Welcome to the neighborhood: Well Arched, for feet and brows and so much more.

Hey Neighbors - 

Happy Saturday! I’m going to get right to it today, it’s beautiful outside and I have a lot of share.

As always, if you like Ward 6, please join other loyal readers and chip in $6 every month to keep hyperlocal news alive in Brooklyn.

Post #45: Welcome to the N’Hood: Well Arched; a new restaurant to open on Atlantic Ave.; Carroll Gardens’ real estate prices: how high can they go? The EDC gets a new boss, what will it mean for our waterfront? Water Lovers Rejoice; flood damage from the storms, city says please report; so many grt BK articles to share!

Some housekeeping…

A reader named Steve Flack sent me a message last week asking me to use "car crash" rather than "accident.” By using the word accident, he said, “it implies that it was impossible to prevent” instead of a “careless driver who did not follow the rules of the road.”  This was certainly the case with the crash on Union and Henry St, which is what prompted his message to me. This is part of a larger Transportation Alternatives campaign: crashnotaccident.com 

Got a tip? Story idea? [email protected] or @ward6_brooklyn

A few weeks ago, I stopped by Plant486, an art gallery on Court St., to check out a photography exhibit I wanted to include in my upcoming newsletter (ends TODAY!). I overheard a lively conversation between the gallery employee and another woman, which I could not resist joining, especially after I heard, “opening soon.” 

The elated, Dr. Krista Archer, podiatrist and neighborhood mom, was sharing the news about her soon-to-open business, Well Arched at the south end of Court Street (554). The serendipity of it all made my day. Oh, how I love our village of Brooklyn.

What did I learn? Well Arched is a beauty bar, of sorts, that literally has you covered from your head to your toes. They offer medical pedicures, brow and lash treatments, scar camouflage, among others with more to come. It’s a collaboration between Dr. Archer and her longtime friend, Josh Beeler, now co-founders and business partners. 

Yes, that Josh Beeler, aka “the brow guy/guru,” who worked at Shen Beauty (sore subject) on Court St. until it imploded. Krista lived nearby, which is how they became friends.

Josh has won numerous awards, and his client list includes In Style’s beauty director and other A-listers. It’s obvious that I did not pay sufficient attention to my brows all these years, as this was my first time meeting Josh. 

Josh’s local roots and the community he built here is what he really wanted to talk about when I visited him a few weeks ago. “All the Bococa* moms know me,” Josh said proudly, as he, Krista and CTO, David LeFave were still unpacking, selecting wallpaper designs and working on decor. David runs operations and branding, among other things.

Right on cue, a Bococa mom and longtime client dropped by for a procedure (I didn’t want to pry which one), unbothered by Josh’s disheveled room or the black paint swatches still duct taped to the wall above her stool.

Dr. Archer will oversee the medical pedicures (not just for women) that treat fungus, calluses, or warts and overall, she said, good for foot maintenance. But a lot of her clientele, she tells me, are willing to pay extra (starts at $100) for the sterilized or one-use tools that eliminate the risk of infection. A lot of nails salons, she says, only sanitize their tools. Plus, there is the added benefit of having a doctor around if one of her trained technician’s suspect, for example, fungus that needs Krista’s attention and possibly a prescription. 

I must admit, as a lifelong jogger, who’s never paid attention to my feet-care other than what color to paint my toes and the occassional foot massage, I’m intrigued. After meeting Krista and scrolling through her (mostly educational) social media, she’s certainly elevating podiatry, or “skincare for feet” to be more user-friendly .

Krista grew up on Long Island and comes from a family of hairstylists (great-aunt, father and sister). A former marathon runner, she now practices yoga. She moved to Carroll Gardens with her family in 2014.

Krista’s main office is on East 61st office, which she shares with another doctor (it’s so small she later told me that they alternate days in the office) and where she sees patients/clients and works on her medical research.

While I waited for her to commute back to Brooklyn from the UES, Josh was nice enough to show me the downstairs basement office/hangout nicknamed “The House of Her,” only accessible through a secret passageway.

“I am a huge feminist and anxiously await a more civilized matriarchal society,” Josh said. 

Josh is also certified in paramedical tattooing, which he became interested in to help breast cancer survivors with nipple-areola coloring after reconstructive surgery. Tinting scars and eyebrows are two other services he offers.

Well Arched | 554 Court St. | Open for bookings next week and officially opens Thursday, 8/16

Check out Krista’s own line of medical beauty products, Arch, on her website

**Bococa is short for B. Hill, C. Gardens and C. Hill.

BEBO NYC is coming to Atlantic Ave, a restaurant with food “inspired by Grandma,” according to a sign taped to its front window. Bebo means grandmother in Georgian, says Google.  No opening date yet.

