it all off, Toll says that the New York market is hitting the skids:

“New York City was a nice stand-alone beacon,” he said in a conference call this afternoon. “Now it has joined the rest of the country.” That happened, he said, in mid-September after the financial crisis worsened.

Many people do not want to hear it, but the housing market is crashing, and for sound reason. The price of homes rose far beyond what people could afford. Price to income ratios broke through the roof during the bubble and have yet to return to sustainable levels. Most of all the fault lies on Alan Greenspan's shoulders, but the Bush administrations abject failure of regulation, after the GOP-led deregulation of the 1990s is also to blame.

Expect home prices to decline precipitously over the next 18 months. The 4th quarter 2008 and 1st quarter 2009 numbers in particular will be jarring. And builders are still churning out new units into a softening market at near record pace. Projects that have not broken ground, or even been permitted at this point (such as Toll Brothers proposed Gowanus development between Carroll and 2nd Street) have a high probability of being shelved or killed.

At this point, I imagine Toll Brothers will still proceed full steam ahead with their efforts to re-zone the property. If they are successful, they can flip it to another developer or hold onto the site for a period of years. But whether they succeed with the rezoning or not, it grows less likely by the day that this development will be built any time soon.

This will not be the end of the world, but it will be tough for many of us. We do need to take concrete steps to keep people working. I have been saying for a long time now that we need a Federal program of public works, specifically in transit infrastructure, clean energy, clean water, and high speed data networks to get our economy moving again and lay the foundation for the next generation of growth. I hope that President Obama will be even more ambitious than FDR in this regard.

CB6 Land Use Committee Mtg: Public Place Site

An important meeting to attend. See you there.

LANDMARKS/LANDUSE COMMITTEE
THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 2008
TIME: 6:00 PM

P.S. 32 - AUDITORIUM
317 HOYT STREET
BROOKLYN NY 11231

A G E N D A

- Presentation and introduction by representatives for the Department of Housing Presentation and Development of the development team selected by the City of New York to develop “Public Place,” the City-owned 6-acre parcel at the southeast corner of Smith & 5th Streets (Block 471, Lot1).

There's more on the agenda, but this is the main attraction.

DOB Reform Rally; Scarano Charged

The Four Borough Neighborhood Alliance held a rally on the steps of City Hall this afternoon demanding reform of the DOB. I was there, along with numerous elected officials, other council hopefuls and civic organizations.

Raul Rothblatt of Four Borough put together a powerful alliance to call for reform. I am reminded that it was just in April that John Hatheway, Vince Favorito and I went to the Assembly hearing on DOB's governance failings to provide testimony on stricter regulation. Sure lancaster was ousted, but to what effect? At the hearing, it was clear to all that the interim successor, LiMandri, was an apologist for the current regime and would not effect change.

Sure enough, LiMandri's DOB pulled back their crane inspections as soon as they thought no one was looking . . . just in time for another tragedy to occur. We need REAL change at DOB . . . there is talk of loosening requirements to let LiMandri become the permanent DOB Commissioner. This is exactly wrong: LiMandri must GO!

In better news, Brownstoner reports that the DOB has finally taken action against scofflaw architect and serial bad actor Robert Scarano. The entire City press release is posted at Brownstoner. Check it out.

Credit where due; more like this please.

Gowanus Rezoning

I haven't had a chance to get into the details, and I missed the meeting due to the IND endorsement meeting, but Pardon Me For Asking Gowanus Lounge and Brownstoner were there, and they took notes.

Last night was the unveiling for the "Gowanus Framework" . . . and the most contentious point will probably be the proposed 125' height limit on several blocks close to the canal.

More on this later when I've had a chance to review.

2 Dead In Manhattan Crane Collapse

Via Curbed.

What in bloody hell is it going to take before we reform the Department of Buildings? This is the singular failure of the Bloomberg administration: an abject failure to exert even a modicum of restraint on development in this City.

