BK’s National Park

Nationally, parks mean Old Faithful, Yosemite and delightful black bears hungry for picnic baskets. Here in Brooklyn it’s swings, a seesaw – maybe a ball field or two.

For some, waterfront NYC living means a houseboat

Gloria Weiss was living in a small SoHo apartment in the 1980s when one of her young students told her that he lived on a boat.

Island basking in the limelight

On their ride on the Staten Island Ferry yesterday morning, a couple from Florida got a special thank-you for coming to New York City from the lips of Mayor Michael Bloomberg himself.

GREEN PIECE

OF all the places around the city that the young, the professional and the hip have found to nest, the neighborhood that has proven most resistant to change might be Brooklyn’s Greenpoint.

Hunter’s Point Development Revealed

Speakers at a public hearing on the Hunters Point South proposed development were unanimously impressed by the 30-acre project.

MTA Willets land in dispute

More than ten acres of contaminated land now lies between the Flushing River and the site of the city’s ambitious project to revitalize the hardscrabble landscape of Willets Point.

TAKE IT TO THE RIVER

Here’s a look at what could be the city’s next great waterfront esplanade.If a group of lawmakers and local activists have their way, what is now a barren swath of cracked concrete overlooking the East River will become a jewel in the city’s plan to encircle Manhattan with a green necklace of waterfront parks.

Funding falls far short for roads in Fresh Kills Park

Without more money, roads proposed for the planned Fresh Kills Park might end up going nowhere.

A demure developer reshapes the borough

When a development team pitched a plan recently to build the city’s first outlet mall on the South Shore waterfront, the man behind the ambitious proposal was absent from the community meeting in St. Mark’s Methodist Church in Pleasant Plains.

Park in ‘Phase I’

Preliminary construction began last week on the long-delayed $150 million Brooklyn Bridge Park (BBP), officials announced last week.

Developer’s Dreams Deferred in Long Island City

Long Island City won’t be transitioning from Next Big Thing to Big Thing quite as quickly as some were planning. In August 2006, Alan and Stuart Suna, the brothers who run Silvercup Studios near the Queensboro Bridge, unveiled city-approved plans for Silvercup West:

Betting a Farm Would Work in Queens

One can only imagine how the judges reacted when the architects walked in lugging the kind of hulking concrete-pouring cardboard tubes used at construction sites filled with flowering heads of cabbage.

City looks to brighten a Coney Island icon

City officials are hoping for a brighter future for one of Coney Island’s best-known landmarks.
The city started seeking proposals Thursday for snazzier lighting for the Parachute Jump, a one-time thrill ride that rises 262 feet from Coney Island’s boardwalk. New lights were installed to illuminate the tower for the first time in four decades less than two years ago, but Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz says it could use some “blinging up.”

Con Ed sale of land to FedEx draws fire

At a time when Con Edison is asking customers to bear an 18% rate hike, the utility giant stands to make almost $70 million by selling off a chunk of its land in Astoria.

Hello, New Coney Island (Again)!

Another over-the-top Coney Island development proposal is in the works. Mayor Bloomberg unveiled a plan today to build the nation’s biggest urban amusement park there, including 4,500 residential units (20 percent are set-asides for low- and middle-income housing) and some retail establishments. The proposal basically spells doom for Thor Equities’ $1.5 million Vegas-style entertainment complex that can only get built if the city provides zoning for it.

Protecting a Wild Patch of City Marshland

Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times

Glenn Phillips of New York City Audubon, left, and William E. Morris, on the board of Mariners Marsh Conservancy, touring Arlington Marsh.

“Simply the last best unprotected New York City coastal wetland,” raved a coalition of 20 environmental groups.

Brooklyn To Get Historical Center

 Mayor Bloomberg and the speaker of the City Council, Christine Quinn, are expected to announce today the creation of a historical center on Flushing Avenue in the Brooklyn Navy Yard that will focus on the history of the navy yard and Northern Brooklyn.

Where Boats Go Quietly into the Good Night

Ruby Washington/The New York Times

“It’s a boater’s graveyard,” Theresa Scavo says of the Sheepshead Bay area.

Annadale Residents To Be Hooked Up To City’s Sewer System

A few hundred Staten Island homes and businesses are on their way to being a little more connected with the rest of the city – or at least with the part of the city that handles their waste water.

Brooklyn’s gateway sculpture

Two shining and shimmering ladies hoisted 30 feet up in the air and doing a little do-si-do will become Brooklyn’s gateway sculpture come 2009.