Skip to main content

Posts

Featured Post

Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park FAQ, timeline, and infographics (pinned post)

Recent posts

Flashback 2006: what the Atlantic Yards Final EIS said about the blocks east of Vanderbilt Avenue, now facing a rezoning

The burgeoning transformation of blocks east of the Atlantic Yards site, from Vanderbilt Avenue to nearly Nostrand Avenue, first with spot rezonings and now with the pending Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan ( my coverage ) sent me back to the November 2006 Atlantic Yards Final Environmental Impact Statement, or FEIS. The excerpts below are attached specifically to the Prospect Heights subarea. From  Chapter 3: Land Use, Zoning and Public Policy : Manufacturing and Industrial Uses. Lower-density industrial uses such as warehouses, hardware/building suppliers, and smaller factories are located in the subarea just south of the project site between Carlton and Vanderbilt Avenues. Storage facilities are also located throughout this subarea, most notably Brothers Moving & Storage at 900 Atlantic Avenue near Underhill Avenue, and Peter F. Reilly Storage at 491 Bergen Street near 6th Avenue, adjacent to the 1.3-acre Dean Playground. Other industrial uses include warehouses and a bridal ...

As Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan Nears Vote, How Much Can Affordability Be Pushed? (from City Limits)

 I have an article today in City Limits about the plan to rezone the area just east of the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park site,  As Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan Nears Vote, How Much Can Affordability Be Pushed? The subheading: The AAMUP plan could deliver 4,600 new apartments and other investments in Central Brooklyn. But passage by City Council may involve negotiations to increase the amount—and affordability—of housing at publicly owned sites. So one issue is how much affordable housing can be added where the land base is low. Another is Community Board 8's not unreasonable--but not possible, at this point--request to modify the city's Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH), which requires 20% to 30% affordability, by suggesting an option with a higher percentage and deeper affordability. Council Member Crystal Hudson, the key decisionmaker on the AAMUP, seeks, and likely will get, commitments for more affordable housing at publicly owned sites. But she'd have to work with c...

Will Brooklyn Basketball clinics, when they come to Modell's, cost $575 for five days? That's what they cost elsewhere this summer. (Programs at schools are free.)

The Modell's store view from tip of arena plaza Photo Dec. 14, 2022: Norman Oder One question that surfaced when the Brooklyn Nets 'parent company, BSE Global, announced plans to hold Brooklyn Basketball youth camps at the site of the former Modell's store, across from the Barclays Center, was: how much would they cost? The answer, most likely, is a lot, since Brooklyn Basketball's free programs are located at school gyms. Current for-fee programs range from $200 for three days, $595 for five days, six hour days.  No wonder BSE Global has been cagey. As I reported last September, Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project, didn't know whether they'd be free or for-fee. (Keep in mind, BSE Global would have to renovate the store.) The handout, as with a presentation in November at a Quality of Life meeting, cited the "signature program" of free basketball clinics to students in Brooklyn. So I asked a questio...

The Brooklyn Way: new Brooklyn Nets merchandise from designer Kid Super includes boost from Borough President Reynoso, modeling $995 leather jacket

It wouldn't be the first time. As I reported ( link ) in September 2015, both Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and Brooklyn-based Mayor Bill de Blasio modeled new "Brooklynified" jerseys for the NHL's New York Islanders, about to move to the Barclays Center. BP Reynoso with  KidSuper founder Colm Dillane Well, that didn't work out well, but there's indeed precedent for elected officials boosting a home team jersey.  Remember Gov. Kathy Hochul with a Brooklyn Nets jersey in November 2021, or Sen. Chuck Schumer, Borough President Marty Markowitz, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and Gov. George Pataki all with Nets jerseys , in January 2004, after the team was purchased? Enter BP Reynoso One surprising, but not shocking, variation is seeing Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso appear last October in a press release and photo boosting a new Brooklyn Nets merchandise collection, rocking a $995 leather varsity jacket , from the Brooklyn-based brand KidSuper. The ...

So, how does the new $150 NBA City Edition uniform, by KAWS, celebrate "the spirit of Brooklyn"?

A Nov. 14, 2024 press release, Brooklyn Nets Unveil 2024-25 Nike NBA City Edition Uniform, Created With Renowned Artist KAWS , told us: The Brooklyn Nets have unveiled their 2024-25 Nike NBA City Edition Uniform, created with renowned artist and Brooklyn resident, KAWS. The Nets remain the first and only professional sports team the Brooklyn-based artist has collaborated with. Year two of the partnership further expands upon the Nets’ commitment to highlighting local tastemakers and leading creators from Brooklyn to celebrate the unique culture found within the borough and is an example of how the team continues to elevate their retail offerings to reflect the fanbase’s growing interest in fashion and style, including launching a private label, premium merchandise line, bǝrō. KAWS is the third icon from Brooklyn that the team has paid homage to through the NBA City Edition program after previously celebrating the lives and legacies of The Notorious B.I.G. and Jean-Michel Basquiat. What...

Five years later, the Brooklyn Nets' Bar Network seems to have shrunk. It still ignores Black Brooklyn.

I wrote ( link ) in December 2019 that the Brooklyn Nets had gone all-in on Biggie Smalls and his Bed-Stuy neighborhood--or had they? Yes, there was Bed-Stuy front and center on the team's 2018-19 Nike City Edition uniform. But Bed-Stuy and Black Brooklyn were absent from the Brooklyn Nets Bar Network, presented by Modelo. There were about 25 bars in a screenshot I took in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan, plus a few in Queens and Staten Island that were omitted. No locations in New Jersey, the longtime previous home of the Nets. And today Well, today's Bar Network is paltrier: 13 locations in Brooklyn, plus one in Staten Island. None in Manhattan, Queens, or New Jersey.   As the map above suggests, the bars in Brooklyn form pretty much a direct route north from Bay Ridge to Greenpoint, with stops in Sunset Park, Park Slope, and Williamsburg. There's one outlier, in Coney Island. Maybe they'd blame Modelo, but you'd think that the enlightened marketers behind th...