Fix the Ditch - Final BQE Enhancement study results and survey!

Earlier this month, the New York City Economic Development Corp. (NYC EDC) hosted its final workshop as part of the BQE Enhancement study, a study that aims to find improvement opportunities along the BQE from Atlantic Ave. to Hamilton Avenue. This workshop included the unveiling of renderings that the study's team of architects have come up with (a selection shown above and below). These design ideas include features that will help with noise reduction, pollution mitigation, neighborhood beautification, improved safety, and improved neighborhood connections.

The final results of this project will be unveiled in 2011, but there is still a chance to make community input heard through an online survey that will close on 12/1/10. As the Columbia Waterfront is defined by the same cross streets as this study, it is critical for local residents to make their visions and opinions known.

The survey is available here. If you would like to do more than just the survey, Council Member Lander has also asked for people to send input to his office be emailing lander { at } council.nyc.gov.

Before you take the survey, you may want to view the entire presentation from the final workshop here. Other information and previous presentations are also available here. Finally, a selection of some other news coverage related to this presentation and study can be found below.


Curbed: "Here Are Three Ways to Make the BQE Less Horrible"
Brownstoner: "Big Money to Improve the BQE Ditch"
Brooklyn Paper: "Three Sum! City likes BQE fix plan, but balks at price"

BQE Enhancement Stakeholder Meeting on 11/15

DETAILS
The BQE Enhancement project is a joint effort between the City and your community to improve the pedestrian environment along the BQE, between Atlantic and Hamilton Avenues. NYCEDC is hosting a series of collaborative workshops in 2010 to develop a vision to improve the study area. At the first workshop in May, designers solicited input and local experience about this section of the BQE. At the second workshop in July, designers presented several alternatives for the community’s consideration.

The final meeting will be a presentation of refined alternatives, and cost estimates for each, as well as a discussion of next steps.

WORKSHOP 3
When: Monday, November 15th from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Where: Long Island College Hospital (LICH), Avram Conference Center, Rooms A & B
339 Hicks Street, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11201

Join your neighbors at our third and final design workshop, so we can work together to improve the connections among the Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, and Columbia Street Waterfront neighborhoods.

Please RSVP to BQE@nycedc.com

Repeat presentation of Pratt Institute class plan for Columbia Waterfront

This Friday at Freebird! For those of you that didn't make it to the previous presentation at LICH, I strongly encourage you to attend this repeat presentation. The students presented some very interesting ideas for our community that sparked engaging discussion afterward!

Event Description:
Students from Pratt Institute's Graduate Planning and Preservation Spring 2010 Studio course investigated general land use, economic conditions, and quality of life issues for the Columbia Waterfront Neighborhood in Brooklyn. From intensive research, interviews with local community members and neighborhood stakeholders, the students developed a land use plan that addresses environmental, cultural, and economic improvements for the neighborhood in both the short and long term. To hear the final results and recommendations we invite you to attend a repeat performance of the final studio presentation at Freebird Books, 7pm, May 28th.

Final Pratt Studio presentation on the Columbia Waterfront this Thursday 5/6!

Pratt students in the preservation and planning programs have been working hard all year studying our neighborhood, talking to local residents and business owners, gathering data, and creating ideas for the future of the waterfront!

Come to LICH this Thursday to see what they've been working on, engage in a discussion about the past, present and future of the neighborhood, and listen to their suggestions for future action

Event Details:

Time: 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm

Location: LICH building on Hicks Street, just off Atlantic Avenue. Enter the main revolving doors and you’ll come to a security desk. We’re reserved under Columbia Waterfront Neighborhood Assn. / Pratt Presentation. The security guard will direct you to conference room A -which is a short distance down the hall.

Phoenix Beverages has arrived

Anyone walking past near Piers 7 or 11 recently may have noticed an increased level of activity. Those in the know will realize that this activity is related to new pier tenants Phoenix Beverages moving in and starting operations. For more information about this, see here.

