You are currently browsing the monthly archive for April, 2008.
News from Task Force members Develop, Don’t Destroy Brooklyn and Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods:
“A major community rally will be held Saturday, May 3, 2pm at 752 Pacific Street. The Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods, Brooklyn Speaks, and Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn will join with community leaders and elected officials in calling for a freeze on all Atlantic Yards activities. The three sponsoring organizations represent thousands of New Yorkers that have had differing perspectives on issues raised by the Atlantic Yards proposal, but all agree that the current state of affairs is intolerable…
DDDB has always maintained that Atlantic Yards is not a feasible project. Recent developments in the financial markets and statements by the developer have made that certain, and call the entire project and its purported public benefits into question. The only thing currently with a timeline is the arena and its luxury skyboxes and acres of demolished vacant lots. Meanwhile our neighborhoods are being blighted by unnecessary demolitions for a project that is now a big unknown.
DDDB’s position remains the same as it has from the beginning—the project is bad for many reasons from process to finance to design, and we oppose it. The project should be scrapped; it’s time for a new plan to develop the rail yards in a democratic, fair and responsible way with genuine community participation.
So come on out on May 3rd — bring your friends, join your neighbors, fellow New Yorkers, elected officials and community leaders in telling Governor Paterson:
No More Demolitions!
No More Eminent Domain!
No More Subsidies!
No More Changes to Infrastructure!
You can download a rally flier and handcard to distribute at: http://tinyurl.com/4uk8zx“
The Department of City Planning has certified a new rezoning plan encompassing 280 blocks in five neighborhoods on the Rocakway peninsula in Queens. According to DCP’s website, the plan will:
“*Establish a low-scale framework to protect and reinforce established building scale in areas primarily containing one- and two-family homes, including the Rockaway’s emblematic oceanside bungalows;
*Ensure the provision of much needed front and side yards, street trees and sidewalk planting strips;
*Address community concerns for additional accessory parking requirements in auto dependent locations;
*Provide zoning flexibility for residents to enlarge one-family homes in Far Rockaway;
*Facilitate a mix of residential and commercial activities in select locations to strengthen existing contexts along wide streets and in areas close to transit.”
Queens Community Board 12 must complete its review of the proposal by June 30, after which it will proceed to the City Planning Commission and City Council for public hearings.
Image of Rockaway bunaglows via DCP.
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In the Bronx, community members have responded to EDC’s announcement that Related Companies has been chosen as the developer of the Kingsbridge Armory (pictured at left), and will turn the historic building into a retail/entertainment/community facility complex. The community group, Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA), is calling for a community benefits agreement for the project. The Eminent Domain writes that KARA, “is trying to wrest the whole concept of a community benefits agreement back from the jaws of elected officials who have perverted it beyond recognition,” and promises to provide updates from KARA members on their ongoing campaign and vision for the neighborhood.
In the Village, Crain’s gets community reactions from NYU’s latest presentation of its expansion plans.
In Harlem, Columbia-expansion-footprint holdout Nick Sprayregen has written an open letter to Columbia’s president Lee Bolinger on the university’s possible use of eminent domain in the Columbia Spectator. Here’s a sample: “I am adamant in my opposition to the possible use of eminent domain so that Columbia can take others’ private property to help it build a new campus. This is not how eminent domain should be used. Columbia is a private institution of privilege—it is not a fire station, highway or, indeed, a public school.”
In Gowanus, the proposed Sponge Park was revealed in detail.
Meanwhile, over at City Hall, Mayor Bloomberg released a PlaNYC 2030 one-year progress report, and is busy with find a new Commissioner for the Department of Buildings.
One origin of the Campaign was the environmental justice movement. The following notice for a new quarterly peer-reviewed journal, just came across my desk.
