Thursday, June 23, 2016

Stuyraq Swim Club now ready for the season


[Extell Lake photo from December 2014]

On East 14th Street, Extell Lake between Avenue A and Avenue B is now just etched in our memories, visions of endless nights hanging out at Blarney Cove Cove and having fun despite not even enjoying local access yet to rolled ice cream.

The foundation work has taken care of the issues with the underground stream that fed the cleansing springs of Extell Lake.

However, through the miracle of nature, we can now head one block to the west for a new watering hole ... at the Stuyraq Swim Club ...


[Photo by Brett W.]

Work continues at the former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office, where there are currently approved plans for an 8-story, 114-unit (23 affordable, 91 market rate) mixed-use building here... and workers have struck water.

Reps for the developers (Benenson Capital Partners in association with the Mack Real Estate Group) are lobbying to receive a zoning variance for a 12-story building. In an analysis of the plot, the developers note that "unusually elevated groundwater levels and exceedingly soft and unstable soil (owing to the presence of an underground stream) ... result in extraordinary construction costs."

Last week, Community Board 3's Land Use, Zoning, Public & Private Housing Committee tabled the a vote on the zoning variance, asking the reps to return with alternatives to increasing building height.

Meantime here, mud baths are available.

13 comments:

Mark Hand The Catchman said...

Is it clothing optional?

Anonymous said...

Ahhh, Stuyraq Swim Club, how it brings back idyllic memories of childhood summers spent around the Flagg Court pool in Bay Ridge, only with trash-strewn mud and ear-shattering clanging instead of lemonade, beach balls, and fluffy towels.

Living next to the epic mudhole I do often wonder if my building will start to sink into the abyss, but 45-degree warped floors are a small price to pay for such progress! Stuyraq rulez!!

Unknown said...

PERFECT conditions for A MEGA ,WEST NilE< PSYCA MOSQUITO BREEDING POOL ya ALL!!!
THE BUILDERS SHOULD BE FINED FOR EVERY DAY THIS DISEASE BREEDING PUBLIC HAZARD EXISTS!!!!!

blue glass said...

when are we going to stop calling this below market rate housing affordable housing? affordable to who?
while it's important to maintain a middle class, there has been no affordablefor low income people housing in these inclusionary deals.

Giovanni said...

"Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters.”

― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories

Anonymous said...

So much for all those anti-Zika ads they keep putting up in the subway to warn us citizens of potential mosquito breeding zones. Maybe the developers aren't held to that level of social responsibility. All the mosquitos will be able to reproduce right there in their very own private lagoon!

And now your luxury housing comes with all the amenities of modern city living, including complimentary birth defects!

Anonymous said...

Before the Dutch took over this island native people most likely caught fish from this stream and eat oysters from river's edge at today's ave C. Apparently developers and architects have no interest in geology or history of the land they put shit buildings on.

Anonymous said...

Mosquitos??

Anonymous said...

May your foundations be flooded indefinitely

Anonymous said...

A River Runs Through It is a great movie.

Probably the darkest Brad Pitt character as he was more impish in Meet Joe Black.

Whatever happened to the main character Craig Scheffer?

The only definitive film with fishing as a metaphor and prominently shown?

Anonymous said...

spending my summer back home, away from the constant worry about zika, chikungunya, and malaria of Haiti. I really hope they do something to keep that from becoming a massive skeeter breading pond

Anonymous said...

This is a good photo op for the developer. Proof positive they need a zoning variance to get a reasonable return on their investment. Too bad they didn't strike oil.

Anonymous said...

Lake East Village