Skip to main content

Posts

Featured Post

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

Recent posts

Gothamist's coverage of the new "Battle for Brooklyn" screening raises some old questions

"The Barclays Center's controversial history is revisited at a free event in Red Hook," Gothamist reports ( link ), citing a screening of the documentary Battle for Brooklyn on Feb. 27. The article includes interviews with the film's protagonist, Daniel Goldstein of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, and filmmaker Mike Galinsky. I have a couple of long articles, triggered by rewatching the film, coming in my Substack newsletter . (I won't be at the event, as I'll be out of town.) But first I'd like to address a couple of things in the article. Transformative promises From the article: According to Norman Oder, a tour guide who maintains a devoted watchdog blog about the development, Atlantic Yards has failed “to fulfill [its] transformative promises of jobs and affordable housing.” “All of the promises were empty,” added Galinsky in a phone interview. That's not so, because "empty" is a pretty definitive statement. There are 1,374 units of...

Buses line Atlantic Avenue (thanks to NYPD) for un-announced youth basketball event. Barclays Center would have it much tougher if towers were built there.

So, the Barclays Center doesn't like to tell neighbors about private, non-ticketed events at the arena, though such events may bring disruptions ( link ) such as buses idling and double-parking, or crowds on residential streets. Bus blocks hydrant on Atlantic Ave. Photo: Norman Oder On Tuesday, Feb. 11, two private events were scheduled , one in the morning, the other in the afternoon. I was nearby and noticed the afternoon event, a basketball game for students, which, it later became evident, involved middle-scholars from the Success Academies charter school network. Success has 57 free public charter schools in the city, among them 19 middle-schools. This event apparently involved  "[s]eventh and eighth-grade scholars from across our middle schools." The NYPD posted "No Parking" signs on Atlantic Avenue. Buses blocked hydrants and a B45 bus stop. A few were idling. See videos below. The bottom line As things go, it wasn't an inundation--I counted 14 buses...

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 ...