Deadline: May 1, 2008
Environmental Justice, a new quarterly peer-reviewed journal, will be the central forum for the research, debate, and discussion of the equitable treatment and involvement of all people, especially minority and low-income populations, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. The Journal will explore the adverse and disparate environmental burden impacting marginalized populations and communities all over the world. The Journal will draw upon the expertise and perspectives of all parties involved in environmental justice struggles: communities, industry, academia, government, and nonprofit organizations. The Journal is seeking papers on: human health and the environment, occupational health, science and technology, land use, public policy, urban planning, legal history as it pertains to environmental justice, sociology and anthropology of environmental health disparities. Instructions for authors are at www.liebertpub.com/env and manuscripts should be submitted at:http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/environmentaljustice.
As noted earlier this week, the City certified the environmental impact statement for its Willets Point Redevelopment Plan, beginning the ULURP process, which will eventually bring the plan before the City Council for approval. Yesterday, Crain’s reported that 29 Council Members sent a letter to Deputy Mayor of Economic Development Robert Leiber, which stated, “This plan is unacceptable, and we wish to inform you that without significant modifications, we will strongly oppose it, leaving no chance of it moving forward.”
During the seven-month ULURP process, the City Planning Commission and the Council will have the opportunity to make modifications. It will be interesting to watch this project to see whether it will change enough during ULURP to garner the Council’s approval.
Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of Mayor Bloomberg’s release of PlaNYC 2030. Following up on last week’s MAS/Campaign for Community-Based Planning panel, “PlaNYC 2030 Post-Bloomberg,” panelist and Community-Based Planning Task Force member Tom Angotti, Editor of Gotham Gazette’s Sustainability Watch, uses his column today to examine whether the sustainability plan is, in fact, sustainable.
Angotti says that what was missing from the creation of PlaNYC was a real community process. He writes, “In community-level planning, neighborhoods confront the ways that global issues play out in a very real and tangible way on the ground as they affect the daily lives of people. PlaNYC instead uses quantitative metrics that fail to resonate with the everyday lives of people in their communities.”
He continues, “Moving the debate beyond public relations and campaign rhetoric can… lead to a genuine top-down/bottom-up dialogue about how to construct a long-term plan for the city that is sustainable for generations to come.”
Read the full article here.
In yesterday’s Times, architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff followed up his excoriation of Related Companies’ Hudson Yards proposal with an editorial on big development projects and their accompanying architectural renderings. These renderings, he writes, undermine democratic process:
“As the battles over mammoth-scale development grow more heated, developers and their marketing teams have become extremely cautious about the information they release before a project passes review, for fear of inciting a public outcry… The images released to the public are often restricted to a few renderings that are carefully scrutinized in advance by marketing experts. As a result the public is often left without the visual tools it needs to make thoughtful judgments about a development’s impact.”
Ouroussoff once again uses the Hudson Yards as his example, but this phenomenon goes far beyond this one project. Atlantic Yards Report has a breakdown of these tactics at work in Brooklyn. After the jump, another choice recent example.
Today, the City is expected to certify two NYEDC plans for Queens, beginning the ULURP process for major development projects in Hunters Point South and Willets Point. The City’s plans and environmental impact review information for each project can be viewed online here and here, respectively.
The Hunter’s Point plan involves the creation of 5,000 new housing units on the Long Island City waterfront. Of these, 60% will be affordable to middle-income families, and the rest will be market-rate. Affordable housing advocates have opposed this plan, noting that the income range targeted by this development is higher than the average income of Queens residents.
The Willets Point Plan has also been extremely controversial — it involves the taking of many industrial businesses, located along the stretch of Queens waterfront located next to Shea Stadium, by eminent domain. In their place, the City plans to construct an entirely new community, including a convention center, hotels, housing, retail, parks/open space, and a school. According to Crain’s, the area’s Council Member, Hiram Monserrate, “remains opposed, saying he wants the administration to guarantee the inclusion of middle- and low-income housing units, require livable-wage jobs and agree not to use eminent domain to take over properties.”
