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Senator Eric Adams has responded to criticism from his bill to promote car travel by offering to hold a meeting with anyone interested in the issue. If you're concerned about public transit, bicycle access, and other sustainable transportation policies in our district, come on down!
572 Flatbush Ave. (at Midwood)
Saturday, June 7, 10 am
(718) 284-4700
Please RSVP to Adams personally at Voiceofconcern@aol.com.
For more discussion, see the comments on the Streetsblog post.
No, this is not a joke: our very own state senator has come up with a "plan" for soaring gas prices:
[S]uspend tolls on bridges and tunnels in the New York City area on major
holidays and... give drivers a gas tax rebate of up to $200.
Nevermind that 65% of Eric Adams' district (which includes Park Slope and Windsor Terrace) doesn't own a car. If Adams cared at all, he'd look outside his office window on Flatbush and notice all of his carless constituents dangerously crammed into the B41 bus at rush hour. The line is so over-capacity that it takes illegal dollar vans—many of which are recklessly driven and improperly insured—to fill in the gap.
How about proposing a subway fare holiday? Or expanding bus service? Nope, we need more cars on the road. The buses aren't going slow enough!
Adams, you may recall, also opposed congestion pricing, despite the fact that less than 5% of his district commutes into Manhattan's central business district by car.
Feel free to tell him what you think:
Eric Adams
572 Flatbush Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11225
Phone: (718) 284-4700
Fax: (718) 282-3585
(via Streetsblog)
I was recently interviewed by Brenda Becker of Prospect: A Year in the Park for BCAT's A Walk Around The Blog, a cable TV show featuring Brooklyn bloggers. The show will air on BCAT (Time Warner 56 / Cablevision 69) for the next two weeks on Monday and Thursday, at 1PM and 9PM and on Friday at 3PM and 11PM. Try not to pay attention to my just-out-of-the-shower hair, which my wife warned me about, or my slouching/general fatness, which many people have warned me about.
As for my take on the clip itself, the editing left very little room for anything besides Brenda's general disapproval of the project (it would violate Olmstead's vision of a building-free oasis) and my general approval (it is better than a festering rathole). I'm not sure either opinion expressed here is particularly informative. To that end, I'll add this list of reasons why I approve of the project: * The location of the building—on a commercial strip next to a transit hub—is ideal for a large development. Clustering housing near subway stations and bus routes is environmentally beneficial; it decreases urban sprawl, makes maintaining transit infrastructure more efficient, and helps reduce auto traffic.
* Opponents of the building claim that the addition of luxury apartments to PLG will increase rents and price out many long-time residents. But limiting housing and refusing to build for density has the same effect. Fewer homes means greater demand for them and higher prices. The Tower is located right next to the subway; apartments on lower floors will, by necessity, be lower cost.
* The location, a prime commercial space, has sat dormant for at least a decade, a nightmare of asbestos, mold and vermin. Increased foot traffic will create a safer, more lively commercial block.
* The builder has not asked for any exemptions from FAR or public subsidy.
* The residential blocks of Lefferts Manor and larger PLG are separated by Flatbush Avenue.
* The building is not actually going to be built on Ocean Avenue; it is set back a block from the street, reducing its visual impact.
* The building is not unprecedented. Patio Gardens, located about a block away, is nearly as tall. And a number of tall buildings can be seen on all sides of the park.
City Jerk (591 Flatbush), which opened in February 2007, is closed and already being gutted. I can't say that I'm disappointed. It was middle of the pack in the PLG Jerk Off and one of a dozen similar restaurants in PLG, relying on chafing dishes rather than cook-to-order.
I happened by when the owner of the replacement business was outside and he told me that in a couple of months it will reopen as Café Exhale. As the name implies, he intends it to be a place "where you can relax and have a drink after work or bring a date," and he plans to bring in jazz bands and similar entertainment. It sounds a lot like Ink Well on Rogers, now that I think about it.
Café Exhale will be two blocks north of Lime and across the street from the bar going into the former location of the Triangle Tavern. Is Flatbush Avenue in PLG turning into a little nightlife district?