Signs I've seen so far include dozens of beer trucks lined up in the parking lot of Pier 7 (near Atlantic), a truck with Phoenix written on it coming down Van Brunt near Hamitlon, and a small bus marked "Phoenix Employee Transport" headed north on Van Brunt.

I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome Phoenix and its employees to the area, but also to remind readers, elected officials, the EDC, and the higher-ups of Phoenix of community concerns and demands that have been stated in the past:

- All trucks should be retrofitted to run on Compressed Natural Gas as soon as possible(Have a timeline or benchmark deadlines ever been established for this within the original seven year projection?)
- Truck traffic should stay off local streets, driving behind pier gates or directly onto the BQE
- Phoenix should give local residents priority for new job openings

Pratt Inst. Presentation and Workshops on Columbia Waterfront - 1/28 @ LICH

This semester, Pratt Institute's graduate Preservation & Planning studio will be focused on the Columbia Waterfront (CW) neighborhood of Brooklyn, from the Brooklyn/Queens Expressway to the New York Harbor waterfront, from Atlantic Avenue to Hamilton Avenue. Their goal is to assess the land uses, economic conditions, and quality-of-life issues in the neighborhood and make recommendations as to how to address physical deficiencies, preserve historic and contemporary places of value to the community, and enhance economic development. The students will conduct place-based research and community outreach, prepare an analysis of the strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats in the neighborhood, develop plan elements that address these conditions, and finally to prepare a final plan and present it the community.

A key component of the studio is consultation with community members, beginning with an open meeting on Thursday, January 28 at 7:00 pm at LICH.* The agenda will include a brief presentation of historical information compiled last semester, followed by a forum where participants will be asked to share their concerns about and aspirations for the neighborhood.

*Meeting details:

Date: January 28, 2010

Time: 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm

Location: LICH building on Hicks Street, just off Atlantic Avenue. Enter the main revolving doors and you’ll come to a security desk. We’re reserved under Columbia Waterfront Neighborhood Assn. / Pratt Presentation. The security guard will direct you to conference room F/G -which is a short distance down the hall.

Please RSVP to: melissaum { at } gmail.com

RED Friday in Red Hook on 11/27

A number of businesses have united in Red Hook to form a group called RED: Red Hook Economic Development. Their first event is RED Friday on 11/27, featuring specials and discounts in all of the participating businesses. Confirmed businesses so far (as of 11/25) are below:

Metal & Thread
Tiburon
Red Lipstick
Foxy & Winston
Pier Glass
Kevins
Home/made - has a promo on their website apparently
Suite Hair Boutique
Thrifty Couture
Fort Defiance
Nate's Pharmacy
Bait and Tackle
Liberty Sunset Garden Center
Hair or No Hair (according to their twitter page: "Hair or no Hair will be having all our services 50% off. Only one time a year.917-318-1052")

Check back here or at A View from the Hook as the list grows

Check each of their sites or stop by to see what the details of the specials are. Any store window that has a sign with the image below is participating.

Support local business!

“Surviving the Economic Downturn in Cobble Hill” 11/9 @ LICH

Cobble Hill Association Fall General Meeting to Feature Panel Discussion, “Surviving the Economic Downturn in Cobble Hill”

With New York City’s unemployment rate at a reported 8.9% and with under-employment estimated at 17%, many Cobble Hill residents have been affected by the economic downturn , especially with so many working in the fields of finance, media, and law that have been hard-hit. The Cobble Hill Association’s Fall General meeting will feature a panel discussion on coping strategies for this difficult economic environment. It will be held on Monday, November 9, at 7:30 pm at Long Island College Hospital, 339 Hicks Street (at Atlantic Ave) at the Avram Conference Room A.

Featured will be an expert on local real estate, William S. Ross, Director of Development Marketing, Halstead Property; co-owners of two successful neighborhood businesses, Henry Zook of BookCourt at 161-163 Court Street and Michelle Mannix of Ted & Honey café at 264 Clinton Street at Verandah Place; and Lauren Young, Personal Finance Editor, of BusinessWeek.