A large constituency of the Queens community has already organized to call for changes to the Willets Point Plan. A coalition, including the Pratt Center for Community Development, Queens for Affordable Housing, Councilmembers Monserrate, John Liu and Tony Avella, ACORN, UNITE HERE and the New York Immigration Coalition have developed a set of principles for Willets Point redevelopment, which can be found on Pratt Center’s website.
More info to come as dates are scheduled for public review.
Renderings via NYCEDC.
Don’t forget to register for the Municipal Art Society Planning Center’s Livable Neighborhoods Program, taking place Saturday, May 10 at Hunter College. You can register online here.
The NY Times reports on the City’s revisions to its Coney Island plan. Private owners, including Thor Equities, would be allowed to develop their own property, as long as they follow the City’s master plan, which, “calls for a series of buildings that could include a glass-enclosed water park, games and amusements, a bowling alley, restaurants and entertainment-oriented businesses like House of Blues, Dave & Busters, NikeTown and movie theaters,” as well as high-rise hotels on Surf Avenue.
Meanwhile, in other parts of Brooklyn: AM NY reports that Williamsburg is about to lose more of its industrial heritage, this time in the form of an historic power plant; the Brooklyn Paper covers another waterfront neighborhood, Red Hook, as it braces for the June 18 opening of Ikea; and the Brooklyn Paper also explores three Brooklyn Council Members’ efforts to impose a moratorium on construction/demolition at the Atlantic Yards Site, “until developer Bruce Ratner commits — in writing — to building the full state-approved project.”
Also, in news sure to reach all parts of the City, the Times reports that the downturn in the economy is not only tough on the mom ‘n pop shops (such as music stores), but on national retail chains as well.
Finally, we must put in a plug for the Municipal Art Society and Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance’s documentary, City of Water, which, “explores the aspirations of public officials, environmentalists, academics, community activists, recreational boaters and everyday New Yorkers for a diverse, vibrant waterfront at a time when the shoreline is changing faster than at any other time in New York’s history.” It makes its television premiere tomorrow (Saturday) at 1:30pm on PBS (Thirteen). Watch the trailer here.
For those of you working on your schedules for next week, you may want to make some time for one of the following events on Wednesday (April 23):
The Municipal Art Society Planning Center, with assistance from the Community-Based Planning Task Force, has developed an interactive, online tool that compiles community-based plans in New York City. Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York City contains 87 individual plans, created since 1989, the year that the City responded to pressure from communities to simplify and strengthen provisions in the City Charter for 197-a planning (197-a plans are officially-recognized, community-initiated local plans).
The plans in the Atlas represent countless hours of work by community-based organizations, community boards, and New Yorkers from all five boroughs. The interactive map depicts the borders of each plan, and allows users to search plans by type. Users can then download a PDF summary of each plan.
The Atlas has several uses. It is the only publicly-accessible compilation of community-based plans in New York City. It was originally created to provide local candidates running for office with an overview of the creative planning work already being done by local communities, and has now become an educational tool for the public as well.
It is a resource for communities that wish to create a plan, but do not know where to start. By highlighting other communities that have already undertaken similar planning activities, the Atlas can point to groups and individuals with whom they can consult and collaborate. It can also be used to develop background on community-based planning and to elicit ideas from other community-based plans. The Atlas is also a resource for city agencies, developers, or anyone wishing to initiate a land use action that accords with a community vision.
The Atlas is a living tool—it will be updated and upgraded regularly, so if you know of a plan that you feel should be included, let us know.
To use the Atlas, simply click on the image above.
The Citizens Emergency Committee to Preserve Preservation is hosting PRESERVATION SUMMIT III this Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 6pm at the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen Library (20 West 44th Street, Manhattan between Fifth and Sixth Avenues).
According to the CECPP, the agenda will include a special presentation by former Landmarks Chair Gene A. Norman on the creation of an independent process for evaluating candidates for appointment as Landmarks Commissioners, as well as a report on CECPP’s new lawsuit to compel LPC action on longstanding Requests for Evaluation on potential landmarks and historic districts.
