Here is the full text of the press release issued by the new “tenants association” at 475 Kent Ave as posted by Barry Hoggard on his blog.

The live-work building located at 475 Kent Ave in Brooklyn’s coveted waterfront neighborhood of Williamsburg was issued a Vacate Order by the NYC Fire Department on Sunday, January 20th at 7:30PM, the day before Martin Luther King day. Tenants were given until 1:30 in the morning to leave the building on a frigid January night.

475 Kent is a microcosm of New York City’s cultural and economic activity with creative professionals generating an estimated $15 million in annual revenue. The vibrant community of 200 working artists – photographers, architects, writers, musicians, sculptors, filmmakers, designers, painters, printmakers, etc. is under attack.

It seems that the D.O B. is intent on making sure people will never be able to return to their spaces until all repairs are made and the building has a residential C of O, a prospect that could take years and millions of dollars. This renders 200 inhabitants most of whom are self-employed, small business entrepreneurs, both homeless and out of work. This building has been consistently and viably supporting creative professionals lives and businesses for ten years. The illegal eviction at 475 Kent comes on the heels of the evacuation of 17-17 Troutman in Ridgewood. That people’s livelihoods and homes are being put in complete jeopardy makes one wonder if this is a trend and begs the phrase “follow the money”.

The events on Sunday night were precipitated when the FDNY inspected the basement of 475 Kent Ave. and “discovered” two 10′ diameter metal canisters containing grain used for making Matzo. The Matzo bakery has been in the building for more than ten years. The DOB and fire department have inspected 475 Kent Avenue regularly for the past ten years and would have had to be blind if they were not fully aware of the existence of a Matzo bakery and the grain. The presence of the grain resulted in a so-called “hazardous emergency” situation that gave FDNY and DOB license to vacate the building. When some residents and the landlord offered to alleviate the problem and remove the grain from the building on Sunday night the FDNY replied “you are not qualified to move the grain”. They then issued the vacate order.

What ensued was unmitigated chaos under the direction of our friends at the OFFICE OF EMERGENCY MANGEMENT starring the New York City Fire Department, Department of Buildings, NYPD, Health Department, Department of Agriculture and the Red Cross. Their only area of competence was at holding closed-door, inter-agency meetings, in which no tenant representative was allowed, every two hours in their brand new location trailer. How many City agencies does it take to unscrew a lightbulb? We’ll let you know, we’re still counting.

Upon the issue of the vacate order 200 people scrambled to rid 110 spaces of their most crucial belongings. The following day people were given 6 hours access to remove their belongings, tools and equipment, a scenario that for most people who had been in residence for 5 – 10 years with substantial equipment and installations was completely untenable. From there the scene snowballed. On Tuesday January 22, tenants arrived with moving trucks at 10am having been told they would have another 6 hours access to the building. They found all entrances blocked by NYPD and FDNY and no one was allowed upstairs. Finally, at 1pm the leaders of each agency stood on the staircase and delivered their plan to the crowd:

- residents would be allowed into the building six people at a time for one hour, followed by another group of six people each being granted one hour.

Do the math.

No, we’ll do it for you. 200/6= 33.3 hours it would take to allow each person ONE hour access to collect their stuff. Then they shut down the elevators, insuring that the task was impossible. People, in a panic that this would be their last chance to save their belongings, began to carry equipment and valuables down ten flights of stairs, creating a real hazard.

As of Wednesday, January 23, the grain has been removed from the basement of 475 Kent Avenue, alleviating the immediate “hazardous” condition. Now the tenants have been allowed a final four days, six hours a day, to access the building. On Sunday night, January 27, the building will be padlocked prohibiting all further access for the foreseeable future. Why the building is safe enough to access for four days, but suddenly deemed unsafe again on Monday is a mystery to which DOB, OEM, FDNY has not provided an answer. Although requested repeatedly the DOB has never provided a complete list of the violations on the building. We know one of these violations is an inoperable sprinkler system, a problem that can mitigated with the presence of fire-guards while the system is repaired, allowing continued occupancy of the building.