About the Panelists:

Michelle Mannix, co-owner of Ted and Honey at 264 Clinton Street at Verandah Place, is a lifelong foodie who came to the culinary world after spending several years in corporate America working in human resources and marketing. After being laid off from her job as Director of Marketing Partnerships and Promotion for Loews Cineplex Entertainment, Michelle took her career in a different direction. She attended the New School for culinary arts, completing the Master Class in professional cooking, catering, and Italian. She was asked to be the assistant to the Chef Instructor in the next Master course. Michelle then worked as a line cook and prep cook in Danny Meyer’s Café 2 in the Museum of Modern Art. In 2008, she and her brother, Chris Jackson, opened Ted and Honey. It became such an instant hit that when they added a public rest room, New York Magazine listed it as “Brilliant” in their approval matrix! Michelle, her husband, and their new baby, Jackson, live down the block from Ted & Honey in Carroll Gardens.

William S. Ross, Director of Development Marketing for Halstead Property, has over 25 years of real estate experience. An expert in both residential and commercial realty, Bill was the owner of William S. Ross Realty in Cobble Hill until he sold to Halstead. He is an expert on New York City's complicated zoning laws, and Landmarks Preservation regulations. Bill has been involved in many major building conversions and new developments where his ability to work with architects on floor plans and layouts and his understanding of the market is invaluable. Bill is a lifetime resident of Brownstone Brooklyn.

Lauren Young is a department editor for BusinessWeek’s Personal Business section. She joined BusinessWeek in October 2003 after working as a senior writer at SmartMoney. Ms. Young also covered mutual funds for the Dow Jones Newswires and was a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal. Her articles have appeared in many publications including The New York Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Houston Chronicle, The Wall Street Journal Europe, USA Today, and T. Rowe Price Investor. She currently blogs about investing and parenting issues for BusinessWeek and is a frequent guest on major network television and radio programs. Ms. Young lives in Cobble Hill with her husband Jon Gordon, a patent lawyer, and her son Leo, who is in kindergarten at P.S. 29.

Henry Zook has co-owned BookCourt at 161 – 163 Court Street since 1981. Rated a 10 out of 10 by New York Magazine and voted the “Best Bookstore Expanding in the Face of a Vanishing Industry” by the Village Voice in their October 2009 “Best of New York” issue, the store is more than just a bookstore. Along with co-owner, Mary Gannett, and son Zack, Henry has created a destination where you can find an excellent selection of fiction, non-fiction and children’s books and literary magazines. The store offers readings from well-known authors - E.L. Doctorow and Jonathan Lethem among the writers featured in the past two months. There are weekly events for children and young adults including readings, story hours, and one of a kind events like a midnight release party for the last Harry Potter book. BookCourt has recently expanded to better serve their fans, ignoring the common wisdom that Barnes and Noble and Amazon are the only business model for book sellers.

Lecture about NY Waterfronts

The following event, posted on the CGNA listserve, is taking place in Manhattan but is of interest to our neighborhood for obvious reasons:

On the Waterfront in New York: A Lecture

Wednesday, October 14, 6:30pm, The Seamen's Church Institute
241 Water Street, Manhattan

This panel will examine the history and future of the waterfront through different lenses, from the commercial past of its wharves and docks to the adaptive reuse of structures still lining its edges. Richard A. Greenwald, professor of history and dean of graduate studies at Drew University will discuss the commercial aspects of New York City's waterfront development from the mid-19th century up to 1950 as depicted in the film, "On the Waterfront". Roland Lewis, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, will examine the reuse of industrial structures along the City's waterfront. Kevin Bone, an architect and editor of several books on the waterfront, will address the history and development of Manhattan's historic seawall, a gargantuan structure which encircles the whole island and has literally shaped how the city has grown.

