Day by day digest: Consternation over the Coney Island ferry, furnishings makers increase their costs, and extra

Good afternoon and welcome back to another roundup of the day’s news. As we slouch toward the holiday season, there hasn’t been a slowdown in breaking news; if anything, more new projects, expansions, promotions, and events are being announced than ever.

Here’s what you need to know today:

A ferry is coming to Coney Island, but opposition is building over the environmental impacts

It’s no secret that outgoing New York mayor Bill de Blasio is a major ferry proponent, touting the system’s ability to help low-income residents more easily travel between boroughs even when it’s been proven that the new lines are soaking up funds from other city agencies. The latest addition to the system promises to connect Manhattan and Coney Island, Brooklyn, via a new ferry stop in Coney Island Creek—and residents are pushing back over the potential environmental damage.

The creek is the last in Brooklyn, and residents and scientists are asking the city to reconsider over the damage to the ecosystem the dredging, construction, and constant turbulence of ferries will bring. Scientists with the New York City Parks Department have also alleged that their research into the effects a new ferry would have on local crabs was disregarded, and some residents are accusing the de Blasio administration of rushing the project toward construction to appease developers.

H/t to the New York Times

The furniture industry is feeling the supply chain squeeze, raises prices across the board

It’s not just housing starts that have felt the pain of material shortages, as furniture manufacturers across the price spectrum are raising prices as wood costs continue to rise. IKEA announced a price increase in 2022, while British brand Hølte, Dutch brand Piet Hein Eek, and more have announced increases of up to 8 percent. The cost of plywood and MDF is continuing to rise as COVID-19 wreaks havoc on supply chains and wood mills around the globe, and there’s reportedly no end in sight for the near future.

H/t to Dezeen

Backed up container ships are bad news for portside L.A. neighborhoods

Speaking of, container ships are still backed up at the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach just offshore of L.A., as massive boats jockey (and idle) in anticipation of unloading weeks, or even months, down the line. This Gordian knot is hurting more than just holiday shoppers, as the Los Angeles Basin has been blanketed by smog as a result, raising the rates of asthma and cancer for residents in the area and exacerbating existing conditions. Electrifying the massive cargo ships themselves is something of a pipe dream right now owing to the energy densities required, but the State of California is taking steps to at least switch over operations at the port, and the trucks that unload the container ships, over to electricity.

H/t to Curbed

Will Kanye replace Virgil Abloh at Louis Vuitton? Probably not, but it’s being written about anyway

British tabloid The Sun published a curious, spurious claim on December 8 that, for some reason, is being spread as news despite the paper’s reliance on a single anonymous source. The mag claims that Kanye West is being considered to replace the late Virgil Abloh, friend and collaborator, as Louis Vuitton’s creative director. Abloh unexpectedly passed away at 41 on November 28 after a two-year battle with heart cancer, and The Sun claims that he and West had coordinated the transition behind the scenes in the event of Abloh’s death. Highsnobriety breaks down why this is unlikely, to say the least, even if West could potentially have some say behind the scenes in picking Abloh’s successor.

H/t to Highsnobriety

The imm cologne furniture fair is canceled for the second year in a row

After the imm cologne furniture fair in Cologne, Germany, postponed its 2021 show over COVID fears, it looks like the 2022 outing is off the table as well. With COVID cases rising around the world, the trade fair, and industry sponsor the Association of the German Furniture Industry (VDM), made the decision to postpone the event until 2023.

“The current special basic conditions in the interior design industry make the practicability of imm cologne almost impossible,” wrote Oliver Frese, the chief operating officer of Koelnmesse GmbH, the international trade fair venue in Cologne. “We didn’t make this very bitter decision easy for ourselves, but consider it to be our obligation to take this step now in close consultation with the industry. In this way we provide clarity and planning security in the interests of our exhibitors. In our shared perspective, an imm cologne with its claim as a leading trade fair for the interior design industry is not realisable in the current situation. We are currently working actively on options for also still being able to offer exhibitors of imm cologne an attractive trade fair presence at the international level. Here, both spoga+gafa and ORGATEC present excellent alternatives in the interior design portfolio of Koelnmesse.”

The Cy Twombly Foundation and Louvre settle their renovation differences

The Cy Twombly Foundation and the Louvre have headed off a legal dispute after the latter agreed to change plans to renovate a wing containing a ceiling painted by the late American artist. Last year, the Louvre announced plans to repaint the walls of the Salle des Bronzes, after which the foundation and Twombly’s son, Alessandro Twombly, brought a lawsuit against the French art museum, claiming the bright colors used in the renovation would destroy the spirit of the pale blue mural above. The deep red used for the walls will now be repainted a lighter shade to better dialogue with the ceiling, as will the wood panels around the hall’s display cases.

H/t to The Art Newspaper