Since the 1960’s New York City’s tacit urban renewal policy has been reliant on artist’s moving into derelict buildings in less desirable neighborhoods. The city does nothing to bolster or support economic activity in these down and out areas, nor do they do anything to create affordable, legal, usable space for live/work entrepreneurs. 475 Kent is a prime example of this kind of turn-a-blind-eye urban renewal that has been a boon to the City of New York. A decade ago South Williamsburg was a dangerous neighborhood. Once artists take the initiative to live on the edge and restore and renew unused real estate in what were marginal areas the City becomes predatory. The transformation of Williamsburg by the artist community into one of New York City’s most desirable neighborhoods encourages the city to move artists out as they calculate the tax revenue of luxury condo developers moving in. No one in any city agency cared about our health and safety ten years ago. Now that our building has become hot property the City is ready to muster all the powers of its many agencies to assist in the muscling of the property from the owners and the tenants. The tenants of 475 Kent Avenue call into question the hypocritical policies being put forth by the agencies of the City of New York. We cannot help but wonder what forces are driving this vacate and why the agencies are suddenly so concerned for out health and safety.

475 Kent Tenant’s Association

While, I really don’t doubt the extreme danger from the grain hazard which caused the evacuation; the amount of potential money at stake here and the history of NY real estate has to make one wonder. Does anyone have a rough guess as to what the potential value of this property is? FOLLOW THE MONEY IS ALL I AM SAYING.

The tragic, sudden mass evacuation of a building occupied for years by hundreds of people is sadly nothing new in NYC. But, 475 Kent seems to be hitting a bit of a nerve and getting at least a bit of temporary press, perhaps since some it’s “squaters” were paying huge rents and work for media outlets in town. The buildings location on prime waterfront property in one of the city’s most trendy neighborhoods looks a might bit suspect, especially since the area was recently re zoned to allow huge expensive residential buildings.

Of course nobody had ever noticed all the windows with curtains, neither the landlord nor the city saw it? Well, the reason is pretty clear-that when the neighborhood was dead, unwanted and uncool for rich folks, people didn’t want to notice. In effect, these people were used by everyone as a way to break the stupid zoning codes. Now, the artists have done their job and it’s time to fumigate the area and let the cash roll in.

The artist/blogger Deborah Fisher puts it this way

The known unknown: now the Department of Buildings “knows” that a lot of people were living under commercial leases in the building. This tends to be one of those things that is technically illegal and that everybody knows about, but that nobody enforces. There are exceptions to this. DUMBO was effectively cleared of artists about eight or nine years ago using this Fire Department–DOB combo punch.

There are lots of questions.

Is 475 Kent being cleared out to make way for waterfront condos?

Will Bloomberg take a stand to protect artists’ homes or will he enforce the law?

Can the loft board do anything to help?

Will everyone have to move?

Will I ever go to another fantastic party in that building again?

On January 28th 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded in mid air taking with it lives of seven people. The moment was watched by millions, many of whom were school kids. Ronald Reagan’s speech to the nation after the tragedy was one of the best he ever gave.

“There’s a coincidence today. On this day 390 years ago, the great explorer Sir Francis Drake died aboard ship off the coast of Panama. In his lifetime the great frontiers were the oceans, and a historian later said, “He lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it.” Well, today we can say of the Challenger crew: Their dedication was, like Drake’s, complete.

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and “slipped the surly bonds of earth” to “touch the face of God.”

After five years of thinking, the FCC (not mentioned in the 1st Amendment) has decided to fine network stations for broadcasting an episode of NYPD Blue which contained nude views of a breasts and buttocks during hours it deemed inappropriate for broadcast television. Apparently this was not enough time for anyone to study anatomy, since the agency described the parts shown as reproductive and execratory organs. I am not sure if I saw this episode but, I would guess that it showed all or part of the gluteus maximus muscles, we need for things like bending, walking, running, standing and sitting and a female breast which is needed to feed infants. I am quite sure the show was “adult”, but the agencies’ flagging it as “indecent” is also likely to have been absurd. Hopefully the kids were watching something like Rambo instead.

According to the big banner on 8th avenue and 37th street, (right near Times Square, 1 block away from the NYTimes HQ and several other media/fashion companies) the Oscars will go on as scheduled on Feb 24th with host Jon Stewart. If not, that’s one expensive banner to post for a non-event.

But then again, we are dealing with Hollywood.

The Bush crowd has now pissed off a major member of the “right wing” by editing out the sections of a congressionally commissioned report on surface transportation it didn’t like which strongly advocated light rail. Contempt of Congress??

The edited section seems to touch a lot nerves by linking the issue to national security.

