Marty to Address High-Tech Manufacturing, Preservation

It’s unclear whether anything newsy will come out of Marty Markowitz’s state of the borough address tonight since the borough president has already leaked details of the speech to several media outlets. According to the articles, Markowitz’s address will touch on bringing high-tech manufacturing to East New York or Brownsville as well as preserving and renovating a couple of high-profile buildings. The Daily News reports that Markowitz will propose a contest a la the one that’s bringing Cornell to Roosevelt Island that would result in a “high-tech manufacturing zone” in an area with a lot of unemployment, such as East New York or Brownsville: “His first choice would be Apple, a company the beep has courted for years with no success. …But even if Apple continues to snub the borough, Markowitz said a contest similar to the one for an applied sciences grad school with city land and cash available could help lure another high-tech company, perhaps Samsung, LG, or Hewlett Packard.” Meanwhile, Markowitz will announce that a dilapidated building from 1786 on the Erasmus Hall High School campus in Flatbush will be preserved and renovated so that the Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce and Industry can operate out of it, according to NY1. Part of the building will also become a museum. Markowitz will also announce that he’s going to earmark $1 million for the renovation of the Crown Heights armory at Union and Bedford, according to the Post. The borough president made headlines last year for riding a tricycle into his state of the borough address in order to criticize the proliferation of bike lanes in the city.
Markowitz to Propose Contest for High-Tech Manufacturing in Brownsville, East New York [NY Daily News]
Historic Erasmus High School Building To Be Preserved Under New Plan [NY 1]
Markowitz Donating $1M Towards Reviving Crown Heights Armory [NY Post]
Photo by myrtle_avenue_brooklyn
Fort Greene Park Changes Hands in Latest Redistricting

The redistricting action in North Brooklyn may not be as kooky as some other parts of the state (see today’s Observer post for some rich examples) but there were some changes to Joe Lentol’s turf worth mentioning. Most notable, is the loss of Fort Greene Park (as well as a strip of several blocks between Dekalb and Willoughby). Joe Lentol’s loss is Hakeem Jeffries’ gain, but only for a little while, since the 57th District leader now has his sights set on a run for congress. Check out a larger version of the new District 50 map here. And, for comparison’s sake, here’s the old map.
Press Conference Over ‘Broken Promises’ at Atlantic Yards

Yesterday state Senator Eric Adams, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries and Assemblyman Karim Camara held a press conference at which they criticized Atlantic Yards’ failure to produce promised jobs and housing. The three said they would try to get legislation passed that would result in the creation of a subsidiary body to oversee the development. Atlantic Yards report has an extensive post about the press conference noting that three have had “nuanced and/or supportive positions toward Atlantic Yards” until now and that their about-face likely represents the fact that two are running for office at the moment, as well as representing how many of their constituents feel about the development at this point. Hakeem Jeffries is quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying that Atlantic Yards “was presented as a field of dreams but has turned into a cemetery of broken promises.” Meanwhile,a spokesman for developer Forest City Ratner tells the Journal that the project’s promised jobs and housing have been “impacted” by lawsuits and the economy.
Adams, Jeffries, Camara Cite Lack of Atlantic Yards Jobs and Housing [AY Report]
Brooklyn Arena Criticized on Hiring [WSJ]
Photo by Tracy Collins
Meeting About Possible Uses for Crown Heights Armory

This coming Monday Borough President Marty Markowitz will hold a community meeting regarding the Troop C Armory, at 1579 Bedford Avenue in Crown Heights South. The meeting will center on plans for turning the massive building into a community facility. The building has housed a National Guard unit, a homeless shelter and been used for film shoots. The discussion will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. at Medgar Evers College, 1638 Bedford Avenue. There will be an open house at the armory all day Monday, from 8 am to 5pm.GMAP
Marty for Mayor?

