Posts from — April 2008

Parking lot which would house the proposed Greenmarket.

Update: Plans for a new Brooklyn Greenmarket in Bay Ridge we highlighted earlier this month have been put on hold as Our Lady of the Angels Church has gotten cold feet about giving up its parking lot for the market. At a recent community meeting about the plan, residents voiced concerns about congested streets, and church officials expressed reluctance about handing over their parking lot. Father James Devlin of Our Lady of Angels asked “What would I do if a prominent member of my church had a funeral and I had to tell my congregation that no one would have a place to park?”

The site, on 74th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues, would have housed a Greenmarket on Saturdays from July to November. City Council Member Vincent Gentile (D–Brooklyn), who has been the driving force behind the market and was the one who organized the community meeting has vowed to keep trying to work out a deal with the church. If an agreement cannot be reached or another space secured, the plan to bring fresh produce to South Brooklyn may be on hold permanently.

The Gap on Flickr.

The MTA has announced plans to begin attaching metal extension plates at the foot of each door on all of the newer M-7 passenger train cars in an attempt to minimize the gap sometimes found between the door and the station platform edge. The MTA has been under pressure to do something about the sometimes 8-15 inch gaps where passengers enter and exit train cars after incidents in 2006 and 2007.

The extension plates, which are set to begin appearing in October, will extend each door threshold 2 inches and include a heating feature to prevent ice formation in winter months. Work is hoped to be completed by April 2010.

The MTA will contract the installation work out to Bombardier Transportation of Canada at a cost of $2,811 to retrofit each door, or $11,244 total per train car.

Now if only there was a big steel (platinum?) plate the MTA could slap on to fix that perennial budget gap…

Meet the Neighbors on Flickr.

You didn’t think it was going to be easy, did you? Despite winning City Planning Commission and City Council approval for a $4 billion multi-tower mixed-use development along the East River just south of the United Nations, Sheldon Solow is facing a new roadblock from the residents of Tudor City. Dwellers of the 1920s complex organized and yesterday announced a lawsuit to try and block the planned development.

Residents fear that their views of the river will soon be blocked and their quality of life diminished by two or three years of construction noise and dirt. The lawsuit highlights the fact that the local community board did not approve the plan, and that the developer “arbitrarily and capriciously” ignored the community’s plan for the site, despite supposedly seeking community input.

The Solow plan for the area would construct seven new towers at the water’s edge, which will include 3,000 apartments, 1 million square feet of commercial space and 69,000 square feet of retail space.

James Madison: 11 - Telecomm: 1

The News describes how James Madison creamed the High School for Telecommunication Arts and Technology: Madison remained unbeaten and unrivaled on Friday, knocking off previously undefeated Telecomm, 11-1, in a game shortened to five innings because of the PSAL’s mercy rule.

Victor Cosme, who began the year as the Knights’ third starter, improved to 3-0 and a made a case to be staff ace, throwing just 49 pitches and mixing an overpowering fastball with a curve that kept hitters off-balanced and buckling at the knees.

The senior righthander struck out four, walked none and surrendered three singles, and he has yet to give up an earned run this season.

[Read more →]

The residential Victoria Tower in downtown Flushing has been under construction for a while now. A recent visit finds that it’s got all of its glass now, as well as its iconic entrance on Sanford Avenue that is a unique blend of “classical” and modern. Yowza!

Staten Island Ferry on Flickr.

The New Yorker delves into one of the big fears of every NYC tower dweller/worker–becoming hopelessly trapped in a malfunctioning elevator–with the actual time-lapse footage of one unfortunate rider’s ordeal. View it here.

The footage, recorded by the elevator’s security camera, shows a 34-year-old Business Week employee who was trapped in an elevator for 41 hours at the McGraw Hill Building (not the 1930s Raymond Hood creation on 42nd Street, but the Modernist tower on 6th Avenue near Rockefeller Center) after trying to return to his office after a smoke break.

The video spans his entire ordeal and shows him quite literally climbing the walls, trying to catch some sleep on the floor, and prying apart the elevator doors to both look for help and to relieve himself. Despite having several cigarettes left in his pack and the pressure of the stressful situation, the employee managed to abide by the city’s clean air rules and never lit up during the time he was trapped. Read his story here.

Brooklyn Tech by PetroleumJelliffe on Flickr.

The entrance exam scores have arrived for the incoming class of students at the city’s specialized high schools, and it seems that Brooklyn Tech has fallen from 5th to 7th in popularity with the city’s young brainiacs. Once part of the New York City high school triumvirate along with the likes of Stuyvesant and Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech’s popularity with high-scoring students has been chipped away by smaller, newly formed schools like Staten Island Tech and the High School for Math, Science and Engineering at City College.

As long as the 8th and 9th grade students who take the city’s Specialized High Schools Admissions Test reach a school’s cut-off score and space remains, they can choose which school they would like to attend (LaGuardia High School for the arts does not participate in the written exam). Over the past few years, Brooklyn Tech has seen the test scores of its incoming students drop as they select one of the other six schools instead of Tech. Stuyvesant continues to lead in average test scores, and is 61 points over runner-up Bronx Science.

Brooklyn Tech’s principal defended the school, asserting that the lower ranking in test scores is due to the large size of the school, which reflects a larger pool of students. The school’s enrollment of almost 4,500 students is 1,400 to 4,000 more than the other specialized high schools. Below is a list of the city’s specialized high schools, along with their years of formation:

High School of American Studies at Lehman College (2002)
Bronx High School of Science (1938)
Brooklyn Latin School (2006)
Brooklyn Technical High School (1922)
Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts (consolidated 1984)
High School for Math, Science and Engineering at City College (2002)
Queens High School for the Sciences at York College (2002)
Staten Island Technical High School (1988)
Stuyvesant High School (1904)

Watch “Elektro,” the Westinghouse spokesrobot at the 1939 New York World’s Fair from the film “The Middleton Family at the New York World’s Fair” (also conveniently sponsored by Westinghouse).

Elektro walks, talks, hits on the ladies in the crowd, and even smokes cigarettes. You can view his insides here, and learn about the recent rediscovery of Elektro, who had been scattered in forgotten boxes throughout Ohio, here.

Deutsche Bank Building on Flickr.

Four city firefighters injured while battling the Deutsche Bank building fire last summer are suing the city, state, and building contractors for their injuries. The fire also claimed the lives of firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino when they became trapped on the 14th floor.

The new lawsuits are being brought against the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, Bovis Lend Lease, the city, and several subcontractors by Battalion Chief Michael Borst and firefighters Sean McBrien, Francis McCutchen, and Steve Olsen. The injuries they sustained in the blaze have disqualified them from further work with the FDNY.

The lawsuits come soon after the families of the two firefighters who died filed suit against the city/state agencies and contracting companies involved in the deconstruction of the building, which was damaged in the terrorist attacks of September 11.