There are many properties threatened with eminent domain in Downtown Brooklyn, not just the Duffield Street Abolitionist homes.
This blog is determined to shed light on examples of the Bloomberg administration's use of eminent domain to demolish homes and businesses without properly compensating the victims of the administration's "economic development" schemes. "Displaced tenants in Downtown Brooklyn rally against the city," published by Courier Life, touches on many of these issues:
Frustration is growing for several dozen families in three downtown Brooklyn apartment buildings who were promised new affordable housing digs in June 2008.
But the city maintains they are working as fast as they can to relocate them.
The buildings located at 402, 404 and 406 Albee Square off Willoughby Street are slated for demolition to make room for a park bounded by Fulton, Willoughby and Duffield streets.
The seizure of the homes is the result of the 2004 Downtown Brooklyn rezoning, and following a court battle, the city agreed to move eligible tenants in the buildings with substantial relocation benefits and protections including Section 8 subsidies and a preference in city-supervised affordable developments.
Eighteen months later, tenants allege that city workers have threatened to place them into the city’s shelter system or city-owned property in dangerous neighborhoods. They also complain the city’s department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) is not caring for apartments in the building, which now has molded walls, detached sinks and, in one apartment, a steam pipe that spews hot water from the ceiling.
For the full article, click here.