The Wild West atmosphere of development has to be checked. As we've seen lately in the finance arena, anything the Bush administration is supposed to regulate, and tragically our DOB: when regulators turn a blind eye, abuses will multiply.

Beef up enforcement at DOB . . . and end the disgrace of self-certification NOW. Getting rid of DOB chief Patricia Lancaster (who "resigned" in disgrace after the last crane collapse) was only a start. Lancaster's interim successor, Robert LiMandri, proved to be an evasive apologist for the administration and the DOB when grilled at the Assembly hearing on April 24th. Vince Favorito, John Hatheway and I were all at the hearing to submit testimony on reforming the DOB.

Credit where due: Assemblymember Jim Brennan has been one of the choice few that has shown true leadership in this area. Remember that at election time.

The Truth About The Wide Streets Amendment

Pardon Me For Asking has a must read post today on the Wide Streets Text Amendment.

The CGNA forum has been been inundated for days now with mis-information, dis-information and utter nonsense, mostly from one persistent opponent of the text amendment who is masquerading as a local preservationist. The sad thing is, to the casual observer, most of it sounds perfectly reasonable.

Please click through and read the entirety of the post above to get the true story on the text amendment. The misinformation flying around has sown confusion, fear and doubt where there should be clarity and unity. The wide streets amendment will help PREVENT out ofd scale development in Carroll Gardens. That is the point. That is precisely why a few would-be developers are fighting so hard against it.

Bottom line: the wide streets amendment will preserve the neighborhood scale by treating the Place blocks and a few others with 33' courtyards exactly like they should be: the same as President Street and other Carroll Gardens residential streets.

We are working to get the neighborhood downzoned to a more appropriate R6B. A number of people are working hard on landmark status as well. In the meantime, we need to get this wide streets amendment passed.

Toll Brothers CEO: Traffic is "worst we've ever seen"

It looks like Manhattan is still one of their stronger markets, plus Westchester and CT, but overall the housing crunch is taking its . . . Toll. I'll be here all week.

In its release, Toll Brothers said the average price of contracts signed in the quarter was $590,000, down from $711,000 a year earlier and $634,000 in the fiscal first quarter.

Robert Toll said current customer traffic is "the worst we've ever seen," but noted that potential buyers are well-qualified, with an average credit score of 747.

That's a hell of lot of price chopping, with more to come. We will soon see a marked slowdown in residential and commercial building, and we need to start planning for infrastructure projects to help smooth out the disruption in the jobs market. We really, really need to start investing in our transit and utility infrastructure, and soon we're going to need the jobs too.
H/T Calculated Risk (best finance and economics blog on the planet).

UPDATE: Brooklyn market has "faded". I saw in comments elsewhere that the Toll CEO had given the Brooklyn market an "F", but I haven't been able to confirm that yet so please take it with a grain of salt.

Toll gave most U.S. home markets poor grades, saying Southern California and Illinois are `F-,' Arizona an `F,' and New Jersey a `C.' He said the New York exurbs earned a grade ``B+'' and that sales in the city borough of Brooklyn have ``faded.''

Future of the Gowanus Forum(s)

Last week, in all the Wednesday meeting madness, Councilman Bill deBlasio hosted a "Future of the Gowanus" event at the foot of Second Street on the Gowanus. deBlasio had on hand representatives from DEC, DEP, Army Corps, the NYPD, the Fire Department, the MTA and Parks, as well as the Gowanus Canal Conservancy/GCCDC and the Gowanus Dredgers.

The upshot of the meeting was an announcement that experts from the various agencies would be on hand for a series of community "town hall" meetings to share information and take input on plans for the Gowanus.

