Attend the DEC’s hearings on Tuesday, February 26 at Bay Ridge Manor, 476 76^th Street, Bay Ridge.  Rally at 1:30 pm.  First hearing session: 2 pm.  Second hearing session: 6 pm.

Williams is proposing to lay a new pipeline, called the Northeast Supply Enhancement Pipeline, which would carry fracked natural gas (methane) from Pennsylvania across the Lower Bay of New York’s harbor.

Why is this pipeline a bad idea?

• It would extend New Yorkers’ dependence on fossil fuel and so contribute to the worsening of climate change.
• Construction of this pipeline would threaten human health. The seabed that would be dug up for this pipeline contains unsafe levels of toxic substances like arsenic, PCB’s, and dioxin.
• In addition to churning up toxics into the sea water, the unrelenting construction, with its noise and water turbidity, will harm marine life.
• Williams and its subsidiary Transco have a poor safety record. A leak or rupture of this pipeline would threaten shore communities, both human and non-human.
• At an estimated cost of just under a billion dollars, yet delivering to an area that has no shortage of gas, it is both unnecessary and expensive.

This underwater part of this pipeline would be laid for 23 miles along the south coast of Staten Island, past Coney Island, and ending 4 miles south of the Rockaways. Construction would require excavating a trench across the entirety of the route to bury the pipe. Williams says it plans to work on the offshore portion of this pipeline 24 hours/day, 7 days/week for over a year.

A new grocery store in Brooklyn Heights is hoping to take local shopping a step further than just putting Brooklyn-based goods on its shelves.

Brooklyn Only Foods, which opened on Henry Street last week, is stocked only with products made in the borough, whether that be a local cheese producer in Williamsburg, a woman in Bed-stuy making “Dank Banana Bread” or its own signature blend from D’Amico Coffee Roasters.

But storeowner Karim Othman said he intentionally wanted to separate his shop from bigger businesses that might do the same. To do so, he decided to find products the old-fashioned way — by walking into each store and learning about the food makers.

“People are into the idea,” he said. “They’re happy to see something in this neighborhood (that isn’t like) a lot of things coming in that are more corporate owned or larger scale companies…a lot of mom and pop shops are getting taken out of business. I want to have that feel that it’s a community space.” – Brooklyn Heights Patch

https://patch.com/new-york/heights-dumbo/new-brooklyn-grocery-store-has-speakeasy-art-gallery-underneath

According to a message posted on the restaurant’s Instagram account, neighborhood stalwart Henry’s End is leaving its current long-time location and moving to the space currently (but not for long) occupied by Sociale at 72 Henry Street.

Titled “A New Beginning for Henry’s End,” the post reads in part:

After 46 years at 44 Henry St., Henry’s End will be moving one block to 72 Henry St. The building that houses us is undergoing a major renovation, and instead of moving for an undetermined amount of time, we will move nearby.

In addition to a new address, Henry’s End will add new services and amenities, including brunch, a cocktail program, outdoor dining space, and a private event room.

The current location will close on March 31 and the new spot is expected to open by April 15.

As noted elsewhere on the blog, Sociale is moving to Carroll Gardens. – Brooklyn Heights Blog

Lively Panel Discussion, the BQE, Community Awards, and More

The BHA Annual Meeting on February 26th will feature a spirited panel discussion moderated by NY Times journalist, Ginia Bellafante, author of the weekly Big City column, on the topic, “Who Is Planning Brooklyn’s Future?”
Brooklyn Heights is surrounded by competing developments and plans: a massive redevelopment of the LICH site, new residential towers on Pier 6, the conversion of the former Watchtower buildings, and towering developments within downtown Brooklyn. Proposals are also being floated to extensively redevelop Red Hook to the south.
These developments are taking place at the same time that the City is pushing forward with the BQX Streetcar project, a massive Brooklyn Detention Center, and the reconstruction of the BQE.
Does the City have a comprehensive vision to guide and manage this growth? Can the City assure us that the necessary infrastructure is in place? This is the challenge we’ve posed to the panel.

Ginia Bellafante will engage in a conversation with three distinguished individuals who bring deep planning experience and different perspectives to this issue:
• Tom Angotti, Professor Emeritus at Hunter College’s Urban Policy and Planning Department and the Graduate Center, City University of New York
• Michelle de la Uz, Executive Director of the Fifth Avenue Committee and Member on the NYC City Planning Commission
• Alexander Garvin, who was formerly responsible for planning the rebuilding of the World Trade Center at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, and served as a Member of the City Planning Commission
The BHA will also review this past year, including its ongoing efforts to replace DOT’s proposed Promenade Highway with a less environmentally destructive approach to the BQE reconstruction.
The BHA will bestow its Community Service Awards on four organizations or individuals who have made significant contributions to the neighborhood’s quality of life and enhance its spirit of community.
The BHA’s Annual Meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 26th, 7-9:30 PM, at St. Francis College’s Founders Hall at 180 Remsen Street. It is open to the general public. Refreshments will be served after the meeting.

