Kate Ascher

Joshua Sirefman is returning to the Economic Development Corporation as interim president, filling the spot left by Andrew Alper, who officially left June 2. The interim part is bit mystifying--Sirefman was chief operating officer of the E.D.C. for a while before becoming chief of staff to Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, such that he would not be a long-shot candidate himself. But Doctoroff's e-mail announcing the change said, "[T]he search for a permanent replacement continues," suggesting they are looking to hook a larger fish. Ostensibly, the announcement (first reported on The Daily Politics) is a disappointment for Kate Ascher, but Sirefman essentially outranked her anyway, so that the rumor she was ascendant was just that--rumor. -Matthew Schuerman

Neighborhood Nerd Alert: If you get dizzy when the topic is zoning, stop reading now.

Here at the Real Estate we always have a hard time balancing your interest in neighborhood issues and city planning against the unbelievably impenetrable jargon of the field.

Which is why we found ourselves thumbing through, then reading almost cover-to-cover, the City Planning Commission's Zoning Handbook, released this week.

Along with The Works, the book by economic development veep Kate Ascher, the book is kind of essential to understanding the physical shape of New York neighborhoods.

Pages and pages in the front of the book take obscure zoning classifications with names that sound like droid lot-numbers and describe in plain language the character and objectives of each zoning class, complete with diagrams and pictures showing existing streets that exemplify the zone type.

Then the book goes through specific entries on different special zoning districts, and explains in as clear language as we've read how zoning changes are made law.

You can get a copy through the Department of City Planning's bookstore at 22 Reade Street, or order it on the DCP web site ($24.00 / $18.00 each for 10 or more copies).

Sample page after the jump.  read more »

- Tom McGeveran

Last night, Brooklyn Community Board 6 held a public meeting with representatives from the Economic Development Corporation to discuss future plans for Piers 7 through 12 in Red Hook.

(The piers are located roughly in the center of Brooklyn's much-hyped waterfront-renewal project, a map of which is posted to the left; the Brooklyn Bridge Park area is off the map to the north.)

According to E.D.C. executive vice president of infrastructure Kate Ascher, the city has begun the planning stages to develop the piers the site just north of the Atlantic Basin area where cruise ships, starting with the Queen Mary 2, will begin to dock in April.

"Tonight's about a dialogue," Ms. Ascher said. "This is a project I'm really excited about." She said that the E.D.C. had "no specific plans" as of yet, and last night's meeting would be the first of several to analyze what the neighborhood and area residents need from the piers, currently occupied by American Stevedore. She said that residents of the secluded and poorly accessible neighborhood need to figure out how much development they want.

"How many people do we want to come in from the outside?" she asked.

Ms. Ascher presented a timeline of the gradual conversion of the 1.1-mile-long, 120-acre area (both waterfront and upland) from industrial waterfront use to mixed maritime industrial and recreational marina uses:

--December 2005-January 2006: feedback on conceptual framework --February 2006: planning development and marketing study --April 2006: cruise-ship piers (11 and 12) in use --Summer 2006: the uniform land-use review process --Spring 2007: acquisition of Piers 7 to 9B --2007 and on: maritime use of Piers 7 to 9B --2007-09: development of uplands

Ms. Ascher welcomed suggestions from the public for uses of the waterfront, and fielded questions about how local business can begin to prepare for the piers' increased use. The more popular suggestions were for a public boat slip, sewage and infrastructure repair (several people said that the prevalence of sewage and seafood stench would drive out any tourists debarking from the cruise ships), streetscape improvements and the removal and/or beautifying of area industries, especially the garbage-truck lot facing the ship terminal.  read more »

"I think that's something we need to solve, not just work on, before the fancy people from the Queen Mary show up," Ms. Ascher said jokingly.

-Matthew Grace

The Politicker isn't going to ease into the 2006 races over the course of this month, so expect relatively light posting for a little while.

Other people are in more of a hurry, like the operative, who shall remain nameless, who woke me up yesterday (OK, yesterday afternoon) with a voicemail that began: "Wake up motherfucker! 2006 begins now!"  read more »

Alternately, Brian Lehrer has some very fun graphics on his blog from Kate Ascher's new book on how stuff in New York City works.