Get ready for the New Brooklyn Skyline:

From a slide Marshall Brown presented tonight at the PHNDC forum on the UNITY plan (see entry below).

[PICTURED: Marshall Brown.]

Most of this should be considered paraphrase, though much of it is quotes, verbatim:

Marshall Brown presentation of the UNITY plan, an alternative take on the Atlantic Yards project.

GIB VECONI: This is the opposite of the planning process that has taken place at Atlantic Yards with respect to community participation. The input of the community has not been sought. On the other hand, the UNITY plan came out of a community participation process.

Brown: Development can’t just be about money … we have been working with Tish James and community groups for the past year on this idea: urban planning … specific goals: shift discussion away from the arena and back toward our community. We have been “somewhat” successful but now the goals need to change a bit.

There has been a lot of division in the community over Atlantic Yards, but we share the same goal and in the end can reach them with a collaborative model… we have to get very active. What we are going to do: before the end of the month, hold another workshop where we bring together the leaders of the different groups and organizations we have worked with, get them in a room, see if we can develop a joint plan of action to address and deal with this problem. The time for waiting has really passed.

Q. Bottom line, have any developers shown interest in this? Is there anyone that’s… has anyone put up money? No, absolutely not. Have there been discussions with developers through Tish James’ office? Yes. Do developers think it’s feasible, yes, but we are encountering same difficulties they encountered on the west side. It’s difficult to engourage developers to step forward when there’s another project on the table. Developers follow a “gentleman’s agreement”: When one has a project on the table, others are loathe to step forward to critique it or offer other other proposals. “If we are waiting for Robin Hood or Tarzan to come swinging out of the trees and save us on this one, I think we might be in trouble.”

…Sorry if I don’t sound rosy and charming this evening, but I have deep concerns about what I see happening on that side of the river and this side of the river. We have to move. There is not really much more time to wait.

Veconi: I share a number of Marshall’s concerns about recent events… (but) there is actually in my view some cause for some optimism … although it has taken some time for community groups to come together, that is absolutely happening at this point.

Dan Goldstein (?): Shaya Boymelgreen sold (two small lots to Ratner) for $44 million, … to me, that says these yards are very valuable, but as of right now, there is no open bidding process. Aside from looking for fearless developers … we have to get the MTA, not to quietly say in a semi-public letter to FRC … (but publicly state) that they will accept bids. Then maybe some developers will step up.

q. Do you plan to put a community benefits agreement (CBA) included in your plan? There is another community that seems to be excluded that nobody seems to recognize. We need jobs. Brown: for us, CBA is a bit of a moot point. CBA is a tool largely used by developers to put a patch on what’s a much larger problem. In a lot of cases, they don’t work. They are necessary when there are no community benefits inherent to a project. We are trying to come at it a different way … the project should at its core be a civic project with civic benefits, from the beginning, period.

Brown suggests “let’s learn how to fish” rather than taking fish from Ratner, to which an audience member responds: “You go tell those young people that … Some of them don’t have the skills to have their own business. Because of that, right now, they need a job, some place to work.”

Brown: Yes, people need jobs, they have to eat today, but $7 an hour at Target doesn’t feed children, … doesn’t pay a mortgage … We agree there are short-term and long-term problems, but we need to look at the entire range.

–FIN–

JoshB writes: “hey, gander at hho today: they have a garish red neon sign blazing in their window, advertising to all the pleasures of heat, life-giving heat…”

Reference: Home Heating Oil: The Category

I guess it was woefully naive to expect that Daily Heights could ever be a family-friendly forum. And now, look what Google, with lightning speed, has listed as the #2 search result for the phrase “Shaya Boymelgreen”. Please, try to think a little bit before you post comments like that, K?

BLAME “THE MEDIA”: I can’t help but thinking this is partly the fault of the New York Times, who reported that Shaya Boymelgreen “vowed to block (Ratner’s) plans” to follow through with the Atlantic Yards project. Oh, did he? Has anyone seen evidence, outside of alleged off-the-record comments, that Boymelgreen “vowed” to do anything with anything?

[UPDATE] IS THIS A PROFANITY BAN? No. See comments.

Reference: Boymelgreen Flips “Hotel” Properties

Longing for another 9/11 “Moment of Unity”? Check out today’s coverage of Pope John Paul II’s death in the New York Post (Click here for larger image).

The Post was so struck by grief that they actually ran a picture of Hillary and Chelsea without any pejorative, belittling adjectival modifiers or snarky commentary (i.e. “Bitter, self-promoting harpy Hillary Clinton used the pope’s death as a photo-op today…”).

And what’s this? They did not crop U.N. chief Kofi Annan out of the picture. It would have been so easy to move that “mourning nun” layer a few hundred pixels closer to Rudy.

The love-fest lasts for an unprecedented 4 pages. Then the attacks on Kofi begin anew, starting with this editorial cartoon of astoundingly obvious premise dropped awkwardly in the middle of what is supposed to be this paper’s society/gossip section.

When a giant cockroach climbs up your pant leg and tickles your inner thigh: Spring has arrived.

ROUND 1: Cockroach attacks elbow; runs away.
ROUND 2: Cockroach mounts leg; pants removed; cockroach escapes.
ROUND 3: Cockroach taken out with targeted blast of RAID Ant & Roach Killer (Aroma a Aire Fresco).

[IMAGE: Action Pest Control]

In response to Quig’s post about the mystery Pacific St. lot going up for auction, Tom wrote in with some tips:

*These auctions happen all the time at 360 Adams Street in downtown Brooklyn. You can subscribe to the listings and get a weekly flyer of all the properties.

*This is not the best way of buying real estate. Most properties have leins you must pay off, and they are in very bad condition. Also, it is rare to find one in a good neighborhood. If it is of any value, bidding is fierce. These autions are so crowded they do them on the steps outside the building.

*You must have a check for a down payment if you win the bid. You must then secure financing to buy the property within a couple of months. Banks may be wary of these properties and you will have a hard time getting a loan.

*Each year, the city has yearly auctions for properties left to the state when no heir can claim the property. These houses are usually looted by the city first, and its contents auctioned off.

*VERY ODD: The city also sells each year at auction Odd Lots and Lots. These are empty lots and sometimes partial lots: “I have seen lots 2 feet wide by 100 foot deep. They are lots that exist between buildings that no one owns.”

Brownstoner picked up on Quig’s find and asked, “does anyone know the best way to stay abreast of both private and public auctions? We’d like to be able to keep an eye on them.”

Helpful and anonymous Brownstoner readers responded that, besides the New York Lawyer website where this listing was found, you can also check with JER Revenue Services Of course, you can also pay Property Shark a subscription fee for their listings, which they collate from various legal publications.

Finally, another anonymous Brownstoner reader noted that, if the lien is small in comparison to the property value (lien of $183K for the Pacific Street lot), “the debtor will find some way to stave off foreclosure by the auction date. Unlikely that the property will actually go to auction.”

IMAGE: Various Historical Records of Larson Relatives