Photo courtesy of KlemZven

• Bring back a trolley!, Brooklyn Papers, Oct 21, 06
• Cheap housing advocates push for more changes in subsidy program, Brooklyn Papers, Oct 21, 06
• Trolley idea is derailed, Brooklyn Papers, Oct 21, 06
• Plan B for 421-a, Brooklyn Downtown Star, Oct 19, 06
• ‘Tears’ & ‘Control’, Courier Life
  

  Safe-T-Gallery in Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood, at 111 Front Street, Suite 214, presents two shows this month: Corey Armpriester’s “A History Of Tears” and Jun-Ah Kim’s “Mind Control.”

  The studio will be hosting a studio session for the crying project, October 21 from 3-7 p.m.; anyone willing and able to cry before the camera is welcome to drop by for a free portrait.

  Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 12-6 p.m. and Thursday until 8 p.m. For information, visit www.safetgallery.com

  Photo courtesy of dietrich

If you’re reading this today (Sun) it’s not too late to go to the Dumbo Art Under the Bridge Festival. If you went already, what did you think?

• Gleason’s Ring Cycle, Urban Studies, NY Times, Oct 15, 06
• The land down under — under the Manhattan Bridge, Lonely Planet, Oct 15, 06
• David Walentas Develops Dumbo, Still Makes Space for Artists, Bloomberg.com, Oct 13, 06
• The Paradox Of DUMBO, The New York Sun, Oct 13, 06
• Growing Pains: Dance Stakes Its Claim in Brooklyn, The Brooklyn Rail

You may have seen yesterday’s Curbed entry Dumbo Artists Threatened by Babies Lawyers. The Metro NY article referenced by Curbed wrote about how before Dumbo buildings started to become condo-fied, it was/is an artists’ community of lofts and studios. Then the families and strollers started moving in the area. Now “lawyers, accountants and IT professionals” have moved in. Four years ago, there were two law firms in Dumbo. Now there are eight.

I hope this weekend’s Art Under the Bridge festival in Dumbo won’t be an artifact in two years as one artist commenter said:

“It’s too bad that there’s no future for us here. Sure makes the neighborhood homogenous when it’s all people from one income bracket. Oh well. I’d give the “open studios” another 2 years or so. Just so you know-most working artists don’t hate rich people or yuppies, we just want to pay normal rents, instead of corporate rents”

{Dumbo Artists Threatened by Babies Lawyers, Curbed.com}
{First strollers, now lawyers in Dumbo, Metro NY}

  Photo by dumbonyc, at Almondine Bakery, 85 Water Street

Dumbo, Brooklyn articles this weekend, October 8, 2006:

Underground party scene: The City: Party Animal, October 8, 2006, NY Times

“In 2000 in the middle of summer, I paid $5,000 for a one-night rental of a 15,000-square-foot brick loft on the ninth floor of a building in Dumbo. There were 86 artists involved. There were hundreds of people in the street sending up fireworks and dancing with this kind of anarchist marching band…”

Brooklyn Navy Yard: A Shipyard’s Rebirth, Guided by the Past, October 8, 2006, NY Times

“Demolition is to begin early next year on Building 128, a former machine shop as big and hulking as an airport hangar; three new buildings are planned in its place. Elsewhere in the 300-acre industrial park, which sits along the river between Williamsburg and Dumbo, a half-dozen projects are in the works.”

Upcoming Dumbo Art Under the Bridge Festival: Brooklyn’s edgy DUMBO art scene, Sept 21, 2006, The Salt Lake Tribune

“But DUMBO always throws aside its cultivated introspection for the Art Under the Bridge Festival, this year celebrating its 10th anniversary with a three-day smorgasbord of creative delights Oct. 13-15. Along with extensive gallery showings, neighborhood wanderers who visit for the festival will discover Project Glow: light installations and sculptures illuminating the waterfront and Brooklyn Bridge Park…”

Upcoming Dumbo Art Under the Bridge Festival: 30 Blocks of DUMBO Done Over With Artistic Flair, October 4, 2006, Courier Life

“…No other neighborhood could host a public space art event of such scale and intervention without the full support of the local community: artists, residents, and local business…”

  Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

From the NY Times:

“…production of one of his fire-and-brimstone expositions, called Hell Houses, in one of the most secular corners of the universe, the Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn.

A Hell House is essentially a mix between a Halloween stunt and a fundamentalist morality play. A Demon Guide takes audience members from room to dry-ice-filled room, showing them sins and consequences: a grisly abortion, a school shooting, a gay man dying of AIDS. After a trip through hell itself, Lucifer appears to deliver a speech; then, in an adjoining room, an actor playing Jesus encourages the audience to ask for forgiveness.”

