Rebecca Baird-Remba from
NY Yimby shows just how much my block will change thx to the unfriendly zoning of R7-1. No more Pentecostal crooning, I guess. The cinder block church, almost from another universe, will be moving to Jersey. The folks who lived in one of these houses were among the sweetest on the street. The middle structure was the church's rectory and community space. Oh, and no affordable units in the new building. Lots and lots of studios and one bedrooms. The Q lost his battle for rezoning, and is now relegated to telling what happens. And oy vey is it happening. Lots of buzz on landmarking though, and lots of neighbors getting together to try to make it happen. Will tell the story when it goes above ground.
Brookland Capital is taking Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Flatbush by storm. Yesterday the Bed-Stuy-based developer filed plans for an eight-story building at 88 Clarkson Avenue, which will be its fifth new project in the area.
The 75-foot-tall building will rise only two and a half blocks from Prospect Park, between Flatbush and Bedford avenues. The Parkside Avenue Q stop is close by, and so is the Winthrop Street stop on the 2 and 5 trains.
The development will hold 46 apartments and 31,750 square feet of residential space. Apartments will average just 690 square feet, signaling lots of studios and one-bedrooms and possibly rentals.
The ground floor will be devoted to recreation space, parking, and a lobby. Each of the upper floors will host six to seven units. The parking garage on the first floor will include 14 spots – the minimum required to satisfy zoning.
The 8,500-square-foot development site is currently home to a squat single-story church and two wood frame houses clad in vinyl siding. Demolition permits have not yet been filed to knock down the old structures.
15 comments:
It's a shame for you that your home value may suffer after such gorgeous structures as these are torn down and a gaggle of college educated yuppies move in. There goes the neighborhood! Oh well, maybe if you keep up the good fight you can get at least a small housing project or homeless shelter or maybe just a good old fashioned halfway house built on your block to offset this abomination.
Look at it this way, at least there are still 35 places to get your taxes done or wire money to the 3rd world within easy walking distance. Also, who hasn't ever lost their temper when the dry cleaner fails to remove a tough stain from a favorite shirt and then unloads their automatic weapon creating an unsightly blood bath? Thankfully, this is NOT a problem in PLG because there are several dry cleaners just around the block from you that have plenty of bulletproof glass to protect both you and the proprietors from "laundry rage". It does suck though when they can't remove stains and I feel like SOMEONE needs to pay.
Anon 9:41: Here's why you're a tone deaf douchebag.
A) I don't care what this building will do to my property values. They've only gone up since I bought in 2003, and this despite shootings, drug busts, great block parties, lots of new faces, a loss of old faces, buildings going condo, homeless shelters run by slumlords and a police force that alternates from concern and disgust. This building's effect on home values is not a concern. Besides, I couldn't afford to move anywhere else, so this house belongs to my kids anyway.
B) I have no great admiration for these houses, and they were doomed from neglect and the neighborhood's desirability. I feel melancholy for the people who will be leaving my street, including the world's nuttiest and most joyful congregation of worshippers, dressed to the nines each Sunday and singing their hearts out.
C) There will be no means-tested units for working people desperate for an apartment not in middle Long Island that they can.
D) Brookland Capital will build an ugly building akin to all the other fugly buildings they've built all over town.
E) The market rate apartments are all studios and one-bedrooms. I don't like the anti-family vibe there, meaning they expect a steady churn in and out to keep pace with rising rents. This turns our block into a long-term hotel, though I will welcome every renter with open arms.
F) I've got a great dry cleaner, Ace, and Tim doesn't hide behind bullet proof glass and he's lovely as are his parents, immigrants from Korea.
G) Your disdain for people working here as immigrants is worthy of a Donald Trump button. Let me see if I can find one that's not covered in dog poo.
H) You're an entitled prick who should probably not live in NYC. You're not cut out for it.
I think the vinyl siding comment was a bit aesthetics-ist.
