Williamsburg, Brooklyn

What would it be like if you got a Con Ed bill for, say, $65,000 or perhaps $35,000? Apparently, this is what happened to two loft tenants at a building at 300 Morgan Avenue in East Williamsburg. We got an email from Frank Shifreen, the artist that Carroll Gardens blogger Pardon Me for Asking posted about recently, who once put on an art exhibition at the Public Place site in Gowanus. Mr. Shifreen relates a story about unmetered apartments and monstrous Con Ed bills that arrived recently. Here are some relevant parts of the email:

My artist friends have lived at 300 Morgan Ave. for many years. They are grandfathered as loft tenants…The building is a mixed residential loft and factory loft building covering almost an entire block–Morgan on one side, Metropolitan on one, Grand on the other. Con Ed found out that there were no meters in the building no meters except for…one of the businesses…

All of the tenants including high power industrial tenants had no meters. I have had lofts for many years and am a landlord also. Getting away with no meter is something I have never heard of. When one of the tenants inquired, they said that con ed replied there was no record of 300 morgan ave. Con Ed somehow rediscovered the building and as far as I know the landlord was not given any penalties or fines or put in jail. Something stinks of course–there must have been bribery, something.

Con Ed had the landlord put meters in [and] after several months billed the tenants for past use. My artist friends Mike and Sherry Rader, for instance, who also run a gallery called Tastes Like Chicken from their studio, received a bill for $65,000. Other tenants received bills smaller but still around $35K.

This is a travesty. The tenants did not have access to the basement or areas where meters would have been. I believe all assumed that utilities were being covered by landlord.

It’s definitely one of the more interesting stories we’ve come across in a while and, assuming the details are accurate, one of the nastier stories about the mess a tenant can find himself or herself in through no fault of their own. And we thought our Con Ed bill sucks.

(NOTE: That is not the actual Con Ed bill, nor was it intended to be the actual bill.)

“Something has gone off the rails in this city” when six-year-olds get citations for chalk drawings and a guy is arrested for it. Seriously. Something is very, very wrong.–Brooklyn Paper

The most interesting question about Coney Island, of course, is what the city’s zoning recommendations will be and when they will be announced. They’ve been delayed repeatedly and the subject of intense speculation, given that there have been some fundamental differences between what the Coney Island Development Corporation and city planners envision in terms of an amusement district free of housing and what developer Joe Sitt and Thor Equities are seeking. Do not be deceived. Even though the zoning discussion is about an soup of alphanumeric zoning designations and the allowed uses and floor-to-area ratios that go along with them, the outcome will determine the future of Coney Island. In other words: It’s all about the zoning. The decision will determine the skeleton of the creature. Everything that comes after will be based upon it. In that sense, speculation now centers around Mayor Bloomberg’s speech at Gargiulo’s Restaurant on November 8. Will the mayor himself make the announcement? Has a deal been cut with Mr. Sitt? There’s an ongoing discussion over at the Coney Island Message Board.

This is the site of the massive Edge development on Kent Avenue in Williamsburg. (The photo was obviously shot before the recent bout of rain.) A massive amount of soil testing was done on the site, which is in the midst of a very environmentally interesting waterfront area. There was once a massive Manufactured Gas Plant several blocks north of the site, which left behind a large–but unknown–plume of underground toxins. The former Astral Oil Works is also said to have spilled petroleum products (again, quantity unknown), particularly during a massive explosion that rocked the facility. The entire waterfront area occupied by Northside Piers, The Edge and East River State Park was once dedicated to industrial use via the Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal. Oh, but all we wanted to say here was that construction at The Edge is moving along nicely.

A group is collecting hand-made scarves for the needy for the holidays. “I know Greenpoint and that little place to the south called Williamsburg have many knitters in their ranks. I’ve seen women knock out a scarves on the L train like no one’s business. Why not knit something and donate it to this cause?”–New York Shitty

Since Monday, Workers have been handing out F Train report cards to riders who want to fill them out. They’re also available online. (No, they don’t ask for one’s opinion about closing the Smith-9th Street Station for a year or about an F Train express.) If you want to fill one out, you can click here. For that matter, report cards for the 1, 2, 3, A, B, C, D, E, G, N, Q, R, S (Franklin Ave) and a few other lines that have nothing to do with Brooklyn are all available. Click here and select your line. Z. Madison has a fun post on the subject of the F Train, and reminded us that the surveys had gone up online.

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images.

