"Don't we need some kind of panel of experts to discuss planning of the new bridge for a few years before we attempt to build this thing? Say at a cost of $700 million?"

Planning has been going on for decades. Also for the Goethals Bridge twinning, the Gowanus Expressway replacement, and of course the 2nd Avenue subway and #7 extension. I sometimes think these projects are mostly to employ the designers and planners. Actually putting a shovel in the ground is beside the point. I was stunned when the train to JFK actually got built over the Van Wyck. Of course that was a Port Authority job paid for by a dedicated surcharge on airplane tickets.

Posted by: Sparafucile at November 6, 2009 9:54 AM in response to New Kosciuszko Bridge Won't Come Cheap

In addition to being in a state of poor repair, the old bridge is steep, winding, and narrow, so that trucks have a hard time climbing and descending. This causes huge delays.

Because Newtown Creek is navigable water, the bridge either has to be really tall, or movable. That's a big factor in driving up the cost, along with the union labor, regulations, etc. Maybe they should reassess how tall it really needs to be to accommodate the barge traffic the canal still gets. How often does the Pulaski Bridge, which is much lower, have to be opened to let boats pass?

Posted by: Sparafucile at November 6, 2009 9:39 AM in response to New Kosciuszko Bridge Won't Come Cheap

"And a similar cost to go to the Bronx without going through Manhattan -- you'd think they'd want to promote avoiding Manhattan if you didn't need to go there!"

This is a good point. When driving from Queens to the Bronx or from Brooklyn to Staten Island, you pay a bridge toll that subsidizes mass transit, but you can go to the most congested area of Manhattan for free.

The current toll system encourages people going upstate from Brooklyn to travel via Manhattan. BQE often gets worse traffic than the FDR because it permits commercial vehicles. During non-business hours, for example coming back to Brooklyn on a Sunday afternoon, BQE is usually better.

Posted by: Sparafucile at November 4, 2009 4:02 PM in response to East River Ferry Service in Jeopardy—Again

"the transit worker union is doing everything in its power to limit the ferries or other forms of private public transit so that when they strike the city can be brought more fully to its knees."

They don't seem to be having much success squelching the dollar vans, which seem able to offer privatized public transportation that doesn't require city subsidy.

But I would certainly love to know the per-rider subsidy of the water taxi. Any why on earth is the Staten Island ferry free, other than a desire to pander to SI voters?

Posted by: Sparafucile at November 4, 2009 11:38 AM in response to East River Ferry Service in Jeopardy—Again

There's an argument to be made against term limits. But rather than make that argument and trust the voters to have the final say via a third referendum on the matter, Bloomberg, Quinn, etc. just took matters into their own hands.

And the truth, which voters seem to recognize, is that the powers of incumbency, primarily the ability to curry favor via city spending, make it very hard to unseat an incumbent.

As scandal-ridden as Koch's third term was, he likely would have won a fourth if not for the Yusef Hawkins murder, and his response to it.

Posted by: Sparafucile at November 4, 2009 11:25 AM in response to Election 2009: No Big Surprises in Brooklyn

There's a difference between testing and teaching to the test. If the test scores reflect a student's broader educational progress, that's fine, and I accept that generally there's a very strong correlation between test performance and overall knowledge acquisition. If they reflect only the rote acquisition of the skills necessary to complete a specific test format, that's a problem.

Tests should and can be a useful diagnostic tool, but not when they become the sole focus of the curriculum. I know many motivated and skilled teachers who can't wait till the tests are done in the spring, since then they have a few weeks when they can get the kids to engage in a little actual scholarship.

Posted by: Sparafucile at November 4, 2009 10:50 AM in response to Election 2009: No Big Surprises in Brooklyn

As a public school parent, I'm not at all impressed with Bloomberg's education record. Schools are still ridiculously overcrowded, and the schools seem mainly interested in getting as many children as possible to meet the bare minimum required for promotion. Kids who are doing well enough not to worry about failing, or too poorly to have any hope, seem to be written off at many schools.

As far as Bloomberg getting the message - fat chance. His self-serving term limits change shows exactly how little he thinks of voters who disagree with him.

But considering how uninspiring Thompson was, the 10- or 16- to 1 campaign spending advantage, and his use of millions of dollars or city discretionary funding and his own philanthropic giving to buy support, his margin of victory is unimpressive.