This is part of CECPP’s strategic campaign designed to 1) ensure fairness in the LPC’s process, 2) re-establish LPC independence, and 3) secure appropriate resources so that the LPC has the budget and staff it needs to perform its crucial mandate.
RSVP to citizens@savelpc.org or call 212-380-8612. (Side note: Have you seen their YouTube video? This song will never leave your head. Don’t say we didn’t warn you).
The Gowanus Canal Conservancy is set to host a public meeting on April 21, at which landscape architecture firm dLandstudio will present plans for a proposed “Sponge Park” along the Gowanus Canal.
The Gowanus Canal area is a hotbed of new development plans, including a residential complex by Toll Brothers and another at Public Place (which we learned today will be developed by Hudson Companies). As such, many neighbors are thinking about the impacts of new development, and about how the canal’s pollution problem will be addressed. According to the Conservancy, the idea is for the park to be “beautiful” while simultaneously addressing the CSO (combined sewage overflow) problem (hence the name “Sponge Park”). According to Gowanus Lounge, “The land involved is currently a Verizon parking lot and the ‘Gowanus Village’ property owned by developer Shaya Boymelgreen that has been put back on the market for $20 million.” Nothing in the Conservancy’s release addressed how this land will be obtained for public use.
Those interested can find out more at the meeting, April 21, 2008 at 6:30 p.m., at P.S. 58 (330 Smith Street, corner of Carroll Street).
Yesterday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission hosted a continuation of the public hearing on St. Vincent’s/Rudin Management Co.’s planned development in Greenwich Village.
According to our source, who attended the meeting, public testimony took about two hours, during which about 50 people testified, approximately 90% of whom opposed the plan. St. Vincent’s then had 30-minutes to respond, followed by a 2-hour question/answer session between the Commissioners and St. Vincent’s CEO, lawyer and architects.
According to thee Observer, LPC Chair Bob Tierney stated that St. Vincent’s plan clearly needs rethinking: “‘You can reasonably infer from some of the lines of questioning that aspects of this proposal should be rethought and restudied,’ Mr. Tierney said in an e-mail yesterday.”
Still, as the Commission did not have adequate time to complete its questioning, the hearing will likely be continued again in early May. Updates to come.
The Times reports today that the three City Council members affected by the 125th St. rezoning (Inez E. Dickens, Robert Jackson and Melissa Mark-Viverito), have signed off on the plan, after long negotiations resulted in a compromise. According to the Times, “It reduces the height limit on new buildings to about 19 stories from 29; creates a $750,000 loan program to assist 71 small businesses that would probably be forced to move; and allocates about $5.8 million in improvements to Marcus Garvey Park.”
The story saved the community perspective for the end, throwing in this bit on the continued opposition: “Erica Razook, general counsel for Voices of the Everyday People, or VOTE People, a community group opposed to the rezoning, said the last-minute concessions by the Bloomberg administration only highlighted the flawed nature of the process.”
Unfortunately for opponents, the Council Members’ support virtually guarantees the plan will be approved in full Council vote.
In the Inbox today, an interesting event announcement from Habitatmap, a group which, according to its website, is on the verge of launching a new community mapping/social networking platform (neat!):
“Virtual Toxic Tour and Community Mapping Workshop:
In collaboration with fellow Brooklyn activists, Brooke Singer (www.superfund365.org) and Emily Gallagher, Habitatmap invites you to participate in our Virtual Toxic Tour and Community Mapping Workshop. The workshop will take place this Saturday April 19th from 3-6 PM at Eyebeam, 540 W. 21st street between 10th and 11th. No rsvp is required.
The virtual tour will focus on groundwater contamination and hazardous vapor concerns in several areas of Greenpoint which are currently under evaluation (pdf 15mb) by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. We will explore the neighborhood’s historic and contemporary industries, detail the contaminants of concern, and discuss potential remedies. This case will serve as a reference point for participants as we work with them to document toxic exposures in their own neighborhoods, brainstorm effective community organizing strategies, and help them recruit a network of activist peers to their cause. The workshop is part of Eyebeam’s monthlong Feedback exhibition.”
