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

• Bensonhurst is the Jackson Heights of Brooklyn [NYT]
• Atlantic Yards Arena to Open in 2009? Really? [AYR]
• 209 1/2 Eckford Street is Illuminating [New York Shitty]
• Last Weekend Ever for Red Hook Vendors? [Gothamist]
• Dumbo Weekly Links [Dumbo NYC]
• Don’t Forget the Coney Island Creep Show [Kinetic Carnival]
• Underground Railroad House Press Conference Vid [No Land Grab]
• Carroll Street [seriously excited!]
• Dry Cleaners [Blue Jake]
• Exotic Homes & Gardens in Bed-Stuy [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• Haunted House of the Day [Clinton Hill Blog]

Distribution of daffodils by the wonderful Daffodil Project started last weekend in Manhattan and Queens, but it’s coming to Brooklyn next weekend. The daffodils are free, but they have to be planted in a public place like a tree well. A distribution of free daffodils by New Yorkers for Parks will take place on Saturday, October 27, from 9AM-Noon at the farmer’s market at Grand Army Plaza. Now in its fifth year, the Daffodil project was originally created to commemorate September 11. A Dutch bulb supplier, Hans van Waardenburg of B&K Flowerbulbs, is donating 500,000 daffodil bulbs to the project every year. In 2007, an estimated three million daffodils planted by volunteers bloomed, which is a lot of flowers. You can learn more about the Daffodil Project here.

Craig Murphey, one of the people killed riding a bike in Brooklyn last week, had a small photoblog that offers a poignant window on a life cut tragically short.–LOOK IT!

Here’s a selection of random Brooklyn-related YouTube vids for your Sunday viewing pleasure.

We missed this in our sleepy Saturday morning reader yesterday, but the New York Times featured a development story from Sheepshead Bay that could serve as a Poster Child for everything that is wrong with the (non) regulation of development and construction in Brooklyn. It’s about a six-story condo development called Homecrest that’s going up in a neighborhood of two-story homes. 18 DOB inspections either failed to find or refused to note a major issue. It is so absurd that even the Times, which doesn’t normally devote space to one of the biggest issues in Brooklyn, found it worthy of a long story. Here are some excerpters:

a zoning battle featuring bluntly worded threats; an obvious construction flaw unremarked upon by building inspectors on 18 site visits; and, ultimately, a red-faced city agency, confronted with inconvenient facts, reversing itself after a year and a half of insisting on the legality of a widely opposed condominium project.

For now at least, residents of the area, a section of Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn known as Homecrest, have blocked the project, a six-story condo block that they say would be far out of scale in their cozy neighborhood of two-story homes with tidy lawns.

Such fights have become common across the city during this decade-long real estate boom, as residents trying to preserve the feel of their neighborhoods face off against developers seeking to cram as many square feet and stories into a building site as possible. Occasionally, the residents win.

But while the understaffed Buildings Department, outmatched by aggressive developers, has often been shown to fumble inspection and enforcement, rarely has the department so repeatedly rebuffed complaints about a project that it now admits it should never have approved.

Homecrest is a Beat the Rezone project where developers rushed to get a foundation in place before a zoning change happened–only they didn’t and 18 building inspections failed to notice. If you missed it, it’s worth checking out.

When Union Street goes geopolitical, it does so with style. To wit: “If Iraq Attacks Turkey from the Rear, Will Greece Help?” See the photo of this interesting sign.–Err(or) Ink.

That awful storm on August 8 that spawned the Bay Ridge Tornado, also resulted in a whole lot of crap going into the Gowanus Canal and New York Bay. Poop Culture author Dave Praeger sent us an email pointing us toward a blog entry he’s just done. Most of it deals with the grotesque, yet fascinating, story of London in the 1850s, which one ought not read before a meal. But it also has great detail about what happened on August 8:

On the morning of August 8, three inches of rain fell on Brooklyn. On the 3,200 Brooklyn acres that drain into the Red Hook Water Pollution Control Plant, 260 million gallons of runoff coursed into the sewers, mixing with millions of gallons of human waste already headed towards a treatment plant capable of processing only 60 million gallons per day.

When flow exceeds capacity by that much, the only choice is to channel it all, untreated, into the waterways. And so emergency outflow points in Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal and across Upper New York Bay began to ejaculate diluted sewage.

But aside from homeowners whose basements were flooded by Gowanus sewage and beachgoers who swam in feces the next day, few people paid attention to the sewer overflows. After all, New York City averages 53 combined sewer overflows (CSOs) a year, and 772 American communities have combined wastewater and rainwater sewers that overflow during heavy rains. But since CSOs rarely make the news and few politicians want to stake political capital on sewers, the political will to fix them probably won’t appear until the problem becomes a catastrophe.

