Top 50
October 27, 2008
Top 50: The Final Wrap
Here are the suggestions from readers of people who were not on the Top 50 list but should have been:
- Dan Rice, Watchtower Group
- John Sexton, NYU
- Councilmember de Blasio
- Councilmember Yassky
- Tim King, Chris Havens, Brian Leary, Commercial Brokers
- Mary Kay Gallagher, Victorian Flatbush Broker and Grande Dame
- Alan Fishman, Last CEO of WaMu
- Charles Bagli, NY Time Reporter
- Jonathan Lethem (and other Brooklyn-centric authors)
- Karen Auster, Organizer of Atlantic Antic and BKLYN Designs
- Arnold Lehman, Brooklyn Museum
- Harvey Lichtenstein, BAM
- Jack Walsh, Celebrate Brooklyn
- The What
Last chance: Any others?
Click through to see the entire list.
October 24, 2008
Top 50: Who'd We Leave Out?
Given that this was our first effort at putting together a list like this, we were bound to screw some things up, either by commission or omission. So help up pull together those deserving of inclusion that slipped our overly-crowded mind. One commenter already pointed out the following omissions: Dan Rice of the Jehovah's Witnesses, John Sexton of NYU, Councilmembers de Blasio and Yassky and the commercial power trio of Tim King, Chris Havens and Brian Leary. We'll do a wrap up on Monday.
Lifetime Achievement Award: The Ortners
Without Evelyn and Everett Ortner, there may very well have been no brownstone renaissance in Brooklyn (and, as one reader wrote to remind us, no Brownstoner.com!). Starting in the early 1960s, when they bought a brownstone on Berkeley Place (for $32,500!), the couple used a combination of charm and street smarts to preserve the architectural fabric of their neighborhood while building a strong activist community, among other things founding the Brownstone Revival Committee in 1968. Since then, they have served in leadership roles of Preservation Volunteers, the Victorian Society of America, D.C.-based Preservation Action, the Brooklyn Historical Society, BAM, the Brooklyn Museum and the Park Slope Civic Council. While Evelyn passed away in 2006, Everett, 89, continues to be deeply involved with Brooklyn preservation and community organizations. For a longer list of achievements, click here.
Number 1: Bruce Ratner
Anyone capable of sequestering $2 billion in public subsidies and 22 acres of private and public land (most through voluntary purchase and MTA approval, but some through still-pending eminent domain) for a single project, Atlantic Yards, has influence and then some. But even Bruce Ratner, president of Forest City Ratner, may not be mightier than a crash in the financial market, though he recently managed to fit through a loophole in the IRS’s tougher arena financing regulations. If built, Atlantic Yard's basketball arena and high-rises will change life in Brooklyn forever. If not, it could be "Atlantic Lots," blighting Brooklyn for a decades. Ratner is also responsible for three other local game-changers: Metro Tech, Atlantic Center and Terminal, and Lowe's (the first big box store in Gowanus), but his bid to build the tallest tower in Brooklyn, City Tech, fell through. At least his rental tower at 80 Dekalb looks to be on track.
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 11-20 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 21-30 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 31-40 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 41-50 [Brownstoner]
Photo by Tracy Collins
Number 2: The Walentases
Two Trees Management founder David Walentas and his wife Jane, and more recently his son Jed Walentas, transformed industrial Dumbo into the borough's most exclusive enclave, in part by providing free or discounted homes for creative institutions like St. Anne's Warehouse, essentially artificially replicating Soho and Tribeca's gentrification. In 1981, the Walentases bought 10 factories there for what now seems like a paltry $12 million considering half the borough's 20 most expensive recorded condos sales are in those buildings, and a contract exceeding $7 million has been signed for the 14th floor of One Main Street, which would make it the top sale. In other buildings, he's created one of the most important office markets in Brooklyn, home to scores of small and medium-sized "creative" firms. He hasn't slowed down: Last year, The Real Deal named Walentas Brooklyn's Biggest Builder with 905 units on the market. The Walentases (Jed, really) are also planning a boutique hotel in Williamsburg and brought the borough's first Trader Joe's to Atlantic Avenue. The Department of Education is reportedly warming to his suggestion of including a middle school in his proposed, controversial Dock Street project. And he might finally get his wife's carousel inside Brooklyn Bridge Park!
