I Been Dirt And I Don’t Care Because I’m Burning Inside

It’s easier to have 300 cubic yards of potentially toxic dirt “stolen” than it is to dispose of it properly, right? Just asking:

Tons of dirt are missing from the construction site of Brooklyn’s planned Ikea megastore, and cops are investigating if and why the potentially toxic soil was stolen, a company spokesman said yesterday.

The 300 cubic yards of soil were made up of crushed concrete and debris, according to Ikea’s Joseph Roth.

John McGettrick, of the Red Hook Civic Alliance, which opposes the project, said toxic materials, such as asbestos, oil and mercury, have previously been found at the site, and demanded an investigation.

Neighborhood Saves 100-Year-Old Concrete Warehouse; Ground Still Unremediated

Preservationists cheer as McMansionist Toll Brothers apparently pull out of Gowanus Canal project for now:

Toll Brothers has withdrawn an application for a state-supervised cleanup of a two-block stretch of Bond Street along the Gowanus Canal because an expected residential rezoning of the area hasn’t happened yet, a company spokesman told The Brooklyn Paper this week.

“In the end, we applied for the cleanup too early, said spokesman David Von Spreckelsen.

The reason stems from a Catch-22 on the waterfront. Toll Brothers won’t buy the site, including its historic, stark cement building, until the city rezones the land for residential use. But the state can’t approve a taxpayer-subsidized cleanup until the developer buys the site, which runs along Bond Street from First through Carroll streets.

Von Spreckelsen said the sale would be completed soon and that the company will develop the industrial site into a canal-front village of mixed-income apartments and townhouses.

The almost-acquisition is the latest in a string of sales to residential builders expected to transform the grimy Gowanus into an annex of posh Park Slope, just across Fourth Avenue.

The rezoning that Toll Brothers needs can’t move forward without approval from the Department of City Planning — which itself won’t move forward until after a series of public hearings that are sure to get heated in Brooklyn’s famously stinky armpit.

News of the Toll’s delayed progress pleased neighborhood residents who fear that the canal zone will lose its history to the McMansion builder.

In recent weeks, that fear has coalesced around a mysterious affection for one of the buildings on the Toll site: a concrete warehouse used in the late 19th- and early 20th century to store building materials.

Backstory: First Coyotes, Now Toll Brothers: New York City’s Exurbanization Is Nearly Complete.

Fedders, Friedrich And The Fifth Avenue Social Scene

All over Brooklyn the use of the stoop is declining, leading to a public campaign to preserve the culture:

Brooklyn’s legendary brownstone stoops are little more than speed bumps for the borough’s career-addled, stroller-burdened and iPod-addicted residents, a new Parsons School of Design study has found.

“There are not a whole lot of people taking the time to sit on stoops anymore,” said Chelsea Briganti, one of three Parsons undergraduates working on a report and an awareness campaign that they’ve titled, “Sit Here.”

Briganti said the project aims to understand and address “the decreasing culture of social interaction formerly known as ‘stoop culture.'”

So far the findings have been depressing. The youngest wave of Park Slope residents prefers bars to stoops.

“They all say they wish there was more public culture,” Briganti said, “but they go to Southpaw [a Fifth Avenue rock club]” instead of sitting on stoops.

Well, duh! Wouldn’t you rather go to Southpaw to see something like, for example, Christopher Moltisanti’s new indie band? Exactly:

With the success and awards [Michael] Imperioli has garnered in the acting world, including a resume of roles in films helmed by the prestigious likes of Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee, and the media frenzy that’s sure to ignite in April when the final season of “The Sopranos” kicks off, one can’t help but wonder: why is Imperioli launching a rock band now?

With a steady gaze, and some fidgeting with his cell phone, the Tribeca-based actor explained that in part, his decision was based on “living through that 9-11 shit.”

. . .

Imperioli, 40, also revealed that [La Dolce Vita]’s set list primarily consists of original songs — written by the band as well as material Imperioli penned between 1986 and 1996.

. . .

“In some ways, [my songs] were written in a different time period,” said Imperioli, who claims to be a fan of Robert Pollard of Guided by Voices and Courtney Love. But Imperioli’s material is being arranged now with Amitin and Tighe, whom he describes as “great musicians.

. . .

Summing up their sound as New York-influenced, raw and gritty, the trio is humming with excitement over their upcoming Southpaw date, where they will share the bill with Death of Fashion and Generals and Majors. Rather than focusing their energies on long-term achievements like contracts and recording CDs, the LDV boys are just happy for another opportunity to share their music.

Turbulent Stink And Grit And Scum At Owl’s Head

Stink still not resolved. DEP on the defensive:

At a town hall meeting organized by Community Board 10, State Senator Marty Golden and City Councilmember Vincent Gentile, representatives of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) faced the crowd almost sheepishly, acknowledging long-standing shortcomings in their handling of the operation of the plant and the smells that have fouled the community’s air. Of all of DEP’s 14 wastewater treatment facilities, the Owls Head plant has recorded the most complaints.

“We apologize for the quality-of-life impact of the plant on the community,” Mark Lanaghan, assistant commissioner of intergovernmental relations for DEP told the crowd gathered in the auditorium of Xaverian High School, 7100 Shore Road. “It doesn’t have to be like that. It hasn’t always been like that, and it won’t always be like that.”

. . .

Said Vincent Sapienza, assistant commissioner at DEP’s Bureau of Wastewater Treatment, the agency is currently covering the plant’s primary settling tank launders, where turbulence during the first stage of treatment causes a high level of noxious odor. The covers, which are constructed of steel beams and laminated plywood, are being installed with the expectation that they will last several years till a permanent solution can be created, Sapienza said.

In addition, according to Sapienza, the agency is in the first steps of “design(ing) an odor control system” for the primary settling tanks, which also appear to be responsible for emanations of odors into the community. The first step, he said, is getting a contractor to “model” an appropriate system, then to build it.

We should assume (hopefully!) that this next part contains a typo:

Other steps the agency is taking include putting out for bid once again the $20 extension of the facility’s grit and scum building. This will enable tanks stored in the open air, to be enclosed. The contract for this work is expected to be awarded in early 2007, with containers stored indoors by late 2009.

$20?

Cold Comfort (Station)

Speak for yourself, you incontinent old kook:

Bladders may be bursting in the city’s third largest commercial hub, but currently there are no plans to install public toilets in Downtown Brooklyn.

And this was the loudest criticism at last week’s Community Board 2 transportation committee meeting, where two landscape architect firms presented their plans for a new Flatbush Avenue streetscape and revitalized Fulton Mall.

“There’s no public toilets anywhere in this downtown area. How can these people be making these plans to try to entice the public to come down and feel happy and buy when the planners don’t have the courtesy to install some toilets for people’s use,” said an outraged CB 2 member Bill Harris.

“A lot of the folks who shop here come great distances from way out in central and southern Brooklyn, and here they are stuck with bursting bladders. It’s insulting, stupid and very short-sighted, and just plain cheap,” he added.