The Brooklyn Paper reports that the Tea Lounge in South Slope will be closing in July, due to a major rent hike. I was never a big fan of the place, but it's sad to see a cafe beloved by so many people bite the dust. Ironically, what I didn't love about the place was that it was always packed; there were too many loungers.
Tea Lounge is but the latest in a string of eateries along 7th Avenue to succumb to unaffordable rent increases. The excellent Red Hot Szechuan, just across the street, has closed, and: In the past year, Seventh Avenue has lost Inaka Sushi House, at Fourth
Street... Tempo Presto,
at Third Street; Laila at 15th Street; Little Village, between 10th and
11th streets; and the Second Street Cafe, a beloved brunch spot that
made headlines when it closed.
It happened in the '90s in SoHo and it is happening in Park Slope right now: Park Slope is falling victim to the process Jane Jacobs' wrote about in her seminal The Death and Life of Great American Cities . Local mom-and-pop businesses that helped make the neighborhood so inviting in the first place can no longer afford to stay. So 7th Avenue—once the place to be—is gradually transforming into a strip of real-estate offices, cell phone retailers, and banks. The street life is now moving to 5th Avenue, where restaurants can still stay afloat. Unfortunately, without any governing body to assure commercial diversity, chances are we'll start to see more of the same happening there: more chain stores and profit powerhouses.
In a way, it's parallel to the debate we've been having about residential housing in our own nabe. You can blame Chase and Starbucks all you want, but the real problem is a free market that does nothing to assure diversity.
No doubt some readers are giddy with schadenfreude about all this. If you read the New York Times story about Park Slope
this weekend, you probably know what I'm talking about. The writer,
Lynn Harris, pretty much hit the nail on the head. There seem to be a
lot of Park Slope "haters" in PLG, which I find very curious... mainly
because all of the annoying attitudes found by the Park Slope
privileged are also very abundant here. And because the non-yuppies
here can be equally annoying, albeit differently annoying. (I'm
thinking of the alcoholic duo who came up our stoop a couple of weeks
ago and demanded money for work we not only didn't ask them to do, but
specifically asked them NOT to do.)
Blog reader Timmy posted a recap of the PLGNA/CRGPLG meeting about the Lincoln Road Tower in the comments section of our earlier post. From the sound of it, our misgivings about the meeting were spot on.
We appreciate his comprehensive comments and, because his feelings mirror our own, we thought they deserved a more prominent placement. His recap is below the fold.
(Please make any comments about the meeting itself here, instead of below the meeting notice.)
Continue reading "Lincoln Tower Meeting: A Recap" »
Where were PLG residents during Monday's public hearing about Prospect Park's forthcoming Lakeside Center development? Good question. Few bothered to show up for what is bound to be one of the largest development projects to affect our neighborhood for years to come. Those who did make it, however, were witness to a well-run, savvy presentation of this squarely bitchin' project.
Plans for the Center are currently in the "schematic" stage—architects have outlined the general design of the project, including changes in traffic flow—which makes this an ideal time for public comment.
Here's a rundown of said schema, as presented by Tupper Thomas (Prospect Park Alliance chief) and Christian Zimmerman (one of the architects leading the project):
STREET / TRAFFIC CHANGES
The Ocean/Parkside entrance to the park is currently open 24 hours a day to cars, as the access point to the (free) Wollman Rink parking lot. Under the proposed changes, the entrance will only be open to cars during the morning rush hour commute, a total of two hours. Drivers wishing to avail themselves of the parking lot will instead enter at Lincoln Road.
The parking lot will be moved from its current location to nearby Breeze Hill. The new lot has 150 parking spaces. The old lot has about 300 spaces in theory, but, according to Thomas, so many of those spaces are unusable (due in part to park containers and trucks taking up space there) that there will be little-to-no net loss of parking spaces.
Large containers and trucks currently around Wollman rink will be moved to the maintenance area on the other side of the park. This will help free up green space.
The DOT, working with Sam Schwartz, is currently conducting a traffic study to reconfigure the Lincoln Road entrance. The plan is to add two bike lanes—one for entering and one for exiting—alongside pedestrian paths and the new car entrance. The bike paths will connect to bike paths on Lincoln Road, which (listen up, DOT!) need to be more clearly marked. The Park plans to install a traffic light, and is working with the traffic engineers to come up with traffic calming methods to reduce the likelihood of collisions with pedestrians and cyclists.
