Nightmare on Bond St. GL Exclusive: Dogs at Scarano’s Bunker Attack

We have posted many times about the Robert Scarano-designed building at Bond and Carroll Streets that we call the Bunker, but this scary story isn’t about the building or its design or the slow progress on the structure. It is about a GL reader who wrote to say that she and her husband and their dogs were attacked by the building’s guard dogs, who escaped from the premises and came after them on Bond Street. One the dogs was mauled badly enough to require surgery. Here is her story:

I’m a Carroll Gardens resident, and I’m very disturbed by the operations taking place around 342 Bond Street. Last night around 8:00 pm two very large attack dogs escaped from this lot and attacked my husband and our two dogs (one of my dogs needed surgery as a result). We contacted the police, who were familiar with the attack dogs and their owners. I am disgusted that the companies responsible for this lot have hired attack dogs in the first place, although I realize this is perfectly legal. However, I’m very upset that they do not adequately supervise the dogs, allowing them to escape and attack innocent bystanders. These companies should be held responsible for everything they bring into our community — including the attack dogs.

I’m not sure who to blame for this, but I know “K9 Powerhouse Kennels” provided the attack dogs (their sign is clearly posted on the fence). A company called “Double M Demolition, Inc.” also posted a sign at the construction site, so I assume they hired the attack dogs? Regardless, the members of our community have a right to know this is happening…..and a right to know that companies are endangering our safety. Fortunately my dogs’ and my husband’s lives were spared, but who’s to say this won’t happen again — and who’s to say that next time it won’t be a child? Shame on these companies. Carroll Gardens is a wonderful place to live, and I want to keep it that way.

The little dog who was attacked is named Cappy, and was in the BARC Parade in Williamsburg dressed as Captain Brooklyn. The victim later reported that she spoke with the owner of the attack dog company:

I spoke with Angelo Biondo today (he’s the owner of K9 Powerhouse Kennels). He thinks that Con Edison had been at the worksite and “dug a hole” but “they didn’t tell anyone”….so the worksite was left open, and that’s how the attack dogs escaped. Of course, his only response was “I’m really sorry” and “You’ll have to get in touch with the contractors.” I talked to the ASPCA Law Enforcement Department, and they said K9 Powerhouse Kennels are responsible for the dogs.

Cappy will recover from the awful and scary attack. The building, by the way, has attracted 36 complaints, although they have been for more run-of-the-mill problems like illegal work rather than savage dogs menacing passersby on the street.

Preliminary Work Starting on Public Place Site

Big changes are coming to the Public Place site between Smith Street and the Gowanus Canal as a prelude to a clean up of severe contamination and eventual development. Yesterday, we got an email from Community Board 6 District Manager Craig Hammerman noting that work is about to start on concrete removal at the site, which was once the home of a Manufactured Gas Plant. Here’s part of the email:

Beginning this week Bovis Lend Lease under contract with the City’s Economic Development Corporation will begin a surface concrete removal project at the Public Place site at the southeast corner of Smith/5th Streets. EDC has awarded this job to Bovis Lend Lease, which will serve as the construction manager. Bovis has hired Kelco Construction as its subcontractor to conduct the site cleanup…

Neighbors should expect to see the mobilization of earth-moving equipment at the site imminently. Signs at the site should be posted and the actual work should begin within the next few days. The contractor will be clearing brush, trees, and then removing surface concrete and debris from the site.

Trucks will enter through the Smith Street gate (across from Luquer Street), be loaded with material at the staging area in the southwest corner of the site and then exit through the 5th Street gate (nearest to Smith Street). The second gate onto Smith Street (near Ferrara Brothers) will be an alternative exit for this job but is not expected to be used except in an emergency. Hours of operation will be 7am to 4pm, weekdays. The job is expected to take 3 months.

Public Place is beginning to happen.

(GL Note: Yes, that is a gap in the fence wide enough for a small person or child to fit through and, yes, that is a sled leaning against the inside of the fence in this photo taken a couple of week ago.)

Crazy Vid: Tenant Pursues Landlord in Gowanus

There is a lot of background to this crazy video, which involves a tenant of a building on Ninth Street pursuing someone that works with/for the landlord.

More About Scoping the Toll Brothers Gowanus Development

Pratt Center for Community Development Director and City Council candidate Brad Lander was among those who spoke at the City Planning Scoping hearing on Thursday on the big and controversial Toll Brothers project in Gowanus. Late on Friday, Mr. Lander emailed to us to clarify things because he had been described as giving testimony that was supportive of the development. He said in the email that he is “not a supporter of the Toll Brothers project, generally or otherwise.”

