The Brooklyn Bridge is about to undergo a $500 million renovation project, including a massive lead paint removal, according to the Broadsheet Daily. The effort, which is being funded in part by stimulus money through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is set to take about four years. Contractor Skanska is slated to lead the project, which will begin around late May or early June. Overnight traffic on the bridge may be affected the most, according to a representative from the Department of Transportation, who said officials expect about 82 percent of the traffic to be diverted to the Manhattan Bridge.

The CityPoint tower in Downtown Brooklyn was approved for a $20 million federal stimulus bailout yesterday. The nearly unanimous city panel vote allows the stalled project to restart, with the support of the tax-exempt bonds. Supporters of the project said that the development will create jobs in the area and provide affordable housing, while detractors have criticized the development’s use of expensive land. John Tyus, a resident and member of the Families United for Racial and Economic Equality, has criticized the developers for relying on public funds for a bailout. “CityPoint developers chose to pay an astronomical price for the land, speculating on the profit they would make with their luxury development,” Tyus said. “Now they’re in trouble, but that’s not our responsibility. Their poor choices do not merit a bailout.”

Some of the landlords in New York City with the highest numbers of
housing code violations are receiving a share of $81 million of federal
stimulus money, with no requirement that they make repairs to their
buildings, the New York Daily News reported. Seven properties that have
received or are slated to get $1.5 million in stimulus money would make
the Slumlord Watch List proposed by City Council member Bill de Blasio,
who is running for public advocate. To qualify for the list, a property
with 35 or more units must have at least two “hazardous” or
“immediately hazardous” violations per unit. The 138-unit building at
234 Herkimer Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant qualifies with 374
violations, and the owner, Restore Housing Development, is set to get
$270,602 in stimulus funds. [more]

Downtown Brooklyn and Queens’ Rockaway Point have been tapped to receive millions in stimulus money for developments. The Bloomberg administration granted $20 million for a housing and retail complex, City Point, to be built on the east side of the Fulton Mall in Downtown Brooklyn, and $16 million for a supermarket and shopping mall in Rockaway Point, Queens. The projects were chosen because they presented long-term commercial and construction opportunities for the city, according to David Lombino, a spokesperson for the city’s Economic Development Corporation. “We’re eager to sustain the momentum in neighborhoods like these that had benefited from significant private investment in more flush times but are seeing little today,” Lombino said. After financing those projects, the city still has approximately $90 million in federal stimulus funds yet to be distributed.