Willoughby Square Garage Development Opportunity RFP

Want to build a parking lot on the site of an Underground Railroad station? Now's your chance! Here's the Request for Proposals by the NYC Economic Development Corporation at Willoughby Square:

New York City Economic Development Corporation (“NYCEDC”) is seeking proposals for the development and operation of an underground parking garage (“the Garage”) and the construction of an approximately 1.15-acre street-level public space on top (“Willoughby Square”). Through this RFP, NYCEDC expects to select a developer to successfully develop and operate a below-grade garage under a long-term ground lease with the City. Respondents can submit garage proposals that accommodate up to a maximum of 694 spaces.

NYCEDC is currently developing schematic designs for Willoughby Square. The selected developer is expected to complete this design process at its sole cost and expense. The selected developer will also be responsible for the construction of Willoughby Square on behalf the City, for which the City expects to make funds available.

Brownstoner: EDC wants your help with Willoughby Square Park

Brownstoner posted this:

Help Design Willoughby Square Park

Calling all aspiring landscape designers and concerned residents of Downtown Brooklyn! Willoughby Square Park is getting a move on and the EDC wants your input. There will be a Community Design Charette held on Wednesday night at the Zeckendorf Health Science Lecture Hall of Long Island University. The park's designer, Hargreaves Associates will be on hand to steer the workshop participants through a serious of questions and considerations that will help inform the ultimate make-up of the 46,000-square-foot public space. Anyone interested in attending should RSVP to Josh Nachowitz at NYCEDC at jnachowitz@nycedc.com.

City: Save history on Duffield by paving over Duffield homes

The Brooklyn Paper is not very impressed with the NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) new RFP that might allow for the preservation of the Duffield Abolitionist homes. "City: Save history on Duffield by paving over Duffield homes" reports:

The city’s memorial to Brooklyn’s Underground Railroad history will sit atop an underground parking lot that will be built where some of the very Abolitionist history being commemorated is said to have actually happened.

The article continues:

City officials have denied that the Duffield houses were directly linked to the Underground Railroad, and the RFP continues that position: “A number of homes and churches in Downtown Brooklyn and the surrounding area have connections with the Underground Railroad [including] Plymouth Church (now Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims) in Brooklyn Heights; Bridge Street A.W.M.E. Church (now Polytechnic University student center in MetroTech); Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Fort Greene; and the Siloam Presbyterian Church, and Concord Baptist Church.”

The winning bidder must not only design a great monument, but also “provide an interactive, public gathering venue where individuals and groups of all ages can learn about the Abolitionist Movement and the Underground Railroad in Brooklyn.”

In addition, the “Abolitionism Commemoration” must include “an ongoing program or series of activities” and “demonstrate program sustainability using allocated funds for at least the next three fiscal years and … with other sources of funding beyond [that].”

Part of the irony is that there already are ongoing programs and activities at 227 and 233 Duffield Street. Lewis Greenstein, owner of 233 Duffield, opens his home every Sunday afternoon for tours of the evidence of Underground Railroad activity in his basement.

The Brooklyn Paper also points out the double standards of the EDC. The agency denies that there is sufficient proof of escaped slaves in the basements of Duffield Street to save them, yet they mention Plymouth Church. While Plymouth Church is a famous Abolitionist church, there is no more physical evidence of escaped slaves hiding there than at Duffield Street.

Victory (????): RFP for Abolitionist commemoration

The NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) released an RFP called Brooklyn Abolitionism Commemoration.

It's unclear what all this means so soon after the RFP was released. On the one hand it's a great victory that the EDC will allow for a museum on the site of their planned parking lot that until this week would have destroyed the Duffield Abolitionist homes. On the other hand, the RFP does not appear to require a museum, so 227 Duffield is not yet safe.

