GL’s resident poet, Graziella Radici, is not quite pleased with the Pubic Place cleanup plans and the way in which it’s being presented to the community. Public Place: The intended use is housing, and lots of it Public Place, That vast, contaminated tract of land in Carroll Gardens, The intended use is housing, and lots […]

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GL’s resident poet, Graziella Radici, who has been on sabbatical in the Cayman Islands tending to financial matters, is back. And so, we are proud to present her work about the BSA. Ode to the BSA Here I stand at the BSA In the invisible room for another day A board says: Bye-bye, to neighborhoods […]

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Election Year To Do List ELECTION YEAR TO DO LIST ITEM No. 1: ABOLISH THE BOARD OF STANDARDS AND APPEALS* For many New Yorkers, The BSA is A totally unknown entity. ——-THE BOARD OF STANDARDS AND APPEAL Yet its impact Is felt in every neighborhood In this City. ———–OARD OF STANDARDS AND APPEA A quasi-judicial […]

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Counsel for the Developer In the future You need partners Not suppliers Not customers Not acquisition Targets but Partners And partnerships Should not Be based Solely on Long Legal Agreements But rather On reciprocally Fair deals Oriented towards Mutual interests And maintained In an atmosphere of Good Will (Bad news for lawyers). c. 2008 Graziella […]

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Skyscrapers in Your Backyard Everything is education, Parents. The way you brush your teeth Up and down, Or side to side is Seen and emulated by your little ones. The way you sit in traffic Fuming, Is it polite to curse The suffocation of skyscrapers Growing, In your backyard?

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Developers are not always held in high esteem by the general public, deserved or not. Given the impact that the developer has on a community, it is not surprising that developers offend some people. As in any profession, some developers are models of ethical behavior and make innovative and attractive contributions to the built environment, […]

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No Large Losses good developers have always relied on a great deal of background information gleaned over a lifetime of conversation, observation, and reading- newsletters, newspapers, academic journals, and the like data are fundamental to sophisticated players in the marketplace and will not make money for a developer. assimilation of such historical and current public […]

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Mr. and Mrs. Upper Zoner (a.k.a.: “The C.G. Flibbertgibbets”) How I love you And respect you, My historical CG neighborhood, Let me count the ways: Give me some FAR 2.43 And make it a double. Give me back my FAR, I am no: Flibbertigibbet! I want more FAR and I want you to Throw in […]

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Floppy Hose Wraps Floppy hose wraps Rubber, spins ‘Round the living tree, sick and More since hosting a noose For the neighborhood, Feeds the barren development site. In long sleeping lines the re-bars await On the shadows of a bottomless pit. Back hoes sleep A raindrop Topples Onto their apathetic Windshield. Coming down from the […]

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Children Have you ever noticed How children wiggle and waggle, Spinning down the grubby city slide Like happy yellow snakes? The sun shines on their little faces As if the neighboring dark sounds Are nothing but another laughing day No matter how daunting. Children throw themselves down To slide again and again Mindless of the […]

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The Gala II The children are all nestled in their beds in the poorest quarters of Brooklyn, but a few, special Brooklynites continue to celebrate their triumphant creation, their gift to the needier folks: Affordable Housing Yes, it is a well known fact that the ability to generate affordable housing can reduce human pain and […]

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Howl/The Condo Building Goodbye GoodbyeI lost my sky,I spent the morningTrying to die.Goodbye GoodbyeYou made me cry.You stole my surroundingsAnd now I’ll fry.I spent the noontimeThinking instead,It’s the thunderous craneI wish be dead.Good bye good byeYou made me cryI took more meds and said,I’ll try.To fight you at the DOBDespite the force of entropyTo call […]

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Carpe Diem Carpe diemSave the dayLet’s get BUILDINGAll the wayCarpe diemLonely nightFilled with back hoesWarm and brightCarpe diemFree the pastAll the yesteryearsAre excavated at lastLight the candlesPour the wineBuilding unregulatedIs divineCarpe diemSave the dayGet your brownstonesOut of my wayCarpe diemBe my loverI’ll never needAny other.–c. 2008 Graziella Radici (GL Contributor Graziella Radici resides in the […]

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The Gala Hypocrisy is lovely when surrounded by dollarsAnd other accoutermentsSalmon pate on dry white toast pointsLightly buttered, the real thing pleasedWeathered wine in sexy glassesSlipping down the throat so mellowA wonderful conversation pieceSpruces it up doesn’t itTurns a bare Charlie Brown Christmas treeInto a Park Avenue Douglas firDripping with tinsel and laceHypocrisy can then […]

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Ode to a Developer Jesus never walked so tall,Nor I so infinitesimally smallNext to you, My dear. The oceans never waved so high,Nor seagulls touched the starlit skyAs high as you, My dear. Thunder never rang so loud,Nor lightning struck upon the crowdLike you upon me, My dear. My dear, You are earthly supremacy,Peacock and […]

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Going Down It is leaning….M’aaaammmmmm, notFalllinnggg downSaid the man from DEP.She looked at the leaning linden tree with fresh eyeseyes for continued growthupward movementpROGRESSBut still she saw the tree falling not leaningandacross the street,the amused men on the stoopbet on its route to the pavement.—Graziella Radici(GL Contributor Graziella Radici resides in the Greater Carroll Gardens/Gowanus […]

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Good Morning Rat Race (Carroll Gardens Version) Good Morning.The BQE is closed.Due to flooding. Stay in bed where it’s dry. There’s an accident on Smith Street, but the medivac unitJust arrived. The cars are huffing and puffing up the ramp, Past the garbage left by yesterday’s bulldozer.Across the F train dangles a girder That stood […]

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