March 31, 2008

StreetLevel: Gowanus Gallery Opens

Last Thursday a new art gallery on Bond Street right off Union made its debut. Photographer/agent Bruce Kramer opened Bond Street Gallery with fellow shutterbug Robert DiScalfani, and its first exhibition is called "Coney Island of the Heart." The show features the work of Harold Feinstein and will run through May 8th. GMAP

March 19, 2008

StreetLevel: Cuban Restaurant Cooking in the South Slope

A couple of longtime South Slopers are planning to build a Cuban restaurant, dance studio and recording space in their 7th Avenue building. Felix de Jesus, a pro dance instructor, and his wife, Olga Gomez—who has lived at 460 7th Avenue for the past 36 years—intend to construct an entertainment center called Ache de Cuba in the first floor and basement of their house. The ground floor will host the restaurant and dance space, while the basement will be turned into the recording studio. The plans are probably a year away from fruition, says de Jesus, and the pair needs to clear some C-of-O issues in order to be legit. The name of the future business between 15th and 16th streets comes from Cuba's Yoruba religion (aka "Santeria") and refers to a "universal life force." GMAP

Part of Sunset Park Complex Transforming Into Film Space

Light Industry, a new film series in a huge old manufacturing complex next to the BQE, makes its premiere next week. Thomas Beard and Ed Halter, both of whom are veteran film programmers—Beard worked for Ocularis and Halter used to oversee the New York Underground Film Festival—are running the series. Light Industry will have weekly Tuesday night screenings over the next few months in an empty studio space at Industry City, a 6-million-square-foot complex on 33rd Street between 3rd Avenue and the river that rents studios to artists. A different artist, critic or curator is going to organize each event. "The idea is that there are all these different groups in New York, and we want to explore that range," says Halter. The first screening next Tuesday is called "The Blazing World," and it'll feature a series of 16mm films "that ponder the vicissitudes of utopian scheming and the search for new ground," according to the organization’s website.
Light Industry Website GMAP

March 6, 2008

Creatives Flock to Bklyn, But Are They Endangered?

Brooklynites: Artsy and disdainful of working for the man. Brooklyn experienced the fastest growth in self-employment of any borough between 2000 and 2006, according to stats released yesterday at panel hosted by Center for an Urban Future and the Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation, with those employed in the creative sector (graphic designers, artists, architects, writers, etc.) accounting for the biggest chunk of that increase (their ranks rose by 33 percent). Park Slope, Williamsburg, and Downtown/Brooklyn Heights top the borough, respectively, each with between 2,500 and 3,500 residents who count themselves among the growing class of creative professionals, according to the BEDC, which used figures based on Census data from 2002 and 2005. The corporation calls these neighborhoods the borough’s “creative crescent,” and some of the talk at the panel yesterday was about how rising residential values in such areas threatens to crack the crescent. There’s no data to support this view, though an article on The Real Estate yesterday tried to come up with some anecdotal evidence. For example, playwright Scott Atkins, who founded the Brooklyn Writers' Space and Room 58, says, “A one-bedroom apartment with an office in center Slope is now $2,700,” Mr. Atkins said. “It’s unbelievable that rents could be so high and that the market is supporting it… we have seen more people come into Brooklyn, but we’ve also seen a lot of people going to Philadelphia, Jersey, and Vancouver. People go to L.A. all the time… Some move to upstate New York.” If there’s a case to be made for Brooklyn’s creative class drying up eventually, the best evidence might be across the East River: Manhattan’s self-employed creative population grew an anemic 6.5 percent between 2000 and 2006.
Brooklyn's 'Creative Crescent' In Danger of A Drought [The Real Estate]
Photo by Luke Redmond.

And the Walentas Boys Said, Let There Be Dumbo

"We own the whole neighborhood,” says Jed Walentas in a Times profile about the changes Two Trees Management has brought to Dumbo as the neighborhood's biggest landlord and de facto master planner. The article focuses on how David and Jed Walentas have manufactured a cultural zone in Dumbo by offering free or heavily discounted rents to a slew of arts organizations and artists (like the new Galapagos space at 16 Main Street, right). “It adds value to any neighborhood,” says David Walentas of luring artists to the 'hood. “It’s like good architecture. Good architecture is cheap and adds value. People will pay a premium for it.” We couldn't agree more, and wish more developers would realize that good architecture is good business. It goes without saying, of course, that the Walentas crew has plenty of critics, including those who are fighting to block the Walentas' Dock Street development.
The Lords of Dumbo Make Room for the Arts, at Least for the Moment [NY Times]