Williamsburg Toast-O-Rama

With entire corners of Williamsburg being turned into construction or demolition sites, we thought this a good day to summarize a few of the more interesting goings on:

1) The first buildings going up at Northside Piers are now several stories tall. We'd noted the progress from ground level within the last couple of weeks, but Williamsburg blogger INSIJS offers up nice view of the progress on the development that is selling itself with the nauseating "bottle of wine and that cheese I've been dying to try" on Bedford angle.

2) As you can see in the photo above, the Old Dutch Mustard factory is no more. We caught some of the post-demolition action on Saturday and cobbled together a quick vid.

3) The New York Times finally took note of the controversy about all of the new development in Williamsburg, including the slow progress on affordable housing versus the surge of luxury construction. The coverage also noted the Department of Buildings got 337 complaints about construction in Greenpoint-Williamsburg in September. Last year, there were 24,610 permits building permits issued in Brooklyn, including 1,924 for demolition and 1,740 for new buildings. All the work is handled by 25 inspectors. Our limited math ability tells us that that is 984 permits per inspector. If one limits it only to new construction and demolition, that is 146 per inspector. Assuming scrupulous honesty (stop laughing), that's an overwhelming workload.

4) The most notorious Williamsburg project, the Finger Building, is under a Stop Work Order. It will go to court on Nov. 13. A neighboring property owner says the developer built some things illegally to get extra height. The developer says the building should be a full 16 stories. It's currently stopped at ten, but with steel beams on top indicating more floors are coming.

5) Also under a Stop Work Order is The Edge on Kent Avenue. INSIJS found the order tacked to a fence on N. 5th Street. Work on the luxury highrise project started over the summer, then stopped (long before the Stop Work Order was issued because of expired permits). Only the developer knows if The Edge has lost its edge.