4th Avenue's Walls of Voodoo
Not sure how we missed The Journal story about 4th Avenue yesterday—Curbed and The Observer both picked up on it—but it certainly is worth mentioning. Not because the gist was anything new, but because the gist is important enough to merit repeating. While the 2003 rezoning resulted in 859 new apartments—either built, under development or…
Not sure how we missed The Journal story about 4th Avenue yesterday—Curbed and The Observer both picked up on it—but it certainly is worth mentioning. Not because the gist was anything new, but because the gist is important enough to merit repeating.
While the 2003 rezoning resulted in 859 new apartments—either built, under development or in planning—the design of many of the new buildings have come under attack. They’ve done little to improve the character of the neighborhood or make it more pedestrian friendly because they have parking garages, air vents or concrete slabs at street level rather than shops and cafes, critics say.
We’ve been riffing on this subject for years—as has Streetsblog—but nice to see it getting some ink from Rupert.
“And only three blocks from 5th Ave. Man, that street is a ghost town.”
hahahaha – i love the gowanus canal comments when talking about 4th Ave – like 5th Ave has some sort of impenetrable park slope forcefield that keeps all the bad stuff away
crimson, agree with much of your post, but one correction re dog runs… there were two on or near 4th Ave, now there is just one, and a lot of complaints about it.
Tru dat benson, never was anything nice on 4th Ave, I lived for a decade in the so-called ‘milk factory’ building, it was a stable and a dairy until it was abandoned altogether. The gas station next to it that is now a stalled development site was a gas station since the 1930s.
More important than any of this shit is HOW COULD THEY FUCK UP THE R TRAIN after all of these apts got occupied!
> There’s a Superfund site two blocks away from 4th Avenue.
And only three blocks from 5th Ave. Man, that street is a ghost town.
There’s a Superfund site two blocks away from 4th Avenue. People paying $700/sf for a place here expecting Smith Street or 7th Avenue to be in the cards have only themselves to blame. How long has that Whole Foods been twisting in the wind?
“Frownstoners”, perfect…
I agree that the developers made a mistake in not including retail in most of the new buildings; here they could have taken a page from Wallentas and given the retail away at cheap prices, if only to add to the value of the building by making 4th Ave more pedestrian-centric.
That being said, nothing attractive was lost – there really is next to nothing worth preserving on 4th ave anyway. It was (as was said previously) a lost opportunity (and one that will drag on resale values for years)
Now despite the above – if the center medians were planted and maintained properly and street trees were placed on both sides, the attractiveness of 4th ave would increase exponentially – in fact all interests in 4th Ave (LLs, Condos, Developers, Retailers, etc…) should immediatly setup a BID to do just this – the return in valuations and businesses would more than pay for it
Finally – a Walgreens would be perfect on 4th (vicinity of Union St), its amazing it hasn’t yet happened.
quote:
high-end retailers like Crate & Barrel
LFMAO
*rob*
“Benson, why come on here and champion air vents and concrete? Next you’ll be defending junk food and air pollution and saying that anyone who doesn’t like them is part of some anti-working class conspiracy.”
Mopar;
I see that there must have been a clearance sale on tin foil hats somewhere.
First: Robert Moses had nothing to do with 4th Ave. Get your facts straight before you start pontificating.
Second: my father’s friend owned a group of buildings on the corner of 4th Ave and 3rd Street. The buildings are still there. They were, and are tenements. When my father’s friend tried to sell these buildings about 35 years ago, he practically had to give them away. That’s how bad 4th Ave was in those days.
How folks could put down the development of new housing on a former wasteleand -just because it doesn’t resemble a damn 1860 brownstone -is beyond me. I think the fact that all of the new housing is occupied deomonstrates that it is attractive to many people, if not the frownstoners.
awhile ago they filmed Bored to Death on Bergen st and I sat on a friends fire escape and watched.
nothing really happened.
funny show.