Brooklyn Heights Public Library Slated for Redevelopment/Partial Sale

Architect's rendering of the proposed new library with residential rental units above.

I just noticed the news that the Brooklyn Public Library is selling the land of it's current Brooklyn Heights branch for $52 Million to developer Hudson Companies who will build a new library and market rate apartments on that space.

The new library will be physically smaller than the current but the press release says there will be more "usable" space in the new than currently available. Market rate for the area which is across from Cadman Plaza will make the apartments among the most expensive in the borough.

Personally I have no qualm with any of this. I don't know the exact number of people who make use of the library but I worked on a BPL project a few years back and the purpose of that project was their constant need to raise funds. Budgets have been tight at the libraries for decades. If the BPL can raise some much needed funds, without entirely closing a branch, in a neighborhood where I'm guess you'll find on average more private libraries in homes than most neighborhoods have books in their own public library, I don't see a major loss.

The libraries do need to continue finding ways to expand the vital services they provide like internet access and skills training so that they can stay viable and fund their branches in less well off neighborhoods. Selling the branch for apartments isn't going to be a revenue stream going forward.

I could be wrong. Do you have any thoughts to share?

News reports from NY1 http://www.ny1.com/content/news/215639/brooklyn-public-library-votes-to-sell-brooklyn-heights-branch-to-private-developer/

Brooklyn Eagle: http://www.brooklyneagle.com/articles/2014/9/16/breaking-brooklyn-public-library-approves-52-million-sale-brooklyn-heights-branch

And the most comprehensive coverage I found was on the Brooklyn Heights Blog:
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/70276

Photo Wednesday 020514 : Bridge to SnowWhere Edition

And the snow goes on...

This Photo for Wednesday obviously comes from this week's snow storms. Love this pic, I was on my way to an errand when I decided to hop off the subway and take the bridge. Stinging snow, obscured city, frames hands, icy camera. Good times! It got so dark the lights came on, it's actually about 12:35pm in this pic.

Click through and you'll see the other one I like of the mail-carrier living up to that mythic poem.

In addition to the new snow falling today, supposedly more snow's on the way this weekend. I blame the groundhog for being mad that the Mayor dropped him. Stay safe.

Photo Wednesday 05/22/13 : Belove! Beware! CitiBike Share Edition!

By now if you live in Manhattan or northern Brooklyn (that's Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Brooklyn Heights, D.U.M.B.O., Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant, for the noobs : ) ...you've probably heard or seen the Bike Share docks provided by Citibank.

The Bike Share program starts next week for those members who've signed up for the annual program.



The program in short allows a user to take one of the hundreds of bikes available at sites the aforementioned areas and ride as result of a pre-paid membership or one the spot payment. The idea is to share, not hang on to, so the bikes have no lock, you're expected park the bike the bike share dock closest to your destination. Members can hop on a bike an bring it back as many times as like during the span of their rental, be it a week or a year.

I caught the Bike Share-Elves in action last month as they were installing the docks and I'm blown away with how many docks there are and how much coverage there is in the initial neighborhoods.

Of course this being New York, and the subject being related to Bikes people wouldn't feel complete without complaints. Mostly from people who see the program as being a clear sign that the Four Horsemen will be wearing helmets and navigating Bike Lanes.

Fueling some complaints I've heard and read is the fact that no one loves Citibank. Let's face it, they're fairly unlovable. But in this case I don't see any effective other way than for a corporation in need of loving to fund the startup costs. So far to my eyes, it's working, I've counted six bike rental stations, with at least 20 docks within one mile in Fort Greene & Clinton Hill. I've seen more over in midtown and financial district, so if you just consider commuting there's seems to be a potential for a lot of usage.

The other big complaint is that the bike docks are taking away from the city, in terms of culture and (heaven-forbid) parking spaces. People said the same thing about cars taking spaces from horses. I've witnessed a few places where I wish the bike docs weren't on the sidewalk (Lafayette Av between Hanson and Fort Greene Pl) but overall we're in a transforming city and world. Parking spaces are not a right, (which we all know living in New York) and I'd pick a bunch of bikes over a bunch of cars in most cases.

Regarding the parking spaces, I can't understand when people who don't even have a license to drive complain about parking, but hey we're New Yorkers. When I asked those complaining they said it's the cost of revenue from those parking spaces that they were upset about. So even though that only makes sense for spaces with parking meters,  I checked with some people in the bike-share know, and they informed me that Citibank is paying the city for the use of the parking spaces. There, happy? 

