Hope for Notorious Slope Building?
We stumbled across an interesting tidbit of information browsing last month’s CB6 minutes: “Chairperson Kummer informed that Board that he recently met with Council Member Steven Levin…He was very pleased to hear that the Council Member was most receptive to our need to put our heads together to come up with a way to motivate…
We stumbled across an interesting tidbit of information browsing last month’s CB6 minutes: “Chairperson Kummer informed that Board that he recently met with Council Member Steven Levin…He was very pleased to hear that the Council Member was most receptive to our need to put our heads together to come up with a way to motivate property owners and developers to make their properties safe and remove blighted conditions from our community. It was reassuring to hear that their office was already in touch with the owner of 187 7th Avenue at the corner of 2nd Street, which has sadly become a poster child for exactly this type of challenging situation.” We spoke with Council Member Levin’s rep Hope Reichbach, who confirmed she’s been in touch with the property owners. Reichbach said the “owners seem open to start a conversation and move forward with the site.” Right now talks are very preliminary and no action has been taken thus far. Options with the long-blighted property include assistance for the owners to make necessary repairs or marketing it to a private buyer. These options, however, are entirely dependent on how discussions go with CB6, local politicians, the community, and the owners of 187 7th. Last month a listing popped up advertising the availability of the building’s ground-floor space.
Will Infamous Slope Ruin be Reborn? [Brownstoner]
Doings at the Dilapidated 7th Ave & 2nd St Building? [Brownstoner] GMAP
i saw two people painting the bottom of the building in something like pink and silver! if you walk by on 7th ave side its all fresh paint! i thought it was strange. should have stopped to ask why they would waste their time when the rest of the building looks the way it does…
I see no contradiction between taking an anti-eminent domain position over AY and supporting the city’s right to force a sale of a building that poses a public safety problem. AY involved the use of state powers to take buildings from a group of private property owners and give them to another, richer, private property owner. The properties so taken were well-maintained, fully functioning houses, apartment buildings and businesses. 187 7th Avenue, on the other hand, is the true definition of “blight”. Seize it!
“Really? Nobody here remembers the Landmark Pub? No fond memories of banging on Fisher Price toys while listening to bands like the Cheese Beads and drinking cheap beer served by the two kooky daughters? Bunch of uppity newcomers…”
I remember. The beer was warm, and there was that guy with the banjo and the sailor’s outfit. Sailorman Jack, I think. They had tamborines and lots of games with missing pieces. It seemed like a cool post-college thing to do if you had next to no money …. for about a week or two. I did that once or twice, then once I walked by when the door was open and saw how pathetic I must have looked. I think the beer was warm because they were too cheap to leave the cooler plugged in for more than an hour or two a day. No A/C in the summer and the bar was closed all winter because they refused to pay for heat.
Big Jugs, if you have a problem with what I’m saying, feel free to express yourself. Complaining about HOW I say it is rather childish and immature. But then……
Really? Nobody here remembers the Landmark Pub? No fond memories of banging on Fisher Price toys while listening to bands like the Cheese Beads and drinking cheap beer served by the two kooky daughters? Bunch of uppity newcomers…
MM, can you express yourself in less than 1000 words?
“Open to starting a conversation”? Oh boy is that ever so concrete and promising…
Also, in this case if the outcome is selling the property, anyone with the money could make an offer, so the current real estate market would set the price. This is quite different from government officials determining in advance that Bruce Ratner gets to develop the Yards (a HUGE HUGE HUGE project in comparison to the fate of one building on Seventh Ave) without any competition and seizing property through emminent domain. Not to mention the bargain Ratner got on the price of the railyards themselves…and that those “blighted” building were perfectly sound with people living in them…etc. etc. blah blah…can see a GREAT distinction…
I agree with Slopefarm. Calling a perfectly fine neighborhood with open businesses a “blight” and obliterating it in order to hand that over to a developer for a sports complex is FAR different from the city potentially seizing a long-vacant neighborhood hazard. The only thing worse would be for them to fix that 2nd Street eyesore and open another burger place. (ha)
I noticed a guy painting exterior details on this building with silver paint today, inexplicably. The entire building is rotting away, but there’s fresh silver paint along the walls facing the sidewalk. Signs of life?