• Myrtle Ave Highrise Revealed [Brownstoner]
• DDDB’s Daniel Goldstein Responds to Village Voice [No Land Grab]
• Jane Jacob’s Reminder at Brooklyn Bear’s Garden [AYR]
• 12-Year-Old Brooklyn Student Dies From Staph Superbug [NYP]
• Murder in Greenpoint [11222]
• Mr. DeBlasio Changes Mind About Two Trees Atlantic Ave. Bldg [Pardon Me for Asking]
• F Train Follies [Z. Madison]
• Not Happy in Red Hook About Getting F’d at Smith-9th Street Station [NYDN]
• MTA Memo About What It’s Doing at Church Avenue [Kensington Brooklyn]
• Zoning in Victorian Flatbush 101 [Living in Victorian Flatbush]
• Activism or Fascism at Bay Ridge Church? [Bay Ridge Rover]
• Were They Running Numbers at Big Pappa’s? [Across the Park]

Halloween:

• Many Halloween Activities [Brooklyn Based]
• Black Cat on Franklin [New York Shitty]
• Great Pupkin & Other Festivities in Fort Greene Park [About Brooklyn]
• Intense Halloweening, Part II [BK 11201]

In Park Slope, Halloween means the Annual Halloween Parade on Seventh Avenue. This year’s edition will take place on (surprise!) October 31. There’s a “Pre-Halloween Parade Party” from 4PM-6pM at the Prospect Park Y on Ninth Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenue. It includes pumpkin decorating, dancing and candy treats and is for children ages 3 through 11. The Park Slope Civic Council’s traditional parade, meanwhile, starts at 6:30PM on Seventh Avenue at 12th Street and run to Union Street. It never fails to amuse, even though the people from Scores were dissuaded from, uh, lending their talent to the event. The embed here is a vid we shot last year.

We noted this yesterday, but the list is so nice we don’t mind bringing it up twice. There are 31 Brooklyn Halloween events listed here. Yes, 31 of them. Did we say, 31? You won’t be able to say that you didn’t know it was taking place.–A Child Grows in Brooklyn

It’s time for the Haunted Walk and Carnival in Prospect Park again. The festivities take place on Saturday, October 27 from Noon-3PM. Here’s the info from the Prospect Park Alliance:

The beloved Haunted Walk is back and more fun than ever! The Haunted Walk is free and is suitable for young children accompanied by parents/guardians or older siblings. October 27, from 12 – 3 p.m. is also the Haunted Carnival. This annual treat on the Nethermead features games, music, hay and pony rides and performances. Enter the Park at the Prospect Park Southwest and 16th Street entrance. Plus, on Saturday AND Sunday: Haunted Carousel, 12 – 5 p.m. Chilling music, ravens, bats, and spiders make a spin on the Carousel the perfect Halloween treat. $1.50.

Plus, there will be Scary Stories from the Past at 2PM and 3PM at the Lefferts Historic House as well as Skeleton Cut-Outs from 1PM-4PM. The Audobon Center will have “Creepy crafts, live critters and hands-on experiments.” and there will be activities at the Prospect Park Zoo including “Boo at the Zoo” from 10AM-5:30PM: “Go batty for Halloween with activities like face painting, craft making, encounters with “spooky” creatures and a trip through the Zoo’s legendary haunted barn.”

(Some of the activities, like the walk, might be impacted by rain, so it’s best to check if the weather’s bad. We’ll provide an update if we get one.)

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

The MTA says it’s not stealing bikes in Williamsburg, but just following the rules. There’s a sign warning people the bike will be removed and telling them what to do if it goes missing.–Streets Blog

After ranting that developer Joe Sitt could show good faith in Coney Island by extending the lease of Astroland, we’d be remiss in not saying something today. After all, Astroland has another year to live, and Coney Island should have a decent summer in 2008. We have given Mr. Sitt our share of grief for the awful handling of things in Coney Island and for needless, premature demolitions and land clearance. Back in September we wrote of keeping Astroland open, “Mr. Sitt, do the right thing.” So, we will say this: Mr. Sitt, you did the right thing and there are a lot of people who thank you for it.

When we left Astroland on September 9 after a long, long day of shooting photos, we turned around and literally said, “Goodbye” before we walked to the F Train feeling very empty. While we’re not happy that we will get to have that feeling all over again next September, for now, we’re glad to know there will be fireworks on Friday night, that we can go up in the Astrotower again and that we can wander around that outdated, little state fair-like midway again for another summer season. In its simplicity, Astroland reminds of us of something that is fast disappearing in a world of megabucks development and corporate blandness. It is real and it is genuine and it brings us back to a time when a carnival set up in a church parking lot and nobody knew what a latte was, let alone Starbucks.

