(click on image to enlarge)
What the truck?! Big-rigs may clog Brooklyn Heights streets if state pols don’t grant speedier BQE repairs
Thousands of big-rigs may be forced to rumble along Brooklyn Heights streets if state lawmakers don’t pass legislation to accelerate the reconstruction of a decrepit stretch of the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway that runs through the nabe, according to city transit honchos, who warned locals at a Monday meeting that the roadway will soon be unable to hold the heavy vehicles. “The corrosion in the rebar will have reached a point where the capacity of the structure to carry trucks is going to be reduced,” said Tanvi Pandya, a project manager overseeing the repairs. “We’re really concerned that we don’t miss that. We want to stay ahead of that curve.” – The Brooklyn Paper
BQE Reconstruction Meeting
Dear Community Stakeholder
On Monday, December 11th 2017 the NYC Department of Transportation’s Division of Bridges will present an update on our project for the Brooklyn Queens Expressway – Atlantic to Sands. The presentation will provide an update on the agency’s progress on the project since the design team kick off in June, as well as continuing efforts on Design Build authorization, development of the Public Outreach Plan and next steps in 2018. Please join us starting at 5:00 p.m. at the NYU POLY Tandon School of Engineering – 6 Metro Tech Center – the Maker Space Event Space – Rogers Hall – 1st Floor. Invitations to all stakeholders for the public meeting are being distributed today.
Your RSVP to Division of Bridges Executive Director of Community Affairs, Joanne Kidder at [email protected] or 212-839-6304 will be sincerely appreciated. Joannene Kidder
Iconic WATCHTOWER Sign Gone?
We heard the sign was removed yesterday but have not yet confirmed.
The iconic Watchtower sign, whose red electric glow can be seen from the Brooklyn Bridge and the shoreline of Lower Manhattan, is rumored to have been taken down from atop the former world headquarters of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Brooklyn Heights. In June, the city Buildings Department okayed a plan by the old headquarters’ new owners to remove the 15-foot-tall letters that spell out the word “Watchtower” from the roof of 25-30 Columbia Heights. They will leave the sign’s framework intact, Buildings Department records indicate. The religious organization’s former headquarters now belongs to a joint venture called Columbia Heights Associates that’s made up of the Kushner Cos., CIM Group and LIVWRK. Kushner Cos. was headed by Jared Kushner until he stepped aside to serve as senior adviser to his father-in-law, President Donald Trump.
The joint venture is currently working to transform the old Watchtower property into an office complex called Panorama. It will have about 635,000 square feet of Class-A office space and about 35,000 square feet of stores and public space for arts and culture. The new owners haven’t revealed what name will replace the Watchtower’s atop their Columbia Heights property. They paid $340 million for the former headquarters complex, city Finance Department records show. Kushner Cos. and various investment partners have spent about $1 billion to buy Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO properties from the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Watchtower has been selling off its real estate in the two neighborhoods because it has moved its world headquarters to upstate Warwick, New York.
-with reports from The Brooklyn Eagle
Another way to the waterfront: B’Heights biz leaders demand permanent crossing from Montague to Bridge park
They want a new bridge to Brooklyn Bridge Park!
The city must build a permanent footbridge from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade at Montague Street leading to the waterfront meadow below in order to serve pedestrians who want to shuffle between the commercial thoroughfare and park during the impending reconstruction of the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway and beyond, said the leader of a local commerce-advocacy group.
“It will increase visibility and foot traffic,” said Kate Chura, the head of the Montague Street Business Improvement District. “Time is ticking and the Department of Transportation needs to know that people want this bridge.”
Transportation-agency officials are already laying the groundwork for a temporary crossing from the promenade to the green space after promising to do so at a 2016 meeting about their repairs to a 1.5-mile stretch of the expressway between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street, according to a spokeswoman.
An Apple a Saturday: Brooklyn’s second ‘Store’ to open this weekend
The long-awaited Apple store in Fort Greene will have its grand opening this Saturday. The high-end technology giant’s shop on the bottom floor of the luxury 300 Ashland tower is now the second in the borough — the first opened on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg last summer. Rumors of an Apple store moving into America’s Downtown had been ripening for years, back when former Beep Marty Markowitz penned an electronic missive to the tech giant’s late founder Steve Jobs on his fancy iPad asking him to open an outpost of the California-based company in Kings County in 2010. The first — as this newspaper brilliantly predicted in 2012 — moved into Williamsburg in July 2016, and then in November 2016, Apple honchos signed a 10-year lease for space in developer Two Trees 32-story tower, according to the Real Deal.
The Flatbush Avenue Apple store will join a mini Whole Foods Market that’s set to open in 2018, a branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, a home for the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, a Brooklyn Academy of Music cinema, and 379 apartments in the tower near Ashland Place and Lafayette Avenue.
Apple Downtown Brooklyn (123 Flatbush Avenue near Hanson Place in Fort Greene). Grand opening Dec. 2 at 10 am.
-The Brooklyn Paper
Boro native and CPN resident rings in 100th birthday with loved ones at Noodle Pudding!
This longtime teacher just hit triple digits!
A crowd of more than 50 people crammed into Brooklyn Heights Italian standby Noodle Pudding on Nov. 12 to ring in a native daughter’s 100th birthday at a bash where celebrants young and old toasted centenarian Bertha Lowitt’s long and wholesome life of service, according to her daughter.
“It was just a wonderful experience that united relatives and friends from various circles,” said Susan Dowling, whose mother turned 100-years-old on Nov. 1. “We had a lovely time celebrating a person who is strong and incredible.”
Full-size supermarket coming to site of old Dumbo parking lot
Coming soon!: Dumbo-based developer Two Trees is transforming a Front Street parking garage into the nabe’s first full-size grocer, Dumbo Market, a rep for the real-estate company announced Thursday.
A Front Street parking garage will be transformed into the neighborhood’s first full-service food bazaar, a spokeswoman for the developer that owns the building announced on Thursday. And the conversion of the vehicle-storage space will finally bring a much-needed amenity to the waterfront community, said a local business advocate. “I think this is incredible for the neighborhood,” said Alexandria Sica, head of the Dumbo Business Improvement District. “It doesn’t have a full service grocery store and this is going to be a game-changer.”
Late Addition: Another Photo from CPN’s Halloween Party
CPN’s Community Room Becomes a Haunted House for Halloween!
Thanks to the hard working volunteers headed up by Board Member Mabel Del Rio, Cadman kids were treated to an awesome Halloween party on November 4th. There was a good turnout that enjoyed refreshments and lots of fun and games. If you’d like to join the Community Affairs Committee to help put together more activities for kids, send an email to [email protected]
