From Bloomberg: Brooklyn Is Shifting NYC's Center of Gravity

Photo: MK Metz, McBrooklyn.com

 An article on Bloomberg.com -- "Brooklyn’s Hipster Economy Challenges Manhattan Supremacy" -- describes Brooklyn’s "cachet as a global brand and epitome of urban hipsterdom," which is "shifting New York City’s center of gravity, reducing the supremacy of Manhattan across the East River and exerting more influence on New York’s political, economic and cultural life."

From a booming population to growing political power, Brooklyn has become the borough of MORE:

- More people
- More restaurants
(- Less crime)
- More jobs
- More sports
- More expensive residences
- More arts
- More political power
- More soul
- More enterprise
- More media
- More gentrification

In related news, the Daily News reports that the median rent in Brooklyn is now $2,890 — up 11.6% in just a year.

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Massively Developing Northwestern Brooklyn Needs More Hospital Beds; Comptroller Warns Closing LICH Would Be Mistake Like St. Vincent's

Downtown Brooklyn. Photo: MK Metz

A staggering number of developments, both residential and commercial, are on the drawing board or in the beginning stages of construction  in Downtown Brooklyn, Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn Bridge Park, DUMBO, the waterfront, Gowanus and beyond.

But hospital access in these areas is already stretched to the breaking point, with Long Island College Hospital's (LICH) service levels reduced by SUNY, and the next closest hospital, Brooklyn Hospital Center already clocking two-hour average waits in its ER. Further away, at New York Methodist, patients are spending nights in the hallways of the ER.

More developments have just been announced that will bring thousands of workers to the area.  The new owners of five former Watchtower buildings in DUMBO are getting ready to convert the towering properties into offices for techies, the Brooklyn Eagle reports.

They will join employees at the new hotels and retail developments under construction in Brooklyn Bridge Park, the Brooklyn Tech Triangle, and Downtown, and the tens of thousands of new residents who will soon be moving into the towers springing up in Downtown Brooklyn (see this report by the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership), DUMBO, the waterfront and Brooklyn Heights.

More thousands are expected as NYU expands its footprint utilizing its air rights at Metrotech, and CUNY does the same at City Tech.

If LICH disappears, as developers are trying to make happen, those thousands will be forced to rely on Brooklyn Hospital Center, which cannot physically take care of them. Its location is also a problem. From DUMBO during rush hour it already takes more than a half hour to drive there.

If developers are successful, another thousand units of housing will be built where LICH now stands.
The thousand new units will have no hospital to serve them except, once again, Brooklyn Hospital.

NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer warned on Thursday:
 "Dismantling a hospital --- you can’t rebuild from scratch a hospital, you have a network and you have the brick and mortar of the hospital. You can’t bring that back.”

He told the Brooklyn Eagle, “When we realize that five or ten years from now, what do we do? It will cost us twelve times, twenty times more in terms of construction, so I think we’re at a health care crossroads, where creativity is needed and same old, same old isn’t going to cut it."

Based on the current census data, Brooklyn has just two certified hospital beds for every 1,000 residents. Manhattan, by comparison, has five hospital beds for every 1,000 residents. Those figures don't include the recent developments.

We need to be add more hospital capacity to northwestern Brooklyn right now, not subtract capacity. If we don't, the lack of critical health care infrastructure could cripple the economic boom that northwestern Brooklyn is experiencing, and leads to preventable tragedies.

This kind of planning is the job of government, not developers.

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Forest City Ratner and Makerbot: New Overlords of Downtown Brooklyn Partnership

The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership announced on Thursday that "one of the most prominent female real estate executives in America," MaryAnne Gilmartin, President and CEO of Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC), and MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis, will serve as the new co-chairs of the organization’s Board of Directors.

MaryAnne and Bre together replace Alan Fishman, the organization’s Board Chair since it was founded in 2006. Robert Catell, who also served as a co-chair of the organization, retired from the position in 2012.