Sources tell The Post that our borough president, Marty Markowitz, is “strongly considering” a run for mayor. On the one hand, the story notes that while Markowitz has “enormous popularity” in Brooklyn, he’s also pissed off opponents of Atlantic Yards and bike activists over his stance against the Prospect Park West bike lane. On the other, the article says that in “2008, before term limits were extended so Mayor Bloomberg could capture a third term, Markowitz in early polls led all potential Democratic mayoral candidates—including Weiner, Quinn and Thompson. A March 2008 Quinnipiac poll even had black voters favoring Markowitz over Thompson, who, unlike Markowitz, eventually ran for mayor before losing to Bloomberg in 2009.” How do you like his chances?
Marty Eyes Mayor Run [NY Post]
Photo by reclaimedhome
Cuomo Calls for Strengthening Rent Reg Laws
Governor Cuomo released the video above yesterday saying that if rent-regulation laws are allowed to expire next month, it would be a “crisis” for the state and that the laws need to be extended and strengthened. Cuomo says that “by current standards, it is estimated that over 130,000 more apartments could be lost to decontrol in the next few years.” City Room notes that the though the Assembly approved legislation last month that would extend rent regulations through 2016 and shift the luxury decontrol ceiling from $2,000 to $3,000 a month, “the issue has drawn little interest in the Senate.”
Cuomo Releases Message Urging Stronger Rent Laws [City Room]
Closing Bell: Corcoran Shifts Some Borders
Today Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, who has been in the news for trying to curtail the practice of real estate agents making up names for neighborhoods, sent out a press release commending the Corcoran Group for “changing their advertising practices by moving the eastern boundary of the Prospect Heights community back to its proper border, and correcting several listings that had improperly marketed Crown Heights properties as located in Prospect Heights.” According to the release, Jeffries sent a letter to Corcoran asking the brokerage to recognize the traditional boundaries of Prospect and Crown Heights in its ads so as not to “inflate housing prices in the Crown Heights community to the detriment of both working families who reside in the neighborhood and the prospective residents who are being deceived.” (While he’s at it, the assemblyman may want to look into Corcoran’s borders for Clinton Hill, which evidently stretches to Bedford Avenue.) Jeffries still plans to intro legislation requiring the city to set up an official process for renaming neighborhoods, so “Pro-Cro” is safe for the moment.
Navy Yard Fires Developer Tied to Kruger Scandal
On Friday The Real Deal reported that the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp had canned PA Associates, which was supposed to develop Admiral’s Row, after the firm’s founder was accused of “funneling $472,500 in bribes to State Senator Carl Kruger.” A Navy Yard spokesperson and Councilwoman Letitia James both said the project would still move forward, albeit with a different, unspecified developer. In other Kruger fallout news, The Post reported that a shopping complex in Mill Basin that Forest City Ratner is developing was held up for three years by the state senator because Kruger didn’t want the city to begin a public review on a non-FCR section of the site “and [FCR] was concerned that segmenting the project could hurt its plans, sources said.” Kruger and Bruce Bender, a vice president for government relations at FCR, “are longtime allies,” according to the article, though neither Bender or FCR were charged in the Kruger corruption suit.
Brooklyn Navy Yard Fires Development Firm Linked to Bribery Scheme [TRD]
Kruger Allegations Involve Deal-Making on Several Brooklyn Projects…
As Atlantic Yards Report first posted about yesterday, the corruption charges against State Senator Carl Kruger “portray a chummy relationship between Kruger and FCR Executive VP Bruce Bender, who not only tried to get money for Atlantic Yards–for the Carlton Avenue Bridge the developer is supposed to fund– but for the Lakeside Center project in Prospect Park. (Bender’s wife is on the Board of Directors of the Prospect Park Alliance and the Benders, like many others, have raised money for Prospect Park.)” The Times’ story on the matter today says the complaint against Kruger alleges he took “at least $1 million in bribes in exchange for help on state matters, including bribes from Richard Lipsky, a lobbyist for Forest City Ratner, and other clients.” An FCR spokesman tells the paper it ended its relationship with Lipsky on Wednesday but that the complaint “does not suggest that Forest City Ratner behaved in any way that’s inappropriate. The Real Deal, finally, has a story about how developer Aaron Malinsky, who is a principal with PA Associates, is accused of improperly funneling money to Kruger: “Prosecutors say that payments from Malinsky affected the outcome of various real estate developments, including what appears to be Canarsie Plaza at 8925 Avenue D in Brooklyn.” PA Associates is the firm that’s been chosen to build a ShopRite at the Navy Yard and is part of the City Point development team.