Besides the number of bike docks that have gone up in less than a month's time, I'm impressed by the bike itself (above), which looks just all purpose enough to be a good ride for most, and sturdy on the streets. citibike's site has details on the bikes the docks and all the membership options.

The rental bikes come with a bell and front and rear lights that work without batteries (the motion of the wheels power them) so you'll be street legal. In case you didn't know an under reported law was passed a few years back making it illegal for an adult to ride a bike in NYC without a bell and lights. Here's a link to additional rules for bike riding in NYC.

At first I found it surprising that there are no bikes in the massive bike parking lot behind the Barclays Center, then it hit me, Barclays is a bank too. Funny I thought they all colluded.

So I can't wait for the Bike Share to kick-off next week. I'll be rocking my t-shirt (special for early joiners) and ready to roll. I'm sure there will be hiccups, shortages of bikes in some areas, just like when all the cabs are in one section of the city, and yes, someone will steal a bike, probably several. All that aside the gains for the city (and the Citi) far out weight the negatives, at least until a bike dock threatens the life of your loved one, but no matter what The NYPost says, that didn't happen.

So NYC you got a ticket to ride?

Photo Wedns: 6/3/09 Holes in the wall, Sing-alongs & more

Holy Jeebus! It seems I had what the internet (or those who surf it) wanted to see and the result was a flex of spontaneous and awesome page viewing attention. How? Last week's photo wednesday was this image (gratuitously reposted to the left)

Of course I think it's a cool photo, I took it. It's also great street art with a sense of humor and all that, which is why I posted it. But I think everything I post is great, give or take a few exclamation points. So imagine my shock when I saw that this one photo, in one day accumulated more views than almost everything I've ever posted and every photo I've ever shot. Over 9,000 views on Sunday May 31st alone. In the grand scheme of internet views, not a lot I know, but I'm still working from the theory that there's only five of you who actually read this, and two of you have the same last name as me.

Interestingly none of that resulted in increased views of this blog... I tracked the source of the eyeball explosion, reddit.com So thanks reddit users.

This Wednesday's main photo comes with a news story:


The photo above is taken from Jay Street (in Downtown B'klyn), looking at the wall of the Northbound F Train track.

See those four jagged but rectangular shapes? They're holes in the wall. And behind a pot of gold? A window to throw it out of? Meh. The construction behind that wall of the Jay Station, to which the A,C & J (usually) run, is to build a tunnel connecting to the R & M lines at Lawrence Street. It's an old news story I somehow missed and here's the old link provide by the Brooklyn Eagle
For those willing to add another transfer at DeKalb Av or Atlantic Av, will provide an extension cord like connection between the A, Q, & D trains. Which in theory is somewhat awesome, but you know how theories go.

Construction is ongoing so by now those holes are probably closed up. But it's a reminder of how much more there is to the subway system infrastructure than we see. For example up to the 90's Jay Street was were all the money in the system was brought and counted as the MTA's headquarters used to exist in the building above Jay Street. Described by Hollywood in the film "Money Train":

...which I will probably still prefer over the remake of "The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3"

MTA headquarters has since been moved over to a new building at Livingston, which as I recall has the old G line tracks under it.

Since I'm behind in my writing I'm gonna drop some photos that have been waiting for me:

This photo is from Fort Greene (of course) during a sunday movie night when "Coming to America" was shown at Habana Outpost. (And not a Gitmo joke in the house!)

For those who don't know, "Coming to America" is a significant piece of American pop cultural in general and especially if you are of brown color or culture and you were young in the 80's. It's ridiculous which is the point. The amount of movie lines that are quoted by random assemblages of people is impressive by itself (and you probably know more than you realize).

The screening at Habana was packed with folks who seemed to have permanent tans and used to dance the "Wop", so it makes sense that the crowd began singing the song from the scene above.


But how could you not want to sing abut a Queen who's "free from infection"?

And Finally Here's a photo that I didn't write, it's about Willowtown:

In short. It's a residential development in Brooklyn Heights that makes the folks there all excited. Here's the details as wiki puts it. I was shocked to find yet another neighborhood sub-section, this time in Bklyn Heights, and I intend to rant about (unlike this example) how neighborhood sub-sections become separate neighborhoods in the minds of real estate folks and new comers. Soon come.