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 11-20 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 21-30 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 31-40 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 41-50 [Brownstoner]
Photo by the NY Oberserver
Number 3: Purnima Kapur
Since Purnima Kapur's appointment as Brooklyn City Planning Director in 2006, four rezonings covering over 470 blocks have been passed (Dyker Heights, Fort Greene/Clinton Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Grand Street) and she is overseeing at least 10 more covering 800 blocks: Dumbo, Gowanus, Coney Island, Flatbush, Sunset Park, Greenpoint and Williamsburg, Canarsie, and Brighton Beach. She literally has a hand in deciding the size, shape, density, composition and sometimes even aesthetic of Brooklyn blocks. Sometimes millions of dollars in property value for a single parcel are at stake, and rezonings have been known to stop projects at the beginning stages of construction.
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 11-20 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 21-30 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 31-40 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 41-50 [Brownstoner]
Number 4: Tupper Thomas
Prospect Park: The beating heart of Brooklyn; its shared backyard and a symbol of our urban renaissance; with 8 million amblers a year, one of the borough's most visited public attractions (Coney Island has 10.6 million). We have Tupper Thomas, Prospect Park's administrator and founder of the Prospect Park Alliance, responsible for programming and 60 percent of its $10 million annual operating budget, to thank. When she took over in 1980, it was considered dangerous and decrepit, and only 1.7 million people ventured in a year. To bring in people, she arranged for off-leash hours, knowing dog owners would be the park's most loyal users, and soon joggers, cyclists, and bar-b-quers followed. Thomas has also secured $120 million in public and private funds for renovations and capital projects, reviving an enviable amenity for Brooklynites of all stripes. The single largest feat of historic preservation in the borough.
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 11-20 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 21-30 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 31-40 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 41-50 [Brownstoner]
Photo by cassieshotz
Number 5: Robert Tierney
Fifty years from now, architecturally distinct neighborhoods like Dumbo and Crown Heights North will look largely the same as they do today, regardless of the individual property owners' consent, thanks to city landmarking laws implemented under Robert Tierney, chairman of the Landmark Commission. Since he took the seat in January 2003, four districts comprising 823 buildings and 20 individual structures have been landmarked in Brooklyn, and according to a spokeswoman the commission plans to move forward with designating two more districts in Bed-Stuy and Prospect Heights that total 870 buildings. Then there are the scores of proposed alterations to existing landmarks that have put developers at the mercy of Tierney, such as 20 Henry Street and the Domino Sugar Refinery. And the Commission has surveyed 2,800 additional buildings in Brooklyn "that merit evaluation for landmark status," meaning Tierney won't have to worry about lack of work as long as he's in office.
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 11-20 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 21-30 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 31-40 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 41-50 [Brownstoner]
Photo by newyorkobserver
Number 6: Marianna Koval and Regina Myer
Since Marianna Koval joined the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy in 1998, through her programming and fundraising efforts she's helped keep the dream alive, even during those uncertain years when planners faced legal battles and endless construction delays. Koval was instrumental in starting popular activities like the Movies With A View series and the Floating Pool to bring people into the park, while lobbying hard to have construction on the piers started before developers for the far more controversial residential high-rises and commercial properties within the park were designated, which was a time-consuming and money-draining process that strained public support. Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation president Regina Myer, far more affable than her predecessor Wendy Leventer, finally got a shovel in the ground and an additional $75 million for construction, putting an end to fears that the project would die. Koval continues to develop plans for interim uses during construction, a skating rink beneath the Brooklyn Bridge, and ultimately for a role in operating the park once built. Within the next few months Myer will preside over designating developers for properties within the park, including a hotel, all intended to fund its maintenance. If Myer can pull off completing the park, with its stunning views it could trump Central Park as the must-see park in the city.
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 11-20 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 21-30 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 31-40 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 41-50 [Brownstoner]
Koval photo by Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance; Meyer by Brooklyn Paper.
Number 7: Joe Sitt
Since unveiling his audacious (and totally different from today) "glam rock" proposed makeover of Coney Island in 2005, Thor Equities founder Joe Sitt has been in the driver's seat of the neighborhood's redevelopment, whether the city likes it or not. Through voluntary sales, he owns most of the land within the amusement district, including that beneath the beloved Astroland and the boardwalk businesses (though he just lost the Wonder Wheel site to the city last week), and his willingness to negotiate with the city will determine what gets built in one of the most quintessentially, sentimentally New York neighborhoods. Bloomberg is handicapped by term-limits. Sitt also netted $100 million from selling the development rights to the former Albee Square Mall, of Biz Markie fame, and reportedly plans to bring more big box retail to the Revere Sugar Refinery. He seems to have a penchant for buying hallowed property and doing whatever the hell he wants with it.
