"I still laugh thinking about school drop-off and walking behind Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Allison Williams’ then on-screen boyfriend in Girls, and having flashbacks of his backside prominently featured in an episode the night before."

Hey Neighbor -

Happy Saturday! Welcome to Ward 6’s new subscribers, and thank you to the readers who upgraded last week. If you read Ward 6, please consider spending $6 a month (what a deal, is anything $6 these days?!) to keep me in business. 

And if you have a story idea you want me to write about or know anyone who wants to sponsor Ward 6 or partner with me, please email: [email protected] or @ward6_brooklyn.

Post #44: RIP Sal Tang’s; MozzLabs at 30K feet, where to eat during restaurant week; a warning from one car owner after a terrible storm; not just another celebrity real estate drama; how tall does the city want to build proposed towers? Stony Brook researchers need local park-lovers; a horrifying Sunday morning accident

A final (I promise) note about soccer: Tough weekend for those of us whose lives, since early June, have revolved around the World Cup. I’ll definitely have more free time, which is a good thing. But the end of the tournament will take some getting used to, especially the mini-escape from reality and the sheer drama and thrill of watching the sport with the rest of the city and the world. 

Things I will miss - not in any order

1. Ongoing research at different bars and restaurants to compare the watching experience.

2. Ongoing debate about which is better–watching in a crowded public space or alone with friends/family?

3. Ongoing debate about whether America’s coach is a Russell Crowe doppelganger 

I lied, THIS is the last thing I will say about soccer for a loong time. Check out this post from The Meteor from a few days ago: a reminder about Gotham FC’s soldout game at Citi Field on Wednesday and the incredible team we don’t have to wait every four years to watch play. (The Meteor is a media company and collective of extraordinary journalists, writers and overall, bad-arse women, co-founded by local resident, Cindi Leive).

The owners of Sal Tang’s Chinese-American restaurant announced this week on IG that it will close in two weeks.  The restaurant is named for the collab between neighborhood favorite, Sal Lamboglia of Cafe Spaghetti, Bar Ferdinando’s and Swooney’s and Wilson Tang of Nom Wah Tea Parlor in Manhattan, which is also closing.  Sal Tang’s space will remain under Lamboglia’s control says Eater.

At the end of this month, MozzLabs in Carroll Gardens will open an outpost at JFK Airport, Terminal 5, JetBlue. I was told they will offer their full menu. 

WHERE TO EAT LOCALLY DURING RESTAURANT WEEK

Participating restaurants: Indian Table (CH), Aromi (CG), Red Hook Lobster, Malvan (CG), Lavant on Smith (CG), Shan (BH), Shan (BH), LeLe’s Roman (BH), Barbulu BKlyn (BH)

ICYMI: On Sunday, around 8:30 AM, there was a horrific accident at the intersection of Union St. and Henry St. I got a tip from a reader and this picture, but I wasn’t able to do any of my own reporting. 

Carroll Gardens’ journalist, Travis Hunter who lives nearby, has been following the story and talked to the deli owner, Khalid Sarsour whose store window was damaged by one of the cars.

Two Stony Brook researchers are looking for help with a new pilot project to “find out how local green areas, like parks and community gardens, affect the heat risk, flooding risk, and health of Brooklyn communities.” They are looking at 20 Brooklyn parks, including Cofey, Carroll and Cobble Hill. 

The owner of a totaled car parked on Amity St. is seeking donations because he says his insurance doesn’t cover damages from falling trees.  A cautionary tale for all of us to check with our car insurance companies. One company that tree damage is part of most comprehensive coverage, but I did not do additional reporting. 

Thanks to Kyle Tillyer, a drone and videographer, we have another idea of what our waterfront would look like if the city’s controversial project moves forward. The new jail on Atlantic is 15 stories (seen below), while the proposed 30+ towers the city wants to build will be 30 to 40 stories high.

And if you need a refresher about where the city wants to build these towers, here are some images from last week’s BMT meeting (more on this in next week’s Ward 6). Excuse my lame design…

A curious article from the Real Deal this week about the actor Chris Pine (Star Trek, The Catch, Poolman, Princess Diaries) suing one of the co-founders and principal of EckstromNYC, a Cobble-Hill-based luxury developer, for allegedly failing to return Pine’s $100K security deposit and first month’s rent on a Henry St. townhouse, down the street from Key Foods. According to the lawsuit, Eckstrom has returned Pine’s $25,000 pet deposit.

Seriousness aside for a second, I think it’s cool that we have a handful of celebrities who live quietly among us (can you believe I never saw Daniel Craig or Rachel Weisz in all the years we shared a neighborhood??). (See SoulCycle co-founder moves to C. Hill, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Skarsgard AD house tour, Hunger Games director sells his house and of course, Lilly Allen’s CG’s divorce sale, among others).

