Brooklyn politicians hope that landmarking LICH will keep SUNY Downstate from closing it.

Cobble Hill really wants to keep its hospital. Ever since the State University of New York trustees voted unanimously to close the Long Island College Hospital in Cobble Hill, local politicians—and just about everyone else involved—have been desperately trying to keep the medical center open. A group of unions and doctors won a temporary reprieve, but the prognosis for the hospital is not good.

SUNY chairman H. Carl McCall claims that "There is no plan whatsoever with respect to real estate," but local councilman Brad Lander, who represents the 39th District, snaking from Cobble Hill to Borough Park, thinks otherwise.

"It's hard to pin down motives," Mr. Lander told Crain's New York Business, "but it doesn't seem like all the avenues have been explored to make this facility profitable and have it continue to function as a hospital." He estimated the value of the real estate at $500 million, if converted to housing, as is allowed by the current zoning designation.

But besides converting it to housing, the issue of what can be done with LICH is a thorny one. And if Mr. Lander and a coterie of Brooklyn politicians have their way, the range of possibilities for the buildings will get a lot smaller.

The current zoning designation for the hospital is R6, the same as the surrounding neighborhood, and the predominant development type in R6 zones is the workaday townhouse. Though a tower-in-a-park-style development would be possible under the current zoning, a would-be developer would have to sacrifice about 20 percent of the floorspace to do it.

To hedge against this possibility and remove the incentive for SUNY Downstate to sell the campus for cash, Mr. Lander, along with Councilman Steve Levin, Borough President Marty Markowitz and a few state senators, are calling for the land use protections in place in the rest of Cobble Hill—a 50-foot height limit and the historic district landmarking—to be extended to the hospital's campus.

LICH's two main blocks south of Atlantic Avenue, between Henry and Hicks streets, would be the biggest prize for any would-be developer. But LICH's main building north of Pacific Street is also massively overbuilt according to the current zoning—if it were torn down and rebuilt, the developer would have to downsize the building by more than 200,000 square feet.

The biggest threat (at least, if you see development as a threat) might not be a wholesale razing of the site, though, but rather an obscure land use move: demolishing most but not all of the building, in order to keep from having to comply with the underlying zoning.

According to section 54-41, a little-known provision of the New York City zoning code—the same provision that L&L intends to use to resculpt a post-war office tower at 425 Park Avenue into a Foster + Partners masterpiece—land owners are allowed to reconstruct overbuilt buildings without downsizing, so long as they keep 25 percent of the existing floorspace and the new building doesn't violate any zoning provisions that the old one did not.

And while the 50-foot height limit wouldn't stop a future landowner from using 54-41, inclusion in the Cobble Hill Historic District might, as it would require the notoriously fickle Landmarks and Preservation Commission to sign off on any renovation.

Mr. Lander and others are hoping this designation would dissuade SUNY Downstate from trying to sell off the property in the first place—but what happens if they call hospital advocates' bluff and do it anyway?

The Observer spoke with Ross Moskowitz, a land use attorney at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP, who pointed out that if the landmarking goes forward but efforts to save the hospital are unsuccessful, the protections could backfire.

"There could be unintended consequences," said Mr. Moskowitz. For example, "the building could sit dormant and be an eyesore in the community"—or the building could simply be converted to residential use without any alteration to the façade, leaving the less-than-stunning structure, built in 1972, in place forever.

Brad Lander, speaking with The Observer, said that they were in it to win. When asked if landmarking the building could backfire, preventing the uninspired brick building from being remade into a more attractive building, Mr. Lander called the choice between the possible residential alternatives a "lose-lose."

"As opposed to tearing it down and building newfangled ugly condo towers?" the councilman asked. "You're offering me two very bad scenarios, and saying, are you afraid you're choosing one very bad scenario instead of another?"

Brad Lander says, "Where's the bus?" (Kit Dillon)

On every straphanger's gift list this winter. (Kit Dillon)

The bus stop is a lonely place, made lonelier without the reassurances of time. Like Estragon said, “Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful.” Much better to wait underground for the subway where your time is allotted to you by little digital clocks hanging from the ceiling.  No more leaning out and staring into the endlessness of a dark tunnel looking for light. Your train is 4 minutes away, at least on those lines fortunate enough to have the timers.

