The show broadcast from one historical Brooklyn landmark under threat of eminent domain visits another historical Brooklyn landmark under the threat of eminent domain:
The first of several NEW Freddy’s Brooklyn Roundhouse episodes and specials on the Duffield Street Brooklyn Underground Railroad safehouses will air on this Tuesday night at 8.00 pm on BCAT, Time Warner Channel 34 or CableVision channel 67, or for live internet streaming go to www.bcat.tv/bcat and select BCAT CH 1.
The series of shows focuses on the recently released Underground Railroad Report produced by the AKRF for the NYC Economic Development Corporation. The AKRF is a planning and engineering firm utilized often by the NYCEDC, they boast on their own website that they help companies “stay ahead of preservation constraints”, they also produced the large, yet woefully deficient, Atlantic Yards Environmental Impact Study for the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC). This time the AKRF attempts to plausibly deny the historic significance of these Brooklyn Underground Railroad safehouses in order for the NYCEDC to seize seven homeowner’s properties thru the use of eminent domain to create a parking lot for a new Starwood hotel that is being built across the street. In this episode residents and local historians tell their story of discovery of the buried Brooklyn Underground Railroad and speak out against the AKRF study. This first episode is a little roughly cut in order for us to get it on the air in time, but definitely a good primer on the subject and definitely more to come. Presently, there is a May 1st City Council Hearing on this matter.
