Noted for sometime, but now out with their first episode is a short show by Robin Reed called "Carroll Gardens". Here's how it is described on it's landing page:
"Within this little suburbanesque community politely at odds with itself exists a group of 30 somethings politely at odds with the fact that everyone is running away from one thing....becoming their parents!"
Although I take bitter offense to the characterization of this area as "suburban" (I guess that dense, walkable areas with great access to public transit and few mega-chains equals suburban to Ms. Reed), the short is cute, well done, and has many local places and characters (mostly in the opening segment). Check it out.
"Sure, Baroque dance hasn't been popular since...oh, the reign of Louis XIV, but the performance troupe Company XIV is bringing this predecessor of classical ballet from the court of Versailles to Carroll Gardens. Only this time around the dance floor choreographer Austin McCormick is throwing in a few other things from the last four centuries of dance, theater and storytelling.
With music ranging from Vivaldi to Lady Gaga, McCormick's newest performance, Le Cirque Feerique, or the Fairy Circus, if you will, re-imagines classic fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen and The Brothers Grimm using a combination of flamenco, ballet, cabaret, and yes, baroque. The colorful costumery is elaborate enough for any of Louis' formal balls but also playful enough for, well, the circus."
I guess if it's your thing, go for it.
Company XIV is the resident company of 303 Bond St. a 3,800 square foot rehearsal/performance venue located in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. The space was converted from a tow truck warehouse with the addition of a state of the art dance floor, glass facade, and theatrical lighting.
"The Gowanus Canal Sponge Park™ is a multifunctional public open space system that slows, absorbs and filters surface water runoff to remediate contaminated water, activate the private canal waterfront, and revitalize the neighborhood. The proposal communicates a larger vision for environmental stewardship to a broad community through productive landscape strategies, collaboration among public and private constituencies, and an interactive design process that incorporates the input of residents, community groups, and city, state, and federal agencies."
The park itself is a great idea. The housing that is going to go along with it...eh. Not so much.
"Defonis caught one monstrous beast on tape, capturing it as it blithely sauntered through her backyard in broad daylight. She said that she’s also seen two or more of the creatures engaged in what scientists call social play behavior.
“They were playing like cats,” she recalled, adding that they show no fear of humans during their rambunctious rodent hijinks — or any other time.
Parking lot manager Mohamed Gamil said the problem has nothing to do with maintenance at the lot. “It’s not us — the canal is right there,” he said, stretching an arm towards the fetid Gowanus. “It’s the whole neighborhood. They come from everywhere.”"
Ehh. I've been watching that lot since they started parking carts there, and it's not exactly the bastion of health and cleanliness (also, plenty of street corner carts are there, it's not just the Red Hook Vendors). But Mr. Gamil has the better point: it's the canal!!! There are rats everywhere!
"A gun-wielding perp mugged two F-train commuters in separate brutal incidents on May 7 at the Carroll Street station.
The first victim, 56, told cops that she had just gotten off the Coney Island-bound train at around 8:45 am at the President Street end of the station when a man grabbed her purse, pulled a gun on her and said, “Shut up or I’ll kill you.”"
The recent wacky ideas for New York Harbor proposed by architects included Oysters in and around the Gowanus (and off of the Bay Ridge Flats). Oysters are like little livers, all around the world's near-shore waters. They clean, they scrub, no wonder they aren't kosher! Oysters do have a long history in Hew York Harbor, but recent results of efforts to reintroduce them have been mixed.
Still, the idea of oysters in the canal (once other cleanup efforts have commenced) has always been an interesting idea for me. That is, until I read John Waldman's Heartbeats in the Muck, page 155, where he relays his experience with oysters in the canal:
"Our expectations that young oysters would be seen are tempered by the generally poor results Longstretch has recorded elsewhere around the harbor with his project - none worse than in the Gowanus Canal. When he hung a sack of live oysters off a bulkhead there, not only were they dead upon his return two weeks later, by the shells had shrunk as well, perhaps because of acidity in the contaminated canal. Careful inspections of the large dead oyster shells now reveals many embryonic forms-apparent oyster spat-and we are excited until on closer examination all turn out to be slipper limpets. Oyster spat, once in place, are attached for life. But the shell of the limpet, a snail-like but highly flattened creature, slips sideways when pushed."
A recent article in the Metro contained a little quote that shocked me a little. Seems like I would have heard about this. "...the city is more attuned to nature than it was in the 1950s when a shark swam into Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal. Startled by the sudden appearance of the large fish, cops shot it."
In my time we've seen seals and Sludgy the whale in the canal, but no large sharks. Sure, a stray sand shark or two probably make their way in from time to time, but one large enough to be spotted and shot? Wow. This deserved a little more research. The New York Times also corroborates this assertion, stating:
"In 1952, a large shark was photographed swimming up the canal; the police shot it."
Well. Not much more information there than in the Metro article. In a variation on a theme, New York Magazine says that:
"In 1952, a shark made its way in. (The cops shot it.)"
Wow. Those par ens make all the difference. But where can we find more of an answer?
I turned to John Waldman's book "Heartbeats in the Muck", a book devoted to New York Harbor.
On page 50, he tells of the sharks that once abounded in New York Harbor: "...the regular presence until the middle of the ninteenth century of the sharks along Manhattan's commercial waterfront, particularly the East River. Not little sharks, but eight- and twelve-footers, drawn to the shallows by the raw refuse of the markets and common enough that one market worker, well known for overpowering sharks witht he customary tug-of-war gear of handheld rope tied to a chain, landed seven in one day."
Cool. So sharks were all over the harbor. But what about the Gowanus Canal? From Page 111:
"Without doubt the most noteworthy biological event within the canal's industrial history was the appearance of a large shark in 1950. Ali showed me a scrapbook about the canal that included a photograph of the shark from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Fittingly, it is a dismal scene - policemens bullets spray the water near the creature as hundreds of people watch along the bulkheads."