Stimulus for Red Hook Community Courts

NYTimes reported yesterday on tallying of Stimulus money, and included in those tallys is some funding for Red Hook:

Hardly a day has passed in the six months since President Obama signed the $787 billion stimulus package without an elected official announcing how a chunk of the $5 billion or so that is coming to New York City will be spent.

The money has been designated for a wide variety of uses, including road and bridge repairs ($215 million), summer jobs for teenagers and young adults ($18.5 million), public-housing improvements ($374.2 million), food stamps ($841 million) and Medicaid ($1.59 billion).......

........Nearly $36 million will enable the Police Department to hire 125 new transit officers, which will allow more experienced officers to be utilized in anti-terrorism teams; an additional $3.5 million will help pay for community courts in Midtown and Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Preserving Local Retail in Red Hook

Red Hook Info sent out the following email to their list this evening. Sounds like a great event!

Film Screening & Discussion on

Preserving Local Retail in Red Hook

Tuesday, May 5, 2009, 7:00pm

Kentler International Drawing Space

353 Van Brunt Street

Red Hook's small businesses play a crucial role within our community. As the economy shifts and industries fluctuate, it's essential to support local retail, craft and manufacturing, and to develop strategies for retaining these independent businesses.

Please join us for a screening of “Twilight Becomes Night” a short documentary set in New York City, which explores the pivotal role of neighborhood stores in our lives and our communities. The film follows a number of small business owners throughout New York City as they struggle to combat rising rents, chain store competition, and a host of other difficulties facing independent shop owners today.

After the screening, Red Hook resident Perian Carson will lead a panel discussion featuring “Twilight” filmmaker Virginie-Alvine Perrette; Lisa Chamberlain, executive director of the Forum for Urban Design; and Dan Wiley, Southwest Brooklyn community coordinator for Congresswoman Nydia M. Velazquez (NY-12).

This event is free of charge and open to the public.

For more information, please contact

Perian Carson at (917) 864-4943 or

Lauren Belfer at lbelfer{ at } gmail.com.

The Updated Future of the Atlantic Basin, Pier 11, and Pier 7 (CB6 Meeting last night)

For those who weren't at last night's Community Board 6 meeting in Red Hook, it got pretty intense at points. Booing, cursing, and yelling are never pretty in community gatherings, which in an ideal world should remain civil and courteous.

That being said, I've decided to make this post mostly about the actual plans for the waterfront, which are pretty much a done deal at this point, rather than focusing on the negatives that people see in what is or isn't included in the plans.

THE PLAN - Based on a presentation by Venetia Lannon of the Economic Development Corporation at the CB6 Meeting on 3/16/09

1) The Southern end of Pier 11 will go to PortSide NY, including a portion of the warehouses, the outdoor space, and the Atlantic Basin. This will allow PortSide to station its mascot, the tanker Mary Whalen, in a publicly accessible space as well as host cultural events, waterfront tours, youth programs, educational programs, and more. The outdoor space will be publicly accessible and, through the help of PortSide, could also be used to invite other historic ships to the Brooklyn waterfront or host community events, such as markets, fairs, art shows, etc.

2) There will be a Governor's Island Visitor's Center at Building 185, which lies to the South of Pier 11. There will be ferry service departing from the pier that will take visitors directly to Governor's Island to enjoy park space, bike paths, and everything else that the island has to offer. It is estimated to be a 1 minute ferry ride from the Basin.

3) The space in the Atlantic Basin not utilized by PortSide or the Governor's Island Ferry will be utilized for tie ups of other ferries and workboats. It was stated that there will RFPs issued for deciding which boats can use this space.

4) The Brooklyn Greenway will be accomodated along Pier 11, as opposed to along Van Brunt. This will extend the existing portion of the Greenway further South, as well as allow for a ride directly along the waterfront.