On Saturday May 10th the Municipal Art Society Planning Center will launch the second annual Livable Neighborhoods Program training at Hunter College. The Livable Neighborhoods Program, which first launched last May at Hunter College, was created to provide communities with the knowledge, tools, and training needed to transform local vision into effective plans. The program provides participants with in person training, a take home comprehensive community planning toolkit and access to a web-based network for ongoing to discussion.
Come join over one hundred New Yorkers from neighborhoods across the city in a discussion about the issues that matter to you and your neighborhood. Facilitators will include Tom Angotti of the Hunter College Center for Community Planning and Development, Anthony Borrelli of the Manhattan Borough President’s Office, Vicki Weiner of the Pratt Center for Community Development and many more.
Chances are, your neighborhood is rapidly growing and changing. The Livable Neighborhoods Program is designed to help you respond to that change and help your community grow in a more equitable and sustainable matter. For more information and to register online, please click here. If you would like to register by fax or mail, please click here to download the registration form. For more information contact Sideya Sherman at ssherman@mas.org or 212.935.3960 x 259.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
Date and Time: Saturday May 10, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Registration Deadline: Wednesday, May 7
Who Can Attend? Registration is open the public, however priority is given to members of grassroots organizations and community boards.
What Is The Cost? Participation in the program is free.
Where Is The Training? The training will take place at Hunter College with special assistance from Hunter College’s Center for Community Planning and Development (CCPD). Hunter College is located at 695 Park Ave (Manhattan). Corner of 68th Street and Lexington Ave.
Will Food Be Served? Yes. We will provide breakfast and lunch.
Can I Bring My Child? Yes. The LNP is designed to be as convenient for participants as possible. We will have a supervised children’s activity room available on both days of training for children school age and up.
How Do I Register? For more information and to register online, please click here. If you would like to register by fax or mail, please click here to download the registration form.
Please join us at 6pm on Monday night at the Municipal Art Society’s Urban Center (457 Madison Avenue) for the second in a series of forums presented by MAS and the Campaign for Community-Based Planning, titled “Creating the City We All Want: A Roadmap”:
Monday, April 14: “PlaNYC 2030 Post-Bloomberg: Using Community Plans to Achieve a Sustainable City (No Matter Who’s in Office)”
Mayor Bloomberg will leave office 20 years before his sustainability plan is fully realized. But there’s hope—many neighborhoods were planning for sustainability long before the Mayor even took office. Neighborhood plans typically recommend precisely those initiatives the Mayor supports: adding and improving parks and open space; securing affordable housing; improving neighborhood mobility; addressing inadequate infrastructure, etc. Implementing these plans will secure a sustainable future for all New Yorkers and will shore up community support for citywide sustainability goals. Neighborhood advocates and planners discuss their experiences working within a sustainability framework, both from within PlaNYC 2030 and outside of it.
Panelists: Tom Angotti, Hunter College Center for Community Planning and Development and editor of Gotham Gazette’s Sustainability Watch; Miquela Craytor, Deputy Director, Sustainable South Bronx; Jeanne DuPont, Executive Director, Rockaway Waterfront Alliance; Yolanda Gonzalez, Nos Quedamos/We Stay; and Paul Steely White, Executive Director, Transportation Alternatives.
Moderator: Amy Zimmer, Metro New York
RSVP by calling 212-935-2075 or via email.
Gowanus Lounge reports today that the coalition of groups coming together around community issues in Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Gowanus, etc. has morphed into the South Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance. Area issues include the upcoming Gowanus rezoning, and a number of new developments, including one at 340 Court St., and the Toll Brothers and Public Place sites in Gowanus. More info to come after the “formal announcement,” which GL says is pending.
Photo of Gowanus Canal by joeboylepeterson on Flickr.
