Oh, those big, bad government agencies that have the power to confiscate your home. Take the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), which ruled that it wants to seize 21 properties in Downtown Brooklyn. It would be a little easier to take them seriously if they could figure out from whom they are seizing the properties.
They sent a letter to Ed Atwood at 227 Duffield Street. They will have a hard time making him turn over this property, since he's dead. He was the ex-husband of Joy Chatel, and anyone who has been following this issue will know that she is the most prominent of the residents fighting the HPD's plan.
Oh, there are other little flaws in their plan. For instance, the HPD wants to destroy Track Data Corporation, a financial services company that employs 150 people. As reported by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, as of last May, the would-be condemners testified that there is no development in any planning or approval stage to replace the firm. So let's just confiscate and demolish a functioning business without any plan to replace it. That's the HPD's idea of good government!
And let's thank Bloomberg while we're at it. He announced a lovely panel to commemorate Brooklyn's Abolitionist history. The readership of this blog is limited, so it really helped us out that he spread the word far and wide about the importance of this history. He let the whole world know that celebrating this history is good for the future of Brooklyn. And then he announces his plan to destroy the best documented homes linked to the Underground Railroad.
You make our job easy, Mike! We are trying to show that the best way to promote Downtown Brooklyn is by celebrating the Abolitionist history on Duffield. We're trying to show that the City's plans are full of holes, but you do such a better job at it.
Thanks again!
