On the same day would-be President Bill de Blasio unveiled a campaign finance reform plan he hopes to take national, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s own fundraising tactics shadowed him at home.
A state watchdog agency on Thursday revealed three deep-pocket developers seeking favors from City Hall settled charges that they had made illegal gifts to de Blasio by writing five-figure checks to his now-defunct charity, the Campaign for One New York (CONY). Continue reading →
de Blasio (left) (courtesy of Kevin Case/Flickr) and Greenpoint Landing (right)
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s political fundraising tactics are facing an ethics probe as real estate developers will have to pay fines for donating to de Blasio’s non-profit while seeking contracts with his administration, Politico reports.
De Blasio’s Campaign for One New York received donations from Greenpoint Landing Developers, Brookfield Financial Properties and Toll Brothers in 2015 while the developers lobbied his administration. The state Joint Commission on Public Ethics announced on Thursday that the developers will pay a $65,000 fine for breaking state laws, Politico reports: Continue reading →
The outdoor terrace at One Blue Slip for club members prohibits swimwear.
A resident of One Blue Slip at the new Greenpoint Landing development who compares the experience of living in the waterfront 30-story tower to an “empty hotel” reached out to Greenpointers with complaints about the building’s outdoor terrace dress code policy.
The outdoor seating area for One Blue Slip club members.
The One Blue Slip resident wishes to remain anonymous and feels that the 4th-floor outdoor terrace is a perfect sunbathing spot, but swimsuits are not permitted: Continue reading →
Initial Box St Park design (courtesy of NYC Parks)
A new design for the planned Box Street Park is set to be revealed this week.
NYC Parks will present the new Box Street Park design on Wednesday, May 29th, at the Polish and Slavic Center (176 Java St.) from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Initial Box St Park design (courtesy of NYC Parks)
The 2.8-acre park will be along the East River waterfront at the end of Box Street as part of the Greenpoint Landing mega-development. The current use of the future park’s site is for an MTA parking lot. High-rise developments are planned for the neighboring lots.
The initial design of the Box Street Park was revealed last November along with the design of 50 Kent St. portion of Bushwick Inlet Park.
Initial Box St Park design (courtesy of NYC Parks)
Community Board 1’s Parks and Waterfront Committee approved the 50 Kent St. design, but the Box Street Park design was not as enthusiastically received for the positioning of the restrooms at the entrance, the bench/seating choices, and for the lack of waterfront access in the design which will be fortified with a sea wall and railing. Continue reading →
Map of proposed school next to the NuHart Superfund site (via North Brooklyn Neighbors)
The future of the proposed k-8 school across from a toxic site is in question. The current plan is to build the school on a vacant lot across the street from the NuHart Plastics Superfund site, one of the most contaminated sites in New York state.
NuHart Plastics Superfund site
NYC Councilmember Stephen Levin is holding a public meeting on Feb. 7, at the Dupont Senior Housing Center (80 Dupont St.) at 7 p.m. regarding the school and has for the past three years cited efforts to seek an alternative site for a new k-8 school in the North Greenpoint area.
A petition from North Brooklyn Neighbors in opposition to the location of the future school at the corner of Franklin and Dupont streets has received over 6,600 signatures so far.
The NuHart Plastics building spewed toxic fumes into the neighborhood while producing vinyl sheeting from 1950 – 2004, during which time underground storage tanks of toxic chemicals leaked into the groundwater and soil. Today as much as 60,000 gallons of phthalates are underground at the site and the toxic plume has migrated west toward the Greenpoint Playground across the street.
The underground plume at the corner of Franklin and Dupont streets (via North Brooklyn Neighbors)
While local residents are not currently a risk for exposure at the moment while the toxins remain more than 10 feet underground, the cleanup process is supposed to start following the demolition of the building which could start later this year following approval of the proposal of the cleanup plan by the state. Continue reading →
One Blue Slip at Greenpoint Landing (Handel Architects)
The newest addition to the 22-acre Greenpoint Landing waterfront development located at the northwestern corner of Greenpoint, named One Bell Slip, will be a 31-story residential tower according to pre-filings by Brookfield Property Partners with the Dept. of Buildings, The Real Deal reports.
One Blue Slip at Greenpoint Landing (Handel Architects)
The new residential building will have 380,000 square feet and 408 apartments, part of the total 5,500 total apartments planned at Greenpoint Landing which is adjacent to the soon-to-be cleaned Nuhart Plastics Superfund site.
Last summer, Brookfield announced a deal with Park Tower Group to buy into 1,240 units at Eagle and Commercial streets in two new towers financed with an $89 million loan from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
The school is slated to sit on the corner of Dupont and Franklin Streets, across the street from NuHart Plastics, which was declared a state-level super-fund site in 2010 because it is highly contaminated with thousands of gallons of hazardous chemicals, including two underground plumes of trichloroethylene (TCE), and as much as 60,000 gallons of uncontrolled phthalates, which have leeched from the site out toward surrounding streets.
According to NAG’s petition, “exposure to these chemicals have been linked to liver and kidney damage, congenital heart defects, central nervous system defects, changes in sex hormones, low sperm count, obesity, reduced female fertility, birth defects, low birth weight, and altered behavior in toddlers.” Continue reading →
Happy Friday, Greenpoint! This week, Greenpoint’s own Polish-language weekly newspaper, Kurier Plus got a profile in the Columbia Journalism Review.Read about how the Polish paper is thriving!
