Photo via Curbed Flickr pool/marklyon

The MTA can set up all the fancy noise-monitoring equipment it wants along Second Avenue, but to thoroughly investigate complaints of late night noise alongside the avenue’s construction corridor it wants to send engineers to stay the night with complaining neighbors. The MTA has undertaken a number of noise-reducing plans that ironically may have added to residents’ current woes. According to the Post, neighbors say that late night noise got worse after the MTA enacted its ban on blasting after 7 p.m., which forced necessary drilling and jackhammering later into the evening. Now residents are besides themselves with a racket they say shakes them right out of bed. But so far, none have accepted the MTA engineers’ offer to crash at their homes for a night. Perhaps the MTA could set up its own group house apartment along Second Avenue and fill it with engineers, MTA suits, and construction workers. They could monitor late night noise, turn it into a reality show, and even catch a break on the rent.
· MTA to visit Upper East Siders affected by Second Ave. Subway construction [NYP]
· Rental Scavenging in Second Ave. Subway’s Construction Zone [CurbedNY]

The folks at Rentenna have put together a supersized Star Maps: a giant map of where major celebrities live in New York. That’s just a piece of the map above—check out the full and expandable version below. One fact this map brings to our attention: famous people hate Midtown.

· NYC Celebrity Star Map 2012 [Rentenna]
· Celebrity Real Estate coverage [Curbed]

Photo via Curbed Flickr pool/threecee

Downtown Brooklyn is booming. The recent announcement that the Steiners will be putting up a 50 story tower on Flatbush Avenue means another addition to the skyline that’s already filling in with buildings like The Brooklyner and Toren. Dennis Holt projects in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle that planned new developments for DoBro and nearby areas foretells the addition of 15,000-20,000 new residents for the neighborhood, and worries if the area has the infrastructure to accomodate them: “Look at the narrow sidewalks and narrow streets and imagine the infrastructure — telephone lines, gas mains, water mains — that was designed for a much smaller population.”

When a megaproject goes into Manhattan’s Upper West Side, people who already live in the neighborhood scream bloody murder that schools need to be built or expanded to accomodate the expected rise in residential families. And the addition of several new high rises across town in Yorkville increased support for the construction of the Second Avenue Subway to relieve crowding on the already packed 4/5/6 lines. DoBro’s growth, on the other hand, is converting previously non-residential areas into a new urban core, so it lacks the built-in alarm bells that usually cry for necessary infrastructure improvements. Holt points out the phenomena is not just limited to DoBro, but other large areas of Brooklyn as well. Is Kings County prepared to handle its growing pains?
· Brooklyn Broadside: Downtown Building Boom Could Be a Planning Nightmare [BrooklynDailyEagle]
· The Brooklyner coverage [CurbedNY]
· Toren coverage [CurbedNY]
· DoBro coverage [CurbedNY]