5) Phoenix Beverages will occupy the remaining portion of the Pier 11 storage shed (the Northern side of it). They will use this space for storage, break down, and distribution of kegs. Phoenix will not be shipping into the Atlantic Basin, but rather into Pier 10 (the one to the North of Pier 11) and will forklift the loads over to Pier 11.

- Phoenix will also occupy Pier 7 through a separate deal with American Stevedoring Inc. (the EDC only has control over Piers 11 and 12). This will be for their case beer and spirit operations. Spirits is a new business for them, and they will be partnering with spirit companies such as Southern Spirits.

- To address concerns of traffic and pollution, representatives from the EDC, Phoenix, and the Port Authority mentioned the following:

• Phoenix's trucks will be converted to run using CNG (compressed natural gas). The EDC plans to make the penalty for not meeting this requirement strict - with one possible punishment being default of the lease.
  
• A large majority of the traffic will leave through Pier 7, which has direct access to the BQE via Atlantic Avenue
• The Port Authority will work to re-orient the exit from Pier 7 to cause even less interference by trucks accessing the BQE
• The truck traffic will be equivalent to the traffic that existed when ASI imported Cocoa to the port, which didn't end until fairly recently.

Key differences between what is presented here and what was presented at the meeting in January:

• PortSide will definitely be the cultural use, rather than a suggested one
• The Greenway will definitely be accomodated along the waterfront, rather than up for debate
• Phoenix will occupy Pier 7 and part of Pier 11, rather than just Pier 11.

The first phases of this plan, such as PortSide events, should begin as early as this summer, while the plan in its entirety should be in operation within about 2 years.

The Negatives
While I choose not to focus on the perceived negatives, I do feel the following are worthy of mentioning and should not be overlooked:

1) It is very upsetting that the community was led to believe at the meeting in January that if Per 7 were made available, Phoenix would be able to move there and proposed uses for Pier 11 and the Atlantic Basin would be re-ealuated (i.e. the suggested use of Tom Fox's NY Water Taxi Company). Pier 7 was made available, but rather than re-avaluate, the Phoenix operation was expanded to include both piers.

2) The existing business at Buidling 185, BDI, seems to be continually neglected in this process. The EDC should make a serious effort to acknowledge them and assist them in relocating within the neighborhood.

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For a map of many of the key sites in discussion, click here

For Brooklyn Daily Eagle's coverage of this, click here

For my post on the plans presented at the CB6 meeting presented in January, click here

Red Hook: The Future Biking Capital of NYC?

This past November, the Forum for Urban Design hosted a competition in which urban designers and planners from around the world submitted plans for Red Hook with the theme "Reimagining Red Hook as the Most Bicycle Friendly Community in NYC."

After the $10,000 prize was given out and the plans were unveiled in November, 2008, many were left wondering - what happens next? Well today, Lisa Chamberlin, one of the masterminds behind the competition, wrote an article for Urban Omnibus explaining some of the future possibilities for the plans and making some very strong arguments as to why they can and should happen.

Some excerpts are below, but I highly recommend reading the entire article here.

At the very least, the Forum saw this design competition as a way to introduce the concept of the bicycle garage to New York City.....But rather than call it a “garage,” which is not terribly sexy, we called it a “loft,” to reflect not only the ideal New York apartment, but the garage’s proposed location: near the elevated Smith and 9th Street train stop

Because amenities such as bike lofts and bike paths are usually developed in wealthy neighborhoods first, which already tend to have multiple transportation options, we challenged designers to focus their attention on Red Hook. Sparsely populated and isolated from the rest of the city due to a lack of public transportation, most New Yorkers have never been to Red Hook and cab drivers can’t find it. The Smith and 9th stop on the F line is a mile from the heart of Red Hook and bus service is notoriously slow and frustrating. While this situation has contributed to the unique character of the community, it has resulted in sporadic economic development despite its close proximity to Lower Manhattan.

So, while the Forum is primarily concerned with urban design, the not-so-hidden agenda of this design competition is to propose a new economic development model. Red Hook has a genuine need for both transportation and sustainable development, and bicycling could very well be the key to both. .......