Corruption Charges Against Kruger Involve Atlantic Yards [AY Report]
Developer at Navy Yard Charged in Federal Bribery Case [TRD]
Developer Among Cast of Characters in Kruger Case [NY Times]
Hope for Notorious Slope Building?
We stumbled across an interesting tidbit of information browsing last month’s CB6 minutes: “Chairperson Kummer informed that Board that he recently met with Council Member Steven Levin…He was very pleased to hear that the Council Member was most receptive to our need to put our heads together to come up with a way to motivate property owners and developers to make their properties safe and remove blighted conditions from our community. It was reassuring to hear that their office was already in touch with the owner of 187 7th Avenue at the corner of 2nd Street, which has sadly become a poster child for exactly this type of challenging situation.” We spoke with Council Member Levin’s rep Hope Reichbach, who confirmed she’s been in touch with the property owners. Reichbach said the “owners seem open to start a conversation and move forward with the site.” Right now talks are very preliminary and no action has been taken thus far. Options with the long-blighted property include assistance for the owners to make necessary repairs or marketing it to a private buyer. These options, however, are entirely dependent on how discussions go with CB6, local politicians, the community, and the owners of 187 7th. Last month a listing popped up advertising the availability of the building’s ground-floor space.
Will Infamous Slope Ruin be Reborn? [Brownstoner]
Doings at the Dilapidated 7th Ave & 2nd St Building? [Brownstoner] GMAP
Marty Talks Development, Etc.
While Borough President Marty Markowitz’s entrance last night for his State of the Borough address is likely to be the most discussed aspect of the shebang, Brooklyn the Borough has reprinted his speech in full, and here are a few parts of it that stand out:
-”Fourth Avenue, which runs from Downtown Brooklyn to Bay Ridge, remains under-utilized…I have been promoting the transformation of the street into a livable, walkable, tree-lined avenue that I have dubbed ‘Brooklyn Boulevard.’ We’re just about to kick off the first in what will be many steps toward that goal by refurbishing the 4th Avenue-9th Street subway station and the surrounding streetscape.”
-”For many years, we’ve been talking about improving the Gowanus Expressway, and it’s time to act!” [More details, please!]
-”…I’m setting aside over one million dollars in capital funds and working with the New York City Economic Development Corporation and its president, Seth Pinsky, to develop a ‘business incubator’ in one of Brooklyn’s economically challenged areas.”
-”Beginning in the fall of 2012, the Barclays Center will not only be the home of the Brooklyn Nets…But it’s not just about the arena; the affordable housing built nearby will help make sure that Brooklyn remains proud home to everyone from everywhere.” [AY report has a bit to say on this.]
-”I’ve supported a $15 million streetscape project for Fulton Mall that includes repairing sidewalks, adding new public seating and repaving roads, because I believe we can once again make it New York City’s most prized shopping district, an eclectic and dynamic commercial strip that reflects the diversity of Brooklyn.”
-”Across from Borough Hall, we have a dream for the Municipal Building at 210 Joralemon Street. The building’s ground floor will soon be available for retail, and I know what store would truly be the ‘apple’ of my eye.” [Yes, let this happen so we can stop blogging "Apple-is-coming rumors"!]