“To these well-known factors pointing toward greater reliance on mass transit, a highly important new consideration must be added: national security. Americans’ dependence on automobiles fueled largely with imported oil is the Achilles’ heel of our current foreign and national security policy. Rising oil prices threaten the prosperity of our economy, with dependence on oil imported from unstable regions adding the risks of actual fuel cutoffs, limited foreign policy options, and wars over oil sources and supplies. The Energy Information Administration reported that 71 million barrels of petroleum were imported from the Persian Gulf region in June of 2007, 18 percent of all petroleum imports. According to the same source, spot oil prices were $81.51 per barrel on September 18, 2007, over $50 dollars more than the $27.26 per barrel spot oil price just four years earlier.

In the face of the Global War on Terrorism, providing Americans with mobility that is not dependent on foreign oil may be second in importance only to securing our homeland against direct terrorist attack. Just as the Cold War brought about the National Defense Interstate Highway Act, so we think it probable that the future will require a National Defense Public Transportation Act. Current and near-future national transportation policy should take this likelihood fully into account.”

It also brought up history that people like to bury

“Most of those cities once had electric railways. They lost them, not to the fair market, but to massive government intervention in favor of highways and cars. As early as 1921, government was pouring $1.4 billion into highways. In contrast, the vast majority of electric railways were privately owned, received no government assistance and had to pay taxes. Further, their fares were often controlled by local governments, which did not allow them to rise despite inflation. As a result, by 1919 one-third of the country’s streetcar companies were bankrupt. After World War II, many local governments completed the destruction of their community’s electric railways by pressuring transit companies to convert to buses. Bus conversion in turn led many former transit riders to drive instead.”

Photo from modelbride.com

Hairstylist and make-up artist Lori Dunn started ModelBride as a bridal boutique in Chatham, NJ. The business grew and she eventually opened another branch in Manhattan (recently closed). As Lori did a wonderful job on my sister’s hair and make-up for her wedding, I decided to arrange a appointment .

A former model, Lori is almost shockingly pretty – slender and easily 6 foot tall with shining blonde hair. Her boutique includes a selection of wedding shoes and accessories. Since Lori was already booked for the date of my wedding, I met with Robin, one of the other ModelBride stylists. A hair and make-up artist for the Rachael Ray show, Robin quickly understood the natural look I had in mind and realized it in the trial. That and her easygoing, friendly personality convinced me she was a perfect stylist for my wedding. Like all the ModelBride stylists, Robin will come to most locations in the city and tri-state area on the wedding day and bring another stylist if needed.

I did two blog posts recently which talked about Hong Kongs transit system which profitably links transportation and land development.

Recently, the New York Water Taxi has had to cut a large number of it’s routes for lack of money. Isn’t there some way to link land development in the areas served by the water taxi to help fund it since the taxi adds tremendous value to these developments? This could be done in a number of ways, from granting the company some development rights, a cut of other developers profits or some kind of dedicated tax on land owners close to the areas served by the service.

Now there’s a guy out there with a congestion pricing proposal that takes the idea to its logical extreme with high 24 hour congestion charges and parking fees used to fund FREE mass transit. I don’t have time to comment on it but one should know that it’s out there.

“Just how steep? Komanoff suggests $16 for any car entering Manhattan below 60th Street, 24-hours a day. The fee would be double that for trucks. That’s just for starters. There also would be a 25 percent taxi surcharge, and higher fees for parking on the street.

It’s all the brainchild of Ted Kheel, 93, the renowned labor negotiator who commissioned the $100,000 study, which was formally presented at a breakfast Tuesday. It may sound extreme, but supporters say the plan takes congestion pricing to its logical conclusion.”

Personally, I don’t think either roads, parking or mass transit should be free–but if one had to pick which one comes closest to being in the “public interest” (whatever that means) in a city like NY, it would be mass transit.

After my last post, I googled around looking for more info on the history of the Hong Kong system and I didn’t find that much because things that work smoothly rarely get press. I did come across a very interesting group of people looking to make money in Chinese mass transit by acting as property developers. It’s pretty self evident that mass transit enables more intensive and profitable land uses near the lines.

“Katz and Lane, however, propose to make their project financially viable by acquiring and developing the real estate along the proposed transit lines. “An investment in rail enhances the value of real estate,” says Katz. “And yet in the United States, rail development has failed for political, economic or policy reasons to capture the benefit in real estate that rail created. Most systems don’t recover 50% of operating expenses.”

The idea of capturing increased land value to fund mass transit is not new. In Hong Kong, the MTR Corporation operates the railway and was given the rights to develop residential and commercial properties above the stations. According to Lai, who is also president of the International Chinese Transportation Professionals Association, the Hong Kong subway system is the only one in the world today that is making money.”