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 11-20 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 21-30 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 31-40 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 41-50 [Brownstoner]
Number 8: Magdi Mossad
Wanna alter or build something in Brooklyn? First thing you gotta do is file your project with the Department of Buildings (unless you're in a Landmark district, but that's another story), and in Brooklyn the grand poobah of the DOB is Magdi Mossad. Despite being a career DOB employee, Mossad has taken advantage of his position as the top DOB dog in Brooklyn to push the agency to respond more effectively to the safety abuses and other illegal activity in the building industry. He launched the initial excavation squad in Williamsburg, a model that later became adopted city-wide; he also was responsible for the first criminal prosecution of a developer through the creation of a special investigation unit combining building inspectors, engineers and a special prosecutor.
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 11-20 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 21-30 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 31-40 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 41-50 [Brownstoner]
Number 9: The Media
If a tree falls in the woods and nobody hears it, does it make a sound? No matter, with hundreds of reporters and bloggers in Brooklyn even the mere crack of a twig can turn into a fever pitch, and as a blog, we see media as a collective force since its work product is consolidated on our pages (yes, we know this is shameless cheating). Battles over projects like the Downtown Brooklyn redevelopment, Atlantic Yards and Coney Island are played out in the media daily, swaying public opinion, galvanizing activists, and selling the borough to buyers and investors. Speaking of buyers, a National Association of Home Builders study found during the boom years, over half said media reports had an impact on their decision -- where to buy, when, and at what price. An updated study was done during these bust years, and a spokeswoman told us the number was much higher but declined to release the figure. In Brownstone Brooklyn, with three of the nation's bloggiest communities, buyers especially have the edge, and may even discover a neighborhood they wouldn't have previously considered. A few of the many local notables: New York Post reporter Rich Calder and Daily News reporter Jotham Sederstrom break Brooklyn stories in the tabloid wars, and Brooklyn Daily Eagle columnist Dennis Holt and Brooklyn Paper editor Gersh Kuntzman disagree about almost everything in the local rags. Our publisher Jonathan Butler started Brooklyn’s most-read blog (our commenters, the New York magazine noted, encapsulate the “Brooklyn Wars”), and a city-wide hit with the Brooklyn Flea, bringing an average of 5,000 people into Clinton Hill every weekend. Other notable bloggers include Robert Guskind, founder of Gowanus Lounge and Brooklyn editor of city-wide Curbed, and Norman Oder, who has broken multiple stories on his Atlantic Yards Report. And speaking of Atlantic Yards, No Land Grab is the site that has tirelessly compiled every iota of media since the fight began.
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 11-20 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 21-30 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 31 - 40 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 41 - 50 [Brownstoner]
Photo by valentepvz
Number 10: Daniel Goldstein
Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner didn't know who he was messing with when he set out to seize the home of Daniel Goldstein, co-founder of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, a highly sophisticated coalition of 26 community organizations leading the fight against that project. Although the group has only had one court victory to-date, which was overturned, their protests and series of lawsuits and appeals have managed to stall the project into credit crunch territory, possibly jeopardizing its financing. The court's recent decision to deny the state's motion to dismiss the eminent domain case, led by Goldstein, has pushed construction (if started) back to at least Spring 2009, and the court's decision will likely be used in other eminent domain cases involving private developers across the country. Goldstein will be the most memorable Brooklyn community activist of this decade, fearlessly (at all hours of the day) speaking for thousands.
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 11-20 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 21-30 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 31-40 [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 41-50 [Brownstoner]
Photo by Steve Soblick
Top Ten Countdown
Between 11am and noon today, we'll be counting down the Top 10 Most Influential winners, capping it off with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Stay tuned!
Update: Here's the complete Top 10 list...