Click through for quotes on Williamsburg and Coney development, bicycling, and Prospect Park. (more…)
Bloomberg Opines on Atantic Yards, Coney Island
Mayor Bloomberg spoke with reporters from the Community Newspaper Group, the parent company of The Brooklyn Paper, on Monday as part of his campaign tour, where they discussed everything from overzealous ticketing agents to Atlantic Yards. Concerning the latter, he hopes that developer Forest City Ratner can use the Frank Gehry designs for the arena and skyscrapers, as originally planned but later abandoned due to cost. It would make the arena—and Brooklyn—even more of an international draw, he reasoned: “Simon and Garfunkel on their tour would go to Brooklyn in a second before they go to Madison Square Garden. They’re New Yorkers.” (Has MSG been airlifted out of NYC recently?) Concerning the epic legal battles and financial concerns behind the massive development, the mayor sided with Ratner. “One of the great sins here is this small group of people stalled it so long [that] the economy is different,” he said. (AY Report disputes this view here.) Also of note, Mayor Bloomberg touched upon another hot-button development topic, Coney Island. Last month, City Council approved his plan for a new amusement park, hotels, theaters, a water park, and apartments. The last step is to purchase all or some of the land owned by developer Joe Sitt of Thor Equities. “Fundamentally, the deal with him is done,” the mayor said. He also insisted that Sitt will not develop the land himself, ominously adding that “He needs sewers; he needs water; he needs streets … If the city doesn’t want to cooperate, [Sitt's] going to spend a lot of time with a lot of money tied up.”
Bloomy Still Wants Gehry—and Other Tidbits [Brooklyn Paper]
Bloomberg Blames AY Opponents for Loss of Gehry [AY Report]
Photo by David Shankbone, Wikimedia Commons
John Catsimatidis: Tough Guy For Tough Times
John Catsimatidis: Self-made billionaire; owner of the Gristedes supermarket chain; developer of a planned, 660-unit project on Myrtle Avenue; potential mayoral candidate who says only he is tough enough to carry this city through the tough times ahead. In an interview with Brownstoner at his modest office in Hell’s Kitchen (not the trendy part), he describes a bleak future for Brooklyn and beyond. He’s not even positive the first phase of his Myrtle Avenue project is a “slam-dunk” because he hasn’t closed on the loan and “the banks are being a little more onerous than they used to be.” But Catsimatidis says the foundation was poured just in time for the 100 units to fall under the old 421-a rules that give him a tax breaks without providing any affordable units. Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE) just happens to be planning a protest outside his development site today, furious he reneged on his pledge to build 215 below-market apartments there. The group will also release a report on the displacement of residents and businesses as a result of the Downtown Brooklyn rezoning. Catsimatidis responds to our question about displacement: “There’s no displacement of residents that I know of. There’s no residential buildings that are really being torn down that I know of, and it’s just like I said, people have to stay where they are during a possible recession period.” We’ll find out in the coming months if he plans to officially throw his hat in the ring. Click through to read the interview, edited for length. (more…)
Pols Say They Want an Atlantic Yards ‘Trust’
The Real Estate and Atlantic Yards Report have pieces about a rally held yesterday at City Hall calling for the formation of an Atlantic Yards trust that would, theoretically, allow for more community input/involvement in Forest City Ratner’s development. The trust would be comprised of 15 members, eight appointed by the governor, two each by the Assembly speaker, Senate president, and mayor, and one by the Brooklyn borough president. A non-voting member would represent the community. Councilmembers Tish James and David Yassky, and Assemblymembers Hakim Jeffries and James Brennan are all supporting the trust’s creation. “Atlantic Yards is a public project built on public land using public money overseen by a public entity for a public purpose,” said Jeffries at the rally. “It therefore deserves maximum public participation during the life of this project.” And Yassky said that AY bypassed typical land-use review mechanisms. The fundamental mistake that was made here, really the original of this project, is that it was approved in a way that went around all the usual process for approving a big project,” he said. “We never had a chance to fix all the problems… I believe there is, somewhere buried underneath all the… special treatment, very deep in there, there is a good project, but the process never had a chance to find it. AY Report notes that “while such an organization—common with other large projects and thus a glaring weakness of the AY plan—certainly might channel public input, it would be unlikely to fundamentally change power dynamics.”
Brooklyn Politicos Call for Trust to Oversee Atlantic Yards [The Real Estate]
Push for AY Development Trust Begins [AY Report]
Photo by threecee.