Until we can fully digest the document, here are some excerpts, staring with the Overview:

New York City Economic Development Corporation (“NYCEDC”) will issue a Request for Proposal (“RFP”) to select an existing cultural organization to develop and manage a commemoration site and ongoing program dedicated to the ‘historical friendships’ created during the 19th century Abolitionist Movement among people of different backgrounds, with particular attention paid to the Underground Railroad and its ties to the Borough of Brooklyn.

A project may be proposed for any area of Brooklyn, but it is expected that the most competitive proposals will provide for a central location for orientation connected to a network of related sites.

About Willoughby Square, the 1.25 acre park which the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership has called "critical" to job growth:

The Plaza is a critical aspect of the Downtown Brooklyn Development Plan, which recognizes the need for green space in the core of Downtown Brooklyn and aims to revitalize and enhance the district. Willoughby Square was initially designed as a way to attract residents, visitors and tenants to the new office, hotel, retail and residential space around this new public space just south of MetroTech. Currently, roughly two thousand housing units, five hundred hotel rooms and thousands of square feet of new retail and office development are in the development process in the immediate vicinity. Beneath the Plaza will be a 700-car public parking garage for use by visitors and employees. This new Plaza will be programmed for daily and seasonal use much like Manhattan’s Bryant Park and will serve multiple purposes for those living, working, studying and visiting the district.

So the EDC still considers their little parking lot and park to be critical to economic development, but this RFP is still a tremendous victory for those of us who believe that promoting Abolitionist history is the best way to promote Brooklyn. It shouldn't be hard to adjust the City's plan for a small park to prevent the destruction of these historic homes... shouldn't be, but we're working with the Bloomberg's EDC here.

Brooklyn Eagle: Withdrawal of Eminent Domain Findings Gives Hope

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle has published more details regarding the City's retraction of its eminent domain findings for Downtown Brooklyn. The eminent domain findings are required for the city to legally confiscate and demolish the Duffield Abolitionist homes and other properties threatened by the Downtown Brooklyn rezoning. In Withdrawal of Eminent Domain Findings Gives Hope to Duffield St. Preservationists, the paper reports:

Seth Donlin, spokesman for the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, said a blight determination that included the 21 lots on three blocks in Downtown Brooklyn in question was prepared for the department by environmental consulting firm AKRF in November 2003. But it was mistakenly not entered into public record at last May’s eminent domain hearing, requiring the reversal of the findings and a new public hearing scheduled for Oct. 29.

He said the blight determination would have to be obtained by making a formal Freedom of Information Law Request before it’s entered into public record.

“It is something that was produced specifically for the proceedings for eminent domain, and there is a specific time for which it is supposed to be made public,” he said. “Unfortunately, because of some oversight, it was not entered as it should have been [at the first hearing in May].”

Track Data, a financial firm with 150 employees; a rent-stabilized apartment building that houses 40 families; a handful of parking lots; and Amber Art and Music Space are also at risk of being displaced. Attorney Jennifer Levy, who represents one rent-stabilized tenant, and Joy Chatel, the partial owner of a home allegedly involved in the Underground Railroad, said she doesn’t believe there were any specific blight findings. Levy said the original urban renewal plan for Downtown Brooklyn found blight in very specific properties, but was later expanded to include a general area deemed blighted. This may not be substantive enough, in the eyes of the court, to justify the seizure of personal property. “I guess we’ll have to see what they have that they haven’t produced.”

“I was never briefed or given a copy of any blight study,” said Councilwoman Letitia James, a supporter of the Duffield Street homeowners.

Government agencies & mobsters at Deutsche Bank fire

Here's a great idea: why not have an agency in charge of coordinating all the different construction activity in Downtown Manhattan? That would prevent a disaster like the Deutsche Bank fire, right?

Wrong. That agency has already been established, and it's called the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center (LMCCC). While several seasoned fire fighters have been held accountable for the failure to inspect the Deutsche Bank building, there has been little attention on the LMCCC, despite some troubling failures.