The whole blog entry is worth a read. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

We’re not saying that the situation pictured above at 291 Devoe Street in East Williamsburg is not safe. There appear to be safety harnesses and ropes in place. All we can say is it appears to potentially not be the most secure thing we’ve ever seen. The photo and the information are from our Greenpoint correpondent, who also directed us to complaints at the DOB concerning worker safety. The building has logged 14 complaints with the Department of Buildings, but very little action. They range from the report of steel beams falling to the sidewalk and concerns about worker safety in the complaint below to things like “excessive garbage” and work causing the building next door to shake. As to the shaking, when the DOB inspector showed up a day later, they didn’t observe any shaking and dismissed the complaint. (Note to public management school students looking for a project: Go to the New York City Department of Buildings. You will find much to examine.) A complaint last year about construction undermining the building next door did result in a temporary Stop Work Order, however.

As you may know, two bicyclists in Brooklyn were killed in accidents within hours of each other this week. While the news media has provided basic details, Streets Blog posted the best account of the tragedy’s meaning and its impact on the many people in the community that knew the cyclists that were killed. We will copy and paste a bit:

The deaths of two Brooklyn cyclists just hours apart yesterday have resulted in a homicide charge and an outpouring of grief for a man friends describe as “a truly thoughtful and selfless individual.” Friends of one of the victims are also questioning the official account of his death.

City dailies report that Williamsburg resident Alfred Taylor, 41, has been charged with criminally negligent homicide for killing an as-yet-unidentified cyclist on Fulton Street in Bed Stuy around 6 a.m. Thursday. Police say Taylor was driving a speeding van when he struck the 25-year-old cyclist, whose name is being withheld pending notification of relatives.

As Streetsblog readers well know, it is virtually unheard of for a driver to face a charge of any sort after hitting a cyclist or pedestrian, as long as the driver is sober and stays at the scene. We will keep an eye on this case as it progresses.

Meanwhile, no charges were filed in the death of 26-year-old Craig Murphey, who according to police and media reports was hit by a turning gas truck just after 4 a.m. yesterday while riding southbound in the northbound lane of Union Avenue at Ten Eyck Street.

We got an email about Mr. Murphy, who was very well known in Williamsburg and was a member of Right Rides, a free volunteer service that offers rides home at night. Mr. De Paolo wrote, “His smile won you over right away. I was grateful for his efforts in the community. This is a great loss. My prayers go out to Craig’s family and friends.” There are a many comments and photos posted on the Williamsboard. The photo here, sent by Mr. De Paolo, was taken a few hours before Mr. Murphy was killed.

Sunday is the last day for the beloved vendors at the Red Hook Ball Fields to serve up food this season. If you’ve never been or if you want another fix, today and tomorrow are it. The future of the enterprise is up in the air. The vendors have been under siege all year. First, from the Parks Department, which has threatened their very existence with a permitting process that has yet to play out, and then, from the Health Department, which has demanded some expensive upgrades. We love the vendors. We have stated our position many times and our feeling that the city should do backflips to keep this vital cultural institution in place rather than taking steps to wipe them out. When the season rolls around next year, however, Red Hook will be a very, very, very different place. The Ikea will be open, attracting up to 50,000 cars to the neighborhood every week and the parks where the vendors work will be in the middle of thousands of cars going to and from Ikea every weekend. If you haven’t been, go today or tomorrow. Even if the vendors are there next year–and we will be outraged if they are not–it will be a very, very different scene. That part of Red Hook won’t so much be a community as a place that people from all over the city drive through to get Ikea furniture.

[Photo courtesy of rkruckoff/flickr]

Look:

• Gowanus Sheen (above) [rkruckoff/flickr]
• Desktop Day Double: Atlantic Yards, No [Brit in Brooklyn]
• Brooklyn’s Industrial Waterfront Photoset [Gowanus/flickr]
• Shopping Cart, Brighton Beach [seriously excited!]
• Eagle Clothes [Blue Jake]
• Vanderbilt Products Takedown [threecee/flickr]
• Williamsburg & Greenpoint Scenes [A Test of Will]
• Bond Between 1st and 2nd [seriously excited!]

Look & Read:

• Nice Web Design: Sponsor-Stuffed Nets Website Debuts [AYR]
• G Train Subway Poster Fun [New York Shitty]
• Yesterday’s Middle Eastern Shopping District, Tomorrow’s Hipster Shopping [BK 11201]
• Secrets of Coney Island Creek Photo Show [Brit in Brooklyn]
• Dumbo Named Best Manhattanized Brooklyn Nabe [Dumbo NYC]
• 2007 Carroll Park Halloween Parade is a Go [Pardon Me for Asking]
• Kasjan Bakery in Greenpoint [A Test of Will]
• Public Notice? [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
• No More Waiting…Congrats, Dope [Dope on the Slope]
• Old Coney Photos on Shorpy [Kinetic Carnival]

The Red Hook Harvest Festival is today at the Red Hook Community Farm. It runs from 10AM-5PM and is located at Columbia and Sigourney Streets. (Look for the looming, blue and yellow Ikea under construction.)

