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November 30, 2005

Wednesday Linkfest

construction
Fourth Avenue Construction. Photo by Hugh Crawford
New Subway Cars with Info [NY Times]
Smith Street Subway Restored [NY Daily News]
Brighton Board Axes Landlord [NY Daily News]
70 Washington Update [Curbed]
NYC Condo Market Slowing a Bit [UPI]
$1.4 Million for a Playground? [Daily Heights]




Posted by Brownstoner at 7:50 AM | Comments (20)
Categories: Daily Links

Comments

Anyone know any details about this 4th Ave construction? I presume this is the building going in next to the Stone Park.

Posted by: Anonymous at November 30, 2005 9:55 AM

This will be the "Park Slope Towers" developed by Boymelgreen et al. For an architectural rendering of the building go to www.levievboymelgreen.com.

Posted by: Lane Wesselmann at November 30, 2005 10:03 AM

Holy smokes that is big. It's the flip side of down sizing the side streets. Speaking of side streets, any news on what's happening with the similarly tall 12 story jobs on 15th and 16th -- that, if built, will presumably not be nearly as nice as this one?

Posted by: Anonymous at November 30, 2005 10:18 AM

Ha. That's 151 units within walking distance to Whole Foods, and right next to one of the best restaurant stretches in the city. If done well, those will sell like hotcakes.

Posted by: Anonymous at November 30, 2005 10:20 AM

As for the two 12 story monstrosities: The one at 182 15th street was not vested. Mr Vulture (Katan) will probably go to the BSA, claiming hardship (What about all the hardship he has wrought on the people who work for him, the neighborhoods he has destroyed and lets not forget all the people who buy his illegally built shit boxes).
The one at 162 16th street was supposedly in limbo. The strange thing about that is that Mr Vulture has been telling people for over 1 week that it is vested and now rumor has it that it is indeed vested but no one at DOB will confirm.
Let's hope that our elected officials will do the right thing and see to it that both of these debacles as well as the so called Developer, are stopped once and for all.
There should be no question. Both jobs have been done illegally from the start. Every building, OSHA, Environmental, and labor law has been intentionally violated by the Developer, Architect, and every one involved with it. These illegalities have been well documented. They have made, life, a living hell for the residence of the blocks and surrounding streets.
As stated in the NY Post 3 weeks ago, The 2nd highest death rate in NYC in the last year was as a result of construction accidents. Most of these deaths have occurred on illegal jobs that are run very much like 162 16th street. Their have also been many serious injuries some documented and many undocumented that happen on a daily basis on these illegal jobs.
To allow these or any other questionable jobs, run in this manner, would be a direct slap in the face of all those who have died or been injured so that these billionaires could have their way. Not to mention all the tax payers who will ultimately have to shoulder the burden of supporting these poor people and there families as well as the billionaires who flout the laws designed to protect us.
Any comments from owners of Katan's "Luxury Condo's"?
Lets Keep this Thread going Till These illegal activities are stopped once and for all.

Posted by: JK at November 30, 2005 12:17 PM

JK:

Amen.

16th Streeter

Posted by: Anonymous at November 30, 2005 1:02 PM

Building is also zoned for PS 321, in case that school wasn't already crowded enough for you.

Posted by: linusvanpelt at November 30, 2005 1:57 PM

And that will make is sell even faster...

Posted by: Anonymous at November 30, 2005 3:07 PM

12 story buildings on an exceptionally wide avenue like 4th Ave. are a wonderful tradeoff for downsizing the brownstone side streets. As for the 4th Avenue buildings, I'm fine with 12 story mid-rises, but I hope they're not as ugly as much of the new construction in Brooklyn.

Posted by: Anon at November 30, 2005 3:48 PM

The PS 321 administration is actually quite concerned about the strain all these new units (on 4th ave and elsewhere) will have on the school. I've been at school meetings where they've said the school is already at capacity, and they won't be allowed to expand until all the "extra" rooms used for the art studio, gym, etc are converted to classrooms. It's a matter of killing the goose for the golden eggs.
I'm not against these buildings on 4th ave. per se - maybe it will help tame the traffic on 4th ave. - but why aren't matters like school crowding taken in consideration during the approval process?

Posted by: petunia at November 30, 2005 9:38 PM

Regarding shitboxes - can someone explain this one thing to me as I don't get it:

When somebody is referring to shit boxes I assume he is referring to 100 year old, leaky, small woodframe houses with a paved front yard and a satellite dish mounted next to a window on the first floor.

Am I right?

Posted by: Anonymous at December 1, 2005 12:22 AM

As I recall, school crowding was taken into consideration, or at least discussed, during the rezoning. But ultimately the decision was, better to build on a big avenue than on the side streets. Really, what's the alternative? Allow for expanded building on 4th Ave. *except* in the school zone for the richest Park Slopers?