Downtown Brooklyn Partnership President Tucker Reed said in the press release, “When the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership launched in 2006, Downtown Brooklyn looked, felt and served a very different role than today . . . Nothing reflects innovation more than Bre’s ingenious MakerBot 3D Printing Ecosystem and there’s no better example of a prominent CEO and company dedicated to innovation and to the continued success of the Downtown Brooklyn area than MaryAnne and Forest City Ratner Companies.”

MakerBot has offices in MetroTech, a development of FCRC. MetroTech is also home to the  Polytechnic School of Engineering, which celebrated its merger Thursday with NYU, and more than 40 companies employing more than 18,000 workers.

An area-wide rezoning has ushered in more than 8,200 residential units in some 60 residential towers in the past decade, with thousands more units coming online soon. The area is also home to nearly 50 cultural organizations and eleven universities and colleges attended by 60,000 students.

This growth will be stymied, however, if Downtown Brooklyn loses Long Island College Hospital (LICH), which SUNY Downstate is trying to close despite a terrific battle by local residents, businesses and officials.

“Downtown Brooklyn is the envy of downtowns across America and has helped put the borough on the map,” said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who has sponsored a bill seeking to shift money from the sale of LICH to areas he used to represent before he became BP of the entire borough.


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Red Hook Private School Voted Down; Common Core Flap; Twerking Burglar; and More Brooklyn Briefs

Tonight, Community Board 6 voted down zoning application (BSA) for proposed private school in Red Hook.
— Carlos Menchaca (@cmenchaca) December 12, 2013

More about that here.

- Many Brooklyn parents said they are in favor of the new Common Core standards for schools, even if NYC's execution of their roll-out sucks. [WNYC]

- Or was the above education forum all a set up!!??? [Diane Ravitch's blog]

- Video: Brooklyn burglar twerks for an hour outside apartment first. [NY Magazine]

- Grimm campaign denounces ‘planted’ Fossella comeback report. [Politicker]

- Bad Santa! 12 SantaCon horror stories. [Grub Street]

- NYC finishes in last place in Cuomo's economic development competition. [NY1]

- They still don't know who the totally bogus 'deaf interpreter' standing next to President Obama at Nelson Mandela's memorial was. Security, anyone? [NY Daily News]


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City Looking for Someone to Bring One-of-a-Kind Astroland Rocket Ship Ride Back to Coney Island

Photo: Allie Caulfield, Flickr

 The NYC Economic Development Corporation is looking for an organization to assume ownership of the world-famous, 71 foot-long, 14,000 pound Astroland Amusement Park Rocket Ship ride, fix it up, bring it back to Coney Island, and display it "at a site accessible to the public in a way that enhances the Coney Island visitor experience."

Hurry up: The deadline to submit a proposal is November 22.

In 2009, the city acquired the iconic ride, which was donated by Carol Hill Albert and Jerry Albert, whose family owned and operated the Astroland Amusement Park from 1962 until its closing in 2008. The Rocket was removed from its perch atop Gregory and Paul’s boardwalk stand and moved to Homeport in Staten Island, a city-owned facility.

“This one-of-a-kind Rocket simulator was the very first ride to arrive at Astroland Park when it was founded by my late father in-law Dewey Albert in 1962,” Carol Hill Albert told the EDC in 2009.

The Rocket was one of the first space voyage simulators created during the Space Race. Originally built built in 1959 by Todd Shipyards as the "Star Flyer,” it was renamed the Astroland Rocket in 1963 and continued to operate through the 1970’s. The ride had 26 seats and lifted on hydraulics to simulate launching into space.

The EDC promised that one day the Rocket would return -- and that day is coming soon.

In the stirring words of Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz: “When I look at this rocket, I recall JFK’s rallying cry that America would go to the moon before the 60’s was out — and I hereby cry out to all those who love Coney, that together we will revitalize “America’s Favorite Playground” by the end of this decade. Let’s give this rocket a dream destination—the Coney Island of the 21st Century, a modern mecca of freakishness, fun-loving spirit and Brooklyn charm.”

