The creation of the panel is partly a response to a controversy over six row houses on Duffield Street in Downtown Brooklyn. As this blog reported, local lore has long held that the houses were part of the Underground Railroad. The city’s Economic Development Corporation, which notified residents in 2004 that the city might seize the property under eminent domain to build a public park and an underground parking garage, concluded that that was not the case but residents have disputed the corporation’s study as flawed.In the previous NYT article published June 19, Sewel Chan wrote:
Ms. Patterson [the NYC EDC Spokesperson] noted that AKRF’s research was supplemented by a 12-member peer review committee, oral histories, architectural surveys and extensive outreach. “The methodology of the research and the resulting rating are not under dispute,” she said.
My impression is that Chan was subtly undercutting Patterson because there were raging disputes about the methodology of the research. Please don't assume that the NY Times is simply reprinting EDC press releases.