321 is a victim of its own success, or its own reputation, anyway. You can't expect people not to want to move there. So either you build more housing in the zone, to accomodate demand, or you forbid the housing and thus drive up the already inflated prices in the zone -- using zoning to create, in essence, a prohibitively expensive private school district within a public system. That can't be the goal of zoning policy.

The other option, of course, is to expand, but 321 has only so much room to expand on its physical plant. Eventually, you can either have more crowding... or you can build another school and rezone. And won't the families who are redistricted out of the 321 zone be delighted then!

Posted by: linusvanpelt at December 1, 2005 9:06 AM

Rezoning is the most likely of those scenarios, and it's just as likely the students shut out will be from above 7th ave. as below.
Once the envisioned overcrowding happens, 321 will certainly not be as highly esteemed as it is now. It doesn't matter whether new development is on 4th ave or PPW, or how affordable it is - the school can't absorb all those kids without losing some of the things that make it so desirable.
Hopefully by then, parents will have invested as much energy to help improve other nearby schools as they do now shoehorning themselves into the "good" school zone.
again, I do think the 4th ave. upzoning isn't bad by itself, but the assumption that the existing schools can handle all the extra students without any plans to expand (the Children's School is crowded too), or create a new school, is very shortsighted. Especially considering that good schools are such a big part of the real estate pitch.

Posted by: petunia at December 1, 2005 2:07 PM

Agreed, but I guess what I'm saying is, if you think that PS 321 parents are going to be upset by the crowding, imagine the wailing if the city actually does something about the crowding by building a new school -- and zoning some of the old PS 321 families out of the new, smaller 321 zone.

And by the way, if that rezoning happens, it *should* shut out students above 7th Avenue as much as students below 7th. No one should be able to claim they have more right to stay in the zone because their rent is higher or their home worth more. Too bad for them. It doesn't matter what your real estate agent told you or how much more you paid because you knew you were getting into 321 -- taking that kind of thing into account would be antithetical to the idea of public education.

As for the Children's School, it's not a zoned school. There's no catchment area and admission is by lottery. Crowded or not, more construction should not affect it one way or another, except maybe to make it harder to get in.

Posted by: linusvanpelt at December 1, 2005 3:20 PM

Oh, also, you're right that the real solution is to improve other schools in the area, but frankly most of them are quite good by NYC standards and tend to be avoided by lemming-like parents on the basis of a few impressions they hear thirdhand at the playground. (But I'm biased, since I have a kid at PS 39.)

Posted by: linusvanpelt at December 1, 2005 3:24 PM

While we are on the subject, how is PS 124? My kids are beginning to reach the age when this all becomes relevant and we feed to that school...

Thanks

Posted by: Anonymous at December 1, 2005 3:40 PM

Be realistic about this - its 150 units and the biggest unit is 2brs how many kids could possibly come out of this development?

Posted by: David at December 1, 2005 4:06 PM

I have a lot of friends with kids at PS 39 - sounds like parental involvement is on the upswing, and that's just as important to a good school as having a good principal (well, both are needed actually). If only real estate agents start touting 39 the way they do 321 - I think spreading the hype around would help everyone.

and per David's question, it's not that one development I'm thinking about, there are many more just finished or nearing completion - several new condo units on 3rd below 5th ave., and those big new buildings on Carroll and 4th, just off the top of my head...

Posted by: petunia at December 1, 2005 5:07 PM

I agree -- some parents are just obsesssive about PS 321, but I've also heard from parents who feet that it's already too crowded and their kids don't get enough individual attention.

I have heard very good things about PS 39, and I've even directed parents to the Board of Ed's website to compare scores, etc., but some of them just don't care -- it's 321 or nothing!

The most important factor in eductational success will always be parental involvement. These parents who think that their kid will automatically be a genius because he goes to a certain school may be in for a rude awakening.

And considering that most of the people buying here are well-educated themselves, I don't think they really need to worry about their kids' academic success, provided they make the effort to consecrate sufficient time to helping the kids with their homework, reading to/with them, etc...

Posted by: babs at December 2, 2005 8:10 PM

Back to the shitboxes, Mr Anonymous: Maybe your 100 year old house is a shit box and if it is then maybe you should spend the time to fix it. But most of the houses in this area have withstood the test of time which I can assure you will not be the case for the Katan Shitboxes. Everything that he builds is inferior and damaged. What he does is work the system for profit. He pay's off, threatens and bullies his way through our city. The system is designed to protect Vultures like him. Not the poor slobs that work for him, or the neighborhoods that he overruns and last but not least the people who buy his SHITBOXES. Did You ever try to sue someone like him?

Posted by: jk at December 3, 2005 6:40 AM

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