This is great for so many reasons. Could you imagine the hysteria that abounded in the 1950s at sharks? So misunderstood, as they continue to be to this day, that the police thought it would be a public hazard to keep the fish alive?
Just another piece of the Gowanus Canal's long and storied history!
Images from the South Street Seaport Museum, Seaport magazine, Brooklyn Daily Eagle and Heartbeats in the Muck
In a recent article reporting on the impending condo conversion of the Cobble Hill Towers, they really pandered to the lowest common denominator.
"Tenants in the landmark building will be offered the chance to buy their apartments at insiders price such as $230,000 for a studio and $595,000 for a three-bedroom apartment. Owners would then be free to set their own re-sale prices, though residents in the rent-stabilized apartments will not see any changes if they want to go on renting.
Still, the plan will result in the building’s transformation from moderate-income rentals to luxury (ed - emphasis added) condos. As a result, it has frightened residents, who are unsure whether they’ll be able to buy, even at the insider prices."
Why does the conversion to condos automatically make the units luxury? A condominium is simply another form of ownership. By using this adjective, the Brooklyn Paper is seeking in incite fears of "them" moving in. Used to be that "them" meant Puerto Ricans. The Brooklyn Paper is simply trying to stoke fears of long-time residents regarding condo conversions and their perceived impact on affordability, but the fact remains that the average condo price is cheaper than the average single-family home, significantly increasing affordability for most who would otherwise be renting.
The fact remains that if a renter becomes an owner (at below market prices, I might add), not only may they benefit in the long run, but the unit will most likely stay identical whether they buy or not. The only change would be the form of ownership!
Although the fight against the proposed expansion of the Hannah Senesh school into their Carroll Gardens Courtyard is seemingly over, there remains a hanging chad in the room. Back in January, the Brooklyn Paper reported that the Department of Buildings had in fact, attempted to inspect the Hannah Senesh courtyard for violating New York City Administrative Code Section 19-132 which states that "It shall be unlawful for any person, directly or indirectly, to use any portion of a sidewalk or courtyard, established by law, between the building line and the curb line for the parking, storage, display or sale of motor vehicles."
An argument can certainly be made that the school is simply perpetuating a non-conforming situation which was inherited from the District Office before it. The only fallacy in that logic is that in order for a non-conformity to be legally protected, it needed to be legal at the time it began. The relevant NYC Administrative Code section predates the use of the Courtyard by roughly a century.
Unfortunately for those in Carroll Gardens, and for lovers of logic everywhere, the DOB sent inspectors out to look for a violation...on December 30th, 2009; a date when all schools, public and private, were closed. Shockingly, no violation was found on that date. Unfortunately for us, the DOB and Hannah Senesh, everysingleday that school has been in session SINCE that date, vehicles have been parked in the Courtyard. Ifonlythereweresomeproof, intheformofan animated gif, or perhaps a video compilation set to some funky, smooth sounds, maybe the DOB would be able to find them in violation...
When last we heard from John Quadrozzi, he was complaining about how Superfund designation of the Gowanus Canal had forced him to move his company to another spot (along the canal's plume) which is better suited for his business. Now it seems that the Landmarks Preservation Commission is calling him out on not maintaining some townhouses he owns on Degraw and Clinton.
""It took me over a year and buckets of money to convince them [a wall] might collapse," said Quadrozzi, who bought the buildings in 2000.
The walls of the 1852 brownstone are badly cracked and there are holes in the adjacent stable's roof; city officials have warned Quadrozzi to quickly fix the hazards.
"There is an ongoing risk of progressive collapse that may endanger the public," a Buildings Department inspector wrote to Quadrozzi in January."
Just the other day I commented that the scaffolding had been there a LONG time, and someone in the know told me that ownership complications and multiple investors had stalled the restoration project. Let's see what happens.
This year's procession of Santa Maria Addolorata on Good Friday was a rousing success (as these things go). Below is a video I made with pictures and audio samples (turn your volume up!) of the procession, which was better attended than I could have ever imagined. Neighborhood old-timers and youngsters alike came out to march, to see and be seen and just to see what was going on.
Yesterday there was a Union rally on 2nd Place and Smith by the Carpenters' Union, whose members also drywall and sheetrock. At first, we thought it was regarding 360 Smith Street, but then received an e-mail from the 76th Precienct stating that the rally was unrelated to 360 Smith Street and was, in fact, against a brownstone on 2nd Place.
Well, yesterday Pardon Me for Asking (and, subsequently, the Brooklyn Paper), reported that in fact, it WAS against the labor practices at 360 Smith Street. I'm inclined to believe the police, but the rally was right in front of 360 Smith.
Also, as noted yesterday, although we are staunchly pro-union, the Union seems to have very weak grounds here. $42 an hour for sheetrocking? I might pay that if it included all materials! That price is outrageously high, for a job that does not require much skill or training. Maybe if it were making crown molding or hanging a curtain wall...
The Brooklyn Eagle has a little story about how a Carroll Gardens architect has found success as a developer. Although it's not uncommon for architectural firms to invest in their projects (see: SHoP), it isn't frequently seen in our neighborhood.
"“The demand is there for well-designed conversions, particularly, and they sell quite well,” he told the Eagle.
“And that fits with our philosophy. We care about the design and the neighborhood is one that appreciates that.” Noting that he looks for “underutilized” properties, he admits he finds them in “motley” ways.
“We looked where we live and at what we loved and by luck and good fortune we found projects we wanted to do,” he said."
It's a little ironic that the before photo included in the article iswas of one of the uglier buildings in the area (seriously, how small can you make the windows?), but developer is such an ugly word.
