"I live across the street from this project and have had the misfortune of watching them in real time as they do a disservice to this beautiful old building and the neighborhood in generalCase in point…each one of those units will be getting its own street facing window unit air conditioner. Who does that? Any idea if that was in the renderings?Same question for the Juliet balconies?"
Hi Katia,Your story of the Lantz family, and your personal reference to Huntington High School, reminded me of the truth of "Six Degrees of Separation". I live on First Street. In 2011 my youngest daughter bought her home on First Street, consequently, two of my grandchildren are the sixth generation of my family living on First Street. During the 1950's and 60's my family had a second home in Northport. I became very familiar with and fond of the north shore of Long Island, including Huntington, which was a great town. My wife Joan and I bought our home on First Street in 1970 and our three daughters grew up here.
In the late 1970's Joan and I were looking for a summer rental in Northport and I believe we met the Lantzs, who were renting their home in Fort Salonga. They were charming and delightful, and their home was beautiful. We eventually rented a home in Eatons Neck from Mike and Corinne McGrady. Mike was a writer and the creator of the best selling novel, "Naked Came the Stranger". I have probably passed the Lantz home hundreds of times, never aware they were the fine people we met more than thirty years ago.
Great series. Great story. Great neighbors.
"I hate this behemoth. Thankfully the Sackett street side isn't hideous. At first I thought I was looking at the corner of La Brea and Melrose. It has always looked like an overturned tanker ship, belly up, no matter what skin it's in. Fake brownstone or cement. But, thankfully it won't block the view of the Brooklyn Bridge. DUMBO, people. Thankfully we are not in DUMBO. And a bank is a sorely needed addition to the area. It's been hard to throw a rock and hit one, these days. Usually lands on a nail salon."
"This is a very bad situation. This developer is clearly incompetent, and I can't imagine that this will be the only problem, and I doubt that the quality of this place will be very good in the end. I had always hoped that the old Sokol Brothers building would be put to better use, but now I miss it!Something has to go up there eventually, we cannot just have a hole in the ground, but it may not be with these people."
"I just looked at Lightstone Groups's new drawing for this project and they show a Gownaus Canal that even the US EPA had not envisioned, with nice blue waters and what seems like a wider waterway.It's so nice to see what the developers think the future will look like. However, their future seem to leave out raising sea levels, more storms and wadding through flooded streets along the beautiful Gowanus Canal. The next chapter in this story will be written in ten years when the water of the Gowanus take over the front yards of these new buildings."
"Unfortunately, with the rapid rise of rents on Smith Street, I say there is at least a 50% chance we are going to see another nail salon in the near future, as they seem to be one of the few businesses with adequate revenues to afford Smith Street.
For some reason (which I do not fully understand) there seems to be an insatiable demand for manicures.
I fear Smith Street is going to become 7th Avenue in Park Slope. There used be interesting restaurants and shops on 7th Avenue, and now it seems there are nail salons, real estate agents and cell phone stores...and a few chain stores. All the interesting businesses migrated to 5th Avenue in search of more affordable rent."
"Yes sad! And we have Landmarks and CB6 to hold accountable.CB6 and the Landmarks commissions, who spend endless hours fussing over drawings of barely viable rear-yard constructions by private homeowners, allow this. They didn't even ask Whole Foods for one single drawing of what the big-box store would look like engulfing this Landmarked building. They made their landmark decision with blinders on and and it certainly says a lot about what their decisions are worth."
"The station originally closed late-May of 2011 and was supposed to open again in May of 2012. That date has come and gone along with a few other adjusted opening dates. The latest estimate is early April, I believe. I would bet a paycheck that the station isn't open to the public for one single day in April. I have my doubt about May too.
It's good to know the details look nice, but I'm simple. I just need an open station with escalators that don't break down every 3 days, platform roofs that aren't so full of holes that an umbrella is required on rainy days and a station entrance that doesn't have drug transactions taking place all day long. I'm only confident that #2 will happen."
The Smith St. storefronts being used as storage between Sackett and Union are a HUGE problem. While they may be a short term win for individual landlords, they are terrible for other landlords and business owners on the street. If I owned property or an operational storefront near that stretch, I'd grab a pitchfork and try to run those bum landlords out of town. These empty storefronts are crushing the ability of local business owners to be their most successful.
It's simple: retail works best when it's around other retail. To the extent the retail fabric is torn -- either through vacant lots or empty storefronts -- than retail will be less successful. That's what's happening here. (There's a clear counterfactual: three blocks north on Smith St., retail is thriving.)
As long as demand for retail is depressed (and as long as depressed rents fail to attract developers) than the empty lots will remain, the crappy tents on Union and Smith won't go anywhere, and storeowners and landlords on this stretch of Smith will suffer.
So, again, get to it CB6.
Nectar may use actual organic products. And yes the sign is awful but it's not as huge as 16 handles was. Look, let them be. Nectar is far better and homey. Nice workers and cute little place. I'll never go to this Tropic Place. considering rents it must have taken a bundle to open. So let the Bay Ridge-ing of the neighborhood begin.
"Maybe the MTA can put a toll gate there to the entrance to Whole Foods. They'll make a killing with all the thousands of cars coming to the new store."
"I look forward to the time that these wonderful creatures can visit us and survive. Let's make sure that NYC cooperates with the EPA cleanup so that the canal is no longer a "dead" end."
I know Cecilia since I could walk and talk. She is very good friends with my Mom. I remember her picking up her boys from PS58's and when we all came out of school she would hug me and cover me with her poncho when it was cold out. She is a warm and caring woman! She loves all of us from the nabe! She will be GREATLY missed!! Love ya Cecilia xo
Gina Sellitto
I live just up Huntington St from where this happened. I ran out when I heard the noise and the fire engines and so forth. I was astonished he'd managed to overturn the car in such a narrow street.It underlines the point, however, that people drive far, far too fast in the area, especially on Court St. Court Street is currently terrifying for cyclists as cars go way in excess of the speed limit and are not inclined to pass bikes with the required space. Last night's crash underlines how something needs to be done to reduce speeds - for everyone's safety.
"I think you all miss the point. The city essentially "bailed out" Whole Foods after they picked a bad spot to build. They wanted to build a huge store but didn't think to check the zoning laws on the property BEFORE they purchased it? They're already getting tax incentives to build and yet they still went and whined to the city that it wasn't going to make them enough money to scale the sq. footage down and they want the city to change the zoning laws when they're the ones who screwed up. When they got called on it too at one of those open meetings the rep for Whole Foods blamed it on his predecessor with no real explanation on how they could have overlooked something as big as that.
The real kicker is it's not like there wasn't retail space to set up somewhere else in the general area. That wasn't the last parcel of land in all of South Brooklyn. City Point has got over 500,000 sq. feet of retail space coming soon that they could have set up at."
I love pizza as much as the next guy but Smith needs another pizza place like it needs another nail salon. Where did all the good restaurants go?????
Lander's "new" position proves that the position taken by the CB's Land Use Committee WAS correct and that the Board at it's regular monthly meeting should have supported its own committee. why they didn't and who was pulling the Board member's strings is something that this community should know.
