Brooklyn Paper writes about the city's plan to commemorate- and destroy- historic buildings near the booming Downtown Brooklyn. They report in "Navy Yard gets historic":Mayor Bloomberg (and his would-be successor, Speaker Christine Quinn) journeyed to the Brooklyn Navy Yard on Wednesday to unveil a $15-million historical center that will celebrate the Navy Yard’s illustrious role as a ship-building Mecca during World War II, when it employed 70,000 people.
The project will add a new gallery and office space to the Commandant’s Residence, an 1857 building that is part of the decaying Admiral’s Row.
The rest of that line of 19th-century structures — the best looking ones at the entire Navy Yard — will be torn down to make room for a supermarket.
“[It] is essential that we remember [the Navy Yard’s] rich and historic past,” said Bloomberg. The mayor’s appeal to history at the Navy Yard is similar to his approach on nearby Duffield Street Downtown, where the administration has condemned historic houses to make room for a parking garage.
