Gowanus Canal

Several City Council members are not happy with the repeated flooding of the Gowanus Canal, and they are hoping that a study of the effects will be conducted before new developments move forward. [more]

Council Member Brad Lander and LPC Chair Robert Tierney

City Council member Brad Lander has called out the Landmarks Preservation Commission, chastising it for not launching a new website that would to bring transparency to its selection process, Crain’s reported.

The website has been under discussion for more than three years and would include a list of proposed landmarks and where the properties stand in their review. [more]

A rendering of the project at 363-365 Bond Street

Councilman Brad Lander is urging developer the Lightstone Group to drop their plan to build a 170-unit mixed-use project on the Gowanus Canal, after the area flooded during Hurricane Sandy, Park Slope Patch reported.

In an open letter written to the Lightstone Group CEO David Lichtenstein released yesterday, the councilman stated: ”It would be a serious mistake for you to proceed as though nothing had happened, without reconsidering or altering your plans, and putting over 1,000 new residents in harm’s way the next time an event of this magnitude occurs.” [more]

Council member Brad LanderSeveral Brooklyn council members are each reserving more than $1 million to finance resident-selected projects in their districts. According to the Brooklyn Paper, more than 100 people attended a meeting to pitch ideas to City Council member Brad Lander on how Park Slope should use the funds last week at the Old First Reformed Church.

Lander wants to use the money for new construction projects or to renovate existing infrastructure, he said.

The owner of a rundown building at the corner of Seventh Avenue and 2nd Street that once housed the Landmark Pub, with an address of 187 Seventh Avenue, wants the district to give her the money to renovate the structure into an art gallery.
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Local officials and residents are riled over a plan to operate an elite public school set to open inside a crumbling educational facility in Park Slope, which houses three existing troubled high schools. The school, Millennium Brooklyn, has raised hackles in the community, inciting claims of racism and discrimination against the schools inside the John Jay High School building, according to the Brooklyn Paper. Among the biggest complaints opponents have is an allotted $35,000 in extra funding to Millennium for computers and other equipment, according to local City Council member Brad Lander…. [more]

A pair of New York lawmakers is expected to announce proposals today that would pile on the pressure for lenders to dole out mortgage modifications quickly to underwater homeowners, the Wall Street Journal reported. Among the legislative measures that State Sen. Jeff Klein and Brooklyn City Council member Brad Lander are set to announce is a $100-a-day fine for banks that fail to maintain foreclosed properties. They’re also proposing that lenders be required to post a bond for each property in their portfolio that is vacant due to foreclosure. While New York City is second in the country in mortgage modification activity, only 6.1 percent of eligible borrowers here have actually received modifications through the federal government’s Making Home Affordable loan modification program. “Lending insittutions aren’t taking this seriously enough,” Klein said. He hopes the new requirements would act as a foreclosure deterrent that would make banks “more willing to modify mortgages and keep people in their homes.” [WSJ]

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A portion of the map

City Council member Brad Lander has launched an interactive map tracking stalled construction sites in his district, which comprises portions of southwestern Brooklyn, including Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, Gowanus and Windsor Terrace, according to Brownstoner. The map includes demarcations for vacant development sites, existing building conversions with stop-work orders, stalled construction sites and those vacant buildings that are in so-called “derelict condition.” The survey found that a total of 39 sites had applied for demolition or construction permits, before halting progress for an extended period of time. The Real Deal’s 2010 Data Book, now available for purchase, also includes a list of stalled construction sites in New York City. TRD