When we saw this yesterday, we couldn’t get it out of our minds: A six-unit condo on Sixth Avenue with an awful history (including the death of a worker) is trying to market itself as being in “Sun Slope.” Dear God.–Brownstoner

It’s amusing in its own way for those that don’t normally watch HGTV. There’s a second vid as well continuing the segment, which can be viewed here.

“A building owned by one of the city’s best known tenants’ rights organization is riven with peeling paint, broken locks and apartments with no heat in winter…” What group? The Pratt Area Community Council.–Brooklyn Paper

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

There used to be an annual carnival called the Greenpoint International Festival on Manhattan Avenue between Clay Street and the waterfront. It was pretty rowdy, but it died in 2003 after they stopped serving liquor.–New York Shitty

The fascinating issue of the major expansion of waterfront parkland the city proposes in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, stretching from the northern end of East River State Park to north of the Bushwick Inlet, has been a sleeper. The city recently acquired major parcels for the planned 28-acre park via eminent domain and is now negotiating payments. The park is years off in the future, though some interesting plans and renderings have been released. The site, overall, may be one of the most horrendously polluted in North Brooklyn. There was a large Manufactured Gas Plant on part of the land, which left behind a significant amount of underground toxins whose full reach has never been completely mapped. (There are stories, however, that when CitiStorage was doing some test drilling on its land, it turned up some very interesting soil samples, some of which were stored in a refrigerator on site and shown to select visitors to illustrate the nature of what is underground on the waterfront.) One of the most recent tenants of part of the land is Bayside Fuel and an earlier occupant was the Astral Oil Refinery. The refinery suffered a major explosion and spilled significant amounts of oil. The full extent of the spill or its location underground are unknown.

We say that in order to make the point that any park would require a massive cleanup effort in order to render the land safe. We digress, however. The fascinating issue is that the city would take some of the land via eminent domain or, at least, under the threat of eminent domain. Some of the landowners are saying they are being low-balled and that the city is not offering prices that reflect the value of the land if it were sold for, say, luxury high rise development. (The land isn’t zoned for that use. It is zoned for heavy manufacturing or can be used as park land.)

In any case, for an interesting take on the issue, we suggest reading an article that appeared in the Real Deal early this month as well as a post strongly opposing the use of eminent domain on Brownstoner and one supporting its use on Brooklyn 11211. Gothamist, meanwhile, puts the argument in the context of all the uses of eminent domain underway around the city–and there are many. All make valid points, although, in this case, we think we would come down on the side of eminent domain, given that there is a very strong public good that would come from developing a big, new park around the Bushwick Inlet. To that we would add that would have hoped the city come to equitable arrangements with the landowners without resorting to this blunt force instrument of questionable ethics and legality. For the record, we take an especially dim view of the plans of one of the landowners, TransGas, to build a large power plant on some of the land.

One issue that needs to be resolved in an ethical way is that of the Monitor Museum, which is fighting relocation. The waterfront park was a key part of the rezoning that allowed the highrises that are now going up in significant numbers along Kent Avenue. We hope to see quick progress on the park, but a process that is ethical and fair to all parties.

Links:
City takes Williamsburg waterfront properties for park [Real Deal]
Eminent Domain Spreads to Williamsburg Waterfront [Brownstoner]
Eminent Domain Abuse [Brooklyn 11211]
Eminent Domain Lives…In Williamsburg [Gothamist]

The Carroll Gardens neighborhood group CORD that first organized behind the issue of 360 Smith Street is pressing forward with its petition for a moratorium on new buildings more than 50 feet tall while a neighborhood downzoning is being considered. (The idea has gotten mixed reviews, with many elected officials saying it would require a study period as long as the rezoning and others saying that it might be possible.) Their latest email says in part:

We are not asking for a halt to all construction. We are not asking for a halt to all renovation. Our request is clear and precise. Our insistence for a moratorium is a heartfelt plea to the Department of City Planning, our Community Board, our Councilman, NYC Council, our Borough President and of course, our Mayor begging them not ignore or abandon us.

We want them to hear that there are thousands of hard working, tax paying, Carroll Gardens residents whose voices and concerns are neither frivolous nor inconsequential.

Projects, like 360 Smith Street, and others of their ilk, in their various stages of planning or execution, have awakened angry feelings in the hearts of many of our residents. Many of us want to know how these out of scale and context projects could even be considered for our area. What type of strain will these very large apartment complexes put upon our already pushed to the limit infrastructure? How will the pre, during, and post-construction periods affect the safety of our homes and more importantly, the quality of all of our lives?