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A Third of Brooklyn Families Are on Food Stamps, and Their Benefits Are Being Cut Today

Photo: Pasa47, Flickr

Some discouraging news: A third of families with children in Brooklyn are receiving food stamps (now called SNAP).

As reported in the Brooklyn Eagle, 56 to 63 percent of families with children in Borough Park and East New York receive food stamps, while in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Flatlands and Sunset Park, 50 –56 percent receive the benefits.

These families are going to have less to eat starting todday, as nationwide food stamp cuts go into effect. Soup kitchens are calling for cash donations.

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Marty Markowitz Says He Is Disgusted By the Tea Party's Government Shutdown

At the stroke of midnight, as the U.S. government shut down, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz sent out a statement saying:

"I am disgusted and dismayed by the action - or rather, inaction - of a few, extremist Tea Party Republicans who have ground our nation to a standstill. The economic impact this will have on Brooklyn, from civil servants to small businesses to families in need, is sizable and frankly unnecessary.

"All of this commotion is due to the stubbornness of a factional wing of the GOP that hopes to achieve a pyrrhic victory by obstructing the Affordable Care Act, a law that represents bipartisan compromise and has been fully vetted legislatively and judicially.

"Americans expect and deserve a democracy that is of the people, by the people and for the people. The shutdown of the federal government is certainly not for the people; it is rather to satisfy a select number of radicals that would prefer chaos to common-sense."

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The Food of Spider-Man 2, Served Up in DUMBO

Part five of our series, "Why does the food on film sets look so darn good?"

This time we looked at the spread at The Amazing Spider-Man 2, filming in DUMBO on Monday (and hitting theaters 5/2/2014).

Caterers fed the cast and an unusually large number of extras heapin' plates of BBQ , chopped up by hand with cleavers the right way, with beans, vegetables, potatoes and more. Everyone seemed happy with the grub.

There was also a salad bar with all the fixings set up in the Pearl Street Triangle.



Folks sat in the sunny Triangle and ate lunch. What more could you want?

Spider-Man 2 stars Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker (Spidey), Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx and Sally Field.

According to Rochester Downtown, Columbia Pictures made a deal with New York to film all of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in the state, making it the largest movie production ever to be filmed here. In total, about 3,500 jobs will be created by the film, and 11,000 people will be chosen as extras.

Photos by MK Metz

Food served to other film crews here:

Gossip Girl
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
What Happens in Vegas
Georgetown



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Little Houses, Real Clowns and More Brooklyn Briefs

- This couple's shipping container house in Williamsburg is probably nicer than your apartment. DNAinfo

- An employment center completely destroyed by Hurricane Sandy was rebuilt by immigrants who congregate there to find day jobs. Brooklyn Eagle

- You can meet real clowns from the circus at Applebees tonight. Sheepshead Bites 

- Outed: A stretch of Crown Heights has been masquerading as Prospect Heights. DNAinfo 

- Sequester will slash $3 billion from Sandy aid package. Bensonhurst Bean

- Quite the to-do for Eric Adams on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall on Sunday. Brooklyn Eagle 

- New York homeless shelters had a banner winter. NY Magazine

- 13 adorably teeny tiny houses. Gizmodo 

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De Blasio: Bloomberg Screws Brooklyn Businesses through Fines

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio said on Thursday that New York City business inspections and fines disproportionately hit small businesses in the outer boroughs (and Manhattan above 96th Street to a lesser degree).

De Blasio's report, "Borough Bias: How the Bloomberg Administration Drains Outer Borough Businesses," takes a look at fine-related data de Blasio secured through a lawsuit against city agencies.

Compared to the citywide average, businesses in Brooklyn are inspected by Consumer Affairs four percent more frequently. Businesses in Manhattan receive 14 percent fewer inspections than the citywide average. Brooklyn businesses pay five percent more Consumer Affairs fines on average.

Of the 10 neighborhoods with the highest rate of health violations per restaurant, six were in Queens and four were in Brooklyn.