All that having been said, we still feel a little bit like we’re thanking someone for not pulling a trigger when they picked up a gun and pointed it at someone’s head in the first place.

We remain deeply skeptical about Mr. Sitt’s plans for Coney Island–about the 3o- and 40-story buildings, about the residential plans which have morphed into condo-hotel plans and about the densities and designs in general. There is a lot of plywood in windows that wasn’t there before and a sense that bulldozers are waiting in the wings to start leveling more buildings, including a couple that local preservationists would like to see spared.

A lot more should be known about what will happen in the next week or two when the city’s zoning recommendations are released. At that point, we will know if there was a quid pro quo for extending Astroland’s lease (for instance, watering down the amusement district by allowing residential development along Stillwell Avenue) or if Mr. Sitt simply chose not to do violence to Coney Island.

We have said many times that we do not oppose development in Coney Island. Anyone with a sense of its history can’t look at a vast school bus parking lot next to the boardwalk or vacant lots and want to preserve it that way. The issue is how Coney Island is redeveloped, not if. If Coney Island is a thriving, vital place full of amusements five or six years from now, with residential development west of KeySpan Park, everyone will win. If a large part of it is rebuilt as a bland and lifeless place of generic condo towers dwarfing their neighbors and if part of the amusement district ends up looking like a shopping mall in New Jersey, but with nicer signs, then everybody loses. Coney Island isn’t the place for that.

The critical zoning issues in Coney Island won’t be settled until late 2008, at best. The discussion could well extend further if there is contention about the plan. In that case, we could be back at this same point at this time next year.

Those, however, are all points to be dissected on another day. Today, we can finally say that after numerous public relations debacles that have turned some opinion against the Thor project, Mr. Sitt has done a good thing–and a politically smart thing–by allowing Astroland to stay open.

Thank you.

Today’s big news for those that care about Coney Island is that Astroland will be open next year. The news that owner Carol Hill Albert and developer Joe Sitt had reached an agreement broke late yesterday afternoon. The lease was signed on Tuesday. There had been strong indications that there would be agreement and none of Astroland’s rides, which had been on the market, had been removed from the property. Ms. Albert, who sold the park to Mr. Sitt for $30 million, told the Village Voice blog Runnin’ Scared: “I’m very pleased for my employees and I’m very happy to be part of another tremendous year for Coney Island.” She released a statement saying: “Astroland is very pleased that its 300 employees will continue to have jobs, and we want to thank our many supporters and fans who worked so hard to keep Astroland open.” Astroland closed for the season on September 9. It will reopen for another “last year” on March 18. The city’s zoning proposal for Coney Island is expected very soon and it is unclear whether the Astroland deal indicates that the city and Mr. Sitt have moved closer on possible changes.

Special Brooklinks:

• Coney Island’s Astroland will stay open one more season [NYDN]
• Coney Island’s Astroland Gets a New Lease on Life [AP/Newsday]
• Astroland Lives for One More Summer! [Runnin’ Scared]
• Breaking: Another Astroland Season for Coney Island [Gothamist]
• Astroland Gets Another Year! [Kinetic Carnival]
• Astroland to return for another year [amNY]
• Astroland Lives to See Another Summer [NY1]
• Another year for Astroland [Metro]
• One More Season for Astroland [AP/NYT]

An F Express? Forget about it. The MTA dropped a bomb yesterday, announcing that the Smith-9th Street Station will be closed for up to 12 months while repair work is done on the Culver Viaduct over the Gowanus Canal. Metro reports:

NYC Transit could give no specific dates for the closures because the contract has not yet been awarded. Rough estimates, based on a previously stated 2012 deadline for the end of the project, suggest that Smith-9th could be shuttered for most of 2010, after 15 months of work on switches and tracks. The work will also force riders at the 4th Avenue station onto temporary platforms.

The shocking news was not mentioned by an MTA rep at the most recent public meetings that we attended. That sound you hear? It’s every community leader and politician representing impacted South Brooklyn constituencies text messaging, emailing and calling to rant about how the community is getting, well, f**ked.

