Myrtle and Flatbush Building Boom, From Above

Sorry…reread my post and it had WAY too many typos so I’m reposting it.
Best,
The Grammar Lady

Both comments 2 & 3 are distractions…and #2 is badly written.
First of all, my first comment was not about so-called global warming or climate change. Simply put, energy is getting and will keep getting more and more expensive. A point will be reached where it is not affordable to keep these buildings going. Our house uses very little energy (we’re lucky we have pretty good southern exposure of which we take advantage). Even buildings that rise to the 6th story are doable…not always fun to walk up to the top floor but doable.

[Sidebar: Ladder companies can usually only rescue people on floors up to the 8th floor at best. Higher than that and you’re out of luck.]

So, sure…if you want to talk about climate change, let’s: So what if, as #3 claims, anyone was claiming the world would freeze over. So-called global warming was being discussed in the 1970’s, possibly before. Since the 1980’s there has been a huge push by the powers-who-be to mitigate the ideas, discussion and studies on climate change and global warming. A huge fight against it… No wonder you can refer to an article in “Newsweek” (of all pieces of junk). They and the mass media in the US have run lots of “counter” global warming science propaganda and PR for decades. Hello.

And heck, yes, there will be another “ice age” of course…in fact, we’re supposed to be in a period of what was considered global cooling. There was the “mini ice age” from about the 1300’s to the late 1700’s. Of course, it was not on the scale of the glacier forming climate change we normally associate with ice ages. In fact, we may face another mini ice age in this region and in Europe very soon when the conveyor belt current that brings warm water up from the Gulf of Mexico breaks down or shuts down all together. This is probably what caused the mini ice age that ended Norse settlements into North America and led to a “year without a summer”, ice-skating in Holland, deforestation in many parts of Europe (human use for fuel, shipbuilding and construction) and a huge cultural shift. Please note: the switchover to a mini ice age can happen very quickly. If energy costs are high and getting higher, when suddenly our heating season expands to include April and September, energy costs will go up even more so. Hence, my comment about the cost of running elevators up and down unsustainably designed hi-rises, buildings that bleed heat to the outdoors in winter and overheat in the summer.

An ice age, anyway, does not mean: “the world freezing over” as #3 writes…not in the least. An “ice age” is a change in the climate in which, generally, there is cooling of the planet at the poles resulting in winters in the upper latitudes being longer. There are changes across the globe some of which are lower sea levels (water tied up in glacial ice), possible desertification in new areas, more rain in formally dry areas creating savannah or forests out of desserts…there is a migration of animals and plant species zones shift over time (one amusing factoid: the common earthworm most of us know did not migrate north with the receding glaciers at the end of the last ice age on this continent. Northeastern plants developed in the absence of earthworms, which were apparently brought to this region by Europeans. Apparently, these plants are not well adapted to earthworms…go figure.)

By the way, I have not even begun a discussion on the questionable status of the infrastructure, such as it is, to handle the addition of all these units of housing. Is there some huge water main servicing this area that is under-utilized right now? There are already sewage issues and overflow in Brooklyn now. Can the system overall handle this addition and if it can, is the infrastructure that will handle waste water from these building sites gauged appropriately all the way from source to final treatment? What? Is the City really going to rebuild the sewage infrastructure to that extent? Has any developer even given a thought to on-site waste treatment? Gray water reuse? Rainwater run-off mitigation and/or harvesting? Green roofs? Solar domestic hot water? Natural ventilation? Heat recovery ventilation? Super insulation? Triple-glazed non-heat bridging window units? Lower impact materials? Low VOC materials, treatments? The list goes on and on… There will be large quantities of embedded energy in these structures just getting them built. Economies on future energy use can be worked into the design process now and the on-site building process going forward.

All I can say is, when you live on, say, floor 15 or floor 32, you had better be prepared to be able to walk up to your apartment once in a while…also, dwellers in buildings this size should keep in mind they may lose water pressure from time-to-time…which is a real pain when it happens(!)