Lifetime Achievement Award: The Ortners [Brownstoner]
Number 1: Bruce Ratner [Brownstoner]
Number 2: The Walentases [Brownstoner]
Number 3: Purnima Kapur [Brownstoner]
Number 4: Tupper Thomas [Brownstoner]
Number 5: Robert Tierney [Brownstoner]
Number 6: Marianna Koval and Regina Myer [Brownstoner]
Number 7: Joe Sitt [Brownstoner]
Number 8: Magdi Mossad [Brownstoner]
Number 9: The Media [Brownstoner]
Number 10: Daniel Goldstein [Brownstoner]
October 23, 2008
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 11 - 20
Every day this week, we're going to count down Brooklyn's Top 50* most influential people who have shaped Brooklyn neighborhoods by building new structures, preserving older ones, influencing property values and quality of life, speaking for thousands, or changing the course of developments, for example. We did 41-50 on Monday, 31-40 on Tuesday and , 21-30 yesterday, so today it's time for 11-20. Instead of listing everyone from Bloomberg to Bernanke, we mostly stuck with locals. Surprisingly still, by broadening our definition of influence beyond quantitative factors like real estate holdings and constituency, the toughest task was keeping the list down to only 50 (*So we cheated, there's actually more like 65 people on the list, and it was still hard). Ranking them in order was also tough. In some cases we considered the type of entity the person represents, the potential impact of the project he or she is working on, and the extent of influence over time, distance and the number of Brooklynites affected. By all means, feel free to give us your two cents in the comments section. By the end of this week, we could have 200 people on the list!
Check out 11-20 below.
Continue reading "Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 11 - 20"
October 22, 2008
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 21 - 30
Every day this week, we're going to count down Brooklyn's Top 50* most influential people who have shaped Brooklyn neighborhoods by building new structures, preserving older ones, influencing property values and quality of life, speaking for thousands, or changing the course of developments, for example. We did 41-50 on Monday, 31-40 yesterday, so today it's 21-30. Instead of listing everyone from Bloomberg to Bernanke, we mostly stuck with locals. Surprisingly still, by broadening our definition of influence beyond quantitative factors like real estate holdings and constituency, the toughest task was keeping the list down to only 50 (*So we cheated, there's actually more like 65 people on the list, and it was still hard). Ranking them in order was also tough. In some cases we considered the type of entity the person represents, the potential impact of the project he or she is working on, and the extent of influence over time, distance and the number of Brooklynites affected. By all means, feel free to give us your two cents in the comments section. By the end of this week, we could have 200 people on the list!
Check out 21-30 below.
Continue reading "Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 21 - 30"
October 21, 2008
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 31 - 40
Every day this week, we're going to count down Brooklyn's Top 50* most influential people who have shaped Brooklyn neighborhoods by building new structures, preserving older ones, influencing property values and quality of life, speaking for thousands, or changing the course of developments, for example. We did 41-50 yesterday, so today it's 31-40. Instead of listing everyone from Bloomberg to Bernanke, we mostly stuck with locals. Surprisingly still, by broadening our definition of influence beyond quantitative factors like real estate holdings and constituency, the toughest task was keeping the list down to only 50 (*So we cheated, there's actually more like 65 people on the list, and it was still hard). Ranking them in order was also tough. In some cases we considered the type of entity the person represents, the potential impact of the project he or she is working on, and the extent of influence over time, distance and the number of Brooklynites affected. By all means, feel free to give us your two cents in the comments section. By the end of this week, we could have 200 people on the list!
Check out 31-40 below.
Continue reading "Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 31 - 40 "
October 20, 2008
Brooklyn's Top 50 Most Influential No. 41 - 50
Every day this week, we're going to count down Brooklyn's Top 50* most influential people in shaping Brooklyn neighborhoods — by building new structures, preserving older ones, influencing property values and quality of life, speaking for thousands, or changing the course of developments, for example. Instead of listing everyone from Bloomberg to Bernanke, we mostly stuck with locals. Surprisingly still, by broadening our definition of influence beyond quantitative factors like real estate holdings and constituency, the toughest task was keeping the list down to only 50 (*so we cheated, there's actually more like 65 people on the list, and it was still hard). Ranking them in order was also tough, so please take the whole exercise with a grain of salt and sense of humor. In some cases we considered the type of entity the person represents, the potential impact of the project he or she is working on, and the extent of influence over time, distance and the number of Brooklynites affected. By all means, feel free to give us your two cents in the comments section. By the end of this week, we could have 200 people on the list!
41 and 42. Developers Louis Greco, Jr. and Mario Procida teamed up in 2006 to form SDS Procida, developers of the glassy Richard Meier concoction On Prospect Park, Be@Schermerhorn, and two other sold-out projects, totaling 449 units in the borough. The Brooklyn Public Library had to give up its unofficial address One Grand Army Plaza when SDS Procida formally applied to have the aspiring moniker attached to On Prospect Park. It has turned out to be somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy, as the building has some of the top sales in Brooklyn.
