Barriers proposed for NY Harbor

From WNYC:

In a series of public information sessions this week, the Army Corps is presenting five options for protecting the area's waterfront, four of which involve storm surge barriers:

- a five-mile long barrier at the southernmost border of the lower bay, between Sandy Hook, N.J., and Breezy Point in the Rockaways;
- a smaller barrier between Staten Island and Brooklyn, across the channel that the Verrazzano-Narrows bridge spans, accompanied by gates across the mouth to Jamaica Bay and Arthur Kill;
- a series of berms and sea walls along low-lying portions of the New Jersey and New York City waterfront, along with small gates across some waterways;
- and an option that would only use berms and sea walls.

Queens now outpacing Manhattan in building permits

From Crains:

Brooklyn and Queens led the city in new building permits during the second quarter of the year, according to city data. Manhattan came in dead last.

The city's Department of Buildings approved more than 750 new building permits in Brooklyn over the second quarter of the year, according to the agency's Construction Dashboard. Queens saw the second most activity with 614 new building permits. The city approved more than 400 permits on Staten Island, which was roughly double the numbers of Manhattan and the Bronx, where a single building permit could yield more units than Staten Island's quarterly total.

The new building permits were concentrated in Williamsburg, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Flushing and the southern third of Staten Island—locations that were largely consistent with activity throughout 2017.

Slick Silverstein

From the Real Deal:

Last month, Silverstein Properties’ ground lease for Queensboro Farm Products’ seven-lot development site in Astoria, Queens hit public records. However, it turns out that’s only a piece of a larger assemblage: Queensboro is just one of four landlords Silverstein is working with who collectively own 315,000 square feet of ground. Together, all the sites could give rise to nearly 4,000 apartments.

The overhaul wasn’t originally Silverstein’s idea, but that of a pair of developers who struggled for years to bring an ambitious plan they dubbed “Steinway Square” to life. Now, Henry Wollman of Quadriad Realty Partners and investor Robert Gans, who is perhaps best known for owning strip clubs, are suing Silverstein and the Astoria landlords, alleging the developer squeezed them out of their dream project.

Another community fed up with illegally parked trucks

From NBC:

Scores of big rigs have been camped out on a Queens roadway, and residents are crying foul. Erica Byfield reports.

Tweeding routine backfired big time

From City & State:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s upset victory over Rep. Joseph Crowley shocked New York political observers, in part because Crowley was thought to have a strong foothold in his native borough of Queens, where he is chairman of the county Democratic Party.

At first, it was assumed that demographic turnover in his district, which spans northwestern Queens and the northeastern Bronx, had harmed Crowley, as the Italian and Irish populations have been supplanted by Latinos and Asians.

Demographic turnover was indeed to blame for Crowley’s loss, but not the kind that was widely assumed. But some of the election districts in which Ocasio-Cortez performed best were in mostly white neighborhoods in western Queens. The congressman fell victim to gentrification and that force may upend expectations in Democratic primaries throughout Manhattan and western Brooklyn and Queens. And the rise of younger voters who are newer to their districts and unattached to incumbents could power insurgent candidates throughout New York City.

So you had your minions usher in all this development for tower people and the tower people voted against you. How deliciously ironic!