FortGreener

Both comments 2 & 3 are distractions…and #2 is badly written.
First of all, my first comment was not about so-called global warming or climate change. Simply put, energy is getting and will keep getting more and more expensive. A point will be reached where it is not affordable to keep these buildings going. Our house uses very little energy (we’re lucky we have pretty good southern exposure which we take advantage. Even buildings that rise to the 6th story are doable…not always fun to walk up to the top floor but doable.

[Sidebar: Ladder companies can usually only rescue people on floors up to the 8th floor at best. Higher than that and you’re out of luck.]

So, sure…if you want to talk about climate change, let’s: So what if, as #3 claims, anyone was claiming the world would freeze over. So-called global warming was being discussed in the 1970’s, possibly before. Since the 1980’s there has been a huge push by the powers-who-be to mitigate the ideas, discussion and studies on climage change and global warming. A huge fight against it. No wonder you can refer to an article in “Newsweek” (of all pieces of junk). They and the mass media in the US have run lots of “counter” global warming science propaganda and PR for decades. Hello.

And heck, yes, there will be another “ice age” of course…in fact, we’re supposed to be in a period of what was considered global cooling. There was the “mini ice age” from about the 1300’s to the late 1700’s but it was not on the scale of the glacier forming climate change we associate with ice ages. In fact, we may face another mini ice age in this region and in Europe very soon when the conveyor belt current that brings warm water up from the Gulf of Mexico breaks down or shuts down all together. This is probably what caused the mini ice age ended Norse settlements into North America and led to a “year without a summer”, ice-skating in Holland, deforestation in many parts of Europe and a huge cultural shift. Please note: the shift to a mini ice age can happen very quickly. If energy costs are high and getting higher, when suddenly our heating season expands to include April and September, energy costs will go up even further. Hence, my comment about the cost of running elevators up and down unsustainably designed hi-rises that bleed heat to the outdoors in winter and overheat in the summer.

An ice age, anyway, does not mean: “the world freezing over” as #3 writes…not in the least. An “ice age” is a change in the climate in which, generally, there is cooling of the planet at the poles resulting in winters in the upper latitudes being longer. There are changes across the globe some of which are lower sea levels (water tied up in ice), possible desertification in new areas, more rain in formally dry areas creating savannah or forests out of desserts…there is a migration of animals and plant species zones shift over time (one amusing factoid: the common earthworm most of us know did not migrate north with the receding glaciers at the end of the last ice age on this continent. Northeastern plants developed in the absence of earthworms, which were apparently brought to this region by Europeans. Apparently, these plants are not well adapted to earthworms…go figure.)

By the way, I have not even begun a discussion on the questionable status of the infrastructure such as it is to handle the addition of all these units of housing. Is there some huge water main servicing at area that is under utilized right now? There is already sewage issues and overflow in Brooklyn now. Can the system overall handle this addition and if it can, is the infrastructure from these building sites gauged appropriate from source to treatment to handle the additional flow? Has any developer even given a thought to on-site treatment? Gray water reuse? Rainwater run-off mitigation and/or harvesting? Green roofs? Solar domestic hot water? Natural ventilation? Heat recovery ventilation? Super insulation? Triple-glazed non-heat bridging window units? Lower impact materials? Low VOC materials, treatments? The list goes on and on… There will be large quantities of embedded energy in these structures just to get them built. Economies on future energy use can be worked into the design process now and the on-site building process going forward.

All I can say is, when you live on, say, floor 15 or floor 32, you had better be prepared to be able to walk up to your apartment once in a while…and anyone in a building this size should keep in mind.

FG

SUCH A SHAME THAT ALL OF THESE NEW PROJECTS AREN’T GOING TO BE SUSTAINABLY DESIGNED!!!

Glut, glut, glut. Can’t imagine they’ll fill all the new condos and rentals in downtown Brooklyn. Especially near the projects.

Those are low rise projects that will be dwarfed by the new towers. I think they’ll do fine.