Board members from CPN, 75 Henry (Whitman Owners Corp), Cadman Towers, Concord Village and St George Tower met last evening with the Department of Transportation and expressed support of the alternative plan put forth by the Brooklyn Heights Association (BHA). Representatives from all of our local elected officials were also present. As a reminder to Shareholders, this project is scheduled to begin in 2021 with a completion date of 2028. There are many more community meetings to come but the good news is that DOT is considering the BHA plan which calls for no night time construction. Here is link to the BHA plan. https://thebha.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Parallel-Bypass-Presentation.pdf

City Council Member Stephen Levin was interviewed on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show, and had this to say about the City Department of Transportation’s plan for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway rehabilitation:

Robert Moses’ infrastructure projects created all types of massive havoc around New York City, divided communities and really displaced thousands of people. As we’re looking towards 21st century infrastructure in New York, I think that we have to reckon with that and do what we can to address it restoratively.

I applaud the Brooklyn Heights Association and a new group called A Better Way, because they’ve really said “You know what? Let’s take a look at this, let’s get some transparency into this process…let’s build a 21st century highway.”

We need to be looking at alternatives. We need there to be some kind of real transparency to the process. [We need] a community advisory committee so that we can bring good ideas to the table.

We think that there has to be a better way to do this. -Brooklyn Heights Blog

Thanks to aBetterWay.nyc for this information.

It’s not dirt cheap! Dirt in Brooklyn Heights is more expensive than that found most anywhere else in the country, according to a new report in the Washington Post. An acre of land in America’s first suburb, known for its charming Brownstone-lined streets and sweeping views of the Manhattan skyline, costs a whopping $41,160,300, compared to a like-sized plot in Brooklyn, Iowa which commands a measly $55,700 price tag, the Post reported citing a federal analysis of average neighborhood land values across all 50 states from 2012 to 2017.

The Heights — where households’ median income hovers around $109,472, according to 2016 federal Cesus Bureau data — is home to several celebrities, including couple John Krasinski and Emily Blunt, and fellow A-lister Matt Damon, all of whom reportedly recently inked deals on condos inside the The Standish, a swanky building on Columbia Heights.

Damon allegedly paid $16.75 million for his pad in the Heights — much of which constitutes the city’s first landmarked historic district — setting record sale price for a piece of Kings County residential real estate.

But some deep-pocketed financier is expected to close soon on a more than $20-million deal to buy a penthouse inside the luxury Quay Tower rising nearby at Pier 6 in Brooklyn Bridge Park, which would smash the record set by Damon — and only add to the value of the neighborhood’s soil. -Brooklyn Paper

https://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/42/5/dtg-brooklyn-heights-most-expensive-dirt-in-usa-2019-02-01-bk.html

Historic Gage & Tollner will return to Brooklyn

Downtown Brooklyn dining institution Gage & Tollner, which closed in 2004 after 125 years in business, will reopen. A team of Red Hook restaurateurs successfully raised $410,491 for the reopening, and have officially signed a lease at 372 Fulton St., between Red Hook Lane and Smith Street. St. John Frizell, owner of Red Hook’s Fort Defiance, along with Good Fork owners Ben Schneider and Sohui Kim, are behind the reopening, and Kim will be the chef, likely restoring the space as a chophouse. The restaurant is considered Brooklyn’s first fine-dining establishment, where legends like Mae West and Truman Capote once dined, and its original fixtures remain intact.

Buyers will need to drop stacks of cash to live above these stacks. The developer erecting the luxury condo building whose bottom floors will include the new Brooklyn Heights Library is now hawking units inside the swanky tower, where one-bedroom residences start at more than $1 million.

Builder Hudson Companies on Jan. 8 unveiled a new sales website for its 38-story high-rise dubbed One Clinton, which is rising at the Cadman Plaza West site of the former Heights branch that Brooklyn Public Library sold off back in 2014.

Part of the tower’s bottom three floors will include the newly built library, as well as a new lab run by the Department of Education where local students can perfect their science, technology, engineering, and math skills.

But the rest of the building will cater to residents of its 100-plus pads, which start at $1,088,000 for one-bedrooms, $1,985,000 for two-bedrooms, $3,195,000 for three-bedrooms, and $5,258,000 for four-bedrooms, according to reps for the developer, who said prices for the tower’s five-bedroom units and penthouses will be announced soon.

-The Brooklyn Paper