In a release de Blasio said, "This spike in inspections, fines and violations coincides with failing city revenues as a result of the Great Recession."

“The farther you get from City Hall, the more likely your business is to get inspected and fined. That’s no way to balance a budget and it’s no way to spur hiring in the boroughs that need it most,” he said. “These fines are a $50 million hidden tax that was levied on small businesses without warning or debate. The Mayor can’t keep burdening outer borough neighborhoods with frivolous fines to balance the City’s books.”

Read the full report: http://advocate.nyc.gov/borough-bias

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Weberman Sentence Reduced; Catching Gangstas with Facebook; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Rabbi Nechemya Weberman's 103-year sentence for his sexual abuse of a young Hasidic girl has been automatically reduced to 50 years. Failed Messiah

- How the Postal Service ending Saturday mail delivery will affect Brooklynites. Brooklyn Eagle 

-  The MTA has released an interactive subway map that allows users to zoom, drag and drop. Carroll Gardens Patch

- The tide has turned against opponents of the Justice in Palestine event tonight at Brooklyn College. Mayor Bloomberg denounced threats to college funding over the event. Mondoweiss

- How to game the salad bar at Foragers in DUMBO. Brooklyn Magazine

- Crime fighters in Brooklyn are using social media to catch dumb gangsters. NY Daily News

- Cuomo budget "raids" $20 million from the MTA. Streetsblog

- Artist uses Gowanus Canal sludge as paint.  Brooklyn Paper  

- Here's how the city plans to spend its $1.8B chunk of Sandy aid. Brooklyn Eagle 

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Comptroll Liu Explains What the Fiscal Cliff Agreement's Gonna Cost You

Yesterday City Comptroller John C. Liu explained what New York City taxpayers will pay as a result of the Congressional agreement to avoid the so-called Fiscal Cliff.  

The agreement will cost the average Brooklynite $770 annually. Manhattan taxpayers will pay an average increase of $1,125.

“Like any compromise, the deal to avoid the so-called Fiscal Cliff has some bright spots and dark patches for New York City taxpayers," Liu said.

On the positive side: “Thousands of struggling New Yorkers will not find their extended unemployment benefits abruptly and cruelly cut off. And some 900,000 New Yorkers can breathe a sigh of relief now that the Alternative Minimum Tax has been permanently fixed.

On the negative side: “We must properly fund Social Security and unfortunately the 2% increase in the Social Security Payroll Tax will cost four million hard-working New Yorkers, on average, more than $800 out of pocket this year, taking more than $3 billion out of the City’s income stream.

Estimated Cost of 2% Increase in Social Security Payroll Tax

Borough	# of Workers Affected	Estimated Cost	Average Increase
Bronx	630,000	$425 million	$674
Brooklyn	1,135,000	$875 million	$770
Manhattan	995,000	$1.12 billion	$1,125
Queens	980,000	$800 million	$816
Staten Island	230,000	$220 million	$956
TOTAL	3,970,000	$3.44 billion	$868

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Let 'Em Laugh: Brooklyn's Food Scene Is Bringing In the Bucks

Smorgasburg in DUMBO. Photo: MK Metz

Haters love to scoff at Brooklyn's trendy food scene, but apparently Brooklyn is laughing, too -- all the way to the bank.

The Brooklyn Eagle reports that Brooklyn's burgeoning food sector is an engine of job growth for the borough, based on a study done for the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.

Brooklyn’s “food chain” -- supermarkets, restaurants, gourmet food shops and food makers— accounts for 16 percent of businesses in Brooklyn and 12.5 percent of Brooklyn’s private sector jobs.

Restaurants, cafes, coffee shops and grocery stores added one out of every five new jobs in Brooklyn since 2000. In 2011 alone, wages in the Brooklyn food sector came to $1.46 billion.

While not all food-related jobs rack in big bucks, many do -- and start-ups and "one-person specialty food manufacturing businesses" are adding tremendous vitality to the mix.