We resisted the temptation to write a headline like “Boobs at Aviator Sports Center Battle Public Breast Feeding,” because we’re amazed every time one of these stories appears. Today’s Daily News reports on the saga of a mom publicly breast feeding her child at the Aviator Sports Center at Floyd Bennett Field. Conflict ensues:

The mother of a seven-week-old infant is steamed after workers at Floyd Bennett Field swooped down when she began breast-feeding, the woman said. A female manager and a male security guard pressed Jessica Richards, 31, to stop breast-feeding her infant son, Liam, in public and move to a filthy bathroom – before she was pressured to move into an isolated corner, Richards said.

“I was humiliated,” she said of last Thursday’s incident at the Aviator Sports and Recreation Center. “They made me feel like I was some pervert putting on a show.”

Richards’ ordeal began last week when the Bay Ridge resident took Liam and his brother, Eamon, 3, to the Flatbush Ave. recreation center to play in a children’s gymnasium. When Liam became hungry, Richards sat down within view of a surveillance camera and began breast-feeding the baby – only to be stopped by the female manager and a male security guard…

There’s more detail to the story, so do read it in full.

The “Official Boerum Hill No Menu/Flier Signs,” designed to thwart the leaving of take out & delivery menus plus flyers, are here. They are described as being “about the size of a post card, printed in color, with the universal NO symbol (a circle with a slash through it), superimposed on a graphic depiction of a menu and sales flyer!” The signs are made of plastic and will apparently sell for two for $5.00. Other neighborhood groups, such as the Park Slope Civic Council have discussed producing similar signs. The Boerum Hill Association, which as made the signs, is also inviting people to scan the sign and post it online for people that want to download it.

The incredible building boom underway on Flatbush Avenue, that will create a line of very tall residential buildings is underway, and it seeing it from above puts it in a very interesting perspective.–Brownstoner

Who could possibly not be amused by the possibility of seeing marionettes performing Hamlet on Jane’s Carousel in Dumbo? Just typing the sentence makes us smile. The performances by the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theater will take place from November 1-26 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:30 along with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 pm. The group’s website says, “Protagonists are literally puppets of destiny in this production, staged with wooden marionettes among wooden horses.” The carousel, which itself is a wonderful thing, is at 56 Water Street in Dumbo. Tickets can be purchased by clicking here.

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images:

• Park Slope Kids Slandered [Brooklynometry]
• Number Seven of the Greenpoint Ten is Named Belvedere [New York Shitty]
• Atlantic Yards Stop Work Order Issued and Resolved [AYR]
• DeBlasio’s eCycling Proposal Advances [NYP]
• Greening of Myrtle Avenue Underway [Brownstoner]
• Duffield TV: Underground Means Underground [Duffield St. Underground]
• Nice Brooklyn College Playground [Brooklyn Junction]
• The Greenpoint Naked Guy (Re) Considered [Greenpointers]
• Brooklyn Bloggers in Bay Ridge [Flatbush Gardener]
• On Sitting Next to a Weirdo, Seeing Ian Curtis Portrayed on a Movie Screen [Bad Advice]
• Gowanus Artist Melanie Fischer [Found in Brooklyn]
• Dumbo’s Bridgestone Cleaners are “Biggest Ripoff Ever” [Brooklyn Enthusiast]

Halloween Stuff:

• Intense Halloweening, Part I [Brooklyn 11201]
• Hoedown Under the Bridge [Dumbo NYC]
• Halloween Party at the Surf & Turf Grill [Kinetic Carnival]
• Weekend Halloween Events [About Brooklyn]

As can be seen in the image that was emailed to us yesterday evening, BRIC (Brooklyn Information & Culture) has had a name change. It’s now BRIC Arts| Media | Brooklyn. We’re not sure about a name that’s so hard to type out, but we like BRIC and we think we’ll simply keep calling it, well, BRIC, which we’ve always done. BRIC, as you most likely know, produces Celebrate Brooklyn, run the Rotunda Gallery, has a studio space and, of course, produces BCAT cable programming.

The condo marketing signs in Williamsburg keep getting tagged with anti-condo messages. The latest changes at The Edge involve the bourgeoisie, gentrification and some oddly snipped out words.–Curbed

If you haven’t already seen it–and hopefully you have–the people at A Child Grows in Brooklyn have put together the ultimate Brooklyn Halloween guide. We’re posting it now because we neglected to do so next week, but since most of the events concern the upcoming weekend, the list is still timely. If you have children or if you are looking for Halloween related stuff that is going on, look no further. They’ve probably missed one or two events, but they’ve certainly hit a lot of the highlights. It is absolutely required Halloween reading, whether you intend to make the trip to Ricky’s to score a costume or not.

Williamsburg, Brooklyn