THE LAKESIDE CENTER
The new facility will include two adjoining rinks dedicated to ice skating for 5 months a year; for the other 7 months, the space will double as a playground (with water fountains), outdoor cafe, and, possibly, a site for public movies and performances. The model here is Millennium Park in Chicago.
Unlike Wollman rink, the new center will include a cafe + plaza and plenty of space for the public to watch the skaters without having to pay. Users will only pay for skating.
One of the rinks will be covered and, essentially, below ground. Its roof top will be designed as parkland, with small trees and native flora for park users to enjoy.
- A new dock for peddle and electric boats will be built.
The net effect of these changes will reduce the density of people around Ocean/Parkside in the summer, as more green space will be opened up.
TIME FRAME
POTENTIAL CONFLICTS (ACCORDING TO ME)
The Lincoln Road entrance is right next to a playground. What steps will the Park take to insure that increased car traffic there doesn't jeopardize the safety, health, and pleasure of kids using the playground?
Will the DOT execute a comprehensive plan that not only provides safe pathways for cyclists and pedestrians inside the park, but makes it easier to cross Ocean and Parkside to enter the park as well? Will parking spaces be metered to discourage park-and-ride commuters and others exploiting the park as their own private parking space? (Hope so.) Will the Lincoln Road entrance be open to cars 24 hours?
Someone on the Lefferts list just reported that a thief is going around pulling off metal downspouts off of houses on Fenimore and loading them into a grocery cart, presumably to sell as scrap metal:
He tried [to steal our downspout] with no success and then proceeded to pull off the neighbor's. My husband retrieved the piece from him with some bickering -- he claimed it was in the garbage -- but it was clearly pulled off.
He has white hair, dark moustache, wearing a maroon/dark brown hoodie/sweatshirt and he is pushing a black granny cart. He was on Flatbush heading in the direction of Rutland ... keep an eye open if you are home. This happened at about 11:45.
Another neighbor who witnessed this said this has been happening in
the neighborhood recently.
Fortunately, the witnesses managed to take photos of the perpetrator. If you see this guy around, please call 311 and report him to the 71st Police Precinct.
The Daily News reports that a couple was injured in an apartment fire yesterday: Firefighters rushed into the first-floor flat of the building on Hawthorne St. in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens just before 4 p.m. and were able to carry the couple to safety, neighbors and FDNY officials said.
"They broke all the windows and pulled them out," said Annette Moore, 49, an upstairs neighbor. "The apartment is completely destroyed."
A female victim was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell, where she is in critical condition with burns, officials said.
A man, who suffered burns and smoke inhalation, was taken to Staten Island University Hospital and is in stable condition.
Investigators suspect the blaze started with a lighted cigarette.
The article doesn't specific the address of the place. If anyone knows which block this happened on, do let us know.
 Those of you who frequently traverse Hawthorne I may wonder what has happened to the feral cats who used to hang around one of the apartment buildings here. About a month ago, the path that the cats used to get out to the street was closed off as part of a renovation, effectively "trapping" the cats in the backyards of the adjacent houses, including ours.
The cats, knowing an easy mark when they see it, started showing up at our kitchen window. We'll confess to developing a certain fondness for them, as the apparent ringleader, Blackie (top), is kin to our beloved Ethel. Though a real wild child as a youth, Blackie has softened to our affections and acts as a sort of surrogate parent to Spike (middle) and Tanner (bottom), the surviving kittens from Tabby II's November litter.
Speaking of.... We are pleased to report that there will be no more kittens emanating from this crew. After completing Neighborhood Cats "Cat Lady 101" course, I trapped Tabby II, Tanner and Spike and, thanks to the ASPCA, had them fixed. (The rest of the colony had already gone under the knife.) The boys handled the surgery like young champs and are now back to defectating in nearby gardens; Tabby II is still recovering, as she not only required spaying but hernia surgery and a cabortion. We will keep you updated on their progress.
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