Bank Robbery @ Myrtle & Clinton

Gothamist & ClintonHillBlog are reporting a bank robbery yesterday afternoon at Citibank… Will post more details as they come in.

Martyr monument electrician indicted

The electrician hired to work on the restoration of the historic monument in Fort Greene Park has been indicted by Queens DA Richard Brown for defrauding his workers out of $650K in wages. The city removed Aarie Barr and his company AARCo from the job and now the city is scrambling to find a replacement in time for the November 100th anniversary of the monument…. See article here.

June’s Replacement… The General Greene

After several years of bad management, hopefully this stellar location will be put to good use. The building’s owner has finally given up on running the restaurant himself. Looks like he’s leased the space to real restaurant professionals. We’ll see what happens…

From the ClintonHill Blog…

The space will be open tomorrow night after 9pm, as well as over the weekend, for drinks and bar snacks. The official opening will be TUESDAY, JULY 1.

A reader who checked it out last weekend described the beer selection as being “great (small but delicious),” and said the eggplant spread was “pretty tasty.”

The General Greene
229 DeKalb Ave.

Toren=High Cost Condos w/ Low Wage Workers

Now I’m not necessarily a fan of all labor unions but they do play an important role in maintaining a safe workplace in dangerous industries as well as respectable wages and respect for those who may not have access to the corridors of power. I think unions are especially important for non-skilled laborers. There has to be some kind of balance of power between labor and management. Unions help to maintain that balance.

That being said, it looks like th eco-branding that’s been so successful for The Toren condo project may take a hit with this article from the Village Voice… Several unions are claiming the developer, Donald Capoccia, is taking advantage of immigrant workers and threatening union organizers.

An excerpt…

To construct his tower and its 240 condos—prices: $300,000 to $1 million–plus—Capoccia has opted to use nonunion labor. This alone would be understandable if wages were close to par. But according to Omar Lopez, an organizer for Ironworkers Local 361, where members make $38 an hour plus benefits and pension, workers at the site report that they are receiving from $12 to $25 an hour—with zero benefits. “He’s got them working 12-hour days, six days a week,” said Lopez. “Then, when they look in their pay envelopes, they’re short a lot of hours. When they ask what happened, they’re told: ‘You’ll get it next time.’ “

Lopez, the ironworkers-union organizer, knew all this when he took on the task of trying to organize the Toren site. A native of El Salvador who witnessed the murder of an uncle who was also an organizer, Lopez, 43, started as a laborer on Long Island. He said he tried to talk to Capoccia, but the developer refused his business card. “He told me, ‘I don’t need your card.’”

Gunslinger falls in love with NYC via Fort Greene

Mayor Bloomberg’s fight against out of state gun dealers may have at least one unforeseen outcome…  The owner of Adventure Outdoors, a 12,000 square foot gun “superstore” in Georgia, has fallen in love with NYC.  Jay Wallace and his family are considering staying here after settling their case with Mayor Mike.

And guess what neighborhood has created all this love for city life?  Of course Fort Greene.  Here’s a couple quotes from the Village Voice article…

“…even more surprisingly, by the time he decided not to show up in court, Wallace—a gun-loving, rock-ribbed, Second Amendment–quoting Georgian—had fallen in love with the city he’d vowed to fight to his “last breath.”"

“On a blazing Sunday afternoon, he’s distractedly picking at a chicken sandwich at the Smoke Joint, a Southern-style barbecue place in trendy Fort Greene….As the afternoon wears on, the restaurant owner comes over to the table with a basket of locally grown organic strawberries to pass around. Taking one, Cecilia—Wallace’s high-school sweetheart, and the daughter of a Birmingham grocer— remarks that the local businesses in Fort Greene remind her of the South before it came to be dominated by chain stores.”

Afro Punk Festival @ BAM

I always thought the words punk and festival were an oxymoron but times are a changing… Even the cool kids are taking corporate dough… Sponsored by Toyota and BAMCinematek, Afro Punk, the Movement, the Movie, the Festival is coming to BAM from July 5th -13th. There will be a skate park where I’ll be reliving my days of ollies and front side smith grinds.

40 Bands, 15 Films, an art exhibit and the previously mentioned skate park. Sounds like fun…

No Service Upgrades on the G…

The MTA’s “burgeoning financial crisis” has resulted in fewer G train improvements than promised…

“One line that had been scheduled for more service in the original proposal last December but was not included in this round of improvements was the G. Riders on the G often complain of long waits between trains. Officials said the G did not exceed the loading guidelines.”

See this NYT article for more information…

The Anarchy of Glass Breaking

Will somebody call Leon Wynter and tell him it’s all good now?  The context is still relevant, but there’s no glass breaking in the park…

Here’s an interesting NYT op/ed from 1979 discussing Fort Greene and its problems.  While the neighborhood has definitely changed since this was written, the underlying premise is still true.  This was written during the troubled Carter years, the author’s tone is almost desperate.  Resigned to”The Anarchy of Glass Breaking”…

My favorite line…  “That there may be an entirely separate reality for a man who passed imperviously through every major socializing convention so necessary for the rudiments of the presumed norms is ignored outside.”  Basically some members of the community are living in a totally different reality than others.  As the socioeconomic disparity accelerates it will be interesting to see the highly contrasting perspectives represented in the neighborhood.

The Anarchy of Glass Breaking

No Dog Run for Fort Greene Park

The plan for a dedicated dog run in Fort Greene Park have failed.  Idon’t own one but I do love dogs…  That being said I agree with this decision.  Fort Greene Park is a historic landmark and a dog run would change it’s character in a material way.  Off leash hours (9pm – 9am) already give dog owners some freedom.  Cuyler Gore Park between Fulton, Greene & Cumberland would be a better choice.

See this article from The Brooklyn Paper for more details…

Torrid sales at Toren

Due to some aggressive marketing and eco-positioning, at least one of the condo towers recently built will not be going rental… Toren, the Gold LEED certified tower (Toren is dutch for tower) has signed 50 contracts in 40 days. In addition to the 42 affordable units the total number in contract is 99.

Who are these people? I’m just not attracted to any of the condo towers (with the exception of 1 Hanson) in the area but I’d like to hear from some of you who are interested in moving into these condos. What draws you to them? Nice appliances? Amenities such as a doorman or a pool? I just love old buildings but that’s me.

Hopefully they will start building some retail/commercial space to service all these new condo owners so they won’t have to walk up Myrtle or Dekalb to Ft. Greene proper.  There’s still a lot of NYCHA housing between these buildings and the park.   As the socioeconomic stratification of the neighborhood increases it will be interesting to see how things go…  Maybe they can actually do something useful (meaningful retail, grocery, etc.) with Metrotech and build a footbridge across Flatbush so the new condo population can have access to stores without flooding the bordering neighborhoods.

Here’s the article from the Brooklyn Eagle.