But he won the election, and has a City Council, most of whom owe their jobs to his willingness to overturn term limits.

Posted by: Sparafucile at November 4, 2009 10:37 AM in response to Election 2009: No Big Surprises in Brooklyn

Certainly I feel bad for the kid's family, but the signs were a cynical attempt to curry political favor. Remember that tourist from Utah in town for the US Open who was killed by some punks who wanted to 'get paid' before going out clubbing? If the Mormon vote were as important here as the Orthodox Jewish vote, he might have gotten a stairway named for him at the 7th Av and 53rd St subway station.

Posted by: Sparafucile at November 3, 2009 11:54 AM in response to Squadron Helps Drivers Get Off (The FDR)

I follow the law, both as a cutter and cuttee. Crossing a dotted line is fine, but once the line goes solid, that's it you missed your chance.

By the way, this is the Ali Halberstam Memorial Ramp we're talking about. I wonder how many extra votes that renaming was worth, and what the cost per vote of the new signage was.

Posted by: Sparafucile at November 3, 2009 11:11 AM in response to Squadron Helps Drivers Get Off (The FDR)

I think parking a highway patrol officer there to ticket all the jerks cutting across the solid white line to force their way onto the bridge ramp at the last moment would be pretty effective, and could generate some revenue, too.

Posted by: Sparafucile at November 3, 2009 10:19 AM in response to Squadron Helps Drivers Get Off (The FDR)

Most of us put in the price that it's worth to us, and the widget spits out the mean value of those numbers. The seller is looking for the potential buyer whose valuation of the property is at the 99th percentile, and it sure seems he found him.

Posted by: Sparafucile at November 2, 2009 10:35 AM in response to Widget Falls Way Short on South Oxford

"...an unhealthy obsession with historic Brooklyn brownstones and the neighborhoods and lifestyles they define."

That's a way better catchphrase than "Brooklyn Inside and Out"

Posted by: Sparafucile at October 29, 2009 4:06 PM in response to Brownstoner 2009 Survey Results

"Rob, pls pull out your W2 from last year and share with us exactly how much NYC tax you actually paid. Then determine how much of that pittance that you are so aggrieved about was wasted on schools."

Actually, schools are largely funded by state aid to localities, so by paying his state taxes, Rob is subsidizing breeders in Schenectady and Larchmont, as well as in Brooklyn. And we thank him.

Posted by: Sparafucile at October 29, 2009 3:45 PM in response to Brownstoner 2009 Survey Results

My kids are in high school and middle school, and there definitely won't be any more. Since my brood is complete, does that make me a bred?

Posted by: Sparafucile at October 29, 2009 1:19 PM in response to Brownstoner 2009 Survey Results

I live in that big gray neighborhood "Other," and my kids go to public school. I'm not a banker or lawyer, but my wife does own a car.

With a sample size of only 35, can you market the site's demographics to advertisers who want to reach all these childless people who eat out a lot and have huge piles of disposable income?

Posted by: Sparafucile at October 29, 2009 11:00 AM in response to Brownstoner 2009 Survey Results

I bike on Ocean Parkway frequently, and never use the bike path. The service roads on either side are a much faster ride. Smooth paving, no pedestrians.

Ocean Parkway must have really been something before Elm Blight. Supposedly the trees were so large the canopy covered the entire central roadway.

Posted by: Sparafucile at October 28, 2009 12:22 PM in response to Makeover of Ocean Parkway Mall

"and it costs more the further out you go. absurd"

Just as absurb as five beers costing more than one, or a plane ride to Tokyo costing more than a plane ride to Buffalo.

Posted by: Sparafucile at October 23, 2009 1:51 PM in response to Friday Links

In the winter turn down the thermostat and wear a sweater. In the summer open the windows and go around in your drawers.

Otherwise, first seal gaps around windows and doors, then roof insulation, then storms or new windows, and then wall insulation.

Posted by: Sparafucile at October 20, 2009 4:13 PM in response to Top Energy Improvements?

QUOTE: "most of the men ive seen walking around the slope are totally whipped and kinda on the femmey side"

That's why they'll want to shop here - to establish their manly-man bona fides through consumerism. Pretty sad, actually.

Posted by: Sparafucile at October 20, 2009 3:39 PM in response to StreetLevel: Store for Dudes Opens in the Slope

Other than limited-acces highways and parkways, every street in the city is a bike route. Sidewalks aren't good for biking - pedestrians are too damn unpredictable.