And it looks like it starts May 29th, as Tom Gray sent out this reminder for the upcoming CB6 Land Use Committee meeting today:

May 29 6:00 PM Landmarks/Land Use


Update and presentation by representatives for the Department of City
Planning on the next phase of the Gowanus Land Use Framework planning
being developed by the department. For background on the work done to
date visit: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/gowanus/index.shtml

P.S 32 Auditorium
317 Hoyt Street
(at Union/Hoyt Streets)
Brooklyn, NY 11231

Image of deBlasio and Army Corps DEP official courtesy of my Blackberry

Cory Booker: Revitalizing Newark Around Transit

Downtown Newark and University Heights (my old law school stomping grounds) have excellent access to transit facilities. Cory Booker, Newark's reformer Mayor, is working to expand growth in Newark around these terrific assets.

Growing dorm populations for Rutgers and NJIT should help to provide a critical mass on some of the blocks which were, as of 2005 anyway, still desolate at night. Of course, since then, the light rail connection to Broadway was completed and dorms have been springing up. I've got to make a pilgrimage back to see how progress is moving.

Image borrowed from the Tri-State Transportation Campaign blog linked above.

Weil Gotshall To Brooklyn?

The Brooklyn Paper reports that a major law firm is headed for Downtown Brooklyn.

"Forest City Ratner Vice President Mary Anne Gilmartin made the announcement at the Brooklyn Real Estate Roundtable on Tuesday that the 500-lawyer white shoe firm would soon relocate to Metrotech."

A major coup for FCR and Downtown boosters. I know I'd rather commute to Downtown Brooklyn than Manhattan, given the choice.

UPDATE: Too good to be true. Back office peeps only.

Spring Is In The Air

And lots of activity in the streets. This morning I spent an hour flyering the block for the Public Hearing tomorrow afternoon at Borough Hall (209 Joralemon St, 5:30). Also I saw on the stoops there were flyers out for deBlasio's meeting tomorrow afternoon. I didn't see any today, but there are also some flyers that anonymous persons put out with scare tactics to confuse the issue of the wide streets amendment. The times and locations of the various public meetings tomorrow are HERE.

The picture above is of a guy making the best of the construction fence situation on 1st Place between Court and Clinton. Nice work!

* And in case it isn't clear, I wholeheartedly support the text amendment to close the "wide street" loophole that allows out of context development on the Place blocks and other blocks with courtyards *

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!

Governor's Island Renderings: Development Zones?

In all the talk about non-park uses for parts of Governor's Island (e.g. NYU campus, Bond villain stronghold, etc.), I always assumed that the development would be on the NORTHERN half of the Island . . . but if you look at the rendering above (thanks Gothamist!) there are large "Development Zones" in three places in the southern half of the island. Actually, two of the zones are separated only by a "Construction Site" . . . so maybe that's really just one huge "development zone".

Hmm. Then what are they going to put in all the historic buildings?

If I recall correctly, none of the earlier renderings hinted at these expansive "Development Zones" on the southern half of G. I. Am I wrong?

PS - I was and am a big fan of this park design. But let's keep the process transparent, and not have some bait and switch, where we end up with 'Trump Island' condotels on both shores of this thing.

Friday News Roundup

A few important bits of news:
- After an animated discussion, CB6 Land Use Committee voted 9-4 to support closing the "wide streets" loophole. The Committee, as well as Bill deBlasio (who was instrumental in making this happen) and our other local elected officials (Millman and Connor) all deserve praise for working to preserve the character of our community. Several steps still to go. Next is the full Board, then the Borough President.

- Another sign that DOB is a broken organization that needs a major cultural change, not just a new Commissioner: "City officials admit they wrongly gave the green light to the project at 303 East 51st St., where a tower-crane collapse on March 15 killed seven people." We must end the farce called self certification that outsources DOB oversight to the developers. Now.

- Consumer confidence "fell deeper into recessionary territory, to 62.6 from 69.5 in March . . . the lowest since March 1982's level of 62.0., when the "stagflationary" period of low growth and high inflation was still an issue for many Americans." We are in for a serious adjustment; the real estate recession has not even begun here yet, but realtors with long memories will remember what the early 1990s were like, and that's what we're facing in the near future.

- Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead. Have a good weekend!