New York City is not a place for waiting. We’re terrible at it, and the City Council knows it. Today, joined by transit advocates and riders, a group of council members introduced a resolution calling on city agencies to install “bus clocks” in all of the 3,300 shelters across the city. Clocks that would display real-time bus arrival information, not simply those flimsy timetables many bus poles now unreliably, even flagrantly, post. It’s a move that will finally see the city catching up with such other metropolitan innovators as Albany, Syracuse, and Champaign, Ill. They've even got an online version in Boston—Boston!

“Bus Time and subway countdown clocks have been tremendously helpful technologies for straphangers,” Bronx Councilman James Vacca, chair of the Transportation Committee, said. “Knowing when the next bus or train will arrive gives straphangers time to pick up coffee or the morning paper rather than standing around with no information.”

That’s the point, of course. A moment with no information, in a city like ours, in a time like this, is a matter of life and death! Or at least a blown meeting or missed first date. Of course, we know, waiting now, that a bus will come. It always does. But we don’t know when and that lets the mind wander into strange and uncharted territory. What if the bus never comes? What are we waiting here for? Is it all worth it? Why are we here? Tough questions for the 2.5 million average weekday bus riders. Tough questions for anybody.

The MTA has a new system, known as Bus Time, currently accessible from a smart phone app, that was first installed as pilot program on the B63 line in Brooklyn. It has since expanded to a few more lines in Staten Island and the Bronx, and by the end of 2013, it will be available for all bus routes in the city. But as the concerned City Council members point out, smart phones are not as ubiquitous among the city’s elderly and low income residents, which creates a very real accessibility issue.

“There are few things as frustrating as waiting for a bus without knowing when it will show up, especially if you’re already running late for work or the weather isn’t cooperating,” Councilman Steve Levin said. “Installing countdown clocks in bus shelters is an easy step that the MTA can and should take to ensure that all riders know when to expect the next bus.”

Currently the city bus shelters are built and maintained by CEMUSA, a world wide leader in, what it calls, "iconic street furniture," better known as bus-stop-meets-billboard.  According to the franchise agreement with the city, which includes a clause about installing and maintaining future systems as they are developed, CEMUSA is already in a position to install countdown clocks without serious contractual changes.  As for the costs of the initial installation, the council hopes that some of the financing can come from discretionary appropriations and toggling agreements with advertisers, in which time information is alternated regularly with advertisements.

"With Bus Time going citywide," declared Brad Lander, "it's time for the MTA, New York City, and CEMUSA to overcome bureaucratic and inter-agency hurdles and make bus clocks a reality in New York City."

Danielle Radcliffe, who was once seen on Smith Street.

Another day, another story about how Brooklyn residents are flipping biscuits over the amount of filming on their streets. This time, it's the good people of Brooklyn Heights complaining that 14 productions in one month have led to impossible parking conditions, the inability to leave one's home during a shoot (lest they ruin the effect of a pristine 19th-century wonderland that is currently being used as a background for Winter's Tale), and, obviously, Colin Farrell racing a horse up and down the street at all hours. City Councilman Steve Levin recently came out in favor of making Brooklyn Heights a "hot spot," which would mean a moratorium on film permits for the neighborhood.

But while this may seem like petty pouting, the flocking of filmmakers to Brooklyn has been a major sticking point in the last several years. Almost all areas of the borough have tried to pass some film permit ban, without much success, creating a disgruntled breed of Brooklynite ... one that almost could pass for his Manhattan brethren. Here are the five best comments made by  neighborhood locals from our favorite borough.

1. “Imagine every single thing that looks like the 21st century being removed from your block,” Stanton said. “Add snow blankets, and a horse with its double, and it’s a lot for our small streets to take.” --Brooklyn Heights/DNAInf0

“We are issuing a call to expand the human capacity of the bridge,” Councilman Brad Lander of Park Slope declared at the Manhattan entrance to the 129-year-old span yesterday. An average of 4,000 pedestrians and 3,100 bicyclists cross the Brooklyn Bridge every day, according to the Department of Transportation. A good many of them have close encounters of the two-wheeled kind.

Along with a few colleagues in the council, Mr. Lander wants the city to consider expanding the narrow boardwalk atop the beige bridge to accommodate more passengers. The plan calls for tripling the crossing’s width, to the current size at the piers. This would create twice as much room for pedestrians as well as a dedicate lane for bikes.

Currently, the two mix in the narrow strip, with many near misses as bikes swerve around slow walkers and photographers unwittingly back into oncoming traffic for that perfect shot of the new Frank Gehry building.

