Congratulations, Staten Island! You, sir (ma'am? No, definitely sir), are the only borough of New York whose number of foreclosures actually fell this quarter, according to PropertyShark's foreclosures report. Hooray! In total, foreclosures increased citywide by 4.7% to a total of 961, which isn't so bad when you look at the rest of the country, but is still 49% higher than Q2 2007. Once again, Queens—specifically District 12, which includes Jamaica, Hollis and St. Albans—was the naughtiest, racking up 558 foreclosures, up from 508 in the previous quarter. Brooklyn had 167 (up from 140) and Manhattan had 38 (up from 23). Click through the gallery for more charts-and-graphs fun.
· Foreclosure Reports [Property Shark]
· Curbed Roundtable: July State O' the Market Report [Curbed]
· First Quarter Foreclosures Report: Bad Day for Queens [Curbed]
Was it only last winter that the New York Water Taxi dock floated away from Schaefer Landing in Williamsburg and service was suspended? Well, the East River Route is back and Schaefer Landing service is due to resume on July 7. A dock was delivered and set up today, with evidence of the procedure forwarded by a tipster. Only a couple of days ago, Brooklyn 11211 was expressing worry that the dock was not on the scene yet:
Riding across the East River on the J train today, I noted (as I do just about every day) the singular lack of any docking structure at Schaefer Landing. Yes, the dock that was supposed to arrive in May, is still not there. Nor is there any activity around the area where one might expect a dock to be indicating that anyone is remotely interested in actually building a dock-like structure.
11211 pointed out that while Williamsburg waited, Ikea was enjoying 36 boats a day (because it's paying for the service). The Schaefer Landing weekday service will have four boats in the morning and four in the afternoon.
· Still Waiting for the Water Taxi [Brooklyn 11211]
· Water Taxi Lives on in Williamsburg's Hopes & Dreams [Curbed]
Well, the people running the 21st Century Street design competition didn't cop out and go for some easy Brooklyn spot. They could have always picked a tougher spot, but the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street is by no means an urban oasis, even though the avenue has been insanely optimistically referred to as Brooklyn's Park Avenue. The contest, which is open for the public and sponsored by Transportation Alternatives, is looking for "new conceptual and physical approaches to the planning of public streets...The street will be re-imagined as a healthy, safe, and sustainable 21st Century street." It's steps from the Fourth Avenue Station whose own redesign was recently tossed into the trash bin by the MTA. The registration deadline is July 18, entries are due by August 18 and there will be a public show in December. The top entry chosen gets a $6,000 prize. Everybody else, maybe, gets to envision what it might be like to cross Fourth Avenue without risking being pancaked by a turning truck.
· Designing the 21st Century Street [21centurystreet.org]
Then: $896,000 Now: $725,00 You Save!: $171,000!
We're not clear how many people are currently calling the Clarett Group's Forté tower in Fort Greene home, but we can say that most of the units that are still on the market have gotten additional fair to moderate buzz cuts in the last few days. Streeteasy shows a series of PriceChops about five days ago, some of the of the second generation variety. Let's take unit 16D, a 1,007 square foot two BR, 2BA unit that was $896,000 but now finds itself priced to move at $725,000. It originally hit the market in the heady days of August '07 at $935,000, making the overall PriceChop $210,000, which is none too shabby. (This is actually the second round of PriceChops on many units.) On the upper end of what's still around in the Forte, consider the priciest unit still on the market, aka 15B/C. It has gotten a shave from $1.697M ito $1.55M or a little chop action of $147,000. All in all, 10 of the 12 units currently listed have gotten visits from the PriceChopper.
· Forte Condo [streeteasy.com]
· Forte Condo Explains Charges, Knocks Competition [Curbed]
The long running fight in Carroll Gardens to change city zoning so that very narrow streets are actually defined that way for zoning purposes, limiting the heights of new buildings, passed the City Planning Commission this morning. Old zoning has defined streets that are 50 feet wide (counting sidewalks) and that can barely handle parked cars and still allow one to drive up the middle as being up to 130 feet wide because front yards are counted (the "gardens" in Carroll Gardens). The change means a reduction in the height of new buildings from up to seven stories on "wide" streets" to five stories on "narrow" streets. It also helps eliminate large tumor additions to existing buildings. There's a final City Council vote on July 23 and the measure is expected to pass. A bigger neighborhood downzoning that many residents are pushing for is still at least two years away, however.
· Carroll Gardens Streets to Get Narrower (on Paper) [Curbed]
· Carroll Gardens Zoning Text Amendment [nyc.gov]
Here is a big new set of renderings of Brooklyn Bridge Park, some of which have been trickling out for the last week or so and some of which haven't been seen before. In any case, it's been quite a while since new renderings were released. Land clearance for the park is underway and two sections (at Pier One and Pier Six, at opposite ends at Fulton Ferry Landing and Atlantic Avenue) are supposed to be finished late next year. Entire park will stretch for 1.3 miles. The original budget was $150 million, but it has climbed to $300 million, with the trouble being that only $225 million is funded. The Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corp. estimates that about 2/3 of the park will be done by 2012.
· Brooklyn Bridge Park Update: A Park for All Seasons [Curbed]
Thing are not going so well at the Brooklyn Public Library in Clinton Hill. "The last few days, I’ve trekked up there, only to find the lights off, the gate locked and a sad print-out sign saying that the temperature inside had reached 83...and they had closed early. It’s pretty clear to anybody who even walks by the operating budget is pretty meager, and certainly no one likes a sweaty librarian - but at the same time, they’re already open so few hours a week..." Meanwhile, head of the Friends of the Library group is moving back to...Ohio. They needs volunteers to do gardening. And they're going to be having bake sales and things to raise money. [Clinton Hill Blog]
1) FiDi: The New Amsterdam Market outside one of the old Fulton Fish Market buildings at South Street Seaport is looking great with much good stuff to be had. There's a photo gallery here at Racked and there's a really food-focused one over at Eater as well.
2) East Village: After being forced out of the West Village storefront they called home for six years due to landlord issues, Racked reports that sweet shop Chocolate Bar reopened today on East 7th Street and is offering a "Meet the Neighbors Special" involving some half-price coffee and free chocolate.
3) Midtown: You would think that an invite only shoe sale with prices starting at $500 and a VIP list at the door wouldn't have a line, but Racked has clear visual evidence that it does.
4) Williamsburg: British retailer Topshop is going to be working McCarren Pool for promo purposes in advance of opening its Soho store. The marketing stuff we understand, but what's this business about putting "McCarren gossip" on its blog?
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