No, they haven't actually said that in words, but they have said this in images found here:
is proud to bring Brooklyn forward by obliterating any bit of history of those pesky Abolitionists. Oh, maybe a plaque or two will be nice, but those homes have to go.
In October, a group of neighbors and local historians secured a last-minute reprieve for the only documented Underground Railroad safe-house in Manhattan Borough of New York City. The current owners of Hopper-Gibbons House had sought to substantially modify the building and the City of New York had mistakenly issued a work permit for the changes. The group's efforts got the permit revoked after a city review found that the architectural plans violated building and zoning codes. The home, located at 336 West 29th Street in Manhattan, dates from 1847 and was purchased by Quaker abolitionists Abigail and James Gibbons in 1851. The Gibbons home is part of an elegant two-block oasis of townhouses built as a piece in 1847 and known as Lamaratine Place at the time.
Mobs of the 1863 Draft Riots, which lynched blacks and attacked the homes of abolitionists, assaulted the Gibbons home, threw furniture out the windows and set fire to several rooms. Gibbons daughters Lucy and Julia escaped only by scrambling over rooftops to the neighboring Hebrew Orphans Asylum.
This from The Campaign for Community Based Planning:The building that was once Albee Square Mall, the gateway to Downtown Brooklyn’s Fulton Street Mall shopping area, is now a construction site. Eventually, a mixed-use tower development called CityPoint is planned for the site. In the meantime, the Brooklyn Paper reports, Albee Square, the triangular intersection of Fulton Mall, DeKalb Avenue and Bond Street, is “a wasteland.”According to the article, the City’s Department of Transportation and Economic Development Corporation will hold a hearing on Tuesday, November 18 to collect ideas for the site. The meeting will take place at 5pm at St. Francis College (180 Remsen St., between Court and Clinton streets, room 6301). Call 718-222-7271 for info.
Curbed gives some updates on hotel going up in their post "Construction Watch: Aloft Erect on Duffield in Downtown BK":The Aloft/Sheraton on Duffield Street in Downtown Brookyn is well on its way to becoming an actual hotel. The building is at 222 Duffield, basically across the street from those Underground Railroad buildings that generated so many headlines and up the street from a hip Hot Karl Fischer Hotel that is just starting to get underway in the sense of demolition going on on the future site. This baby will have 500 rooms when all is said and done, introducing a lot of people to the pleasures of stays on Duffield St.
