This bloglift is like a new car.

posted by The Vidiot @ 12:22 PM Permalink

You just want to put it on and take it for a spin. Unfortunately, I have nowhere to go at this time.

{sigh}

The only thing I could come up with is to mention this idea by an architect for an open-source apartment building in Brooklyn.

What's going on here? As far as we know, this the world’s first attempt to design an apartment building in open source fashion. The building at issue is 580 Sterling Place, on the edge of Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. It will be a green, modernist, 8-unit, walk-up building.

I guess when it comes to development in Brooklyn, resistance is futile. It might as well be open source. At least that way, you can take part in blighting your neighborhood.

Speaking of blighting and neighborhoods, here is my favorite blog entry to date regarding a land purchase by a shady character.

We're sad to report that Brooklyn is in the process of losing another piece of history, as demolition is set to begin on St. George's Church at 203 York Street in Vinegar Hill. (Workmen on site confirm that the entire structure is coming down.) The 10,000-square-foot church and adjacent 5,000-square-foot parish hall were purchased from the Roman Catholic Diocese on October 24 by the Tocci family, a long-time landowner in the area, for $3,200,000. The Toccis, formerly proprietors of a waste management business, already have an illustrious track record in the neighborhood: they were responsible for tearing down another church, St. Ann's, at 251 Front Street back in 1992, and paving it over after their own business expansion plans failed. The lot is now, charmingly, lined with corrugated metal and rented out as truck parking. They've wasted little time on their latest anti-beautification effort, as a small rear addition on Gold Street has already been reduced to rubble (inset).

What I like about it is the little line that says, "The Toccis, formerly proprietors of a waste management business,..."

The mob has a special place here in Brooklyn's history. I remember watching a horse-drawn hearse carrying one of the recently deceased capos down the street outside my apartment in the late 80s.

In fact, they even used to dedicate medical centers to them.

I also noticed, with a jolt, the sign above the door that reads "The Anthony Anastasio Memorial Wing—Brooklyn Longshoremen's Medical Center." Now, if memory serves, this sign was covered up for some years by a LICH placard. Sorry if I'm slow on this, and the old sign was uncovered some weeks ago, but this is the first I noticed it. Staring at it was a chilling reminder of the nabe's vicious past and how much South Brooklyn was once in thrall of the Mob. Anthony "Tough Tony" Anastasio was a union boss who ruled the Brooklyn docks with an iron hand and the threat of reprisal by his mad brother, Albert Anastasio, head of Murder, Inc. He was no sweetheart and I can just imagine that, back in the day, that sign served as a reminder to locals to stay in line.

Only in Brooklyn.

Labels: brooklyn, development