Rendering for Flushing Commons, from inhabitat.com

The beauty of development in New York is that there is always another layer. Today, it’s the argument about plans for Flushing Commons, the 5.5-acre mixed-use development slated for Flushing, Queens.

As we reported a few weeks ago, Streetsblog.com has voiced its opposition to the plan, citing it as an example of the Bloomberg administration not following through on its PlaNYC commitment to transit-oriented development. The plan will add 500,000 square feet of vehicle storage, which the transportation-advocacy blog says will encourage more driving rather than green transit. But yesterday an article on the Queens Neighborhood Retail Alliance blog added several more shades of nuance to the argument.

About 80 small businesses showed up to the City Planning Commission meeting last week to protest the project. They argued the project could seriously harm their businesses, the increased housing and retail could choke traffic and that the city had not offered the proper contingency plans should the plan stall or fail.

“Something doesn’t add up,” said Flushing BID Chairman James Gerson, “and I guess the biggest issue that concerns us is that these negotiations and this change to the plan took place without any community input whatsoever.”

Here are a few of the issues of concern to those following the project:

*Streetsblog says adding parking will worsen congestion, and ignores the PlaNYC goal to reduce transportation emissions by 44 percent by 2030.

*The Neighborhood Retail Alliance reports that in fact, locals are calling for more parking in the crowded neighborhood.

*According to the Alliance, nearly everyone agrees that parking or no, the development will exacerbate congestion.

*BID Chairman James Gerson also wonders about the plans to distribute $2 million in assistance to local businesses, saying there is no real plan for allocation and that the money may fall short.

*Then there is the contingency plan, or lack thereof, in the case that the project should fail. It’s not unreasonable to expect that the city provide some contingency plan so that we don’t get stuck with a hole in the ground,” said Gerson, “and so far the issue has not been addressed at all.”

*Ever suggestive, Curbed has noted that someone must “really” want the plan to go through given that opposition from all sides has not stymied the project, which almost died in 2007 but was reborn last January. Know who is pulling strings? We’d love to hear.

And so, other thoughts on Flushing Commons? More questions to add about the plan? Do you think that it will bring something needed to the neighborhood? Let us know….

courtesy of midtownlunch.com

New York City is known for many things, but arguably nothing more important than its pizza.  Now, in the wake of the 40^th anniversary of Earth Day and the 3^rd anniversary of PlaNYC, the city has opened its first “green” pizzeria.

Pizza by Cer Te opened its doors on Earth Day to satisfy New Yorkers and the eco-conscious as the first of its kind to hit Gotham City.  The space is LEED-certified and makes its pies from locally grown ingredients served in recyclable boxes with biodegradable utensils.  And get this…all food will be delivered by foot or hybrid truck!

Among the other initiatives, rainwater will be collected in special gutters to be reused and the heat from the ovens will be recycled.

Owner and chef, Edward Sylvia, told Crain’s New York Business that though a lot of money is put out to create the space, he expects to save money on energy and expenses.

Pizza by Cer Te is located on E. 56^th St. between Park and Lexington Avenues.

If you stop to try a slice, leave a comment to let us know if the pizza is as delicious as it is eco-friendly.

Click here for slideshow.

We’ve covered the controversial U.S. Concrete plant opening along Red Hook, Brooklyn’s scenic waterfront a couple of times before, but it’s better described with photos.  For some background, click here.  Click the photo to your left or here to see the photo slideshow.

When Mayor Michael Bloomberg put together PlaNYC in 2007, he made brownfields one of the three overarching themes of his land use initiatives. But what is a brownfield, and what can brownfields do to help make New York a “greener” city?

A brownfield is an abandoned or underused industrial site available to be used or developed. Often, contamination from a previous use has left these buildings and properties polluted. “Brownfield” is a bit of a misnomer: these sites range from old auto body shops and pharmaceutical plants to factories and generating stations. In Brooklyn, dozens of these site dot the neighborhoods, particularly areas along the waterfront once home to heavy industry.

The following  slide show is a portrait of the “life” of one brownfield, which in 2004 was included in the New York State’s Brownfield Cleanup Program. The property, now called “Gowanus Village,” is a 2.4 acre site along Brooklyn’s notorious Gowanus Canal. The towering brick building on the property was once a power plant owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Over the past two decades, it became a favorite spot for graffiti writers and squatters, who called it “the Bat Cave.” This is the story of industry, development and growth through one building, on one brownfield, in New York City.

Click on the thumbnail to view the slide show.

You can find a map of with details of the city’s brownfield sites at Habit Map.

The 40th Anniversary of Earth Day brought many people to Times Square to learn what’s new in sustainable merchandise and living.  Amongst the line of vendors was Spica Wobbe from the New Victory Theater in Manhattan, who had a constant stream of kids at her table.

How was she contributing to Earth Day?

She uses newspaper amongst other materials to make puppets for different performances.  I caught up with her while she showed me how to make an elephant out of a periodical in this slideshow.

