Carroll Gardens Downzoning Rally

Despite freezing weather and spotty rain, scores of our neighbors rallied this morning on the steps of Borough Hall in support of downzoning Carroll Gardens. This is just the beginning . . . all of the work we've done to date has been to get the ball rolling. I want to thank Bill deBlasio and his office for working with the community and helping to make this happen. We wouldn't have gotten these results without his help.

And now we keep the process moving - we can't rest until the process is complete, and the community is protected.

A quick note on the Williamsburg comment, before it's taken out of context - I've got nothing against Williamsburg. What I'm opposed to is what crap developers and their architects like "Hot Karl" Fischer have done there . . . and for the record, Hot Karl is currently straddling Carroll Gardens and making his first deposit at 100 Luquer Street. We can't have more of that.

Pictures from Pardon Me For Asking (which has a lot of good pics). There were also people behind the cameras, and to the left . . . all in all a great turnout.


Media coverage:
Brownstoner
Gowanus Lounge
Curbed
Pardon Me For Asking

This one is not a link to the coverage . . . But Fordham University Radio (90.7FM) did a piece on the rally today, and also plays some really terrific music.

News 12 Brooklyn (Channel 156 in Brooklyn on Cable TV) will be featuring the Downzoning Rally story today starting at 5:30 PM then repeating it throughout the evening.

And NY1 was on the scene as well.

Clarrett Price Chops the Forte

The Clarrett Group, which owns the 340 Court development site, has developed a number of condominium projects in recent years. One of their most recent projects is the Forte, a highrise in the BAM cultural district with 110 units. Brownstoner reports that some of the units just got a $100,000 price chop.

In other (related) news, the chart above comes courtesy of economic blogger Calculated Risk. Note we are seeing the steepest drop off in new home sales (national) in the 45 years graphed. Note also, the unprecedented (and unsustainable) distortion in new home sales caused by the Fed slashing interest rates in response to the recession of 2001 and 9/11.

How the correction in housing will affect developers' investment decisions will be interesting to follow. Ditto for the inflationary monetary policy currently being pursued by Fed Chair Bernanke and the Bush administration.

We'll see.
Update - I'm having difficulty seeing the graph on my computer. Click the Calculated Risk link if it doesn't appear.
UPDATE 2: See story in NY Times:
"Sales of new homes fell last year by 26 percent, the steepest drop since records began in 1963, the Commerce Department said on Monday."

Did I Mention I'm Running For City Council?

Well, I've officially thrown my hat in the ring for Bill deBlasio's Council seat. I'll be writing a lot more about my positions in the coming months, but if you've been reading you know that my two hot buttons are transportation policy and development.

For now, the Cobble Hill / Carroll Gardens Courier has a great piece out today on my nascent campaign (not available online, sadly). The Brooklyn Paper has a rundown of all five declared candidates here (pictures included). One minor correction: I have filed papers to run, but haven't started fundraising yet. My website will be live next week and you, dear readers, will be the first to know about it.

Gary Reilly for City Council!

Update - Blog Coverage:
Brownstoner (nice graphic!)
Gowanus Lounge
Brooklyn Optimist

Great News re: Wide Streets

Via the Gowanus Lounge, we learn that Bill deBlasio's office is making some progress on the "wide streets" issue we have on the Place blocks. (For newbies - the Place blocks have lately seen out-of-scale development threats due to City Planning's treatment of the courtyards as part of the streets, which yields a density bonus as if the streets were broad avenues)

The following is the text of an email from Bill deBlasio's office. The Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association has also been working this issue for months.

I along with community leaders, Brooklyn Community Board 6, and Carroll Gardens residents have brought to the Department of City Planning (DCP)'s attention concerns about the zoning implications of the 'wide street' definition in the R6 zoning district on 1st through 4th Place in Carroll Gardens. I am happy to announce that in response to these concerns, DCP has agreed to put forward an application for a change to the zoning text whereby these streets would be defined as 'narrow streets' for zoning purposes, permitting a lower Floor Area Ratio (FAR) and maximum building heights that are more in keeping with the surrounding character and context of the neighborhood.

This zoning text amendment would go through a public review process, and DCP hopes to have this ready for referral by the City Planning Commission in March.

This is great news.

Brace Yourself For Recession

I've been saying for a while now that this will be the worst recession we've had in my lifetime, and possibly since the Great Depression. Why? Because the economy (in particular, the housing market) was due to correct in 2001. We had a lot of choices after the attacks of 9/11 with how to stimulate the economy, and the Bush administration and "Easy Al" Greenspan made the wrong ones. Dropping the Fed Funds rate close to zero created a massive bubble in asset prices.

Now we're going to pay for it as 7 years of distorted economics get sorted out very, very painfully. Take a look at that chart above (found at the Wall Street Examiner). One of two things needs to happen to get back into the normal range: wage inflation, or home price deflation. Which do you think will happen first?

Bernanke seems to be following Easy Al's policy of dropping cash on the problems. Unfortunately, this time I don't think it will work . . . and we're turning the dollar into the peso.

PATH Train: Shiny New Cars 4 U

The Port Authority recently announced an increase in tolls to $8 for Hudson bridge and tunnel crossings (and increased the base PATH fare to $1.75). But take a look at what they're doing with the money:

The existing 340-car fleet will be replaced, and up to 119 new cars will be added. All the old cars, most of which are about 45 years old, will be replaced by 2011. Each new car costs about $1.3 million.

The cars aren't the only improvements. PATH's signal system will be modernized at a cost of $390 million and will reduce the wait time between trains.

The agency will also spend $659 million to upgrade its 13 stations. New platforms at the Harrison and Grove Street stations will accommodate longer trains on the Newark-to-World Trade Center line.

If the PATH service is better, then the agency hopes to convince more drivers to abandon their cars and take mass transit to lessen the environmental effect of car emissions, Shorris said.

Those are the first major upgrades in 45 years. In addition, the P.A. is sinking a few billion into the new (and awkwardly named) THE Tunnel. I'd like to see them expand the PATH sytem as well. It's long past time.

Now, to make another point: the Port Authority has basically instituted "congestion pricing" on the crossings they control by jacking the tolls up and investing in transit. We need to do the same on our side, stat.

There's a case to be made for merging the MTA and the Port Authority, but that will have to wait for another post.

About that Downzoning Rally . . .

It looks like I got some bad intelligence on this deBlasio rally, and the rally will actually be Thursday. When I get the definitive word I will post on it.Hello! CORD has received an email from Tom Gray today saying the RALLY date for our downzoning is January 24th not January 29th. Frankly, CORD was never sure about that 29th date for various reasons. It seems very wise to check with the Councilman's office before planning on going anywhere for a rally on either day just to be sure. We understand there is some frustration about this. T.S.

Looks like the rally is still on for the 29th. Sorry for the confusion.