Thursday, May 3, 2012
Move eliminates need for dreaded "stack parking," but critics say the ESDC needs to do more to protect area residents.
The state has halved the number of required parking spaces at the Barclay’s Center surface lot, enabling developer Forest City Ratner to throw out its plan for the loud and slow “stack-parking." The technique uses hydraulic lifts to load as many as four cars on vertical structures. But the process has been criticized as being loud and tedious, slowing traffic to a crawl when the 18,000-seat arena opens in the fall. At Wednesday night’s forum with Atlantic Yards-area stakeholders at Brooklyn Borough Hall, Empire State Development Corporation head Kenneth Adams said the state organization has agreed to reduce the number of mandated spaces from 1,100 to just under 550 at the lot located between Carlton, Vanderbilt, Dean and Pacific, …
Friday, February 3, 2012
Owner of the Atlantic Yards-area icon says it’s the right time to sell.
After nearly a century, Triangle Sports may close its doors. The owners have put the iconic triangular shaped building across the street from the soon-to-open Barclays Arena on the market and will sell if the right offer comes along. “Because of the arena across the street, it’s made this building extremely attractive. … It’s just a good time to do it,” said Henry Rosa, who owns the sports equipment and clothing shop with William Shapiro. Rosa said business at the store has been fine—he has a lot of dedicated customers and the opening of Modell’s, Target and other national chains has only helped his business by increasing foot traffic. It’s more about the timing—the rising prices from the arena, combined with a desire on both his and …
Thursday, February 2, 2012
A monthly photo essay documenting the construction of the Barclays Center, which the Brooklyn Nets will soon call home.
Month by month, the Barclays Center has grown. Now covered with fabric, the looming frame of the Brooklyn Nets's future home is beginning to look more like the building it will eventually become. Set within the intersection of Flatbush, Atlantic, and Vanderbilt Avenues, the 22-acre site is also slated to include 16 residential buildings, commerical and office space and 8 acres of open space. Take a look at past installments of Brick by Brick to see how the Center has grown.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Residents also learn that only 11 percent of apartments in first tower are slated to have two or more bedrooms, compared to the 50 percent promised.
Here are a few highlights from yesterday’s meeting of the Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet, a group of Ratner, state and elected officials that meets bi-monthly: No Left Turn for S. Oxford To the chagrin of anyone trying to get to Fort Greene when driving east on Atlantic, there will be no left turn on S. Oxford Street. However, there will be a left turn onto Carlton (once it re-opens) as well as onto Fort Greene Place. The Department of Transportation has eliminated that turn lane in favor of a pedestrian “refuge” for those who can’t cross all the lanes in one light. No Resident Veto Power on Traffic Plans: Afraid of the traffic onslaught when Barclays Arena opens in the fall, neighborhood groups have asked for more input into …
Friday, January 20, 2012
In a town hall meeting, the community suggested how they would like to see Fourth Avenue transformed into “Brooklyn Boulevard.”
The transformation of Fourth Avenue into the grand, landscaped “Brooklyn Boulevard” from “Atlantic Avenue to the Atlantic Ocean,” as Borough President Marty Markowitz has said, is in your hands. Markowitz’s Fourth Avenue Task Force, chaired by his Senior Advisor, Carlo Scissura, held its second town hall meeting on Thursday night at St. Michael’s Church, on 43rd Street just off Fourth Avenue, to hear community suggestions on specific changes they would like to see made on the notorious 6.2-mile speedway, known as a racetrack for drivers to quickly get from one neighborhood to another. The agenda of the task force is to transform the six lane street, which is ranked the third most dangerous road in Brooklyn, from a barren strip speckled …
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Marty Markowitz wants Cuomo's proposed casino in Coney Island.
With Cuomo's support for a casino in New York, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz has his eye on the famous Brooklyn theme park as a location option for table gaming, according to The Brooklyn Paper “I commend Governor Cuomo for...his support for a constitutional amendment allowing casino gambling, which would bring jobs and revenue to potential locations in New York City, especially Coney Island, which is a natural," Markowitz said in a release. “It could be the savior for Coney Island as a major destination,” Dick Zigun, founder of the Coney Island Circus Sideshow, told The Brooklyn Paper. Zigun added that Brighton Beach and Gravesend used to be major gambling locations, until gambling was banned in 1910. "Anything and …
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Say agencies overseeing project should refuse to open arena until residents have real input on plan to mitigate car onslaught.
Atlantic Yards-area civic leaders asked state and city agencies to give them veto power over Forest City Ratner’s plan to help reduce the traffic onslaught when Barclays Arena opens next fall. The request came after area community groups were invited by the Brooklyn Borough President’s office to participate in an Atlantic Yards “transportation working group.” Block association presidents and other neighborhood leaders duly reported to Brooklyn Borough Hall last night for an organizational meeting. But several made it clear that they didn’t want to participate if their recommendations went unheeded. “Are we going to have meaningful input or are we just going to be reacting to the plan that Forest City Ratner puts out?” said Sandy Balboza…
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Workers allege that Forest City Ratner and the non-profit BUILD failed to deliver promised union cards and jobs following unpaid apprenticeship program.
Claiming they were duped, seven Brooklyn construction workers are sueing the developer of the Atlantic Yards Project and a local community organization for failing to deliver union cards and construction jobs they said were promised at the end of what they call a “sham” job-training program. “I was robbed,” said Maurice Griffin of Crown Heights at a news conference today in the shadow of the rising Barclays Center. Griffin, like many of the plaintiffs, quit a job to join the program. ”I would never have joined this pre-apprenticeship program if it wasn’t agreed (guaranteed) to me that I would have a union card upon completion,” he said. Councilwoman Letitia James, who organized the press conference, called both the pre-apprenticeship …
Thursday, June 16, 2011
As construction moves forward, the emphasis shifts to 2013 elections and moving control of the site from state to local entities.
The Barclays Center may be rising, but locals have far from given up the fight against developer Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards mega project. Instead, community members have refocused their energy on trying to stop over development from coming to the rest of the Atlantic Yards site, primarily through political means. “That site is going to be contested for decades. People think it’s all over because they see an arena going up,” said Daniel Goldstein, one of the main organizers of the activist group Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, at a community strategy meeting that drew well over 100. Goldstein emphasized that the battle is far from over. The Barclays Arena and four other buildings currently under construction by developer Forest City …
Thursday, June 9, 2011
The organic superstore is one step closer to the Gowanus.
The Gowanus Canal is polluted, and the chosen site is in an area known to flood, but that's not stopping Whole Foods from building a market five times the size of what the current zoning allows. In a Park Slope church rectory without air conditioning Wednesday night, Community Board 6 voted to approve the plans for the 56,000 square foot organic grocery store. By approving them, the board is saying Whole Foods can build larger than what is allowed under current New York City zoning. But at the meeting, the size of the store was only discussed by a couple of board members. Other issues – traffic, environmental impact, local food and jobs – dominated the discussion. The motion passed with just three members voting against the plans. At a …
Eustace Greaves Jr
12:26 am on Saturday, May 5, 2012
Great. Another 500+ cars looking for parking during game and event days. more ›