Tony Avella, the Anti-Overdevelopment Candidate
City Councilman Tony Avella has been making himself known around Brooklyn lately, showing up at a community meeting about Gowanus and supporting other politicians who’ve called for a moratorium on Atlantic Yards demolitions. The common thread is also Avella’s main talking point in his (longshot) bid to become our next mayor: Namely, that the Bloomberg administration has sold out to real estate interests, disrupting the fabric of neighborhoods and turning a deaf ear to community concerns. Voice blog Runnin’ Scared has an interview with the man who wants to replace Mike. Here are some choice quotes:
“You have so many communities throughout the entire City that need to be protected from overdevelopment. You have the Department of Buildings, which is in a shambles. And it has been such a huge effort to get even the smallest rezoning, even the smallest change done within the City Council. It’s bizarre.”
“Listen, a lot of my fellow councilmen seem to be more interested, along with the Speaker, in getting money from the real estate industry than stepping up and doing the right thing. I don’t need to tell you, there’s very little independence in the City Council. It’s amazing to me how nobody speaks up.”
“In my opinion the one campaign that you can draw from is the Obama campaign. In terms of somebody coming from nowhere. Really, he had no name recognition beyond his own state, to in effect get the Democratic nomination at this point. People want change, and I think that’s what my campaign is all about.”
Underdog Mayoral Hopeful on Quinn, Bloomberg and Obama [Runnin' Scared]
Legislation To Boost Community-Based Planning [Brownstoner]
Photo by No Land Grab.
Are the DOB Commish’s Days Numbered?
Outrage over Department of Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster’s management of her agency is growing amidst revelations that the DOB approved plans for a glass tower on East 51st Street that flouted zoning regulations. Seven people died at the tower’s construction site last month after a crane collapsed. According to an article in the Times, even Mayor Bloomberg is having a hard time defending the DOB nowadays. I don’t think anybody should be fully satisfied with the Department of Buildings’ performance, the mayor said yesterday. Whether somebody could have done a better job — I’m trying to — whether they could have done a better job I just don’t know. Indeed, it is a hard thing to “know,” since the mayor’s administration has been so staunchly pro-development that the DOB has clearly had a problem enforcing safety standards for all the building’s it’s approved. You have a Buildings Department that seems more interested in preserving the rights of developers at the expense of citizens and the community, said Bruce Silberblatt, a retired contractor. Thirteen people have died in construction-related accidents so far this year, one more fatality than in all of 2007. “If there’s more construction, it makes common sense that you probably have more accidents or mistakes made,” the mayor is quoted as saying in the Post. “But that’s not an excuse. I’m looking at the Buildings Department the same ways I’m looking at every single other agency in this city.” Lancaster says she’s done a lot to reform the DOB since taking it over in 2002 and notes that she serves “at the pleasure of Mayor Bloomberg…I know we have much more to do to, and as long as I have the mayor’s support, I will forge ahead and continue to strengthen the Buildings Department’s oversight and regulation of the construction industry.”
As Construction Deaths Rise, Buildings Chief Faces Scrutiny [NY Times]
Mayor Dissatisfied With Buildings Department [NY Sun]
Mike Rips Construx Agency [NY Post]
Photo from the Observer.
Bright Ideas, Big Cities
In the new issue of Metropolis, Karrie Jacobs pens an interesting piece about how big-city mayors in the U.S. “have emerged as a sort of government in exile, putting forth a remarkably progressive, and occasionally visionary, domestic agenda while the federal government has been AWOL.” Here in New York we know all about having a mayor who thinks big, but Jacobs hardly mentions Bloomberg. She concentrates, instead, on Martin O’Malley, the former mayor of Baltimore, who spoke about how forming a response network to address emergencies like terrorist attacks or natural disasters was a job best handled close to home, since Washington “will be thirty to forty years catching up with this reality,” and San Francisco’s Gavin Newsom, who talks about green initiatives for his city and says, When you’re going to get serious about addressing the issues of global climate change, it will be happening, by definition, in urban cores…We’re basically following these UN environmental accords and doing it in the absence of leadership from our states and respective federal governments. As we look forward to a new administration, Jacobs concludes, our future president should take note that cities are no longer something to be fixed, but should be acknowledged as planning leaders, “not only to give them the succor they’ve been denied in the past eight years but also to learn from them how this country can once again move forward.” Isn’t it pretty to think so?
