When Bushwick community groups announced in January 2014 that Read Properties, owners of the long-derelict Rheingold Brewery site along Flushing Avenue, had agreed to build as many as 200 units of affordable housing as part of the city’s rezoning of … Continue reading
Bushwick has been in the national spotlight of late, the most recent neighborhood to be emblematic of the New Brooklyn of hipster beards and trendy clubs. There’s now an artisanal Bushwick-scented candle you can buy for $81 “scent highlights include … Continue reading
When the subject of Brooklyn’s hottest neighborhoods comes up, Broadway Junction seldom enters the conversation. Named for the tangle of J and L train tracks that pass overhead, Broadway Junction is less a neighborhood than the absence of one: a … Continue reading
When crowds throng Coney Island for the annual Nathan’s hot dog eating contest on July 4th, they’ll find a boardwalk amusement strip that is, for the umpteenth year in a row, undergoing a summer of change and transition. There is … Continue reading
City Limits launches its new affiliate site The Brooklyn Bureau today, featuring two articles by yours truly at the top. The main feature is a look at downtown Brooklyn redevelopment seven years after a controversial rezoning, which can charitably be … Continue reading
A quick fact-check of yesterday’s much-hyped state comptroller’s report declaring Coney Island to be booming: Yesterday state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli issued a report on economic development in Coney Island and Brighton Beach, and declared the two Brooklyn communities to be … Continue reading
If you’ve been wondering where my non-baseball writing has gone to recently, I have a bunch of stuff in the pipeline that’s going to start showing up in print (and in pixels) in coming weeks. And the first of these … Continue reading
If you can’t be bothered to read Atlantic Yards Report’s crazy-long FAQ on its even crazier-long series on Bruce Ratner’s still crazier green-cards-for-financing schemes, you can now read my Cliff Notes version instead. (Not nearly so crazy, but with more … Continue reading
Earlier this month, the owners of Coney Island’s Luna Park announced they’d be booting out eight boardwalk businesses because they didn’t fit their image of a “year-round” Coney. That’s been the stated dream of city planners for years now — … Continue reading
Looking back at the legacy of New York Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff’s development projects, with three years of hindsight: Two seemingly unrelated news items from the last month: The tunnel boring machine digging the extension of the number 7 subway … Continue reading