Less anyone think Bay Ridge has gone soft in the face of such gentrifying tell-tales as cupcake shops and baby retailers, last night some of the neighborhoods most ruthless adolescent Halloween mercenaries took no prisoners.

The New York Times, picking up on a story we ran only a few days ago (with thanks going out to our reader/tipster), is giving Bay Ridge’s Little Cupcake – its just desserts.

(photo courtesy of the NYTimes)

Before the echo of the wrecking ball that fell three Bay Ridge Victorians could fade, a spokesperson for Basile Builders said: “there is a real demand for housing in Bay Ridge.”

“Saying there’s a real demand for housing in Bay Ridge, is like listening to a Shylock tell you that there’s a real demand for money… no sooner would you go to a loan shark or bookie for your retirement planning than a community should look to developers when it comes to the longterm interests of its aesthetic and residential architecture ,” said one long-time resident/activist.

While both of the aforementioned statements may be true, crank out too much of either product and you have inflation no matter what.

“We can satisfy the need for housing while preserving neighborhood integrity if we are just a little creative… there are still underutilized areas, and we must accept a pro-growth attitude, but apply that belief into our infrastructure contextually,” councilman Gentile said in an article for amNewYork.

The councilman’s track record as a supporter of local preservation notwithstanding, only has it half right, according to residents and industry insiders who say context is one thing – sustainability quiet another.

“The issue is how we maintain basic ownership principles but at the same time safeguard the integrity of the community as a whole… there needs to be an overriding consensus on issues like growth. Touting pro-growth left and right as if you’re actually saying something is imbecilic. Everyone wants growth, developers, the city, buyers… but the neighborhood isn’t willing to do the heavy lifting. You live in a place that has no goal posts and you’re reacting from a defensive posture. The larger problem than context is sustainability… the neighborhood as it is now can barely sustain the growth it already absorbed… congestion is on the rise, transportation is under-performing, and the neighborhood’s most traveled transit hub is dilapidated… now how do you expect to handle addition units of housing,” said one local resident and realtor specializing in Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights sales.

“Developers don’t look at their trade as an opportunity to upscale underdeveloped markets – they look at margins and vulnerability… I don’t recall that part of 3rd avenue having a growth problem. It was only a problem until a developer came along and said there was.”

Despite what many perceive as protectionism masquerading as preservation on the part of nervous homeowners seeking to curb supply to drive up their own prices, according to one realtor – “don’t be so sure.”

“…condos and single family residential are two different animals… it’s actually condo owners who have to worry… most of the people who are looking at these things are very eager first time buyers anxious to own anythign in Bay Ridge, buying in at the high end of the housing market, which is dicey enough because your margins are so thin… under the impression they’re going to see the same growth as a one family Tudor… less than ideal financing, sudden need to turn the unit over can suddenly put a lot of things into perspective and make you stop and think about what it is you really own… they’re tough to move because odds are new ones just went up around the corner from you. If anything, you could turn the situation around and say that, in certain areas, these developers are only helping homeowners by turning their merchandise into a rarer commodity.”

Parents and concerned residents saying that as we grow with such careless and reckless abandon, we’re only hurting the one’s we love – our children.

One parent who has been following the 74th street development drama said that she is worried sick over the additional traffic that new multi-unit housing will bring.

“I’m worried because there are so many more cars on the roads, particularly around schools and I feel like it’s only a matter of time before there’s a serious accident… everyone leaves at the same time in the morning to drop their kids off at school and I can’t even think about the number of close calls I’ve had with drivers… everyone is trying to get the same place at once.”

a blogged week:
Right in BayRidge: The Bay Ridge Harvest Fest
Brownstoner: Poly Prep’s New Look
Curbed: What To Do About Harlem Crackhouse?
OTBKB: How do DOE Reforms Affect Middle School Admissions Process?
Gotham City Insider: New York is Depressing and Will Drive you to Suicide
Greenpointer: Yule Tide Halloween
Gowanus Lounge: A Good Day for Landmarking in Greenpoint, Controversy at Carroll Gardens ‘Town Hall’ Meeting & Park Slope Homeless Gone from Old First

Neighbors in the vicinity of the 93rd street drug house report uniformed and plain clothes police responding to a “situation” in front of the driveway at the much talked about address.