Like Urban Renewal, Only Backward [Metropolis]
Photo by Just-Us-3.
De Blasio Blasts Ratner on AY Obfuscation
Last night Councilman Bill de Blasio held a meet-up for Brooklyn bloggers at which he spoke for a couple of hours about development topics including Atlantic Yards, rezonings, affordable housing, and what he’d like to accomplish if he’s elected borough president. Like Gowanus Lounge, we were most interested in what de Blasio had to say about Atlantic Yards: The councilman said he thinks there should be no more demolitions in the Atlantic Yards footprint until Forest City Ratner puts its current plans for the project into writing. De Blasio said he was “livid” about the interview Bruce Ratner gave to the New York Times last month since the likely stall “calls the entire Community Benefits Agreement into question.” The Councilman also said that he thinks the entire development should be reviewed again by the state if Forest City Ratner is now conceiving of a vastly different project, particularly one that reneges on its promised affordable housing. “I held out hope for the project because of the amount of affordable housing it would create, as well as the number of jobs it would bring,” he said. “But I have been constantly disappointed in the lack of community involvement…I’ve never seen anything that’s been mismanaged so fundamentally in terms of community involvement.” The councilman also talked about the possible Coney Island and Gowanus rezonings. While he’s not thrilled with either the city or Joe Sitt’s possibly competing visions for the area (“I’m not comfortable with the Manhattanization of Brooklyn” that both plans represent), he says that “by and large” he likes Planning’s draft framework for rezoning Gowanus because “the best way to get the canal clean is to get residential development around it.” As borough president, de Blasio said he’d like to be involved with “shaping more than just promoting Brooklyn.” In keeping with one of his primary platforms, affordable housing, de Blasio said he’d use the office to “start addressing the have-nots.”
De Blasio Calls for Moratorium on Atlantic Yards Demolition [GL]
He Built This City
AM New York’s piece this morning assessing Mike Bloomberg’s legacy is one of the first of many, many articles that are sure to come as the mayor enters the twilight of his term. The article positions Mayor Mike as a great post-9/11 rebuilder who’s played a big role in luring tourists, spurring development and making formerly undesirable neighborhoods hot. “Places like Red Hook that were once a no-man’s land are hipster havens, and Brooklyn is now a center for culture and art for the whole country,” says Mitchell Moss, a professor of history at New York University and adviser to the mayor’s first campaign. “Whoever thought people would want to live on the Gowanus.” The article notes that the Bloomberg administration’s aggressive rezoning agenda (“one out of every six square feet in the city” has been rezoned) and drive to incentivize development on NYC’s waterfront has altered the lay of the land, and New York has much more of a “luxury” sheen than it did six years ago. The cost of all this is high, according to critics who say the city has become too expensive for the working- and middle-class and resulted in inorganic changes. “There has been a pinching of people’s sense of place, and a destruction of community identity,” says Brad Lander, director of the Pratt Center for Community Development. “They have accelerated the transformation of this place from a manufacturing city to a condo and office tower city, but a lot of people don’t feel invested in that growth.”
Bloomberg Reshapes City, Despite High-Profile Setbacks [AM New York]
Photo by CarbonNYC.
Paterson May be a Foe to Eminent Domain
According to an article in today’s Sun, our new governor could end up opposing projects like Atlantic Yards that involve the use of eminent domain. As a state senator, David Paterson participated in a 2005 rally calling for a statewide moratorium on eminent domain. Councilmember Letitia James, who also took part in the rally, says she hopes Paterson’s views on the subject haven’t changed. “He stood with me and proposed some legislation and I am very hopeful that the lieutenant governor and soon-to-be governor will honor his commitment and will either issue a moratorium or review the abuse of eminent domain across New York City,” says James. Steven Spinola, the president of the Real Estate Board of New York, says it’s “premature” to make predictions about where Paterson will stand on eminent domain, but that “It would clearly be a mistake for the state to give up one of its powers to get public improvement projects off the ground.” Time will certainly tell.
Paterson Could Derail Development [NY Sun]
Photo by d-4ce.
Feb 09, 2012 | 11:02 AM