St. Ann’s Warehouse
38 Water St.
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Previews Start: Oct. 1, 2006
Opening Date: Oct. 10, 2006
Closing Date: Oct. 29, 2006

Ticket Price: $25
Ticket Information: Ticketweb: 718-254-8779
ticketweb.com

{The Road to Hell (and Maybe Heaven) Detours Through Brooklyn, NY Times}

The Real Deal came out with an interview of the unofficial mayor of Dumbo, David Walentas. Mr. Walentas, the owner and president of Two Trees Management Company — a Dumbo, Brooklyn-based firm that he founded over 35 years ago and that has developed, owned, and managed almost $1 billion in real estate since then. Mr. Walentas purchased eight buildings — 2 million square feet — at $6 per square foot in 1978. For almost 30 years, he’s persisted and has gone through the ups and downs of trying to redevelop Dumbo while keeping the neighborhood character. Some highlights:

What has been your biggest contribution to society?
My kid, Jed, who is terrific. But, in a larger sense, probably Dumbo. As a large urban development, it is one of the few things that will matter in 100 years.

You make it sound like you are solely responsible for Dumbo.
I am solely responsible. My wife Jane, who has been my partner, certainly she was responsible, but we didn’t get a lot of help from the government and nobody wanted to work with us for a long time. Nobody really got it. The planning people didn’t get it. The community board voted against every rezoning we proposed down there. The banks all quit. My partners all quit, so we ended up with all the marbles.

What is your greatest achievement professionally?
Clearly Dumbo has defined my life for the last 25 years, my whole adult life. And it has been entirely successful on every level. When I first got there, it was vacant industrial buildings. We bought 2 million square feet from Harry Helmsley for $12 million. We are going to sell one apartment in the Clock Tower [Building] probably for twice that.

{The Closing: David Walentas, The Real Deal, October 2006}

We previously reported the sale of the penthouse condo at 70 Washington, but the New York Post has an article about the sale today with additional info:

• A prominent Westchester lawyer has purchased the condo
• The 70 Washington penthouse was initially eyed by rap star Busta Rhymes, but he did purchase two J Condo units.
• J Condo: 87% sold
• Beacon Tower (79 units): 80% sold
• 70 Wash (210 of 259 units sold): 81% sold

{CLOCK $TRIKES, NY Post}
{70 Washington Street Record Sale, DumboNYC.com}

NextStop NYC, an initiative of New York City’s Department of Small Business Sesrvices features the great neighborhoods in NYC along the F subway line. They break down the city line by line and feature Dumbo Brooklyn at the York Station stop on the F Line.

On the Dumbo page, Dumbo is described as Arts & Draughts, “snuggled along Brooklyn’s waterfront between the towering Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges lies DUMBO, a small F-train neighborhood chock full of galleries, funky shops and historic buildings.”

Creativity Among the Cobblestones
DUMBO has quickly become a creative hotspot. The charming old warehouses and manufacturing spaces of yesteryear house up-and-coming artists, photographers, fashion designers, web designers and other members of the creative class today. Furniture makers and woodworkers take advantage of large lofts to craft their unique pieces, while advertisers and printers fill workspaces throughout the neighborhood. Turn any corner in charming DUMBO and you’re likely to bump into a show space or boutique or come across a gallery opening, theatrical performance, cutting-edge design gathering or fashion show. And thanks to the neighborhood’s iconic architecture and stunning views of the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan skyline, hundreds of movies and TV shows have also been filmed in DUMBO, including The Sopranos, Law & Order, and Sex & the City.

I’m glad to see the city of NYC supporting small businesses. Many Brooklyn neighborhoods attract small businesses and Dumbo is no exception. If you’re a business owner in Dumbo, contact us so we can add it to our list for recommendations. We occasionally get asked about recommending small businesses in Dumbo by people looking for certain services/products.

{NextStop NYC, Dumbo}

Shootings for movies and tv shows are pretty frequent in Dumbo. The new ABC show Six Degrees was shot on location in Dumbo a few weeks back. Today, on Washington Street there’s a shooting for the feature film I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (out in 2007) starring Adam Sandler, Dan Aykroyd, Jessica Biel, Steve Buscemi, and Kevin James. It looks like they’ve been shooting in Prospect Heights, Park Slope, and other locations in Brooklyn/Manhattan according to the IMDB message boards.

Rascal provided this photo who reported “Everyone and everything you see in this photo is part of the shoot–there were hundreds of extras–big set-ups.”

Thanks Rascal for the tip and photo!

From The Times UK on Friday, a piece about the NYC housing market mentions the Dumbo, Harlem, and Williamsburg area becoming more popular as the limited land in Manhattan drives gentrification out to these areas:

“Another Brooklyn suburb to see its fortunes rise is Dumbo (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), dubbed “the new East Village”. Situated between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges, it has cobblestone streets, warehouse buildings perfect for loft living and incredible views of the Manhattan skyline. Two apartments in a converted cardboard-box factory in Dumbo sold this summer for $5.8 million.”

{Bite into a sweet big apple, The Times UK, September 8, 2006}