Click to see slideshow

Economists say the recession is over, but with the unemployment near 10 percent, it sure doesn’t feel like it. So some New Yorkers may have to stay local this summer. But for some poorer residents every year, they take a staycation. They take advantage of New York city’s open spaces. And Soundview Park, located in the southeast Bronx, just got rehabilited as part of PlaNYC, check out the photo slideshow here.

Photo by paalia, courtesy of Flickr

Crowds have long populated New York City lore. Jacob Riis photographed families crammed into tenement houses. Every year when the ball drops on January 1, TV broadcasts project carpet of bodies Times Square to homes throughout the country.

But all those people have to go home at night, and some planners feel New York is not making enough room for low-income and new New Yorkers looking for an inexpensive place to lay their heads, even with the provisions for the preservation and development of affordable housing worked into PlaNYC.

A report put out in March by the Pratt Center for Community Development asserted the City Planning Commission “has ceased to plan.” The report’s gist is that the city has come to lean heavily on rezonings to drive development, rather than “proactively setting a framework for the shape of growth in New York City.”

Rezonings tend to change the rules for building in a neighborhood—often allowing for greater height and density (upzoning) or less (downzoning) or room for new and different commercial development.

The rezonings have worked as leverage between the city and communities represented by members in the city council, the report says, where members use an agreement to pass a rezoning as leverage to get other things for their communities, like jobs or affordable housing.

The report makes a rather controversial argument:

“The agreements have become necessary precisely because planning does not take a look at citywide needs, forcing the City Council to address local needs or mitigate impacts project by project. Side deals are also no substitute for strong citywide standards promoting affordable housing and good jobs. A citywide planning framework, in the context of such standards and with a mandate to take into account neighborhood needs, would go a long way toward rendering side agreements unnecessary.”

Basically, the report claims rezoning has become a pawn in the political game because planning, or the lack thereof, has left a void.

The Department of City Planning has not yet responded to a request for comment, but I’m going to guess it might not quite agree. But this I think we can all agree on: New York City needs more affordable housing.

The average number of people staying in city housing each night increased 7 percent from 2009. The average number of families rose 9.7 percent, to 9,719 per night, according to the New York City Rent Guidelines Board.

Then there are those who live in illegal housing throughout the city—unauthorized “mother-in-law” apartments, subdivided flats and illegally converted industrial buildings. Half a million people may live in such housing throughout the city, according to a joint study by Pratt and the Chhaya Community Development Corporation. Surprisingly, some say finding ways to legalize such units could help begin to address the need for low-cost housing. Interested? Tune in next week.

Photo credit: mercurialn from flickr

As the Gotham Gazette reminded us recently,  there’s less than a week left until PlaNYC 2030 turns 3 years old. The initiatives have to be reviewed every four years, and there have been a number of suggestions for updates recently – from Scott Stringer’s food plan to interviews we’ve done here at Explain The Plan about solid waste.

And two days after Tom Angotti pushed for more inclusion and community input into the plan in the Gotham Gazette, the Bloomberg administration and City Council announced a brand new set of goals: the Waterfront Vision and Enhancement Strategy (WAVES).

Rather, they announced that new goals are in the works from the Department of City Planning. They’ll be released at the end of this year, and they’ll be divided into two stages: Continue Reading

The city is on its way to developing a new recycle program that is expected to divert more than 8 thousand tons of plastic every year away from landfills and incinerators. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and other city officials have proposed improvements to legislation surrounding the way NYC disposes of its waste.

“With the 40^th anniversary of Earth Day less than two weeks away, this is the perfect time to be looking at ways to make our city even greener,” said Speaker Quinn.

The original program, enacted in 1989, has not been altered since its conception. Known as Local Law 19, it was one of the first of its kind in the U.S. It required that all recyclables be collected from every residential and commercial building across the City of New York.

For New Yorkers, recycling has become a bigger issue since the closure of Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island in 2002. We spend more than $300 million each year to dispose of our waste outside of the city, using more money and increasing our carbon emissions. Continue Reading

U.S. Concrete finally opened its Red Hook plant on March 15. Looming largely next to Ikea, it is operating below capacity due to economic constraints, according to a recent NY Post article.

Residents are worried about the plant’s effects on Added Value (the community farm across the street), nearby sports fields, food vendors, and the scenic waterfront, which draws tourists from across the city. Although the plant is not in full operation yet, people expect its 30 to 40 concrete-mixing trucks and dust to damage the air and be hard on the cobblestone streets.

“The farm (Added Value) is literally across the street from Red Hook Park, and I like to play handball there or run track,” said Narcisco Rosado, a 16-year-old resident who volunteers at Added Value. “How am I going to be able to do that if you know, you need to breathe, and I’m breathing in that dust? It’s not very healthy for me and that’s going to affect my health. And it’s not just my health, it’s everyone’s health, everyone who goes here.”

For now, residents must wait for the plant to be in full operation before they find out how much it will affect their beloved neighborhood.

See our previous post for more detail on the plant.