Posted by: Sparafucile at October 16, 2009 8:08 AM in response to Closing Bell: Google Bike Routes

Can't figure out why I'd want to pay $80K more than the three-bedroom down the hill at 30 Ocean Parkway from earlier this month (http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2009/10/coop_of_the_day_281.php). I mean, except that maintance is half of what it is at 30 Ocean Parkway.

Posted by: Sparafucile at October 15, 2009 2:40 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 310 Windsor Place, #26

"I think there are more of us here than you think. A lot more, and making a lot less."

Well that's comforting. I was somehow under the impression that almost everyone here claims to make in the mid-six figures working 'in the arts.'

Posted by: Sparafucile at October 14, 2009 11:37 AM in response to Brownstoner Reader Survey

How come our only choices of where we'd invest in real estate are in Brooklyn? I don't have plans to move any time soon, but if I did, I'd be looking in Manhattan or the Bronx before I looked anywhere in Brooklyn. If I want Brooklyn I'll stay in my current house.

I'd be interested in the answers to the question of how long you've lived in Brooklyn, and how long you've owned property in Brooklyn.

I wonder if I'm the only person on this site who will cop to an annual household income of less than $250,000.

Posted by: Sparafucile at October 14, 2009 11:27 AM in response to Brownstoner Reader Survey

Since I've only biked on PPW a couple thousand times in the last 20+ years, maybe I'm not a qualified observer, but as far as I can tell the only objective of this is to say 'fuck you' to motorists. My bike operates perfectly well in the same roadway as other vehicles, so I don't know what other people are riding. And if the park road which parallels PPW is really inadequate because it's one-way, it would make more sense to put a two-way bike lane there, on a road where cars are prohibited for all but ten hours a week. Especially since the given rationale is that traffic volume on PPW doesn't justify three travel lanes.

Posted by: Sparafucile at October 2, 2009 1:04 PM in response to Prospect Park West to Get Bike Lane

"We had been assuming it would be entirely mock-worthy"

And no doubt it will be mocked by those who scorn anyone who doesn't aspire to a 16- to 20-foot wide rowhouse built 130 years ago located in one of the gentry-approved neighborhoods of northern or central Brooklyn.

This building looks stunning in person. More than a little flamboyant for my taste, but it's hard not to smile every time you go past, and what more can you ask of architecture?

Posted by: Sparafucile at October 2, 2009 10:37 AM in response to The Venetian Unveiled

About ten years ago, my daughter would have LOVED living that close to the stables. She would've been over there visiting the horses every day.

This is a very nice building, and I like the location. It's not too too many blocks to either Key Food or FoodTown, and that's usually enough for me, but this area isn't heavy on the typical Brownstoner-approved commercial amenities. Plus it's on the sucky F train.

Posted by: Sparafucile at October 1, 2009 1:56 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 30 Ocean Parkway, #1F

"what sort of people who are only making $100k a year have 63k+ saved up just for a down payment?"

People who decide it's a priority, and save up consistently for several years. In other words, a lot of us.

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 29, 2009 6:00 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 96 Schermerhorn Street, #9G

Rob - whattaya mean maybe one day?

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 28, 2009 12:33 PM in response to Priciest Brooklyn Sale of '09 is in Gravesend!

Taxes are high on Marlborough, presumably because of its use as professional office as well as residence. I love the large yard even though a lot of it is now patient parking, but you're so close to the train station that you'd probably have to listen to the conductor's announcements all day and night.

To me, this makes more sense for a doctor or dentist who wants to live above the shop than someone thinking of converting it to fully residential.

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 25, 2009 3:51 PM in response to Open House Picks

I think the rotors will warp from having to support the weight of the car. They're hard, but I don't know that they're thick/strong enough to hold up a car. And if the calipers are resting on the ground, they'll be damaged too.

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 25, 2009 12:01 PM in response to Look, Ma, No Wheels

"People generally overestimate the calories they are burning with exercise, and they may reward themselves by eating more. Additionally, many studies have found was that diet plus aerobic exercise provides only a very marginal benefit (in terms of weight loss) when compared to diet alone."

It isn't about 'doing exercise' for an hour or so a day. It's about general levels of physical activity throughout the day. Walking everywhere vs. driving or taking cabs, doing the dishes by hand and chopping vegetables vs. a dishwasher and cuisinart, raking and shoveling vs. using a leafblower or hiring some illegals, stairs vs. elevator. These are little things, but over the course of a day, repeated day after day after day, they make a difference. Go a generation or so further back, and most people worked in agriculture, where they were on their feet from sunrise to sunset.