“Everyone knows that the Brooklyn Bridge is such a popular tourist destination, we want to make sure the bridge is safe” Councilwoman Margaret Chin, who represents Lower Manhattan, said. “To maintain a healthy New York, it’s important to expand the walkway.” Because nothing is worse for your health than a big fat tire print.

The council members admit they have yet to explore the feasibility of the project, though they acknowledge the engineering challenges and cost could be considerable. At the same time, a new walkway was added to the Williamsburg Bridge when it was rehabilitated by the Bloomberg administration, so the pols are hopeful the same could be done here. It could even become a matter of debate during the upcoming mayoral elections.

“We’re not engineers,” Mr. Lander admitted.

But when they represent some of the most bike-crazed constituencies in the city, something must be done. “The Brooklyn Bridge belongs to all New  Yorkers,” North Brooklyn Councilman Steve Levin said. “It was an amazing engineering feat in its age, but in 2012 it’s time to update it a bit.”

Jake Stevens' wife was killed by a drunk driver who got off. (Matt Chaban)

Each year, there are upwards of 3,500 serious injuries resulting from traffic accidents. The NYPD has ten times as many officers, yet it only assigns 19 of them to look into such incidents and investigates less than 1 in 10 as a result. Even then, investigations take place only when those involved are dead or believed to be dying. Sometimes they die without an investigation because on the scene, officers believe the injured will make it.

Members of the City Council and families who have lost relatives on the road arrived on the steps of City Hall this morning to decry what they consider a lack of enforcement and announce the introduction of a set of bills and resolutions they hope will impel the police department and the Bloomberg administration to take action.

Brooklyn Councilman David Greenfield gave a succinct appraisal of the situation.

"It's actually a perverse system," he said. "In the city of New York, what we're telling you is you can be a reckless driver, you can be a drunk driver, you can be an unlicensed driver, you can mow people over and nothing is going to happen to you. The reason is, we don't have the proper people power to handle it. At some times in the night, in the entire city of New York of eight and a half million people, you have one officer on for the entire city who is in charge of doing these kinds of investigations. God forbid you should have two serious accidents."

The problem for the council is that it has little control over the police department, so the new proposals are more public requests than public demands.  There is the possibility to overwhelm Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly with a wave of favorable public opinion (see: stop and frisk) but that does not always work (see: stop and frisk).

"The mayor and Commissioner Kelly could do everything we're asking for today if they wanted," Brooklyn Councilman Brad Lander said. They also could have done it yesterday, or the day before, or years ago, when advocates started asking for it in the face of accidents. It is clear they do not want to, and may not ever, even as the council tries.

"Many like to criticize, but traffic fatalities are at the lowest level in city history and we now have 30,000 fewer injury crashes per year–30,000 fewer per year–than we did a decade ago," Bloomberg spokesman Marc LaVorgna said in an email. "Those results did not happen by accident–it’s due to the aggressive enforcement and safety work of the NYPD and the traffic engineering work the Department of Transportation."

The issue seems to be not whether or not the streets are safer—indeed they are, and the administration may now find itself a victim of its own success—so much as family's inability to get information, and thus solace, about their loved ones. At times, the department has been accused of obfuscation and obstruction. The NYPD public affairs department did not respond to numerous requests for comment.

The council believes the city can do more, and it has started with a package of legislation proposed by Brooklyn Councilman Steve Levin—this is a big issue in the borough it seems, not least because it is the most populous and straddles the line between lots of walkers and lots of drivers; Councilwoman Tish James was also on hand.

To begin with, Mr. Levin wants the number of officers trained in accident investigations way up, from the 19 currently assigned to the Accident Investigation Squad to at least five officers per precinct. He also wants the city to investigate all serious accidents, defined as those causing considerable injury to a limb—an issue outlined in state law. He would require officers to track the speed, sobriety and responsibility of the driver in an accident, a factor not always considered, as well as requiring officers to file a complete crash report and the department to publicly outline its crash response plan.

"The New York City Police Department is ignoring state law, and New Yorkers want to know why," Mr. Levin said.

Mr. Lander and Bronx Councilman James Vacca, chair of the council's Transportation Committee, are also proposing a task force made up of representatives from various city agency's and groups to come up with recommendations for the department in tackling traffic accidents.

"Our traffic investigation system is fatally flawed," said Queens Councilman Peter Vallone Jr, chair of the public safety committee. "If someone backs through an intersection at 50 miles an hour but doesn't kill anybody, right now, they're only facing a traffic ticket, and only if a police officer saw it. As a former prosecutor, I can tell you, that is reckless endangerment."

Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, said a survey his group did found no police departments in the U.S. or Europe that did not conduct an investigation of all serious accidents.

Two New Yorkers had join the politicians to share their story of roadside tragedy, a son who lost a father and a husband, his wife.

Jake Stevens recalled how a drunk driver ran over his wife. "This drunk driver who killed my wife last year is going to get away with a driving violation" for driving without a license, he said. Because no investigation was done, it is also difficult for families to seek civil damages.

Jay Deter lost his dad Ray last year, when he was hit by a 24-year-old driving a Jaguar, suspected of speeding down through Lower Manhattan, where Ray Deter was on his bike. "He was hit so hard, he shattered the windshield, shattered the moon roof, before landing on the ground," Jay Deter recounted, his hands shaking. His dad lived for six days in a coma before eventually succumbing to his injuries. By then, all signs of the accident had been erased. The only charges filed were for possession of marijuana.

"The message we are sending by doing nothing is that nothing is going to happen to you if you break the law," Mr. Greenfield said.

Here to stay. (Getty)

Downtown Brooklyn developers and cooperators, with a hefty helping hand from the real estate lobby, threw everything they could at the Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District, a new landmarking effort aimed at saving the area's historic highrises. In the end, the preservationists won out, as a City Council subcommittee voted unanimously yesterday to approve the historic district, all but ensuring its passage by the full council on February 1.

There were some interesting compromises that may not have fully assuaged concerns in Downtown Brooklyn but will hopefully go a way toward addressing any problems in the future. The co-op board at 75 Livingston Street was one of the loudest critics of the proposal. Brooklyn Councilmen Steve Levin, who represents the area, and Brad Lander, chair of the landmarks subcommittee, released a joint statement yesterday celebrating the passage of the district but also calling on the Landmarks Preservation Commission to go easy on the co-op.

"We want to particularly recognize the co-operators of 75 Livingston Street and praise them for their stewardship of the building over the past decade, as they have spent millions restoring their building after years of decline," the councilmen said. "Given their hard work and investment, we ask the LPC to work with the board of the building, and to show maximum appropriate flexibility as they move forward in their efforts to maintain the building without imposing hardships on the co-operators."

Another new wrinkle, one that will have citywide implications, is an announcement by the commission to revise how it reviews storefronts, another major issue for landlords. Instead of lengthy public reviews, these will be handled at the staff level. "These new guidelines will allow many more new and relocating stores—in Downtown Brooklyn and around the city—to obtain a quick, staff-level approval for exterior work," the councilmen said.

"After close consideration," they concluded, "we believe that this new historic district will strengthen the character of Downtown Brooklyn, allowing for new development and growth, like the new retail space planned for the Municipal Building, while preserving the graceful, historic, early-generation skyscrapers that make it Brooklyn’s civic center."

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

On the waterfront... someday.

The sun had not quite broken over the rowhouses and warehouses of Greenpoint Monday morning when The Observer arrived at the new concrete pier jutting out into the East River at India Street. The dock seemed barely finished, its concrete planks not entirely even, the sides of the structure lined with chain-link fencing. Whole sections were torn up and surrounded with orange construction netting.

When the ferry pulled up, ghost decals clinging to the foredeck, the passengers filed on, handing over their $4 tickets, joining the nearly 3,000 New Yorkers who have ridden the ferry each weekday since its launch in mid-June, according to the city—more than double the number officials had expected.

After ordering our locally brewed fair-trade coffee and a pain au chocolat, we turned to see a gay couple smiling across a starboard table, sharing a quiche, a floating picnic. On the port side was a pretty biracial pair staring out the window at Long Island City, its gleaming towers pulling into view. The woman held a breastfeeding baby on her lap.

The subway this was not.

But neither was it entirely new. The Bloomberg administration—and to a lesser degree its predecessors and the civic groups that surrounded them—has been dreaming about transforming the East River into the city’s new axis. It took nearly a decade of experimentation and failure, but the river is about to be flooded with people. The ferries (after two tries finally a success) are only the first sign.