Here is how the New York Times describes some of those failures in "Questions on City’s Role in Demolition Near 9/11 Site":

As it turned out, the subcontractor hired for the demolition was an organization comprised of executives from one company without the requisite experience and two senior executives from a second company under scrutiny by city investigators, a company whose former owner twice had been convicted of federal crimes, and had been accused of ties to organized crime.

Maybe the LMCCC would be off the hook if they didn't know about any of this, but they did. According to the NY Times, Martha Stark, who served on the LMCCC committee overseeing the Deutsche Bank building, received a letter from city investigators about the executives with mob ties working on the project.

(The Times has been doing a good job reporting on this, which is admirable. One firm in questioning, Safeway Environmental Corporation, was a subcontractor used in the development of their new headquarters. Safeway, incidently, was in the news back in 2005 when a building it was demolishing for Extell collapsed on Broadway & 99th.)

The questions of lack of oversight seem to be endemic in controversial projects around the city. For instance, the NYC Economic Development Corporation faced criticism because it hired AKRF without competitive bid in its environmental study of the Underground Railroad connections on Duffield Street.

Bloomberg has been praised for punishing the experienced fire fighters who failed in their inspections of the Deutsche Bank building. But will he hold the LMCCC accountable? As WNYC reports this afternoon, his administration is refusing to answer questions about its role due to the ongoing criminal investigations.

Let's not bicker

The NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) actions in Downtown Brooklyn are mystifying. As a result of the EDC's plans, some parking lots have been torn down to build apartment buildings, while on Duffield Street, the EDC plans to destroy homes to build a parking lot.

These controversies don't register on the New York Times, but the Times did write about the failure to develop lots in Manhattan. The EDC is explained in "Forty Years of Growth, Except Where It Was Expected":

One former city official familiar with the site faulted the city’s Economic Development Corporation, the agency responsible for the property, for inaction on the lots. While the Economic Development Corporation may be skilled with commercial development, it is not adept at planning for residential areas, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is still active in housing development.....

Current housing officials declined to comment about the sites. But Ms. Perine, the former commissioner, said the failure to build on the site reflected the reality that officials — and she included herself — focused on neighborhoods where they could build, rather than bicker.

Hopefully, this means that the EDC will simply walk away from its plan to destroy the Duffield Abolitionist homes. There are some important projects the EDC could undertake. Destroying the historic resources of Brooklyn is not one of them.

A city without leaders

"It's time Mayor Bloomberg and Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta stopped ducking and dodging."

This is how Juan Gonzalez begins asking tough questions about the tragic Deutsche Bank blaze and other incidents. He continues in "Where have you gone, Scoppetta & Bloomy":

Both men have gone into virtual hiding since Saturday's tragic Deutsche Bank blaze that killed hero Firefighters Robert Beddia and Joe Graffagnino.

How do you face a catastrophic fire at one of the most scrutinized buildings in this city, watch two of the men under your command get killed, and then refuse to speak?

Clearly, Bloomberg and Scoppetta realize the city and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., owners of the Deutsche Bank site, face enormous liability problems now for their failures to properly monitor safety at the tower.

For those of us who have seen the LMDC and other public authorities in action, their inaction is no surprise. Here's how the Downtown Express describes the LMDC in "Early Warnings":

Kathleen Moore asked officials last year what they would do if the former Deutsche Bank building caught fire after the painstaking demolition work began next door to her.

“That’ll never happen,” she remembers Charles Maikish telling her at a Community Board 1 meeting. Maikish, who until recently was the executive director of the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center, came up to reassure her, but to Moore it sounded like he was saying “don’t worry little lady, we’ll take care of you.”

The meeting was one of dozens the community board had over the years in which officials with the building’s owner, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, or its subsidiary, the construction center, told residents their fears and concerns about the project were unfounded.

But telling residents their concerns are unfound does not make it so. The NYC Economic Development Corporation takes the same attitude with evidence that there was Underground Railroad activity on Duffield Street- any evidence contrary to theirs is considered baseless. The opinions of experts (historians, neighbors or engineers) is not really important.