Humans evolved in an environment of calorie scarcity and constant migration, and our bodies' metabolism hasn't caught up to cheap food and ubiquitous labor-saving devices.

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 24, 2009 4:47 PM in response to The City Spurs Grocery Stores to Underserved

I wonder how many of these people who are allegedly too busy to prepare a reasonably healthy meal from scratch using low-cost ingredients still manage to watch three or four hours of TV a day.

I think a sedentary lifestyle, for children and adults, has far more to do with obesity than our eating habits. Get rid of cable TV, high-speed internet, and XBox, and you'll probably find you can eat whatever you want without getting fat.

A lumberjack breakfast is fine if you're going to be out chopping trees all day. The problem is when you get it at a drive-through window on your way to a desk job.

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 24, 2009 12:36 PM in response to The City Spurs Grocery Stores to Underserved

My limited observation is that in certain relatively poorer neighborhoods there are produce stands on every block. Chinatown was mentioned, and you see the same thing in Caribbean areas of Flatbush and South Asian areas of Kensington. So somehow the market is able to respond to real consumer demand even with the city's antiquated commercial zoning.

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 24, 2009 10:24 AM in response to The City Spurs Grocery Stores to Underserved

This location is a few blocks from the Grant Avenue station of the A train. Granted it's a long ride from there into the city, but it's not four bus or subway transfers. It would be a pretty rough place to live without a car, though. This is across from Magic Johnson's movie theater on Linden Boulevard.

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 24, 2009 10:13 AM in response to Affordable and Green in East New York

"You can be guaranteed that the money-pit (which most analysts say this project will be) will turn into extortion of the state government"

Turn into?

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 23, 2009 5:46 PM in response to Nets Will Have New Owner; FCR Will Have New AY Partner

QUOTE: "Oh, great great things have happened in glorified attic, Rob. I wouldn't knock them."

Bob Marley version:
We'll be together with a roof right over our heads;
We'll share the shelter of my single bed;
We'll share the same room, for Jah provide the bread.

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 23, 2009 5:40 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 8 Sidney Place, #5

I love these narrow streets in Brooklyn Heights. I have a hard time with the idea of a half million bucks for one bedroom, but if you're going to get that much anywhere in Brooklyn, this might be the place.

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 23, 2009 12:56 PM in response to Co-op of the Day: 8 Sidney Place, #5

McDonalds won't be there forever. During the next wave of development (in five years, ten, twenty, who knows?)that site will be redeveloped. So the french fry smell will go away, but so will the views from the west-facing windows.

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 23, 2009 12:45 PM in response to Broker Switcheroo, Huge Price Cuts at The Elan

Madison Square Garden doesn't get by without public parking - there are plenty of garages and lots in that area, and they need it. 33% of weekday game attendees, and nearly 50% on weekends, drive to the Garden.

Still, for me personally this is all about eminent domain and corporate welfare. If Ratner, or Prokhorov, or anyone else wanted to build on his own land with his own money, I really wouldn't object, whether or not I happen to think an arena is a good or bad project at this particular location.

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 23, 2009 11:21 AM in response to Mikhail Prokhorov's Unique Offer

I actually like the cobrahead lamps that are being replaced, even if they're out of character in older neighborhoods. They have that mid-twentieth century George Jetson thing going. I especially like their name.

But the prevailing aesthetic does seem to be to hermetically seal Brooklyn's late-19th century streetscape, and where that can't be done, we'll do our best to come up with an ersatz version. Because anything that's old, or can be made to look old, is better than anything that's new and looks it.

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 22, 2009 11:36 AM in response to Flatbush Streetlamp Project Draws Criticism

I really hope this happens. This has been talked about for a while, and no doubt the grocery workers' union will muster all their might to defeat it. I prefer BJ's to Costco since they have a much greater variety in stock - instead of ten kinds of breakfast cereal they'll have forty. Right now Brooklyn's only BJ's is out by Starrett City, a little far afield for me.

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 22, 2009 9:27 AM in response to BJ's for Bensonhurst?

Q. What part of Brooklyn life are you unwilling to give up?

A. The long and tedious commute.

C'mon, that's not bad.