Just two years ago the master plans, brand new parks, renderings and rezonings that made this stretch a seething hot bed of development and gentrification were declared dead, another casualty of an overheated real estate market that had thrust the nation into recession. But something unusual happened. Even as the unemployment rate rose, so too did the rents throughout western Brooklyn. Instead of shuttering, an almost endless stream of precious boîtes and boutiques opened on the vinyl-siding-lined streets. What the bourgeois soothsayers at New York magazine dubbed “The Billyburg Bust,” complete with operatic comparisons to Miami, never materialized. Not a few bankers and movie stars—Ed Westwick among them—moved in. So what if the critics are right, and there is a little too much South Florida glass for all the soot still in the air? This is Brooklyn circa 2012.

Packed ferries, along with subways, bike lanes and flea markets, are but only the latest sign that the Brooklyn waterfront has prospered, rather than withered during the downturn.

Developers are hard at work on nearly a dozen megaprojects, many of them all but forgotten about in the past three years. A number of firms expect to break ground sometime in 2012, as they told The Observer, and while such ambitions remain lofty, given the near impossibility to raise construction financing at this time, the strength of Brooklyn real estate market has developers scrambling to get on the waterfront.

Tour the developments bursting from the Brooklyn waterfront >>

“The ferry is really the litmus test,” Jed Walentas, the second-generation Dumbo developer, said. “If you have just one good thing on the water, a ferry makes absolutely no sense. There’s nowhere to go. But when you get enough things happening in different parts of the city on the water, all of a sudden, ferries make a ton of sense.”

None of these undertakings are as ambitious as Park Tower Group’s redevelopment of the Greenpoint Lumber Exchange. Park Tower put stock in the area long before many of its competitors, taking a stake in the defunct lumber yard in the northern-most reaches of Brooklyn, where Newtown Creek empties its Superfunded waters into the East River. With 4,000 units planned, in some 10 towers along 20 waterfront acres, Park Tower’s project is larger even than the controversial Atlantic Yards project. Despite its size, a good many community members welcome the development.

“Until stuff gets built in Greenpoint, we don’t get any waterfront access,” said Ward Dennis, co-chair of Neighbors Allied for Good Growth. “I guess some people would gladly trade that for a less crowded neighborhood, but the thing is, the rezoning is done, the land is going sit largely fallow and underused, or overused and productive, with at least some benefits to the community at large.”

Park Tower earned much of its good will by helping to shape the rezoning that made over Williamsburg and Greenpoint during the past decade. Dreamed up in 2003, a year after Park Tower took its stake in the borough (previously, it had developed and later sold off marquee office towers in midtown), the rezoning passed in 2005. Due to the expense of building on the waterfront, even during the boom, only four towers got off the ground, two by McMansion builders Toll Brothers at Northside Piers, two by Douglaston Development at the neighboring Edge.

Both projects foundered, coming online after Lehman collapsed, despite being in the beating heart of Brooklyn gentrification, North Sixth Street. (Ever been to the Thai restaurant Sea on a Friday night?) Even facing its challenges, the Edge became the best-selling building in the city this past year, moving 260 units. Douglaston has since taken over phase three of Northside Piers and is planning to build the first 40-story tower of the rezoning (at least a dozen are possible), which will house 500 luxury rentals.

“I’ve always been a big believer in Williamsburg because Williamsburg created itself,” Douglaston chairman Jeff Levine said. “Unlike some of the other areas that were built up through subsidies or rezonings first, Williamsburg was somewhere that built itself up, and then the city came in later and improved it.”

Park Tower, which has been quietly preparing its project while the gold rush was on, is making the same calculation. “The project has been there a long time, but now the market is finally there for us,” a person involved with the project told The Observer. “The only difference is we’re not looking at condos anymore.” If last decade’s boom was defined by the condo taking hold in New York, this decade, at least in the outer boroughs, will be defined by a rental resurgence. The banks are mostly to thank for this trend. The condos that remain are hard to purchase due to a lack of mortgage financing, which means greater risk, which means lenders are less likely to give money to condo projects. Meanwhile, vacancy rates hover around 1 percent across the city, even lower in the coves of Brooklyn’s gold coast.

Inside Park Tower Group's mammoth Greenpoint project >>

Not all projects have faired quite so well, however. Besides Park Tower’s Greenpoint colossus, the biggest development in the works on the waterfront, and the most contentious by far, is the conversion of the Domino Sugar refinery.

Its developer, CPC Resources, is said to be in financial trouble, according to a number of sources, and some of the city’s top developers have looked at the site beside the Williamsburg Bridge. So far none of those deals have worked out, but project manager Susan Pollock said the developer is about to reach a deal with a partner to revive the project. “It was always our understanding we would bring someone in with the experience to build tall towers,” she said. Rose Plaza, located on the south side of the bridge, is similarly on hold, as are a handful of developments in southern Greenpoint.

