The Swedish Box Store*

Not to put too fine a point on it:

Whether or not the excitement of opening day lingers, remains to be seen.

“I think they just have really good PR people,” said Sam Ahmad, who owns Home Court furniture store in nearby Cobble Hill. “And if it doesn’t work out, they will have ruined an entire section of Brooklyn.”

*Sort of like “the Scottish king”.

Here I Sit, SoBroken Hearted, Tried To Fit But Only Arted

Carpetbagging hedonists are disappointed to find that the South Bronx doesn’t really offer the libertine atmosphere they expected:

Some creative types streaming across the Harlem River in search of the city’s “next” neighborhood are starting to find their new home to still be more South Bronx than “SoBro.”

At least that’s artist Emily Stedman’s conclusion after her show, “Erotic Watercolors,” was pulled off a neighborhood gallery’s walls when patrons at adjacent restaurant deemed it offensive.

“I expected it to be an anything goes, sky’s-the-limit, open kind of place,” said Stedman, 59, who left her loft in TriBeCa for Mott Haven in December after tiring of hearing people at gallery openings talk more about real estate prices than art on the walls.

“I’ve been in New York a long time and there’s always a neighborhood where people move to — a Williamsburg or a Long Island City, and it seemed like Mott Haven was going to be the next place. I don’t know if that is still going to happen.”

Her show features soft watercolors of couples or threesomes in various states of embrace. The opening earlier this month at the Bruckner Gallery attracted dozens of art patrons.

But the owner of the Bruckner Bar and Grill, a hip new dining spot which owns the gallery, ordered the show to come down after some of the neighborhood old guard — who rented out the space for golden wedding anniversaries and the like — considered the paintings pornographic.

“A lot of young people have moved here, but you still have a lot of old timers coming in for parties or what not,” said Alex Abeles, the bar’s owner. “We didn’t want to take it down but you could see that it collided with the ideas of people.”

Stedman, who has shown at the Brooklyn Museum and at galleries in Chelsea, said she was shocked that the show was closed, and added that it was hard to imagine something like it happening in Manhattan or Brooklyn.

Next Thing You Knew, You Was Gentrified!

I guess it’s not a nice thing to wake up one morning next to an IKEA:

When she moved to her apartment five years ago, Perian Carson’s small corner of Red Hook in Brooklyn looked much different. An abandoned Civil War-era warehouse sat a few blocks away on Van Brunt Street. Nearby, along the cobblestones on Beard Street, she could see the remnants of the old Todd Shipyards, where ships were repaired in a massive graving dock.

It was a drowsy neighborhood where one could smell the harbor, a close-knit community where people signed for one another’s mail. Ms. Carson tended a small garden on the sidewalk near her building.

Today, the graving dock and many of the cobblestones are paved over, and from her garden, Ms. Carson sees something else: an enormous blue and yellow Ikea superstore, all 346,000 square feet of it, rising along the waterfront. The old warehouse is now a Fairway supermarket, with luxury rentals above.

“I’m at the fulcrum here,” Ms. Carson said one evening, as she tended to the lilies and goldenrod in her garden. “It’s so much at once.”

Unholy Union

Bloomberg and unions, teaming up to force eminent domain on the Iron Triangle near Shea Stadium:

The Bloomberg administration has forged an unusual pact with labor leaders, promising that in exchange for their support of the city’s ambitious plan to transform Willets Point, a 62-acre enclave of auto repair shops and cinder block sheds near Shea Stadium, the project will provide union jobs and good wages.

Union leaders hailed the agreement as a template for similar pacts with city and state officials, even as the Real Estate Board of New York, the industry’s powerful lobbying arm, criticized it.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has promoted a $3 billion plan to raze the area, which is often flooded when it rains, to create a vast neighborhood of office buildings, hotels, parks, restaurants, retail shops and up to 5,500 apartments.

But some local civic groups, property owners and elected officials have opposed the plan because it calls for displacing about 260 small businesses, possibly through eminent domain. Housing groups like Acorn and some union leaders have also pushed for more housing that would be affordable for low- and middle-income New Yorkers.

After months of negotiations, the city recently completed a deal with unions representing construction workers and building service and retail workers. In return for their support, the Bloomberg administration essentially promised to require that developers use union construction contractors and pay union wages to building service workers like doormen and security guards.

The city also agreed to look favorably upon developers who propose job-intensive businesses at Willets Point that would pay at least $10 an hour. At the same time, the city said it would discourage “suburban models of big-box stores,” a reference to Home Depot and Wal-Mart.

“The transformation of Willets Point is one of the city’s most important economic development projects today, and the fact that we were able to come to an agreement on it with organized labor is good news,” said Deputy Mayor Robert C. Lieber. “We’ll continue to work closely with community and advocacy groups, elected officials, labor and the private sector to ensure the transformation of this blighted area results in the right balance of good jobs, affordable housing and sustainable design while remaining economically feasible.”

The support of organized labor for the administration’s initiative is vital because the City Council must approve zoning changes to make it possible. Labor is particularly influential in the Council, providing votes and campaign contributions to many members.

Location Scout: Iron Triangle.

Annotation: When you need something controversial passed, couch it in terms of “jobs for the community.”

New Yorkers: They’re Just Like Us!

Even people in hip, post-cool Brooklyn line up days in advance for IKEA openings:

The doors to Brooklyn’s new Ikea have yet to open, but the madness has begun.

Shoppers in Red Hook were plotting ways to get their hands on a bargain Friday after hearing thousands of dollars of free furniture would be up for grabs Monday morning.

“I’ll camp two days for a couch,” said student Kashmere Square, 20, when he found out the first 35 customers would receive a $699 sofa, and the next 100 will be rewarded with a $199 armchair.

“It’s cool. I’ll definitely be shopping there. I need a computer stand, a table and chairs.”

Michael Malgonada, 17, quickly called friends to work out how they would take turns to secure a spot at the front of the line.

“For a free sofa from Ikea? [I’ll] definitely [line up],” he said.

“If you have to be 21, I’ll bring somebody older. We’ll do shifts.”

Ikea’s doors officially swing open at 9 a.m. Wednesday, and giveaways will be handed out throughout the day at the 346,000-square-foot store on Beard St.

Annotation: “Ikea Riot” (Gridskipper, February 10, 2005); “Three die in Saudi shop stampede” (BBC, September 1, 2004)