One thing that has become clear to us is that the Toll Brothers proposal has become even more polarizing in Gowanus and Carroll Gardens than the rezoning that it seeks to circumvent. (The rezoning discussion is like to revive when the city presents its draft plans in late spring or early summer, per a timetable related to us by Brooklyn Planning Director Purnima Kapur.) Based on comments that are appearing in our posts and conversations we are having with residents in both neighborhoods, the development is causing (or reflecting) deep divisions in the community and some is very personal. Public controversy about the Toll Brothers development has, in fact, been far louder than that surrounding the far bigger Public Place project which would be only a few blocks away.

Mr. Lander’s lengthy testimony, from which we will excerpt a few passages, was actually quite thorough in terms of the issues with which the project review should deal. He spoke on behalf of a group called the Coalition for Responsible Redevelopment of the Gowanus Canal which includes the Carroll Gardens Association, the Fifth Avenue Committee, the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corp., the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, the NYC Central Labor Council and other labor and community groups. “Because Toll Brothers is proposing a rezoning for substantial residential development for 363-365 Bond Street in advance of a broader public rezoning of the Gowanus Canal area, this action must be held to a higher standard,” he said. “If approved, this rezoning would likely start a chain reaction of development that would have significant and broad public impact far beyond its borders. It is therefore appropriate and necessary that a full range of alternatives be considered, and that the EIS be broadly scoped to answer questions about the potential impact of this action.”

Significantly, Mr. Lander asked that the environmental review consider the Toll project with the “cumulative impact of other proposed development” in the area, even if they would not be finished until later. “The Scope of Work indicates that other projects that will not be completed by the Build Year of 2011 will not be considered in this DEIS,” he said. “We strongly object to this exclusion. If every project is able to look only at short-term impacts, then no one project may trigger sufficient impacts to show the need for additional school seats, or infrastructure investments, or child care, or traffic calming … but surely collectively they will generate these impacts.”

The testimony also requested that the environmental review consider on-site wastewater treatment, height limits, how it the development would impact overall zoning goals for Gowanus, long range impact of all developments on community facilities, and a host of other factors. Mr. Lander also called for a rezoning of Carroll Gardens to take place with a Gowanus rezoning (which is not likely to happen given the city’s timetable) and that the Toll development take this context into account as well. In terms of canalside uses, the testimony said:

The DEIS should consider additional small-scale retail and commercial uses, preferably artisan-, environmental- and community-oriented, along the Canal. We believe that adding a mix of uses along the Canal will help to enliven it, to the benefit of the project and the community at large. These should not be uses that would draw car traffic, but instead that would encourage pedestrian visits.

Written comments about the critical environmental review and what it should include can be submitted through March 24. (While comments can cover anything, at this stage, the most useful comments should cover elements that should be present in the environmental review; opportunities for lengthy commentary for or against the project will be available later.) The comments should be sent to Robert Dobruskin, Dept. of City Planning, 22 Reade St., New York, NY 10007. A copy should also be sent to Community Board 6 at 250 Baltic St., Brooklyn, NY 11231.

Gowanus as "West Park Slope"?

Today’s Times notices the changes that have been underway for a while along Third Avenue in Gowanus, particularly on the Third Avenue corridor where restaurants are sprouting. The story lists many of the developments that have been chronicled and even mapped (although they fail to mention the hotels). Here’s a sample:

Just before Christmas, he started transforming the old factory into a sprawling pizza and barbecue restaurant, with nearly 300 seats. Mr. Maropakis’s most recent addition is a brick oven he built, which can cook 1,000 pounds of meat at a time. Not everyone in the neighborhood shares his enthusiasm. In fact, about a month ago, when Mr. Maropakis spray-painted the words “Brick oven bar-be-que” on the plywood covering one of the windows, some people who work in the area thought it was a joke…

In the last couple of years, the high-end boutiques, cafes and restaurants that transformed Fifth Avenue have been spilling onto Fourth Avenue. But few residents expected Third Avenue to start going upscale so quickly, and some are already fearful that Park Slope and Carroll Gardens will merge to form one big brownstone Brooklyn neighborhood.

“They’re going to call Gowanus ‘West Park Slope’ or ‘East Carroll Gardens,’ ” Ms. Yurick said with a grimace. “It’s a joke. This is a truck route.”

Well, it’s still a truck route, but not such a joke anymore.

Gowanus Whole Foods: Open (Again) with Yellow Tape

The spit-and-tape fence at the toxic Gowanus Whole Foods site took a hit during last weekend’s windstorm. A week later, it’s still down, although someone has thoughtfully added yellow “caution” tape to the wreckage. The good news is that no one even has to duck in order to go for a walk on the polluted site. (It may be one of the most photographed, wide-open construction sites in Brooklyn at this point.) On other fronts: it would seem that the clock is rapidly ticking down on any possible 2009 opening for a supermarket, given that permits aren’t in place, key state approvals are lacking and the site remains abandoned.

