Rooftop Farming Gets A Little Too Heavy

Brooklyn Grange, the 40,000-square-foot rooftop farm in Queens that got a nice little write-up in the Times on Friday, got a taste of the downside of publicity pretty quickly: That afternoon, the New York State Department Of Buildings stopped by because the farmers had neglected to file paperwork showing that the building’s roof could withstand the million pounds of mass that the farm’s soil, irrigation lines, and plant life (not to mention the workers) would bring to it. “Our enthusiasm to get plants in for the season outpaced our paperwork,” said farmer Ben Flanner’s contrite statement on the matter. Whoops! I’m also somewhat worried about the subversive attempt to turn parts of western Queens into Brooklyn that seems to be going on with the nomenclature here — I know that part of Astoria/Long Island City is gentrifying, but this is a bit much? [Pic via]