"anyone who would leave BK for Manhattan for the reasons given in NYM's decision tree should not not let the B train doors hit them on the way out."

Whatever. Personally I can understand the appeal of walking five minutes from the Met to that place on W. 69th rather than dealing with late-night subway "service" getting back to Brooklyn.

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 21, 2009 10:06 AM in response to Monday Links

"FtGreenCorey- all across the country people say they can;t wiat for us to get the nets? Really...All across the country?"

Actually, I believe Corey said this was the response all around the world.

If Ratner were willing to pay fair market value for land, and build without public subsidies, I really wouldn't care if he wanted a stadium there. Traffic and subway congestion would work themselves out one way or another.

Unfortunately, that's not how Ratner operates. He has no interest in spending his own money when politicians are only too happy to let him spend ours.

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 18, 2009 4:59 PM in response to Russian Billionaire To Bail Out Ratner?

Novgorod Nets. I like it. I'd much rather see the Nets become the first NBA franchise in the Eastern Hemisphere than have this taxpayer-subsidized travesty go forward here.

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 18, 2009 1:04 PM in response to Russian Billionaire To Bail Out Ratner?

Will this be followed by guerilla park reclamation, with cars and trucks doing donuts on the Parade Ground?

If that's a metered spot, he'll need to move after two hours or risk a ticket.

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 18, 2009 12:15 PM in response to Park(ing) Day on Fulton

Not at all tongue in cheek. This public waterfront parkland was built as a component of the Belt Parkway project, and would not otherwise exist. The Belt didn't blight this waterfront, it created it. No doubt the tidal mud flats that were landfilled to create the roadway and parkland had environmental value, but in terms of human access to and use of the waterfront, this project was a big plus.

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 18, 2009 10:36 AM in response to House of the Day: 7543 Shore Road

Outboard of the parkway are separate bike and pedestrian paths that extend for four miles from the 69th Stret Pier to Bay Parkway (for a little stretch under the bridge they're not separated). In addition to walking, jogging, biking, and skating, people fish, sun, and do tai chi here. Inland of the parkway are ballfields and landscaping and playgrounds. The idea that construction of the Belt somehow blighted this waterfront is ridiculous. This is a magnificent public waterfront.

And for what it's worth, the section of the Belt west of the Verrazano is almost never jammed.

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 18, 2009 9:50 AM in response to House of the Day: 7543 Shore Road

"c'mon ... I watched the finals of USOpen on tv...don't tell me this is not a sport directed at the elite. Look at the people in audience, who the advertisers, sponsors were,etc. "

That's like concluding that football is a sport directed at the elite because of who's in attendence at the Super Bowl. And even if it were, so what? Opera has a very elitist image, but reality is that tickets to the Met are far less expensive than those to the Mets. And the reality of the National Tennis Center is that except for about six weeks a year around U.S. Open time, that is a public faciltiy where anyone can play or take lessons. I'm pretty sure you can't do that at Yankee Stadium.

Velour's post was very spot-on, except those 14 players per hour can be up to twice as high when people play doubles.

The courts in Hudson River Park just north of Canal Street don't charge a fee or require a permit. And the truth is that you'll rarely be asked to show your permit at many public parks around Brooklyn. I've played many times at Friends Field (Avenue L and E. 4th), Kelly Park (Avenue S & E 14th) and the courts under the Verrazano Bridge approach, and never been asked for my permit.

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 17, 2009 5:37 PM in response to Ace Plan for Tennis-Friendly McCarren Makeover

People need to update their ethno-geographical stereotypes. Bay Ridge was never really an Italian bastion like Bensonhurst was, and when I'm there now what strikes me most in that regard is the large Arab-American presence. Shore Road is spectacular, but a bit of a hike to the subway and Third Avenue.

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 17, 2009 5:12 PM in response to House of the Day: 7543 Shore Road

"Seriously, what more do you folks want?"

Somebody who respects the will of the voters when it doesn't suit him as well as when it does.

Term limits were approved by the voters TWICE. Bloomberg, or any other opponent of term limits, had ample time to offer another referendum to overturn them. Instead, the decision was made solely by the group of elected officials who themselves would benefit by repeal. This is a staggering conflict of interest even if Bloomberg and the other third-term aspirants were as saintly as you make them out to be.

Posted by: Sparafucile at September 17, 2009 9:35 AM in response to Democratic Primary Results