Toll Brothers Gowanus Development Gets Scoped

The City Planning Department held its Scoping Hearing yesterday for the proposed Toll Brothers development on the Gowanus Canal. With neighborhood resistance to the project getting organized, the hearing attracted more attention than the average technical City Planning session. The room was full during the afternoon session and about 18 people spoke on the project. Blogger Pardon Me for Asking told us that 14 people spoke against the Toll rezoning and three spoke supportively of the project, though not necessarily the special rezoning. PMFA wrote that she was “proud” of the community’s performance at the hearing:

Clearly urging the Board to not issue the spot zoning change that Toll Brothers’ will need to push their project through, Carroll Gardens residents listed some of their concerns. Amongst the concerns raised about the effects the development will have on the area were effects on the infrastructure, the obvious hazards of building on a very polluted site as well as the recurrent flooding around the canal.

Community Board 6 District Manager Craig Hammerman, who is a candidate for City Council and has been working as a volunteer with residents to coach them on the land use review process used the session to blast the city government’s approach to both Carroll Gardens and Gowanus. “Political and economic forces seem to have wrenched control of the neighborhood’s destiny from the community itself,” he said in a prepared statement. “The community is here to take it back.” Mr. Hammerman seemed to reserve his harshest criticism for the city’s handling of the Carroll Gardens rezoning issue:

It’s a community that has been lobbying actively for the Department of City Planning to apply contextual zoning protections to prevent further destruction of its built form. We know the Department has committed to looking at Carroll Gardens at some unspecified future date. It is apparent, however, that we will likely need to wait for a new administration to take over before that will happen. In the interim, irreparable damages to the community will continue to mount. The decision not to act expeditiously is a conscious act that suggests that our city government is not there to protect us.

Mr. Hammerman urged the Planning Department to listen to resident concerns. “We’re raising an army of citizen planners to raise the issues that we believe must be considered,” he said. “We know that if an issue doesn’t make it into the scope we can’t get it studied, and if it isn’t studied it can’t be considered when looking at changes to the project.” Mr. Hammerman sought to draw a distinction between Carroll Gardens and Gowanus, which he called “a mixed-use community with an important industrial heritage whose distinct architecture has been deemed eligible by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.”

The Toll Brothers are asking for approval of their project ahead of any rezoning of Gowanus. All indications are that the city will recommend a zoning framework very similar to the density that the developer are seeking. Written comments can be submitted through March 24. The comments should be sent to Robert Dobruskin, Dept. of City Planning, 22 Reade St., New York, NY 10007. A copy should also be sent to Community Board 6 at 250 Baltic St., Brooklyn, NY 11231.

Bklink: Gowanus Hotel Row

Things are coming along well in the Gowanus Hotel Row, ie President Street between Third and Fourth Avenues. The new hotel at President & Third is taking shape and demolition permits are out for properties up the street where SAI is building two hotels. The day is coming when there’s a very good chance mom & dad will be staying in Gowanus when they come to visit.–Brownstoner

Scopng the Toll Brothers in Gowanus

The “Scoping Hearing” for the big, proposed Toll Brothers Gowanus development is today (3/13). There are two sessions, one from 2PM-5:30PM and the other from 6PM-8:45PM. It will take place at 22 Reade Street. Attendees can make statements of up to three minutes about the project and written statements can also be submitted through March 24. A reader left a comment on our post yesterday and we’re reproducing it here:

Tomorrow’s testimony is not to speak for or against this proposed development. It is to ask Toll to consider other options and expand the menu of choices for when this project goes thru ULURP. The “no build” option is automatically considered in the environmental review.

People can ask can ask for the project to be reduced to avoid negative impacts. The development is 447 apartments so an easy way to reduce size is scrap the 130 units of affordable housing, which probably doesn’t generate profit for Toll. We can ask for more on-site parking to quell fears of traffic congestion.

The big miss of this project is that Toll raises the development above the flood plain by programming parking at street level, which is a criminal approach to waterfront re-development and I doubt anyone will enjoy living there. Let’s ask for some restaurants, cafes, bars, art galleries, etc.. at street level! Toll can even add a few apartments / floors to pay for it!

Interesting.

Gowanus Bell Tolls: "Scoping" Hearing on Thursday

The first step for the Toll Brothers firm in trying to win approval for its big proposed development in Gowanus will occur tomorrow (Thursday, 3/13). That’s when a “Scoping Hearing” to determine the contents of an environmental impact study (or its scope) will take place at the Department of City Planning. The scoping document is a technical, yet important, one and opponents of the Toll plan are organizing to speak against the controversial development. The project needs to go through a full city land use review process because the developers are looking for a zoning change in advance of rezoning the neighborhood. There are two sessions on Thursday, one from 2PM-5:30PM and the other from 6PM-8:45PM. It will take place at 22 Reade Street. Attendees can make statements of up to three minutes about the project and written statements can also be submitted through March 24. There is vocal, if not bitter, opposition to the big Gowanus development from within the community. Residents are concerned it will be too big and exacerbate current flooding problems among other things.