What unifies many of the projects making less progress are those that were not part of the city’s rezoning or that have tried to go above and beyond it, incurring extra costs and commitments—like Domino, like Rose Plaza. The India Street pier is part of one such project, a development proposed by Jonathan Bernstein that is trying to turn the surrounding streets into parkland, adding a public amenity but also many thousands of square feet to the project, as well as adding a recreational pier on Java Street that would further bulk up his project. Many in the community are against the streets-into-parks plan and even object to the second pier—while it improves waterfront access, it also gives Mr. Bernstein more air rights. “It’s the same thing we’re seeing down at Occupy Wall Street,” local City Councilman Steve Levin said. “Is this a public benefit, or it a private benefit?”

Yet it is the piers and the parks that have also paved the way for these projects. “Once the infrastructure is in, the sky’s the limit,” said Andrew Genn, senior vice president for maritime at the city’s Economic Development Corporation. Toll and Dougalston and neighboring rental 184 Kent have all finished their waterfront esplanades, which connect to East River State Park, creating a reasonable riverside park, a hint of the 14-mile emerald necklace that could someday stretch from the tip of Greenpoint all the way to the Verrazano in Sunset Park. Meanwhile, at the asphalt lot that someday will be the Edge’s 40-story tower, Brownstoner’s Jonathan Butler has set up a branch of Brooklyn Flea and the Smorgasburg, which draw some 15,000 BroBos to the waterfront every weekend in the summer.

And it is not all housing and hip hangouts, either. Mr. Genn argues that the working waterfront is more vibrant than it has been in decades. The Navy Yard is near capacity and Carnegie Mellon has proposed building its branch of the vaunted new tech campus there. New cargo operations have taken hold in Red Hook, not to mention big box stores and ocean liners—Port Authority executive director Chris Ward said it should all be redeveloped as housing someday, but then only to facilitate a stronger connection to Governors Island. The city has signed half-a-dozen new leases and partnerships at Sunset Park in the past year and also launched a sustainability plan for the massive industrial hub. “Brooklyn had been written off as a place to do maritime commerce, and now it’s back,” Mr. Genn said.

Much of this development has been during the downturn, with developers chastened and the city looking to expand its economy beyond Wall Street. If developers are already venturing in again, in a shaky economy, when things are back in full swing, the waves could kick back up.

And there are those developments causing waves already. Last week, the city received bids for the first development site at Brooklyn Bridge Park. “There is very little right about this because it takes away from the parkland,” Councilman Levin said. But the park needs the funds from a new apartment building and hotel to finance its maintenance, and even enliven the open space, its planners argue.

To make the project as palatable as possible, the city has encouraged a level of design rarely seen—or required—in Brooklyn. Among the firms submitting bids are many of the waterfront’s best builders: Mr. Walentas’s Two Trees, Toll Brothers, Dermot, Extell and Hamlin, all of which have hired some of the city’s top architects.

“We put forth a really strong statement on quality design,” Brooklyn Bridge Park president Regina Myer said during a tour of Pier 1 and the adjacent site last week. “We have put so much into the park, we do not want anything that detracts from it. This is the gateway to Brooklyn, a panorama seen all over the world. Whatever we build here has to be special.”

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Hope Reichbach, a rising star 22-year-old in city politics and a key aide to Councilman Steve Levin, was discovered dead inside her Schermerhorn Street apartment on Thursday.

Police were called to the apartment near Hoyt Street at 2:35 pm and found Reichbach, the daughter of prominent Judge Gustin Reichbach who was just starting her own political career, lying on a bed. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The cause of death was not immediately released, but a source said Reichbach died of an overdose of prescription drugs. An autopsy was scheduled to take place on Friday.

The lot, overgrown with weeds and rimmed by a chain-link fence with a barbed-wire coil, formerly contained part of the Domino sugar refinery. The "development," which was approved by City Planning earlier this month, and which is slated to take 10 years to complete, will be a luxury residential building, much like the others springing up around Williamsburg's north side.

The neighborhood is not beautiful. It seems to enjoy the worst of two worlds, either old and run-down or new and, as mortgage loan officer Mark Friedman said, "cookie-cutter." Still, people want to move there. For some, it's the only place they want to be.