Back to the original question, however: Might any of these great ideas ever get built? It’s hard to say. But we do know that Brooklyn’s Community Board 6, led by district manager Craig Hammerman, supported the competition in hopes of seeing good street design ideas to propose to NYCDOT for lower Columbia and Van Brunt Streets, as they are slated to be torn up for sewer repairs. What’s more, as many of the submissions proposed, a bike loft with supportive retail and recreational activities is certainly a viable development program, particularly if land costs are minimal.

*Images above from the Forum for Urban Design and Urman Omnibus

After everything thats happened, now the container port might move???

This past Tuesday, Brooklyn's Chamber of Commerce and Sovereign Bank sponsored an Economic Outlook Breakfast featuring a number of speakers, including Chris Ward, Executive Director of the Port Authority, who in his speech talked about the idea of moving our local container port entirely to Sunset Park near 39th Street.

Among his reasons for this were the Brooklyn Bridge Park development, the need for the Brooklyn waterfront to be integrated with planning for Governor's Island, the changing face of Red Hook, the larger industrial buffer of Sunset Park (as opposed to the residential area near the local site here), and the Cruise Ship Terminal.

While all of this makes sense in many ways, what doesn't make sense is that this announcement comes less than a year after the Port Authority signed a 10 year lease with American Stevedoring, the company that operates the container port.

Back to the drawing board? Does this mean that the EDC should wait to ink its deal with Phoenix Beverages for Pier 11, if Pier 7 may be back up for grabs? The fate of our waterfront has so many ups and downs....

Stay tuned for this ongoing saga and check out more details from Chris Ward's speech and the other speakers of the breakfast at Brooklyn Paper and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
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Speaking of the Port Authority, they also made news this week with plans of making the Cruise Ship Terminal more environmentally friendly by trying to find a way for cruise ships to get electricity from the land grid while parked at the terminal, rather than idling with their less efficient and much dirtier diesel generators. Read more about that here.

Better jobs and greener ports go hand in hand

Living in a neighborhood that contains one of the last working ports in NYC raises a lot of issues, including truck traffic, pollution, and public access to the waterfront. However, people often overlook the positives of ports when talking about this, such as the fact that the ports employ many more people than any other business in the neighborhood and bring in so many of the goods that we consume. This is good for us and the rest of the city!

That being said, one of the best things we can do for both the community and port workers (pretty much a best of both worlds) is to urge our elected officials to pass regulation in the port industry that requires that port workers be treated as full time employees, rather than independent contractors, so that they can receive better pay and have higher incentives to drive cleaner, more environmentally friendly trucks.

An article in yesterday's Daily News by Jerrold Nadler and Andrea Batista Schlesinger explains this much better than I ever could, and I strongly urge everyone to read it. I also suggest that people look into work that the Drum Major Institute, which Andrea Batista Schlesinger is the Director of, has done on this topic.

While some comments at the end of the recent CB6 meeting regarding the fate of Atlantic Basin made one think that community residents and the port are at odds with each other, policy suggestions like this make me truly believe that things can be done in a way that works for all stakeholders involved

Community discussion on health care reform

Another public meeting about important issues. I got this from the NY Industrial Retention Network listserve, and its particularly relevant for small businesses in the area (which we have many of).........

Date: Monday, January 12^th, 2009

Time: 3:00pm-5:00pm

Place: City Hall

On January 12^th, the City Council, Office of Speaker Christine Quinn, and the Obama-Biden transition team will be holding a community discussion on Health Care Reform. If you experience difficulty with health care costs, coverage, or any other related issue, they would like to hear from you. The results of this meeting will be relayed directly back to President Obama and cabinet members.

This is an excellent opportunity to convey the challenges small businesses face in providing health care for their employees.

To confirm your participation, please contact Danielle Castaldi-Micca at (212) 788-7276 or at DCastaldi@council.nyc.gov.