Bklink: PLG Tower Survey Findings

The results are in and people that responded would most like to see…a grocery in the new 20-story glass tower proposed for Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. A grocery was the choice of 67 percent of those that filled out the survey for the ground floor, while 12 percent said bank and 10 percent said gym. Nearly 92 percent said they wanted a gym on the second floor.–Hawthorne Street

Bklink: PLG Glass Tower Survey

This survey isn’t intended to determine whether people want a 20-story glass tower in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens but what they’d like to see there if it’s built. “The ground floor of the building will most likely be a major retailer or a bank. (This is a premium space that will price out most restaurants and smaller businesses.) The second floor will reportedly be either offices or, possibly, a gym. A gym might also be possible on the ground floor.” The blogger will present the survey results to the developer.–Hawthorne Street

PLG’s Glassy ‘Park Tower’ from the Park

[Image courtesy of A Year in the Park]

That 20-story glass structure that would rise in Prospect Lefferts-Gardens that we revealed last week, would be visible from parts of Prospect Park. This is a quick approximation that blogger A Year in the Park, who does wonderful items on Prospect Park every day, threw together. We’re not sure about the proportions (we think it may understate the building a bit compared to its surroundings), but it’s definitely worth a look.

New Look Prospect Park: PLG Getting Big Glass Tower

That is a rendering of a new 20-story building that is planned for Lincoln Road in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens near Ocean Avenue. The building would have 210,000 square feet of space and come from Gilman Architects. Yesterday, we talked with architect Tom Gilman who said it’s “a tall building, but in a way that it’s pulled back from the street” and said that he designed it with “a lot of glass to give people views of the park.” The building would sit at the edge of Prospect Park, not far from the 1876 Olmsted and Vaux Boathouse. It would include 17,000 square feet of roof space that would be a park for residents. The building would also have an LED light system with a lighting scheme that will change hourly. Mr. Gilman said the lights would be “an abstract urban clock.” It’s unclear if the Prospect Park Alliance had previously seen the plans and whether it approves or disapproves of the building’s impact on vistas in the park. The building would also be very visible from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Bklink: Gentrification People

When some people talk about the changing demographics of Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, they don’t talk about in terms of race. Some use terms like “pure poor people” and “gentrification people.” Take, for instance, someone working at City Jerk and this description: “Since he started working at City Jerk in November, the food prices have gone up and the clientele has become more ‘mixed.’ ‘I don’t want to say the white people or black people,’ he said, searching for a politically correct word. ‘Yesterday I served more of the ‘gentrification people,” mimicking quotation marks around the euphemism with his hands. ‘They’ve been trying to kick out all the non-gentrification types.’–The Local/TRE

New Sunset Park and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens Blogs

We’re happy to note two new Brooklyn blogs, including one in Sunset Park, where we’ve been hoping to see some renewed neighborhood blogging activity:

The Sunset Park entry is The Sunset Park Blog, which is tied to a website called sunset-park.com that also includes a message board that could turn out to be both interesting and valuable if it catches on. We’ve missed consistent Sunset Park coverage since Sunset Parker’s short run last year, so we’re especially excited to see what kind of coverage this new blog has up its sleeve. Some early offerings include a nice look at the Christmas decorations on Fifth Avenue and some news about a new hotel on 39th Street.

Meanwhile, the relatively new Prospect-Lefferts Gardens entry is called Hawthorne Street. It bills itself as dealing with “local curiosities, reno tips and random thoughts on the urban environment” and its been keeping up a very active posting schedule so far.

Bklink: Death Approaches for Ocean Avenue House

“A construction fence went up around 185 Ocean Ave. last week, indicating that the house is slowly moving towards its demise. Still, we have received very few details about what will be built in its place – as we’ve said before, it had better not be some ugly piece of shit.”–Across the Park

Upcoming; ArtMart 11225 in Prospect Lefferts Gardens

We’re not sure we’re ready for the “get a jump start on the holidays” pitch in the press release we got from the sponsors of ArtMart 11225, a community arts and crafts market in Prospect Lefferts Gardens taking place on October 13. Nonetheless, we’ll happily note that it will happen on Lincoln Road between Ocean and Flatbush Avenue from 10AM-5PM. Here’s a bit of copied & pasted verbiage:

The market will feature the work of Brooklyn artists and artisans. Get a jump start on the holidays with gorgeous hand-made jewelry and knit-wear, one-of-a-kind pottery, African drums and smaller gift items, or spice up your wardrobe with unique silk-screened t-shirts and accessories. In addition, local landscape photographers, lithographers, and painters will be displaying and selling their art. Children’s arts and crafts activities will take place throughout the day at the Maple Street School located on Lincoln Road, and visitors to ArtMart will want to take advantage of great local food that reflects the diverse community of Prospect Lefferts Gardens: K-Dog and Dunebuggy (coffee, treats, soups and sandwiches), Enduro (Mexican), Meytex Lounge (Ghanaian), and Ali’s Roti Shop (Trinidadian).

We’re not quite ready to talk about the holidays or think about them quite yet, however.