I’m not sure this counts as news anymore, so I might have to rethink my real estate coverage.  Insanity…

Community groups and residents in our corner of Brooklyn have eagerly awaited the mayor’s choice to head the NYC Economic Development Corporation, which, as you know, is responsible for the controversial “vision plan” to redevelop 122 acres of waterfront, among countless other city projects. 

There’s not much love in our area for the NYCEDC, or in Sunset Park (Industry City) or in FILL IN THE BLANK communities throughout NYC. To be fair, there is the occasional person who attends a EDC-community BMT meeting and raves about the parks or the thousands of new apartments.

In some ways, Mamdani choice to lead the NYCEDC,  Anthony Shorris, who was announced a few days ago, is similiar to a lot of other dedicated, hard-working city bureacrats, who spend their careers serving mayors (Ed Koch and Bill de Blasio) with stints in between at non-profits (healthcare) and colleges (Princeton). 

Like countless others, Shorris cashed-in, who knows if this was Shorris’ motivation, and switched sides to private industry, in his case the mega-consulting firm McKinsey. The spin or maybe the plain truth following Shorris’ appointment is there is something for everyone—business, DSA, pro-growth, pro-parks, in his resume.

Mamdami got some grief for taking six months to land on Shorris. Personally, I’m okay with this now that I know from being involved with the BMT, how powerful the EDC has become, primarily as real estate development arm of the city that can bypass a lot of rules and regulations because it’s a “quasi-agency” and weirdly, a non-profit. 

Now, Mamdani is proposing a radical overall and will require every EDC deal to consider economic justice as a criteria, so it makes sense that he he took his time.

The last guy in charge of the EDC, Andrew Kimball, now works at NYU in a “newly created leadership role overseeing the school’s roughly 20 million-square-foot global real estate portfolio” Watch the film Emergent City if you really want to know why a lot of folks around here are not fans of Kimball.

The twist to all this is the person in a position above Shorris in the org. chart, is the progressive “trustbuster” Lina Khan, the former FTC commissioner under President Joe Biden (60 Minutes profile). She is now chair of the EDC board, which guides the quasi-agency's strategic vision and will approve every project with economic justice in mind. 

So far, residents are keeping an open mind about Mamdani’s new appointees, but there are a lot of broken promises and trust that need to be addressed soon.

A side note, I was thrilled to read Shorris is a fan of local news “as a fix for a splintered information ecosystem.” His wife, Maria Laurino, is a former journalist, speechwriter for Mayor Dinkins, and author of many books, including one featured on… 60 Minutes. 

** see Mark Your Calendar! for BMT meetings coming up

Angie from CSW got in touch with me last week after touring The Writer's Gym in Gowanus, which she’d found out about from other writers. “The founder is a lovely guy who is working to build a writing community (no experience necessary!). The co-worker space is in a great building, and is both cozy and expansive. In addition to desks, it has a delightful setup for readings and other events (and a fireplace!). It’s been open since April and is looking to bring in more members.”  Membership Options range from $250 for a flex desk to $450 for your own. Sign up for a tour.  

I included CITY OF WATER Day: Living with Water in Mark Your Calendar! last week, but I didn’t realize there are events throughout NYC, in every borough.

TODAY, 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. Share what climate means to you at our shoreline storytelling station, with prizes for top haulers and best costumes. ” Valentino Pier. 

“As a community on the front lines of a changing climate and a working harbor, we have a powerful story to tell — and it starts at the shoreline” Voices of the Waterfront.

 Also check out Gowanus activities.

If your home, business, or property was damaged during any of the recent storms, report damage and request service. Reports help NYC to assess storm impact and may support recovery assistance. File here.

with more on flooding from Voices of the Waterfront…

Thursday, July 23,12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EDT Virtual (Zoom) | A timely webinar — Topic 5 in the "Affordability and Climate in NYC" series from Rebuild by Design, the Waterfront Alliance, and The City Sponge (with support from Con Edison). As the city ramps up major infrastructure, current and past DEP commissioners agree big projects alone won't keep pace with rising water — small property owners must play a role too. The panel digs into what real flood solutions cost, how to finance them, and how the city can help owners move faster. Register →

Today and tomorrow, 12:00 PM - 6:00 PM, Red Hook Summer Market | Hook Studio Dikeman, 161 Dikeman.

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.

Today and Tomorrow:  “FAD Mar­ket returns to Gov­er­nors Island with all thought­ful­ly curat­ed and local­ly made.” Then check out Jazz By The Water™,  a concert series featuring a Second Line New Orleans March and plenty of other performers. 

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.

Friday, July 31, 1230 - 230 PM  Brooklyn Marine Terminal Task Force Meeting. Materials will be posted on the ATF webpage in advance. Join here.

Wednesday, August 5, 6:30–8:30 PM — EDC’s BMT Public Information Session on Site Plan Updates (Virtual) - more info soon.

Thanks for reading! jlh