Are these not the questions that should be asked and more importantly, answered by City Planning, BEFORE projects, as large as these, in a low rise, mainly nineteenth century built neighborhood such as ours, are approved?

The answer? NO. The current zoning does not take the recent rate of development nor its impact upon our community into consideration. Could it possibly take a minimum of months and more likely, years, to realize that this should be changed?…

Has a situation arisen yet where a moratorium, through the ULURP process has been granted in NYC? No, not yet. Is it time? We believe it is…While the frenetic and often hazardous pace of construction continues, as stop work orders mount and often dangerous damages/conditions develop to the neighboring properties of construction projects all around the city, CORD asks the Department of City Planning and all of the other ULURP procedure involved agencies and officials to allow us the latitude to decide our neighborhood’s future. Let us help you plan our tiny corner of the city. We do not pretend to know all, but we are thousands of Carroll Gardens residents and we know our neighborhood. Surely we are capable of making an informed decision on the direction that would be best for our community. Guide us. But, please, let us work with you.

And so, it continues.

Our indefatigable Greenpoint correspondent sent us this photo of the Monitor Street Sandwich. This particular picture is absolutely worth a thousand words, so we will not go on at length. We will simply says that it reminds us of something we once saw in Houston or, possibly, Shanghai, and that it is not to be confused with the Kingsland Avenue Hero.

“There is a series of small parks in Windsor Terrace along the South side of the Prospect Expressway. Some don’t even have names, the chain usually being referred to as ‘the expressway parks’ or ‘those skinny parks.’ The tiny green spaces were clearly meant to ease neighborhood pain when blocks of homes were town down for the new highway in the 1950s.”–Icky in Brooklyn

No, not the Roebling Oil Building, which is also a Karl Fischer, but the KF on Karl Fischer Corner, aka N. 8th and Roebling, where North Brooklyn’s major architectural presence has designed a building diagonally across from his Roebling Square building. The curious feature about 63 Roebling is that it there was barely any excavation on the site, which is interesting. In any case, it’s rising fast.

Anyone that knows Seventh Avenue in Park Slope has seen the homeless men that often live on the steps of Old First Church on Seventh Avenue. Rev. Daniel Meeter produces the Old First blog. His latest blog entry, which we found via CityRoom and OTBKB, deals with these men. It is candid and compelling reading. Here are some short excerpts from the long post:

People keep asking why don’t we get rid of them. We can’t. We’ve tried. Believe me, we have tried. They have abused our hospitality, they piss on our building, they leave food around, they leave garbage all over, they play their radio at great volumes (God forgive me, I have had to resort to theft against them to deal with that one). They are a pain in the neck. But we will not treat them as less than human beings.

We have tried to get rid of them. We’ve discovered the hard way that we can’t do it, we can’t beat them. Whenever I chase them away, they just wait an hour, two hours, and they come back. I go home at night, and they come back. No matter what we do or say, they come back…

I will confess a strong desire inside myself to just let them be. It’s Jesus’ church, not mine, not ours, and the New Testament is very clear about our hospitality to the poor. “The poor you will always have with you.” The parable of Lazarus. Etc. You get the point. And there is no asterix pointing to a codicil that says, “the nice poor.”

But at the same time I recognize we belong to a community, and the church has the responsibility to be a good neighbor, and if the guys scare the kids, and make lewd comments at women and passersby, and if they leave food scraps around for vermin to get at, etc. etc., then, well, I know that the church has to be a good neighbor. So we decided this last July that they absolutely had to go. We tried to get rid of them. As I said, we couldn’t.

We chased them away every morning. They came back every night. We threw out their stuff. They found new stuff. Only now they started getting even more hostile, to us and to other passersby. We finally found that we couldn’t beat them, and the only thing was to try to control it. Yes, they beat us.

If you have a moment a full read of Rev. Meeter’s post is highly recommended.

[Photo courtesy Wally G/flickr]

In another sign the year is heading toward the finish line, the 2008 Greetings from Coney Island Calender is now on sale. It’s from Coney Island USA and features historic postcard images. Proceeds benefit Coney Island USA.–Kinetic Carnival

The buildings at 208 N. 10th Street, which is part of a larger site that will encompass about 1/2 of the block between Roebling and Driggs and N. 10th and N. 9th Streets, are coming down. The fence is back up, so we had to peek inside to find a little bit of what’s been left behind as the buildings come down. These are clearly old oil or chemical drums. (Or the more benign explanation is that they were water barrels or contained popcorn.) Regardless it’s interesting to see. A huge condo project will rise on the site, which is the next door neighbor of the Roebling Oil Field.