Behold Newkirk Plaza, a quirky and “shabby little subway station/mall in the middle of nowhere.” Forget it’s 2007 and it might as well be 25 years ago.–Big Sky Brooklyn

The park will open for another year on March 18.

Links:
Coney Island’s Astroland Gets a New Lease on Life [AP/Newsday]
Astroland Lives for One More Summer! [Runnin’ Scared]
Astroland to return for another year [amNY]

Yesterday, we posted about an attack by another dog on a dachshund at the popular Dog Beach in Prospect Park. The attack was originally noted in emails posted to the Park Slope Parents group board that were forwarded to us by a reader. The story was later updated and clarified on the Park Slope Forum at brooklynian.com where a reader wrote:

Great news! I just heard that the dachshund actually survived, thanks to Dr Silverman, Animal Kind and the Animal Medical Center. Also that the attacking dog was taken by the police. I hope it will be put down. It was evidently a temporary foster dog and was off-leash swimming at the dog beach during non-offleash hours. There’s the roots of the tragedy.

The Dr. Silverman that is mentioned is Dr. Leonard Silverman at the excellent Prospect Park Animal Clinic, which is relatively close to where the incident happened. There seems to be some disagreement as to the breed of the attacking dog, with original reports being that it was a pit bull. Someone at the Park Slope Forum has identified it as “more like a shepard/terrier mix, but not a pit bull. I realize that pitbulls are terriers, but this had floppy ears, and the jaw was not as square as a pit.” A GL commenter wrote, “I was there. It was NOT a pitbull. So those of you ‘more evidence that pitbulls are bad’ should feel free to retract your insensitive and uninformed comments.”

It would seem that a more general issue is that of potentially dangerous or aggressive dogs (regardless of breed) being allowed to run around without leashes, even at a “dog beach” because they can harm other dogs or attack children and adults. That, however, is an issue that has been widely argued in the past and there are off-leash hours in some parks, including Prospect Park.

In Williamsburg, there is a sticker on a lamp pole for “Neuticles.” What are they? Oh, replacement gonads for your neutered pet. And the best part is that Rush Limbaugh endorses them.–New York Shitty

The 152 units of housing that would be built on and near Columbia Street in Red Hook will be back in front of a community meeting tomorrow. It concerns a “pre-approved” Department of Housing Preservation and Development plan for 152 units of housing, 40 percent of which would be affordable. It may not be greeted warmly by residents, some of whom object to plans for buildings up to 60-80 feet tall in a community where most structures are only two or three stories. In fact, we were reminded of the meeting by a community notice that is circulating that says, in part:

HIGH RISE DEVELOPMENT-IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD??

Find out about the plans by NYC and a private developer to build 152 units between Congress & Baltic Sts., between Hicks & Columbia Sts…Do you want 3 large buildings, 60-80 feet tall, towering over us and changing the character of our neighborhood?

The details, as found on the CB6 website:

Presentation by representatives for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development of a pre-certified ULURP application to construct a total of 152 housing units at 3 development sites in the Columbia Street District at 75 Columbia Street known as Site 1 (18 units), 86-98 Congress Street and 79 Warren Street known as Site 2 (33 Units), and 104-116 Warren Street and 101-115 Baltic Street known as Site 3 (102 units).

The Brooklyn Downtown Star had an article on the issue back in September. CB6 Committee meeting takes place tomorrow (10/25) at 6PM at Long Island College Hospital, which is located at 399 Hicks Street, at the corner of Atlantic Avenue.

Related Post:
New Housing for Columbia Street?

[Photo courtesy of the Brooklyn Downtown Star]

Part I, courtesy of the wonderful photoblog Sidewalk Photography:

Part II, captured by GL on a walk through Gowanus:

We often have a lot to say, but in this case, the photos really speak for themselves.

• If Newark Arena is About Marketing, What Will the Nets Arena Be? [AYR]
• Development Watch: 333 Eastern Parkway [Brownstoner]
• Judge Who Bribed Party Boss Retires [NYDN]
• Sad News: No Strippers at Park Slope Halloween Parade [Daily Intel]
• Fiske Terrace Centennial Marked [DITHOB]
• Car Mows Down Five People Near Borough Hall [McBrooklyn]
• “Hot Ass on Eckford Street” [New York Shitty]
• Court Street Laundromat [Found in Brooklyn]
• Eyesore Lot Needs Love [Brooklyn Junction]
• North Brooklyn Book Events [Greenpointers]
• People Falling Down [Brooklynometry]

Halloween Stuff:

• Freakshow on Dekalb [Brit in Brooklyn]
• Pet-Stuy Horror Haunt in Bed-Stuy [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• 2007 Dumbo Halloween [Dumbo NYC]

The small luggage and travel product chain Flight 001 made quite a bit of noise with news it will be opening a second Brooklyn store, on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope. The first Flight 001 is on Smith Street.–Racked

It’s been a while since we posted about Park Slope Street Cats, so we’re happy to note they will be having a Fall Feral Fundraiser on November 10 from 7PM-11PM at Ripple Bar. Here’s a bit from PSSC’s blog:

Your ticket includes a drink ticket and buffet style finger food as well as an automatic entry for a door prize. Vegetarian/vegan food options available for those of you so inclined. (Yes, there will be non-veg food as well!)

