100 Luquer Street

I walked past 100 Luquer today, taking a leisurely stroll back from an interview with BCAT about the Smith and Ninth renovation and the Culver Viaduct. The project has risen fairly quickly, with about 2/3 of its 11 stories up at this point(see Curbed for current photo).

The project is allowed to grow to this height for two reasons. First, our local zoning is R-6, which does not have the height limit it should (which is why many of us are pushing for a downzoning to R-6B). Second, Hamilton Ave is a wide street (at least 75' wide), which provides a density bonus to a developer. The lot in question extends from Luquer to Hamilton Ave, with the building actually sited up against Hamilton.

All right, nobody is particularly happy about the height of this thing. But to add insult to injury, the front yard of this thing is going to be a parking lot. I figured the deep setback would be a walled off garden space, with a low front wall to preserve the street line. But take a look at the rendering above. It's a surface parking lot. I'm sure the neighbors will be thrilled.

Rendering pilfered from Curbed.com

Smith and Ninth: Averting Disaster

From the comments, the intrepid Cap'n Transit has some creative suggestions for the MTA to mitigate the impacts of the Smith/9th station rehab (station closed for nine months . . . and that's if there are no delays).

First things first: MTA has to do a better job of outreach on a project like this. The Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association didn't have any warning that this was coming: the first any of us heard of it was from the Metro article last week. But it's not too late. The station work is expected to take place in 2010; there is still time to get community input on the necessary mitigation efforts.

First off, running a shuttle bus directly from Smith and Ninth into the Battery Tunnel and out to the Fulton Street Transit corridor is a must. Second, there should be some shuttle service to 4th Avenue for those who are doing a reverse commute. Simply running a shuttle back and forth between Carroll Street and Smith/Ninth is unacceptable.

Long term, as Cap'n Transit suggests, a tunnel would be nice; however the limiting factor (besides the obvious cost) is topography. The train would have to take a pretty massive dip under the Gowanus Canal, and the relative elevations at Carroll Street and in Windsor Terrace are pretty high. Thus, the ride would be a bit of a roller coaster along that stretch, and steep tunnels are tough for the trains to handle.

I could be wrong about that last bit, I understand that to be the problem.

Long Island War Profiteer Finally Indicted

Well it's about freakin' time. David H. Brooks (a far worse person than the execrable but comparatively benign NY Times columnist), he of the $10 MILLION bat mitzvah, has finally been indicted.

$10 million dollars for a teenage daughter's birthday party with entertainment by Stevie Nicks, Don Henley, Aerosmith, and 50 Cent. And all paid for with proceeds from selling . . . defective body armor to our troops!

From the Trentonian:

David H. Brooks, 53, the former CEO of DHB Industries Inc., and Sandra Hatfield, 54, the former chief operating officer, were charged in a superseding indictment with manipulating DHB's financial records to increase earnings and profit margins, thereby inflating the price of DHB's stock.

"Corporate executives who line their own pockets at the expense of their shareholders flaunt the responsibilities they owe their companies and the investing public," U.S. Attorney Benton J. Campbell said in a statement.

The former DHB executives are accused of falsely inflating the value of the inventory of DHB's top product, the Interceptor vest, to help meet profit margin projections. The vest, designed to withstand rifle fire and shrapnel, was made for the Marine Corps and other branches of the military.

This guy should rot in prison (up to 70 years* if convicted), but as the poster at Daily Kos pointed out, in the Bush Administration he'll probably get the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

*and please note, that doesn't include any charges for minor things like, say, war profiteering, defrauding the federal government, and criminal negligence for knowingly selling defective body armor to the armed forces.
UPDATE: Photo removed. Looks like the picture I had was the wrong David H. Brooks.

Smith and 9th Subway StationTo Close for 12 Months

Wow. This is the first I've heard of this . . . although in a way it's not surprising, given the scope of the Viaduct rehabilitation and the total rehabilitation of the Smith and 9th Station that is scheduled.

According to the Metro article that broke the news, the MTA has made the community "well aware" of this development. However, when an MTA spokesman came to speak to CGNA in late August, he mentioned only that Smith and 9th Street was in line for a total overhaul (and the station is in dire need of one). But there was no mention of closing the entire station down for any length of time, as I recall it.

