Celebrating Community
Gowanus’s upcoming rezoning will likely make much of the neighborhood’s old industrial infrastructure eligible for redevelopment as residential high-rises. According to the Gowanus Landmarking Coalition, a local advocacy group formed in 2017, if the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) doesn’t step in to protect key sites from demolition, Gowanus’s built environment will cease to embody the rich history […]
The Gowanus Neighborhood Coalition for Justice (GNCJ), an advocacy group that formed in response to the city’s proposed rezoning of Gowanus, has joined forces with 350Brooklyn, the local affiliate of the international climate change organization 350.org. On May 9, GNCJ members shared their list of demands for Gowanus at 350Brooklyn’s monthly meeting at the Commons, a cafe and event space […]
Last Thursday I sat through almost three hours of a city process that will force permanent, sudden transformation on a neighborhood that has undergone only incremental change since the Dutch first showed up in Brooklyn. The very next night I sat through two hours of something quite similar, albeit on a smaller scale. The one constant in both cases was […]
City Planning’s February 6th event to show the public the progress of their Gowanus rezoning plan turned into a kerfluffle when the 5th Avenue Committee sent Red Hook’s Karen Blondel into the PS 32 auditorium with chairs and a megaphone. “After two years of community engagement in this process, the City of New York continues to exclude any commitments to […]
Gowanus by Design, a local non-profit urban design advocacy, made a presentation at Community Board 6’s Landmarks & Land Use committee meeting held on Jan. 24. Team leader David Briggs talked about some of the goals and impacts of NYC Department of City Planning (DCP)’s Gowanus Rezoning Framework. “What we’re trying to do is give the community a tool and […]
In late 2017, at 347 Henry Street, construction began on 5 River Park, the first of four planned high-rises by developer Fortis Property Group that will soon loom over the Cobble Hill Historic District. Designed by Romines Architecture, the building’s 15 stories will hold 25 condos, with an average price of $3.15 million per unit. Work will finish on the […]
On Friday, December 14, the New York City Department of Homeless Services (DHS) converted the LOOK Hotel at 17 Seabring Street into a temporary homeless shelter that will offer 152 beds for “single adult males who are employed or employable.” DHS has contracted Core Services Group, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit, to operate the facility. No estimate has been provided for how […]
The Red Hook waterfront has been a site of gritty industrial activity for over a century. The neighbors of one lot on Beard Street, however, have had enough. “It seems like they have a lot of clients and tenants,” says David Trimble, who organizes the yearly Red Hook Crit bike race. “I would definitely like to see it cleaned up […]