Council Speaker Corey Johnson speaking at Center for CityLaw Breakfast at New York Law School. Image Credit: CityLaw.

The renovated community centers will provide after-school activities, arts programming, and job skills training. On July 11, 2019, Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Committee on General Welfare Chair Stephen Levin, Committee on Public Housing Chair Alicka Ampry-Samuel, and Council Member Brad Lander announced that the City’s Fiscal Year 2020 budget includes funding to reopen the Gowanus Houses Community Center. Speaker Johnson and Council Member Levin also unveiled capital funding in Fiscal Year 2020 budget for the expansion and renovation of the NYCHA Wyckoff Gardens Community Center. (more…)

Council approves waterfront project despite community’s concerns about affordable housing component. On March 11, 2009, the City Council approved Toll Brothers’ proposed development at 363-365 Bond Street in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. The 525,309-sq.ft. development will provide 447 residential units, including 130 affordable units. The project, located on two blocks along the Gowanus Canal, bounded by Carroll, Second, and Bond Streets, includes two five-story buildings, a series of four-story townhouses, and two 12- story buildings fronting the canal. 6 CityLand 4 (Feb. 15, 2009).

At Council’s March 4th Zoning & Franchises Subcommittee hearing, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz called on Toll Brothers to reduce the 12-story buildings to eight stories, so that views from the Carroll Gardens Historic District would remain unobstructed. Markowitz also requested that Toll enter into a legally enforceable commitment to provide the project’s affordable housing component. A representative from Brooklyn Community Board 6 testified that although CB6 conditionally voted to approve the project, it was concerned that the developer had not guaranteed that affordable housing would be built. If the developer could not guarantee affordable housing, CB6 believed the project should be denied. (more…)

Use of marine terminal as auto cargo processing facility approved after lease term reduced. On June 29, 2006, the City Council approved a lease submitted by the Economic Development Corporation and the Department of Small Business Services for 74 acres of the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, an 88-acre Brooklyn waterfront parcel spanning from 29th to 39th Streets and 2nd Avenue to the Gowanus Bay.

Currently used for parking and storage, Axis Group, Inc. would develop and operate, within the first five years of the lease, a vehicle processing facility responsible for 95,000 vehicles per year. The EDC originally proposed a 20-year lease term with two five-year options and required conversion of the property to a container port facility by the end of the lease term. The EDC planned to invest $24 million to add to Axis’ $12 million investment to improve and maintain the site. (more…)

1872 Brooklyn building designated unanimously. Landmarks designated the New York and Long Island Coignet Stone Company Building at 360 Third Avenue in Brooklyn, the city’s earliest known concrete structure. Designed by William Field and Son, the 1872 building was meant to showcase the possibilities of concrete. Francois Coignet, the company’s founder, was an early proponent of concrete as an alternative to stone, and pioneered ways of producing large masses and blocks using molds, as well as a type of reinforced concrete. Coignet’s important commissions included parts of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral and the Western Union Telegraph Building. The quasi-Italianate building features ionic columns, a faux brick facade, a decorative parapet, and arched window openings. Preservationist groups that supported designation included the Historic Districts Council, the Municipal Art Society and the Society for the Architecture of the City.

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The series of events encourages New Yorkers to learn more about the City’s waterfronts. Image Credit: NYC DCP.

On May 17, 2022, the Department of City Planning announced a new series of free events in May to celebrate the City’s waterfront. The celebration will culminate on Friday, May 20th (5/20) in honor of the 520 miles of waterfront across New York City. The celebration of the waterfront has run since 2017. In 2020 and 2021, events were virtual due to the safety concerns from the pandemic. This year, in-person events return to encourage New Yorkers to personally explore what the City’s waterfront has to offer. (more…)