I still laugh thinking about school drop-off and walking behind Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Allison Williams’ then on-screen boyfriend in Girls, and having flashbacks of his backside prominently featured in an episode the night before. I digress…

The bigger issue for me, though, and the other part of the RealDeal article that caught my attention, is the house at the center of the lawsuit at 487 Henry St and its developers. In April, I wrote about uber-luxury property when it first went on sale for an eye-popping $14 million. Eckstrom purchased it for $4.5 million two years ago. I’ve mentioned other Eckstrom properties in previous posts.

Marketed as “where suburb meets city,” this 5-floor, 5-bedroom house also has “a private wellness retreat,” according to Eckstrom’s website, that includes “a fitness studio, sauna, and cold plunge.”  The house is one of five in the developer's “Established by Eckstrom” collection that “reimagines 19th-century architecture.”

I’ve been following the work of the wife-and-husband founders of EckstromNYC since I first noticed their storefront offices tucked away off-the-beaten path. I’ve made numerous unsuccessful attempts to request interviews with them about their business, as I’m both interested in, and concerned about Eckstrom’s contribution to what another developer recently called “the luxury-ification of cool” in Brooklyn at a real estate forum. 

This same developer’s company recently bought an entire block in Cobble Hill from its prior developer-owners.

While there have been pockets of luxury interspersed throughout our neighborhoods since I moved here more than 20 years ago, what’s happening today with developers like EckstomNYC feels different. I also include, as part of this trend, the city’s controversial proposed plan to build 30+ towers with thousands of luxury apartments on our waterfront.

I have a lot of questions about this as more and more people discover our fabulous, livable Brooklyn neighborhoods, who can afford exorbitant rents like Chris Pine’s failed attempt to pay $50,000 a month for a short-term lease (nothing personal), or afford $14 million homes like the asking price of the one Pine wanted to live in for six weeks.

How does this impact the character of our neighborhoods, the lower-income housing shortage, and overall, the ability of others to live here with less (or no) disposable income?

Yes, this tension is not new. There have always been wealthy and lower-income residents and everything in between living in close quarters, as well as friction as generational shifts among homeowners and apartment dwellers naturally occur. 

For example, a friend recently told me a story about her parents, who were part of an earlier wave of families who moved to Carroll Gardens in the 60s and 70s to buy brownstones, as they could not afford BK Heights and Manhattan. With no extra money to hire contractors to do renovations, they helped start the DIY “brownstoner” trend, which became all the rage.

Today, the developer EckstromNYC (and I’m sure others), has already purchased more than a dozen local properties, including multi-family buildings that are in various stages of convertions to single-family homes. They’ve also reduced the number of units in some of their multi-family properties to create triplexes and duplexes. 

Last year, our community board published a study “Middle Housing Gone Missing” about this trend and how “roll-ups” are contributing to the housing shortage by reducing the number of available apartments. I also wrote about a Bloomberg story that looked at a similar trend in Manhattan, but with two townhouse “mega-masion” conversions.  Yikes.

In addition to developers, there seems to be a growing luxury ecosystem slowly taking hold. General Assembly, a Brooklyn interior design firm with a store on Atlantic Ave, was part of the 487 Henry renovation. In April, the Times profiled one of its founders who lives locally. 

Both fascinated by, and deeply concerned about this trend, I’ll keep writing about it and trying to better understand its impact on our communities.  Love to hear your thoughts ([email protected]).

Today! & tomorrow, 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM | NYC Poetry Festival on Governor’s Island “the largest free event for poets in this country…that features “poets comfortable on the page and on the stage, in the academy and on the street corner.”

Today (weather permitting) - August 29th, 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM | Sackett St. Open Streets (hosted by Street Labs, founded by Cobble Hill residents) with FREE public pop-up program “featuring cooling stations, bike repair, play, refreshments!”  (Th, Fridays and Saturdays, rest stop 1-6 PM)). Foot of Sackett, off Van Brunt St.

Sunday, July 19th, 2:00 PM - 6:00 PM | Brooklyn Public Library’s World Cup final watch party!

Sunday, July 19th,  1:00 PM - 6:00 PM | Governor’s Island hosts The People’s Final World Cup Watch Party!

Saturday, July 25th 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM | Hooked on Red Hook Treasure Hunt Park and Pier Clean-up: “Don your maritime custom, then compete to collect the most, weirdest, and wildest trash hauls along our working waterfront.” Valentino Pier.

Tuesday, July 28th, 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM |  Books are Magic/BK Library:  Brooklynite Andrea Bartz, journalist, writer and overall bad%$# lead plaintiff in the “first major win for creatives against an AI company and largest copyright recovery in history” interviews Shari Lapena, the internationally bestselling author, about her 10th thriller, Getting Away with Murder. Tix required.

thanks for reading! jlh