43. One insider we spoke to called JP Day Realty, owned by real estate heir Larry Wohl, "the Downtown [Brooklyn] landlord that has done the least to maintain its prewar office buildings." Once owner of the majestic 16 Court Street before it was purchased (and renovated) by SLGreen, Wohl is still hanging on to four other Downtown office buildings. His 186 Joralemon Street is undergoing a gut renovation, while 186 Remsen Street continues to languish on the market, reportedly in pretty rough shape.
44. Community Board district managers handle a million things that have a direct, daily impact on the lives of residents, with varying degrees of deference from the city; they also play big roles behind the scenes in building support or opposition to local initiatives. Some recent moves include the effort by both District 2 Manager Robert Perris and District 6 Manager Craig Hammerman to curtail the nightly torture bars wage on neighbors, and District 7 Manager Jeremy Laufer's push for a rezoning of Sunset Park.
45. David Maundrell founded Williamsburg-based aptsandlofts.com six years ago and has already become the Goliath of that market by providing a young and edgy alternative to the city's old-timer firms. He has contracts to represent 150 new developments, primarily in Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Long Island City, Fort Greene, Prospect Heights and Dumbo. He said he is considering opening an office in Manhattan, and turned down a buyout offer from one of the city's top three firms (we know which one but can't tell). He also announced last week the, along with a partner, was launching a new new mortgage outfit called Union Square Mortgage Company.
46. Buddy Scotto, founder of the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation and the Carroll Gardens Association, has since the 1960s used his political connections to win everything from canal cleanup money to the late Brooke Astor's support for a land-use study. Unabashedly pro-development, he's losing favor among the new neighborhood guard. Early this year, the neighborhood association stopped holding its meetings at his funeral home, in part because he had become too controversial a figure.
47. Henry Radusky of Bricolage Designs is the third most prolific architect in the city with 893 buildings approved over the past 7 years, many of which the Village Voice said "clot the Brooklyn landscape." His signature maneuver: creating "faculty housing" so he can build twice the standard size, much to the ire of neighbors.
48. Prolific restauranteur Jim Mamary first planted his stake in Brooklyn in 1997, when he opened Patios on Smith Street. He has since opened more than a dozen restaurants in the borough, often in neighborhoods on the cusp of change, like Enduros in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, widely considered a game-changer for the Lincoln Road strip, and Pomme de Terre, a French bistro in Ditmas Park. Not all of his projects are met with equal praise: While PLG is generally delighted over his plans for a new Southern BBQ joint, there's opposition to his oyster bar on Hoyt Street.
49. In the frenzied pace of Downtown Brooklyn redevelopment, where more than 50 large projects are underway, it could be easy to forget area old-timers, many who are minorities, immigrants, low-income, and have lost their businesses, jobs and homes in the name of progress. Fortunately, Ilana Berger, executive director of Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE), is keeping track, sometimes negotiating directly with developers and public agencies on behalf of her clients, other times hitting the streets. The group's reports on displacement seem to be the only ones being conducted in the area.
50. Developer Bruce Ratner's choice of legendary starchitect Frank Gehry to design Atlantic Yards helped galvanize support for the massive project, versus if he had chosen a blander designer, as stunning architecture can have an elevating effect on a community. But Gehry's vision has also be hotly criticized as offensive to the surrounding brownstone neighborhoods. No matter, Atlantic Yards hasn't be built yet, and Gehry was recently ousted from BAM's Theater for a New Audience design team. If he ever does get something built here, he'll be in the top 20 for sure.
Latest Restaurant Additions
-
Chickadee Chick
added November 6, 2009 12:00 PM in Park Slope -
Vutera
added November 5, 2009 12:00 PM in Williamsburg -
Park Cafe
added November 4, 2009 12:00 PM in Park Slope -
Bahia
added November 3, 2009 12:00 PM in Williamsburg -
Aqualis Grill
added November 2, 2009 12:00 PM in Fort Greene -
Wombat
added October 30, 2009 12:00 PM in Williamsburg -
Organic Heights
added October 29, 2009 12:00 PM in Park Slope -
Giardini Pizza
added October 28, 2009 12:00 PM in Carroll Gardens -
Rye
added October 27, 2009 12:00 PM in Williamsburg -
Bati
added October 26, 2009 12:00 PM in Fort Greene