The Broadway Triangle is a 50-acre, predominately industrial area in East Williamsburg near the borders of Bed Stuy and Bushwick. Long targeted as an urban renewal area, some affordable housing has been developed there with the help of Pfizer corporation, whose Brooklyn plant is located on Flushing Avenue, just south of Broadway Triangle. Now, with Pfizer’s plant closing, and plans in the works to turn much of their property into affordable housing (though what level of affordable housing is currently being debated), the city’s affordable housing arm has its eye on the Broadway Triangle.
According to the The Broadway Triangle Community Coalition, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development held a community charrette in October 2007, calling together stakeholders to envision the area’s future. However, according to an email circulated yesterday, this group was unhappy with HPD’s outreach in advance of the charrette. They wrote, “HPD failed to open its charrette to most of the significant stakeholders of the Broadway Triangle. Instead, an exclusive list of targeted stakeholders were invited to participate, with no real effort made to inform the vast majority of community members in Williamsburg, Bushwick, or Bedford- Stuyvesant about this important planning event.”
Tonight, HPD is hosting a community forum to present the results of the charrette and its master plan for the area. The BTCC encourages those community members who did not participate in the first forum to attend tonight and offer their opinions on the plan.
HPD Community Forum on the Broadway Triangle, Wednesday, April 9, 2008
6PM, I.S. 318
101 Walton Street
(between Harrison & Throop)
Photo of Pfizer’s Brooklyn plant and some of its undeveloped property to the north via Gothamist.
City Room is reporting that Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan has officially died in Albany.
In yesterday’s Times, writer Jeff Byles interviews a number of people who are thinking about ways to change our relationship with our streets. He writes, “These street reformers — planners, architects and urban officials from around the globe — are questioning the conventional street-curb-sidewalk motif, challenging the dominance of cars, and devising ways to use street furniture, plants and even radical new vehicles to transform the experience of the street.”
He examines 10 methods for street improvements, from creating permanent play streets and bicycle boulevards, to creating a “green grid” on Manhattan’s busiest streets. The article mentions three community-based plans: the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, Ninth Avenue Renaissance, and vision42, all of which will be included in Planning for All New Yorkers, an Atlas of Community-Based plans, set to launch online next week.
But community-based planners are not the only ones thinking about making our streets greener and more pedestrian-friendly. On April 28, DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Kahn will visit the Municipal Art Society to present:
Sustainable Streets
Highlights from the Strategic Plan for the New York City Department of Transportation 2008 and Beyond
Monday, April 28, 2008
Cocktails at 6:00 p.m., Remarks at 6:45 p.m.
At the Municipal Art Society, 457 Madison Avenue, at E.51st Street
Space is limited and reservations are required.
Please call the Municipal Art Society
on 212-935-2075 or reserve your place online now.
…Rumor has it there will be valet bike parking.
Photo of Gansevoort Plaza via Project for Public Spaces.
Yesterday was a big day for public hearings in NYC, with the City Council Zoning Committee taking on the 125th St. Rezoning, and the Landmarks Preservation Commission braving the wrath of Villagers over the proposed St. Vincent’s/Rudin’s development within the Greenwich Village Historic District. (Note check out the video renderings of the proposal at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation’s YouTube page).
At the City Council Zoning Committee hearing, over 100 people turned out to speak, including a group that hopes to invoke an obscure provision of the City Charter to kill the plan. Opponents received good news from the district’s Council Member Inez Dickens, who said she will not vote for the rezoning as currently planned, however she is willing to negotiate with the City Planning Commission and other groups. According to City Room, she said, “Displacement, overdevelopment and gentrification are serious concerns. There will be no rezoning plan signed into law if I do not get the protection for my community.” The full Council has until the end of April to vote on the plan.
Meanwhile, at the Landmarks Commission hearing, hundreds of people came to testify. Andrew Berman of GVSHP reports that more than 90% of speakers opposed the current plans, and that after six hours of testimony, so many had yet to speak that LPC decided to continue the hearing in two weeks. A tentative date/time has been set for Tuesday April 15 at 9:30 am at the LPC, One Centre Street (at Chambers Street), 9th floor.
