March 4th, 2010
The Gowanus Canal cleanup — don’t hold your breath…
The feds made it official this week, declaring the Gowanus Canal — that heavily-polluted waterway running through Brooklyn — as a Superfund site. Now all that’s separating it from clear water is about $500 million and a dozen years. Right. I very much doubt that the canal will be worthy of swimming in my lifetime. As with everything else in NYC, the waters of the Gowanus probably won’t run clear for a very long time.
It sometimes amazes me that any development gets done in this town what with all the lawsuits and protests (that’s one reason, I’m so amazed by my new health club that was built by the city — a rare exception to this rule.) Thank God the subway system and the Brooklyn Bridge were built before New Yorkers realized they could sue over any little thing.
That brings me to the Atlantic Yards project that’s been proposed by developer Bruce Ratner since, I believe, the turn of the 18th century. Not really but it sometimes feels that way. After being delayed countless times, the developer is expected to break ground within days.
I’m not really in favor of the size of the project but I have to admit that I wouldn’t mind seeing the Nets (or whatever they will be called) playing basketball in Brooklyn.
They should have been playing there by now but a guy who refuses to move and rejects the city’s right of eminent domain, has succeeded in holding up the project for years now. What kills me is how the NY Times and others quote this guy whenever they need to hear from someone opposing the plan…as if he’s a disinterested observer.
I know this puts me in a hated minority but I’m in favor of eminent domain and development. There, I’ve said it. I expect to be tarred and feathered by my neighbors any day now. Where I live, it’s oh so politically correct to be against any and all development, even by those who have benefited from it. I recently had an argument about this with a woman who lives in a building that was once a clock factory. She told me she’s against development, not for a moment realizing the irony.
The larger issue is eminent domain. Do you know what the city would look like without it? Bye bye, Rockefeller Center and Lincoln Center and that’s just for starters. It’s a losing proposition to oppose development in NYC because that’s what this city has always been about — development and commerce. It’s the nature of the beast. This city has been absorbing the body blows of constant change since it was built and it’s still going strong.
I am all for historic preservation and wish the current Madison Square Garden (one of the ugliest buildings you’ll ever see) had never been built but that’s different than supporting the Atlantic Yard project. There is no great historic building to protect there, just some rail yards and some very ordinary housing. Yes, people lived there but most (except for one guy) accepted fairly generous deals to move on. Que sera sera. Happens every day in NYC. Someone loses their view because a building goes up next door.
I remember a decade ago how bitterly some neighbors fought against the building of a local Barnes & Nobles bookstore. They actually preferred the empty parking lot where cars would drive up onto the sidewalk to get in. I kind of like the bookstore which is roomy and has a cafe and lots of good books.
Too often in NYC, development is bad if it’s someone else’s development. Someone once described this phenomenon as, “I got mine, fuck you.”
Far too much of that in NYC imo.
And we should care what ignorant crap you say because, uhm, why?
Paul, how is that worse than “I’m taking yours, fuck you?” Most everything in New York got built without eminent domain. Do we really need another sports arena in the NY metro area?
When the woman in the former clock factory says she’s against development, she means against the kind of bad, land-grabbing overdevelopment exemplified by Atlantic Yards. The former clock factory, on the other hand, is an example of adaptive re-use of a great old building — the same thing that could have been done with the Ward Bakery, which Ratner has already bulldozed, and was done with the old Spalding factory and the Atlantic Arts building, where the “guy who refuses to move” would like to keep living.
Not that you care, Paul, because that sounds like it might be too much work for you, but eminent domain is supposed to be for Public Use projects, like hospitals, roads, schools, and parks. It’s not meant to be used to steal anyone’s property to give to a well connected billionaire. But let me guess–you rent so you don’t see how it matters to you, right?
And as far as the Gowanus redevelopment goes, I have a lot more faith that the EPA will get the job done than any of the BS plans the Mayor was tossing around in order to encourage the immediate development of luxury condos on the shores of this chemical dump. Are you a fan of Bloomberg? He LOOOOVES eminent domain abuse! (But he hates renters…!)
just fyi…not a renter or a fan of bloomberg. sorry to upset your preconceived notions….
Sorry, checked your bio and am even more shocked that someone who grew up in subsidized housing, constructed with the LEGITIMATE use of eminent domain, would front for this boondoggle. This is plain, old, ugly theft. So forgive my preconceived notions and let’s hear some more of your ideas about why dozens of people have to move so a billionaire can slop at the public subsidy trough to build a basketball arena for a Russian billionaire? And why 4 residential neighborhoods should be destroyed by all the joys that surround meccas like MSG, Yankees Stadium and Citifield? Because that’s what we’re talking about. Really, I’d like to see you defend this. At least show you’ve done your research and have an informed opinion.
Too bad the NY Times itself is not a “disinterested observer” since Bruce Ratner is their business partner. But you would be forgiven for not knowing that if the NY Times is all you read – they rarely disclose this information.
@mike. the city projects where i was raised — the monroe houses in the bronx — were built on old farmland. and living there, while it was rough in the later years, was mostly a good thing for my family. i’m totally in favor of subsidized housing for those in need. my problem comes when people no longer in need hang onto that subsidized housing forever. i’m thinking of all the people in mitchell-lama housing who long ago should have moved out and made way for more deserving — aka lower income — folk. i feel the same way about rent control and rent stabilization. the problem is that new yorkers will never let go if they happened to have stumbled onto a good deal. a friend of mine is buying a condo on the upper east side but continues to hang onto his rent stabilized apartment in chelsea. as he said to me, ‘they’ll have to pry that apartment from my cold dead hands.’
what does this have to do with eminent domain? nothing. i generally feel that development is good for the city. i love what’s happened to the meat market district for instance. love the high line project and i think the whole area is a triumph of good design.
i don’t expect that from ratner. the twin malls he built over there at the intersection of flatbush and atlantic suck. they’re ugly, poorly designed etc. but i don’t miss what was there before because it was pretty much nothing. and i do think the lirr/subway station is much better looking post project.
i guess my point is, there is nothing or was nothing over at the rail yards to preserve. so some people have to move to allow for development that will provide jobs, housing and entertainment. that’s life…and i would say the same thing if it were me who had to move. i wouldn’t like it of course but that’s how i feel.
btw, i think once the old yankee stadium is gone, the community will be left with a fabulous series of ballparks for their use….and have you ever been to willets point? those junk yards are an eye sore and i don’t mind losing them either.
this is all just my opinion. i have no power and i’m in a minority in brooklyn for sure so don’t fear….what i think ain’t gonna change anything.