12 months is a long time. If this happens at the same time that MTA closes the stairs at the Carroll Street Station's 2nd Place entrance for Billy Stein's 360 Smith, all hell's gonna break loose.

UPDATES:

How the hell did I miss the last paragraph?

There is another silver lining: The G will be extended to Church Avenue throughout the project, and one express track will be rehabilitated — potentially opening the door to a permanent F express in years to come.

And Jen at KensingtonBrooklyn noted earlier this week that an MTA spokesman would be at the Albemarle Neighborhood Association meeting tonight at 6:30. Details HERE.

Congestion Pricing - Brooklyn Presser Tomorrow

Tomorrow at 11:00 there will be a press conference in Downtown Brooklyn to publicize the map of proposed initial transit enhancements to go along with congestion pricing.

As you can see in the photo (click for a larger image), the enhancements are essentially new and bolstered existing bus lines throughout Brooklyn. The only immediate subway enhancement, near as I can tell, is extending C trains to 10 cars (a welcome improvement). Of course, any version of congestion pricing that comes down the pike MUST include enhanced F/V service in its medium-term planning.

Michael Cairl of the Park Slope Civic Council had this to say:

"Immediate implementation of transit improvements is essential to the success of congestion mitigation, and such improvements must occur whether or not congestion pricing is adopted, because of the severity of congestion today. Immediate improvements must include peak-hour, peak-direction express service on the F line between Kings Highway and Jay Street-Borough Hall, accompanied by increased frequency of G service and its extension to Church Avenue. MTA New York City Transit should also give serious consideration to extending peak-hour V service from its current terminal at Second Avenue to Kings Highway, providing local service on the Culver Line to complement F express service. Together, these will speed travel to the Central Business District, improve transit options within Brooklyn, and will contribute significantly to a reduction in congestion."

That's right on the money.

I'll post further details of the press conference when I have them.

Metro's Michael Rundle on the F Express

A good article out from Michael Rundle at Metro this morning.

The article leads with the word that the F express is stalled until the Culver Viaduct Rehabilitation. Buried further down in the article was some good news:

During the project’s next four years, she said, “We would work with the community, do all the analysis and discussion required to contemplate a future F express service,” which would initially run north from Church Avenue.
The latest push for an F express was propelled by Carroll Gardens blogger Gary Reilly, who started an online petition that caught the attention of local politicians and MTA officials. Yesterday Reilly suggested the V could eventually run into Brooklyn on the F tracks.

The other buried gem: "One area will be set aside to test different vendors of automated Communications-Based Train Control equipment."

So it seems like there could be more one-operator trains in our future. If the technology works, this could substantially reduce operating costs.

And if you haven't signed on to the Enhanced F/V Petition, sign on up. Over 4,000 signatures so far.

Gowanus Canal Cleanup Plans

I missed last night's CB6 Environmental Committee meeting, trapped at work . . . but Gowanus Lounge and Brownstoner were on the job, natch.

As GL sums it up, "the problems are as bad as you think and they are going to take a long, long time to address, even if things go well."

More:

The DEP plans to spend up to $125 million--with money coming from city
water and sewer fees--on cleaning up the Gowanus mess. Solutions include the
planned modernization of the flushing tunnel that draws water from New York
Harbor into the canal with "a much more robust, reliable pumping system" and
an upgrade of the sewage pump that directs sewage away from the canal and
toward the Red Hook treatment plant from the current 20 million gallons a
day to 30 million gallons daily. There might also be a "floatables vessel"
that would go around after bad storms and skim "floatables" from the surface
and there could be dredging of 750 feet of the end of the canal past the
Union Street Bridge to remove "sediment" left in the canal when raw sewage
flows into it. Underground retention tanks to hold storm runoff until it can
be handled have been dismissed as costing too much and requiring too much
land. (There was an early proposal to use the toxic parcel known as Public
Place for holding tanks, but the land is now supposed to become a mid-rise,
mixed use project with hundreds of units of housing.)

And the Gowanus has one heck of a wikipedia page. An accessible historical primer for you.