Let there be light!

Third time lucky.

Lights Out

March 19

April 27

The pedestrian light at the SW corner of Sixth Avenue and 15th Street has been out since early March.  I've reported it three times now.  According to a status update it was supposedly fixed last Wednesday but I passed by on Saturday and it's still not working.  I'm becoming obsessed with getting this damn thing working again. If you call 311 about it you'll be asked if it's an emergency, by which they mean has there been an accident.  No, you say, no accident, and thus the situation becomes low priority, but surely the emergency should be the prevention of an accident.  I know there's a triage system viz-a-viz complaints, but there's something farcical about this kind of exchange. 

If you live near this intersection, and the light's still out, try calling 311 anyway.  Maybe more complaints will get some action.

April 28

More Information on the Incoming Shelters

Priority for both facilities will be given to families who currently live in Brooklyn. Based on Win's data, about one-third of school aged children will attend local public schools and the rest will be bused or take public transportation to schools they were previously attending. More than 42 percent of the children living in Win shelters are under 6 years old and more than 50 percent of the organization's clients are employed, Win said.
                                                                                                                           (Park Slope Patch)

Read the whole thing.  Sounds positive.

MTA Shrine

Considering a floral offering.

New Shelters on Fourth Avenue

Last week Bklyner reported that two homeless shelters would be opening this fall at 535 and 555 Fourth Avenue, between 14th and 16th Streets. The shelters will be operated by WIN (Women in Need) which is run by former Council Speaker and mayoral candidate Christine Quinn.  Current plans are for 148 units to house homeless families at 535, and 105, along with 29 permanent housing units, at 555.

535 and 555 are familiar to the blog.  Both belong to Adam America/Slate, who have been active developers in the neighborhood. Last year they sold a nearby rental building, at 237 11th Street, for $81M.  Farther afield, they earned notoriety for their involvement in the controversial Rivington House sale, having bought the property from the Allure Group, who allegedly defied a deed restriction on the sale of the nursing home.

Adam America/Slate  bought 535, formerly the premises of Strauss auto repair, for $22M in 2014, and acquired 541 - 555, a parcel of eight three-family rowhouses from Anshel Friedman and Ariel Karpan in 2016 for $25M.  The two new buildings remain unfinished, and have been mired in construction woes. In 2016 an SWO was issued at 535, when structural forms at the top of the building were damaged by wind and partially collapsed.  Two floors of the building were  subsequently removed, along with partial slab work on lower floors.  535 has been issued a long list of serious construction violations; eight of them, dating between 2016 and 2019 are still open. 555 was recently issued a partial SWO (still in effect) and a number of other violations remain open.

Given that the boom of higher-end construction on Fourth has yielded next to no affordable housing thus far, and given the need for a more equitable distribution of homeless shelters throughout the city, it seems reasonable enough to put additional homeless shelters in affluent, liberal Park Slope, even if the shelters proposed (just like the higher rise condos and rentals on Fourth) are conveniently distanced from its brownstone heartland.  WIN appears to have a decent record of services and management. The CAMBA family shelter that opened in Kensington in 2015 has settled into the neighborhood without any serious issues and with the general support of the community.  It is, of course, considerably smaller than the buildings on Fourth Avenue.

Homeless shelters are not a solution to the city's massive homeless problem.  But they are a necessity.  And it's just not right to concentrate them in the poorest parts of the city.  Every neighborhood must play its part.  So I say, let's welcome the ones on Fourth, if the right conditions and support are met.  A few thoughts to start off:

Transparency.  What's the nature of the deal between the City and Adam America/Slate?  When did negotiations begin?  Are the buildings safely constructed?

How about increasing the number of permanent housing units? (A better option than the current plan, maybe, would be to have 535 as a WIN shelter & 555 as a mix of permanent housing for formerly homeless families & deeply affordable housing for other eligible applicants.  Doubt that will happen though, given the City's likely deal with the developers.)

Community engagement.  Let's learn more about WIN & its specific plans for the Park Slope sites.  Let's find out about the programs, and ways to develop good relationships between new & established residents.

School placement.  Is there good planning in place for placement in nearby schools?  The proposed shelters are right next door to PS124, a thriving and diverse elementary school, but it hardly seems equipped for such a potentially large influx of new kids.  Nor does it seem fair.  How will schools be selected to take in new students, bearing in mind zoning, the current numbers in schools right now, and the best learning environment for new pupils? (This might be an opportunity for some of the wealthier, whiter schools in Park Slope to help out, and open their doors to some of the kids).

As the Bklyner article mentions, there'll be a community meeting on May 1st to discuss the new shelters.  There'll be lots to talk about, and lots to learn.

Community Meeting To Discuss 535 & 555 4th Avenue Shelters
Wednesday, May 1, 6:30pm to 8:30pm
John Jay Educational Campus, 237 7th Avenue

Easter

Blue

Shards of glass from earlier decades continue to emerge from the dirt.  There seems to be an inexhaustible supply.  Who were the household residents of forty, fifty years or more ago who drank all those sodas and beers?  The other day a marble pushed its way through, mottled but whole.  A common little thing.  A planet hardly had more mystery.

20th

The Comfort Inn on 20th Street (Third/Fourth) opens in a couple of months.  I punched in a random midday date for June and $279 came up as the best price.  I hope that includes expressway views.  When the Stephen Imports warehouse was there, the block felt less dense.  And I realized the other day that the height of the warehouse and the line of barbed wire fencing on top blocked a sideways view of the building next door.  I'm sure there's an architectural term for the structure and the style of this facade, but I don't know it.

It's got a kind of mission or southwestern, feel.  Or is it Italian in intention?  At any rate, I like its stage-set duality.  On top of a regular looking house, it's a real facade.  And perched on the cornice, a devil/gargoyle and heraldic lions guard the home.  This is the kind of building that expresses a distinct creativity and pride.  Someone put their own stamp on the place.   

Industry fades as office spaces and hotels are deemed acceptable substitutes.  BrooklynWorks has co-working-spaces here, and there are (nice one) dance studios and an OT gym for kids.  Permanent Records was here for a while but I think it's closed now.  Some of the old businesses are still around - auto shop, air conditioning, heating, metal, glass - but the metalworks and Tony Cuonzo's Golden Anvil sculpture smithy at the corner are long gone.  There are warehouse vacancies. Residential's mostly frame.

6/15 Green

Facades

The facade on the building is only a couple of years old.  In 2003, according to DOB records, a section of an earlier facade "approx 20' x 20' collapsen to the sidewalk crusing a dangerous conditiion to public." A vaguely medieval description.  Other structural defects are on record.

The new facade does not inspire confidence.  There's an open permit for work not conforming to approved documents and amendments (2017) and a related SWO issued a year ago.  Bricks are missing, and cinderblock repairs are evident.  You'd be wise to cross the street or walk by swiftly. 

Cue music.

Return Trip

Jersey home-stretch on the Greyhound.  Sun dipping, barely awake,.

Ten Years On

There isn't an abandoned couch or worn-down armchair that doesn't make me think of the discarded beauties on author Robert Guskind's Gowanus Lounge blog.  It's a reflex action. Just over ten years after his death (the Brooklyn memorial was on April 4th, 2009) his influence lingers.  Reading his obituary on the Gowanus Lounge website, I'm still touched and impressed by the tributes of local bloggers, journalists, photographers, artists and activists - of all varieties and combinations - that were influenced by his writing and encouraged in their own work through his generosity of spirit.  Do take the time to read it, and while you're there, dip into the three years-worth of entries preserved on the site.