In a $749,000 two-bedroom at 125 North 10^th Street, broker Stefani Shock prepared for a six-hour open house. The new condo development is selling well, she said. Her firm is closing about six apartments a month. "We're at the finish line," she said.

Ms. Shock described prospective buyers in Williamsburg as "artists with a budget"—but apparently not a huge budget. "For people who want space but can't afford Manhattan, this is the default neighborhood," she said. Does that mean they're settling for less?

"I mean 'default' in a good way."

Some see Williamsburg as a second best. Ayelet Levron, 33, a software developer from Israel, who now lives in Astoria, looked at a $575,000 two-bedroom at 5 Roebling Street. She aims to save money. "It's not Manhattan, but it's close," she said of the neighborhood. "You can get much more here."

But Ms. Levron may be an exception. Prices, which aren't actually that low, are not the neighborhood's main draw.

Steve Leven, 42, and his wife Mira Trezza, 35, wandered around a $610,000 two-bedroom at 268 Wythe Avenue. Mr. Leven, the owner and founder of Irving Farm Coffee, who has lived in New York City for 20 years and now makes his home in the West Village, isn't looking outside Williamsburg.

"It's close to the subway, a little industrial," he said of the neighborhood. "We really like the energy, the wide-open spaces."

Ms. Trezza, who hails from Bulgaria and works with Mr. Leven at Irving Farm Coffee, corrected him.

"We like the hipsters," she said.

Mr. Leven rolled his eyes. But Ms. Trezza was on to something. It's the residents, and not much else, that make north Williamsburg a desirable (or undesirable) community.

Down Wythe Avenue, the sound of vuvuzela horns spilled out to the sidewalk from Zebulon, a bar where several dozen Billyburgers sat, stood or perched in front of a television showing the Brazil-Cote d'Ivoire soccer game. It was still the first half, and Brazil led with one goal. Lucio, the Brazil team captain, took a dramatic dive.

The onlookers jeered. "Oh, pobrecito!" someone shouted.

Farther north, on Bedford Avenue near McCarren Park, a mustachioed 20-something wearing a blue beanie and snug khaki shorts stood on a ladder and hosed down a building's brick wall. An older man, passing by, chanced into the crossfire. "Asshole!" he shouted in accented English, chasing the outburst with more obscenities. The kid seemed not to hear.

Back at 29 South Third, Mr. Ferrara showed Ari Shimada, 38, and her husband Atsushi Yokada, 45, a series of one-bedroom condos. Mr. Yokada is a chef at 1 or 8, a Japanese restaurant in Williamsburg, and the couple is moving to Williamsburg from Manhattan to accommodate him. Ms. Shimada doesn't like the idea of commuting to midtown for her work as an accountant, but she's open-minded.

"Most likely this is out of our budget, but we just wanted to see," Ms. Shimada said, standing in a $636,000 one-bedroom.

Williamsburg's new developments aren't cheap, and visually they stand out from the landscape. Mr. Friedman, the mortgage officer, greeted prospective buyers at 66 North First Street. He acknowledged that some of his clients are turned off by ultra-modern exteriors but said that when they step inside, "they're always impressed."

Alison, a prospective buyer at 5 Roebling, who wouldn't give her last name, echoed those reservations.

"Everything's very new. You know, modern condos," she said, riding the elevator down to the lobby after leaving the open house. "There's no old buildings. Which is nice, but..." She paused. "It's just new."

Outside Vinnie's pizzeria on Bedford Avenue, a chalkboard advertised vegan slices. The place has been in business since 1960, but the current owners, Jacob Petrera and two of his friends, bought it three years ago and added "specialty slices" to the menu.

"Me and my buddies started doing this in college—trying crazy styles," Mr. Petrera said. "We bought this place and kind of brought in our own flavors."

The Observer sampled the vegan "chicken parm" pizza. The chicken, though fake and itself new to the area, was delicious.

walden@observer.com

The crowd is mostly from Brooklyn and here in suport of the plan for Broadway Triangle, which is supoprted by Levin's old boss, Brooklyn Democratic County Leader Vito Lopez. The plan also has support from a number of Coucil members, but is opposed by another former Lopez aide, City Councilwoman Diana Reyna. Also, Councilwoman Rosie Mendez seems at least skeptical of the grassroots support advocates for the plan are claiming.

It's up for a vote today and I think will pass, but with a smaller margin than most other major land-use issue that hit the City Council recently.