to see why midtown residents and commuters can’t trust the city to make sure that its subway system keeps up with daytime population growth, just look to Brooklyn. Nearly a decade ago, in 2005, the City Council approved Bloomberg’s rezoning of much of Williamsburg and Greenpoint to allow for dense residential construction. Ridership on the L train into Manhattan soared. Between 2005 and 2010 weekday ridership increased by a third to nearly 132,000 people. Even as the MTA increased service, rush hour trains remained overcrowded. The state-run MTA noted in 2011 that “trains continue to carry loads above guidelines,” meaning that standing passengers don’t get their allotted three square feet. Commuters could wait for three trains to pass by before they could squeeze on.

there is a conflicting process at work; as North Brooklyn is planned now, over the next decade, the actual amount of mixed-use commercial space will dramatically decrease. As the demand for above street level non-retail commercial space goes up, new development in our area will be predominantly residential without any mixed-use space for the new creative economy. And instead of continuing to develop as a vibrant cultural and economic engine, the new North Brooklyn will effectively become an inner ring suburb [and be economically consumptive rather than generative].

The Kiernans bought their four-bedroom home for $2.025 million, the highest price ever paid for a single-family home in Williamsburg, according to Jonathan Miller, president of the Miller Samuel appraisal firm. That makes this moment for Pat Kiernan a moment for the neighborhood, too.