In order to get big tax breaks and permission to build bigger residential towers, two big condos on the Williamsburg waterfront agreed to throw the rabble a bone by building "affordable" rental units for low-income residents. Those who won the lottery for the units built by Northside Piers and The Edge pay as little as $398 a month, while the condo owners bought their apartments for anywhere between $385,000 to $2.9 million. And with that price tag comes amenities that the low-income renters don't have access to. Now some of the renters are becoming bitter! more ›

We're sorry to start the day on such a tragic note, but there is a heartrending crisis unfolding on the edge of the East River in Williamsburg, where poor people who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for luxury condominium units are finding that their upscale paradise is turning into a ramshackle ghetto. The eyes of the world are currently turned to Northside Piers, where a half dozen condo owners tell the NY Post "their walls are leaky and poorly insulated; mold is growing in the walls; and there is faulty plumbing, sewage, heating and air-conditioning systems." You'll recall that this is the same waterfront development that caught fire during construction. (Sorry, wrong link; here it is.) more ›

We were all warned, the East River State Park in Williamsburg has officially been closed for the winter months, leaving the hipster set nowhere to ironically off-season tan. Curbed reports from the frontlines, saying the gate was locked on January 1st "so the state could save money and it won't reopen until April 1." How much will the closure save? Forty thousand dollars. State Assemblyman Joe Lentol is still working on an alternate plan to keep the park open, involving the NYPD holding the keys to the gate. more ›

Mark Gibian's sculpture in Brooklyn (entitled "Crescendo") became the latest part of the Williamsburg waterfront in mid-May; "the four-ton, crescent-shaped stainless steel sculpture was hoisted over the East River and installed on new 400-foot pier that's been constructed at Northside Piers." The sculpture is functional, providing shade and including a bench; the Brooklyn Eagle reports that a shade structure was required under the zoning. While an exact date hasn't been set, the Piers (a direct result of the city's Greenpoint-Williamsburg Rezoning of 2005, which will also include 800 homes) will open up to the public sometime this summer. You may recall when one of the Northside Piers buildings went up in flames last Fall. more ›