Ripple Bar
769 Washington Ave (Grand Ave/St. John’s Pl)
Brooklyn, NY 11238
Subways: 2, 3, 4

Tickets are available in advance by clicking here.

The Gowanus Whole Foods, which is far from being able to start construction, has opened its site to future examination. Put on some thick rubber boots, grab a camera and have a look at this environmentally-challenged lot.–Brownstoner

Want to learn about the zoning and land use review process? The Fifth Avenue Committee is sponsoring workshops in early November. They are part of a series the group has been presenting. The workshops are called “Demystifying ULURP.” They are bilingual and there are two sessions, on Monday, Nov. 5th, 2-5 pm and on Tuesday, Nov. 6th, 6-9 pm. They will take place at 621 DeGraw Street, which is between Third and Fourth Avenue. The group requires an RSVP to attend the free sessions. Anyone that is interested can call Dave Powell at 718-237-2017, Ext. 148 or email him at dpowell@fifthave.org. (Last time we posted about one of FAC’s zoning sessions we noted that an interest in zoning issues should be rewarded by open to doors to anyone that takes the initiative and attends. We still feel that way and hope that FAC doesn’t turn away concerned residents for not RSVP’ing for these important commmunity events.) The group explains ULURP this way:

The Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) is a public review process mandated by New York City charter. The procedure sets requirements and timeframes for public participation and government decision making about zoning changes, dispositions of city land and other special development projects.

Why do some government bodies have the power to make decisions during ULURP while others can only make recommendations? How effective is ULURP as a means of gathering public input about development? Can ordinary citizens use ULURP to shape development in their neighborhoods? Why was the Atlantic Yards project not subject to ULURP? Join us as we endeavor to answer these questions and more!

Given that zoning and ULURP can determine the character of a community for generations, understanding the process and how to have input in it is vital.

Park Slope moms writing emails on the Park Slope Parents Group are upset about people smoking in playgrounds. Are they going to form “vigilante anti-smoking squads”? How is this going to turn out?–OTBKB

First, the problems. “There are still a lot of issues remaining,” said DEP’s Kevin Clark. Those issues include more than 300 million gallons a year of what are technically called “combined sewage outflows”–raw sewage mixed with storm runoff–that still end up in the canal each year. “Even a modest rainstorm,” Mr. Clark said, results in raw sewage flowing into the canal. They also include a low level of oxygen in the water, sediment at the bottom of the canal that range from settled sewage to accumulated toxins and “floatables,” which are everything from plastic bottles to discarded condoms.

The DEP plans to spend up to $125 million–with money coming from city water and sewer fees–on cleaning up the Gowanus mess. Solutions include the planned modernization of the flushing tunnel that draws water from New York Harbor into the canal with “a much more robust, reliable pumping system” and an upgrade of the sewage pump that directs sewage away from the canal and toward the Red Hook treatment plant from the current 20 million gallons a day to 30 million gallons daily. There might also be a “floatables vessel” that would go around after bad storms and skim “floatables” from the surface and there could be dredging of 750 feet of the end of the canal past the Union Street Bridge to remove “sediment” left in the canal when raw sewage flows into it. Underground retention tanks to hold storm runoff until it can be handled have been dismissed as costing too much and requiring too much land. (There was an early proposal to use the toxic parcel known as Public Place for holding tanks, but the land is now supposed to become a mid-rise, mixed use project with hundreds of units of housing.)

The very technical goal is to have 3mg of oxygen per liter of water, which is the minimum needed to keep fish alive, with the hope of reaching 4mg per liter, which would allow for fish to thrive and breed.

In any case, the flushing tunnel will likely be shut down for a long period of renovation and repair next September and the dredging could happen “early in the next decade,” meaning sometime between 2010 and 2013. A planned three-year-long Army Corp of Engineers study of the Gowanus, meanwhile, will soon enter its seventh year. The Corp’s Mark Lulka said that he hoped for a final report in 2009 about the “ecosystem restoration” that it will do. He said that the city needs to do its part of the work first and that clean up options include widescale dredging and capping of sediment in some areas.

Mr. Lulka said that “Before we can do a sustainable, worthwhile, ecosystem restoration project…all that good work the city has laid out is going to have to be done.” He added that “Ecosystem restoration is the icing on the cake. The jewel following these things the Department of Environmental Protection puts into place. It’s about improving habitat for fish and birds and improving sediment quality.”

