New York eyes post-hurricane housing needs

What if a Category 3 hurricane leveled an entire city neighborhood and left nearly 40,000 families homeless?

Wright-Designed Boathouse Opens in N.Y.

A boathouse designed by Frank Lloyd Wright opened to the public Friday on the city’s waterfront, more than 100 years after it was conceived and nearly 50 years after the architect’s death.

Retired subway cars make a splash

Seventeen-ton retirees, some 600 of them, will soon be living out their golden years on the Jersey Shore, where they will see plenty of scuba diving and fishing.

INCONVENIENT BOAT WRECK

Two people are safe after the Coast Guard rescued them from their homemade boat a mile off Sandy Hook, N.J.

THE ADVENTURES OF HENRY HUDSON

Just what does one have to do to get a river named after him? Henry Hudson knew. Read on to see how this famous navigator earned the honor.

Help name New York Aquarium’s baby Pacific walrus

Better brush up on your Yupik.

A Pacific walrus weighing 250 pounds has been born at the New York Aquarium – and officials want the public to name him.

Dolphin spotted swimming in Coney Island Creek

A baby walrus may be the big star at the New York Aquarium, but a wayward dolphin stole the show in Coney Island yesterday.

Sheepshead anglers in it for the big haul

Lately there’s been more excitement than usual at Sheepshead Bay. Last Saturday, the new super-sized catamaran party boat the Golden Sunshine set out from Pier 2 on her maiden voyage bottom fishing.

A landmark development

Plans to build much-needed housing, including apartments for low- and middle-income New Yorkers, on the Domino Sugar site in Brooklyn have gotten a major boost from the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission. How sweet it is.

The Big Spill

The Exxon Valdez disaster is certainly the most notorious oil spill in the United States — a single, terrible accident that poured 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound 1989, causing grievous damage to Alaska’s waters and beyond. But it is not the largest. In terms of volume it cannot match the steady seepage of oil into Newtown Creek, the polluted waterway that separates Brooklyn from Queens.

Reviving a Seaside Resort

FOR decades, this small city of 32,000 was one of the mysteries of the Jersey Shore.

Irish Toast a Summer Paradise Lost in the Rockaways

On Sunday, a little more than 200 people gathered in the Knights of Columbus hall on Beach 90th Street in the Rockaways to dance, have a drink and travel back in time to Irish Town, a cluster of bars and bungalows that served as a summer refuge for Irish New Yorkers until it was razed 50 years ago to make way for high-rise apartments.

Landmark Status Is Approved for Domino Refinery in Brooklyn

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

The Domino sign and the building it is on are not landmarks, but a spokesman said the developer was trying to save the sign.

The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously yesterday to designate the 1884 refinery of the Domino Sugar plant a landmark, making permanent a monument to the days when industrial and manufacturing giants lined the Brooklyn waterfront.

Fouled Creek’s Improvement Inspires a Site for Respite

Just past where the walkway passed over the chlorine contact tanks, the nature trail turned a corner. On the left was an asphalt plant — rusting backhoes, gray metal hoppers, piles of sand and brick. On the right was a concrete wall 10 feet high. Dead ahead were the still green waters of Newtown Creek.

Floating Garden

Inhabitat, a sustainable design blog, chose to bring our attention yesterday to the Science Barge. Currently floating off of Pier 84 in Hell’s Kitchen,

Kayak And Canoe Launch Ramp Opens In Queens Park

 It may have been the last day of summer Saturday, but one Queens park gave New Yorkers a reason to stay in the water.

Downtown Express photos by Milo Hess

Bird’s eye view of the work
Contractors were installing the deck of Tribeca’s Pier 25 last week as a sparrow monitored the work. Hudson River Park Trust officials hope to get more money so they can continue working on the park’s Tribeca section after the spring.

 

Downtown Express 

Greenpoint spill 3 times larger than the Exxon Valdez!

An underground oil spill that has been leaking toxic vapors into Greenpoint air since the 1950s is almost twice as large as once thought, a bombshell report revealed last week week.

Melting Arctic could make ship travel possible

Arctic ice has shrunk to the lowest level on record, new satellite images show, raising the possibility that the Northwest Passage that eluded famous explorers could become an open shipping lane.

Washington crossing boat replica built in Maine yard

YORK, Maine – When re-enactors stage George Washington’s 1776 crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas Day this year, they’ll make trip in a 40-foot replica longboat being constructed in a shop in this southern Maine town.