I seldom approve of responding point by point to trolls, but I'll make an exception here. Bravo.
this is interesting, i contacted them. they have nothing available in the are until late 2017 at the earliest. I don't expect to see a huge wave of people moving in just yet.
Anon 2:26 I may be self-righteous, but I have never, let me repeat NEVER wiped my ass with a corncob. Any farm-loving fool will tell you to use the husk.
You bothered to comment here; you knew what you were getting into. So don't act surprised when your venom flew back in your face. And btw, you're still the one going by "Anonymous." When you choose to identify yourself, perhaps I'll treat you with the respect and pity you deserve.
I still think it's hilarious that anyone would come on to a blog, post a sarcastic comment that's meant to piss off the blogger, and then act shocked when they're treated to a sharply worded joinder. What did you expect, I would hit the "like" button?
OMG Q, I commented precisely because I looked forward to your loquacious, narcissistic retort. It's so cold this weekend and we're all hunkered down inside. You're too easy. Thank you!
How about this - the "Transportation Committee" members who remain are idiots. The meeting the other night was such a fiasco. Clearly these people knew nothing about the issues in question, specifically that stupid useless little Franklin Ave strip just south of Empire Blvd. One person even (rudely) suggested that if that little strip were closed traffic would, "back up onto Sterling St. Did you ever think of that?" Um, excuse me, Sterling runs west to east so that's never gonna happen, but they want "alternatives." I just can't even talk about how insane this meeting was.
Babs,
If that little strip of Empire were closed traffic could turn onto Sterling, so the "rude" suggestion isn't insane; merely EXTREMELY unlikely, given the very low traffic volume on that piece of Franklin and the likelihood that most drivers who want to turn east would continue south on Washington to Empire. That's not to say that closing that little-used and redundant strip wouldn't be a good idea–of course it would be.
someone needs to egg the houses of every sterling street resident who is fighting this
Agreed that theoretically they could turn onto Sterling, but it would make little sense to do so (unless they specifically wanted to be on Sterling St.). They can turn there already, so closing that strip wouldn't change that. It was clear that the person who said this thought that Sterling runs east-west, and the rude part of his comment was how he finished up asking, in a rather hostile tone, "Did you ever think of that?"
Roxv, I've talked to Sterling street residents who want to close off that slip lane. They recognize the danger it causes to them and their neighbors. It is a vocal minority that believes seven parking spots are worth putting their friends and neighbors in mortal danger.
From 2009 to 2013 there were 490 injuries over the whole project area, but the project also includes a reconfiguration of the Remsen Ave, East New York Ave, Lefferts Ave, Utica Ave, Empire Blvd monster intersection which is a hot holy mess of it's own.
This map covers March '12 to Feb '14 and is based on 71st precinct reports:
http://nyc.crashmapper.com/12/3/14/2/standard/collisions/2/17/40.663/-73.961
While every intersection on Empire Blvd shows a lot of crashes, in just this one super-intersection (the 5 closely clustered intersections affected by the project) we have 26 crashes with injuries, 90 crashes reported to the police and 187 people involved over the course of two years.
The whole DOT presentation as presented in September is here:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/2015-09-16-empire-blvd-reconstruction-cb9.pdf
That plan and later version of the plan that doesn't narrow Utica Ave have both passed the transportation committee. The first plan unanimously and the plan with the extra lane on Utica Ave passed by something like 6-5.
Daniel, thanks for the recap.
Why is the Transportation Committee now struggling to figure out how to vote again? Shouldn't this now go to the full board?
Alex, the executive committee decides what goes before the full board and my understanding is they decided that there should be another vote in the transportation committee. Tonight, you don't want anything going before the board tonight that doesn't have to be there, MTOPP will be presenting their conception of how Empire Blvd should be zoned.
How long has this proposal been in front of the board? At what point can DOT interpret the CB's lack of response as "no comment," and proceed?
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