So ha ha yourself, haters. And pass the kimchi tacos.

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Film Moratorium in the Heights? Hospitals Crammed; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Brooklyn Heights fights movie-making takeovers with a demand for a moratorium. Brooklyn Eagle

- The former principal of a private school in Brooklyn was found guilty of sexually abusing three boys -- one who was 7 years old. NY Times

- Three days wait in the ER for a bed: Brooklyn hospitals crammed after Sandy. NY Daily News

- “Nuevo Mexican" fare and the 900-seat Alamo Drafthouse Cinema will soon be joining the new Armani Exchange on Fulton Street. Brooklyn Eagle

- President Obama held his ground on the "fiscal cliff" on Tuesday, insisting on higher tax rates for the wealthiest Americans, while Republicans showed increasing disarray over how far they should go to compromise. Reuters

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Brooklyn Young Republicans Say Romney Must 'Hit Home Run' at Tonight's Debate' (Then Screw Up Deficit Math)

Glenn P. Nocera, president of the Brooklyn Young Republicans, came out with a statement saying that in tonight's Presidential debate, Mitt Romney "needs to hit a home run with the American people, if he has any hope of being elected President on election day."

That's probably true.

Nocera also says: "Obama took office with a 10.6 Trillion dollar deficit. Now its over 16 Trillion dollars. He doubled it in Four years."

Hmmn, seems to be a little problem with the math here. 10.6 times 2 is 21.2, not 16.

But there's another inaccuracy.

According to Factcheck.org:

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected the fiscal year 2009 deficit at $1.2 trillion two weeks before Obama took office.

In an April 2011 report, the CBO said the deficit for fiscal year 2010 was nearly $1.3 trillion and the estimated deficit for the current budget is $1.4 trillion.

Here's a page from the blog of the Congressional Budget Office with some simple deficit figures.

What Nocera is probably thinking of is the national debt, not the annual deficit. Even before the economic crisis, the U.S. debt grew 50% between 2000 and 2007, ballooning from $6 to $9 trillion. The $700 billion bailout helped the debt grow to $10.5 trillion by December 2008, before Obama became President. (More on that here.)

So President Bush brought the debt from $6 to $10.5 trillion, and left an ongoing mess that had to be cleaned up with even more spending.

Emergency stimulus packages, military spending on wars started during the Bush years, tax cuts and unemployment benefit extentions (due to the recession) drove the debt up to $16 trillion this year.

See how much each president contributed to the national debt here.

And check out the horrifying U.S. Debt Clock here.

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'No More Lies' Walmart Town Forum

When we were traveling this summer we got our hair cut at a Walmart in North Carolina. Haircuts were $8 apiece.

We told our mild-mannered hair-cutter that Walmart was trying to move into Brooklyn and she burst out, "Don't let them! They'll ruin your town like they did ours. They put everybody out of business." She went on to say that everybody in town wished the Walmart had never come in.

We were reminded of this today when we read on the Brooklyn Bureau that a "No More Lies" Town Forum is being held on September 20 from 6 - 7:30 p.m. to "expose Walmart’s broken promises: from poverty wages and workplace discrimination, to the devastation of local economies."

Workers, religious leaders and activists from across the country will be coming in to tell what happened to their towns.

The event takes place at the Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South (near West 4th Street) in Manhattan. More here.

- Report: NYC Could Become Walmart City
- Walmart : We Don't Need No Stinkin' Hearing in New York City


(Note: Before 2008, Walmart was spelled Wal-Mart.)

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Times Does Fulton Mall: Things Are Looking Up

Photo: Downtown Brooklyn Partnership

Fulton Mall in transition again:
The New York Times has put together a wrap up of the national retail chains flocking to the Fulton Street Mall in Downtown Brooklyn.

The latest retailer to sign a lease is the furniture chain Raymour & Flanigan, which will occupy the second floor at 490 Fulton Street.

Century 21, H&M and T. J. Maxx also plan to open stores, and many other chain outlets have already opened their doors.