Alert residents spotted an unmarked unit, with approximately four officers questioning a woman. It’s unknown if arrests were made or what the nature of the call prompting the response was.

Oh to see Bay Ridge through the eyes of just one of the 37,000 New York City Marathon runners…

Rounding 4th avenue into the embrace of two mega car dealerships, past the now abandoned Hollywood Video that touts a bankruptcy auction over summer blockbusters, just doors down from one of Bay Ridge’s other great pastimes and bankruptcy’s great ‘unwitting’ accomplice – a mortgage banker.

Finding oneself striding past an unusually serene 86th street, that normally teeming ballet between blacktop and steel belted radials – a monument to cheap retail and our neighbors’ eternal struggle to find ideal parking.
And, in place of the usual verbal jousting more akin to Mean Streets than Sesame Place, you found cheers instead of jeers passing a mile marker in front of Saint Anselm’s as you found nourishment in volunteers handing out water and support, in loving memory of a departed friend.

To find oneself being bid farewell by two gas stations, and one “American Place.” Only, instead of oceans white with foam – it’s a sidewalk strewn with tighty-whities.

All and all, a day of perpetual motion with purpose that leaves a sensation (if only for a moment) of a Bay Ridge that can be.

A Bay Ridge, according to residents and marathon watchers, that can be something other than an ‘impersonal’ and ‘driver obsessed’ hamlet of Brooklyn chasing its tail – where children are chauffeured to and from school in the rear seats (one at a time) of tanks disguised as luxury automobiles like faux diplomats – where notions of luxury, privilege and rights are often confused.

“The marathon is hands down one of the best events of the year, I just wish we could make a better impression. What I love more than anything is seeing people out of their cars… people you probably wouldn’t see otherwise,” said one Marathon goer and 4th avenue resident.

While others agree, some take it a step further, urging Bay Ridge to take note of itself in all its post-marathon splendor, particularly the vibrancy of having its streets in the vicinity of 86th overrun with people rather than cars.

“We could learn a lot from what they’ve done in places like Fulton street, downtown Brooklyn… closing that off to non-emergency traffic and making it strictly a pedestrian mall. Or the grass and tree lined dividers along the West Side Highway… maybe one day replacing our own yellow lines with rows of tress up and down 86th,” suggesting one local resident and activist.

“Bay Ridge does not have to live and die by the automobile…you always hear people say the reason they moved is because everything is in walking distance, maybe they need to act like it and start walking.”
(photo courtesy of RightinBayRidge, BayRidgeBlog)

across the blogs:
BrooklynStories: Bay Ridge Walking Tour November10th.
Right in Bay Ridge: Word on the Street, “calling Amy Vanderbilt”
Gowanus Lounge with all news Coney Island redevelopment (Sitt’s outta there)
OTBKB: Park Slope Books is closing, errr…. downsizing, real estate agents weigh in on local school grades and defending the Slope.
Brownstoner: Who’s to blame for poor home sales? Brooklyn Navy saved to the satisfaction of locals?

… says one guest on popular NYC real estate blog Curbed, highlighting a little slice of life in our corner of Brooklyn as they picked up on fellow Bay Ridge blogger, Right in Bay Ridge’s word on the street: “Calling Amy Vanderbilt.”

Other comments include -

anxietygirl: “hahaha- right? it’s going to be a sparse year in that building. i do love bay ridge though. as a friend once pointed out, you’ll be walking down the street and see the latest williamsburg hipster fashions approaching you… only to realize that it’s actually an old man in that jumpsuit, slip-on sneaks and trucker hat. and that he’s been wearing these things since their 70s-80s heyday. that’s right, bay ridge, keep it real.
vive le devolution!“

No sooner could people decipher that third avenue’s Cheesesteak Factory (which opened to mixed reviews) wasn’t popular franchise “Cheesecake Factory,” did it close its doors this summer under the auspices of “electrical problems.”

Now it appears after months of gut renovations that it’s poised to make a comeback under new ownership as yet another 3rd avenue brick oven pizzeria.