The slow pace of the studies and delays in cleanup have frustrated some residents, many of whom expressed skepticism at the meeting. The head of the CB6 Environmental Committee suggest that there is “some left over skepticism about whether and when these upgrades will happen and whether they will be maintained after the fact.” He added that “I suspect if Gowanus becomes more residential there will be a lot of pressure to increase the scope and the vision.”

All of which raises the interesting question of how luxury residential housing will coexist with a canal that continues to absorb massive flows of raw sewage during rainstorms and a clean up process that could easily stretch to 2020, given that official timetables from the Army Corps of Engineers (which has seen a three year study turn into what will likely be a nine-year undertaking) run to 2013 for the start of work.

We have two reports via Park Slope Parents emails about a big dog attacking and killing a small dog at the Dog Beach in Prospect Park yesterday. Both get at the issue of keeping big dogs on leashes. Apparently, a pit bull or pit bull mix attacked “a little long haired dachsund” in full view of a lot of kids and parents. The attack went on for a long time and no one–including the dog’s owner–was able to stop it. One email says:

i’m writing to stress to dog owners how important it is to keep dogs on their leash when walking through the park or at dog beach. today i witnessed an incredibly upsetting sight – a large dog, i think it was a pit bull, attacked a little long haired dachsund – the owner of the big dog had no idea how to get her dog off the dachsund. it was very frightening and no-one was able to offer any help to save the dachsund. i was at dog beach with my son and a friend and her son, and there were lots of other toddlers standing around with their parents. if the owner of the pit bull had had the dog on a leash she could have pulled it away before it had gotten anywhere near the dachsund. another point that raised is that all dog owners should learn how to get their dog off of another dog during an attack.

And there is this email:

I was also at the dog beach this afternoon when a dog (looked like a pit bull, wasn’t on a leash) attacked and killed a small dog (who was on a leash) in front of many shocked bystanders. It was horrifying and I’m furious that the dog’s owner was allowing this dog to run around without a leash on and had no idea how to control it. I felt completely helpless and can’t get the whole scene out of my mind, especially since my toddler and several others were only a few feet away. I don’t have a dog myself, but I wish I had known what to do during the attack. It was clear that no one else in the vicinity knew what to do either, as the attack continued for an eternity (at least 15 minutes) and no one could get the big dog to release the little dog from its jaws (or knew to keep the big dog from shaking the little dog
around, which I learned tonight does the most damage).

Sounds like an awful day at the Dog Beach yesterday.

UPDATE: Someone who was near the incident notes that the person supervising the pit bull was a volunteer at a shelter that was watching the dog. She was apparently bitten while trying to separate the dogs and received medical treatment. It is not known whether the little dog that was attacked survived.

Another Carroll Gardens Town Hall Meeting has been scheduled for November. The last one, on August 23, drew a large crowd to a small space at the Scotto Funeral Home. This one will be held in the auditorium at PS 58, which is on Carroll Street between Court and Smith. It is scheduled for Monday, November 19 from 6:30PM and 8:30PM. The meeting will apparently take place in lieu of the regular monthly meeting of the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association. The topics of rezoning Carroll Gardens and expanding the neighborhood historic district are likely to dominate.

Mayor Bloomberg will speak in Coney Island and about Coney Island on November 8 at a Brooklyn Business Luncheon sponsored by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. Whether the mayor will deliver news about Coney Island rezoning and redevelopment or will expand on announcements that will have already been made is unknown. Key zoning recommendations that will serve as the basis for the discussion about redeveloping Coney Island are due late this month. The event will take place at Gargiulo’s Restaurant from Noon-2PM.

The upstairs neighbors have caved in my bathroom ceiling and throw liquids out the window. They’re drilling upstairs at 6AM. And, to top everything off, there are movie shoots all over the place.–Greenpointers

• Vigil for Bicyclist Craig Murphey in Williamsburg [Metro]
• Canarsie HS Principal Receives Package with Noose [NYT]
• Canarsie Noose Sparks Hate Crime Investigation [Sun]
• More Atlantic Yards Flaws Highlighted by Newark Arena [AYR]
• Forest City Ratner’s New President [No Land Grab]
• Fighting the Bay Ridge Drug House [Bay Ridge Rover]
• Scarano Crane vs. Karl Fischer Crane on N. 5th Street in Williamsburg [Brooklyn 11211]
• Check Out 140 Degraw [Brownstoner]
• Windsor Terrace Homes [Icky in Brooklyn]
• Bartel Pritchard Square Columns [Brooklynometry]
• Windsor Terrace Arches [Velvet Sea]
• Leo’s Now Open on Court Street [Esthetic/Aesthetic]
• Speakeasy Now Open on Greene Ave. [Clinton Hill Blog]