The Times points to the area's growing student population, thousands of new residential units, millions of dollars in infrastructure spending by the city and several new hotels, and says that rents are rising.

A far cry from April, 2009, when City Point was put on hold, retail rents were in a slump, and an Arby's fast food joint (instead of Amy Ruth's) moved into the landmarked building that housed Gage & Tollner for more than a century.

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The 'Milk Not Jails' Truck Delivers in Brooklyn

The cheerful Milk Not Jails truck making a delivery on Clinton Street in Brooklyn Heights.

We saw the Milk Not Jails truck in Brooklyn Heights yesterday and wondered what it was all about. It turns out that Milk Not Jails is an alliance working to build an economic alternative to the prison industry in New York State.

Milk Not Jails says New York should promote dairy farming, not incarceration, for rural jobs. Over 90% of New York’s prisons are located in rural areas, but prison towns have not seen the jobs or improvements they were promised. Today, dairy farmers are selling their herds or shutting down.

Milk Not Jails sells fresh, organic, free range, minimally pasteurized dairy products from Ronnybrook Farms and Hawthorne Valley Farm at eight CSAs or buying clubs in Brooklyn and in other boroughs as well. Here's a list of products.

They are also working to bring more local farm foods into schools, break a monopoly that is putting dairy farmers out of business, and decriminalize minor crimes like possessing small amounts of marijuana that put thousands of people in jail unnecessarily.

Photo by MK Metz

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More Than 9,300 Apply for 1,900 Part Time Jobs at Barclays

More than 9,300 people applied for jobs at the Barclays Center, opening Sept. 28 in Brooklyn according to Atlantic Yards Report, quoting Crain's (subscription).

Job seekers heard about the work from postcards mailed to Housing Authority residents by developer Forest City Ratner, which also visited local churches. About 2,000 jobs are available; roughly 1,900 are part time and 100 full time.

Atlantic Yards Report asks, "Does this mean the arena's a savior, or that Brooklyn has a lot of unemployed people?"

Many of the jobs are likely at the Barclays' many bars, nightclubs and restaurants which will spill thousands of drunken, brawling patrons out into the surrounding residential streets at 2 a.m. 

Photo: Barclays Center

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Didn't Finish Your Taxes? Here's How To Get an Extension

Taxes are due today -- Tuesday, April 17.

But if you aren't ready to file, don't freak -- you can get an easy, automatic six-month extension, courtesy of the IRS. You just pay what you guestimate you owe, and avoid all late-filing and late-payment penalties. Then you get till October 15 to find all that missing paperwork and do it right.

Anyone and everyone can get an extension. Even Mitt Romney filed an extension!

One way to get the extra time is through the Free File link on IRS.gov.  (Select "browse the list" from Step 2 and look for "free extensions.") This connects you to private company that will allow you to file an extension online. (There is an $57,000 income limit for free service.)

Or you can just print out Form 4868, fill it in (it takes 30 seconds tops to fill in) and mail it in today with at least $1 (check or money order). The form tells you where to mail it. Filing this form gives you until Oct. 15 to file an actual return.

By filing this tiny form, you will avoid the late-filing penalty, normally five percent per month based on the unpaid balance. In addition, any payment made with an extension request will reduce or eliminate interest and late-payment penalties.

Some taxpayers get more time to file without having to ask for it. These include:

* Taxpayers abroad. U.S. citizens and resident aliens who live and work abroad, as well as members of the military on duty outside the U.S., have until June 15 to file and pay. However, interest is still due on any tax payment made after April 17.

* Members of the military and others serving in Iraq, Afghanistan or other combat zone localities. Typically, taxpayers can wait until at least 180 days after they leave the combat zone to file returns and pay any taxes due.

* People affected by certain tornadoes, severe storms, floods and other recent natural disasters. Currently, parts of Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia are covered by federal disaster declarations, and affected individuals and businesses in these areas have until May 31 to file and pay.

More at IRS.gov

Photo by John Morgan, Creative Commons license

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