The LMDC and the EDC have brazen in their disregard for environmental concerns, and Bloomberg and Spitzer have proven themselves part of the problem, not the solution.

Courier-Life: Mayor offers new plan, but street demolition is still on

The Courier-Life publications ran a story in its various papers about Bloomberg's plan to commemorate Brooklyn Abolitionism while destroying the Duffield Abolitionist homes. The article reports:

“Extensive research into the history of the houses on Duffield and Gold Streets failed to produce evidence that directly connected Underground Railroad activity to the houses,” said EDC spokesperson Janel Patterson.

The NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) hired AKRF to do the environmental review (which includes cultural resources) and a follow-up study of the Underground Railroad connections at the Duffield Street properties. Even though AKRF has an archeologist on staff, the "extensive research" cited by Janel Petterson did not include an archeologist. The "extensive research" also chose to ignore the advice of their Peer Reviewers. The Peer Reviewers of this "extensive research" came to the conclusion that these properties should be preserved for further research, and the EDC published their findings here.

There is no dispute that the area was home to a great deal of Abolitionist activity at a time when New York was strongly pro-slavery. The EDC has failed to disprove that there was no Underground Railroad activity on Duffield, so they are very careful in their language.

AKRF was also the company that led the environmental review process at the World Trade Center, an area which includes the deadly fire at the Deutsche Bank building.

Daily News: Fort Greene firm rips city's seizure of longtime office

The Daily News covers the city plan to destroy a successful business. "Fort Greene firm rips city's seizure of longtime office" reports:

A Fort Greene financial services firm employing 150 workers will have to move after the city seized its five-story building to make way for a new cultural center and housing.

Longtime employees of the Track Data Corp. were stung Monday by a decision to destroy the business' 95 Rockwell Place headquarters and build the new facilities in its place.

"[The Brooklyn Academy of Music] had periodically approached us over the years, but they were never willing to pay us enough money to leave," said Track Data spokesman Rafi Reguer. "Obviously someone had a better idea, which is have the government force us to move, which they've done."

Eminent domain is the government's power to confiscate private property for the public good, and in this case it looks like someone at the NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) determined that eliminating jobs is in the "public" interest. It makes you wonder what "public" they are working for.

The EDC wants to destroy a successful company to support a cultural center, yet on Duffield Street, they want to destroy the cultural attraction (the Abolitionist homes) to build a parking lot, and in other places they are destroying parking lots to build luxury apartments. The Downtown Brooklyn redevelopment plan was supposed create jobs, but the EDC does not seem interested in that goal.

Deutsche Bank fire: Your public authorities at work

A Google News search for "Bovis" brings up a huge number of articles about the recent deadly fire at the Deutsche Bank building at the World Trade Center. A news search for "ESDC" brings nothing, which is odd when you think about it. The New York State Economic Development Corporation is in charge of this area.

Public authorities, which include the ESDC and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC), were created to cut through the red tape that prevents development. That's all well and good, but the case of the Deutsche Bank Fire, that manifested into a disconnected water standpipe.

Public authorities have been failing to address environmental concerns in various ways in various projects. At the proposed Atlantic Yards development, where the ESDC is nominally the lead developer, the collapse of the parapet of the Wards Bakery led to promises of an Ombudsman... which never materialized. In Harlem, a judge recently ruled that there appeared to be collusion between the ESDC, AKRF and Columbia University.

The controversy over environmental oversight in the Downtown Brooklyn redevelopment plan includes another aspect of what the state defines as "environment," namely historic resources. The experts hired by the EDC through its contractor AKRF came to the conclusion that the Duffield Street homes should be preserved, but the EDC ignored their advice.

These are just part of the problems of public authorities like the ESDC. An audit released in May 2006 by New York comptroller Alan Hevesi reported that the Corporation loses track of its subsidiaries and recommended that "significant improvements be made in ESDC’s recordkeeping for and control over subsidiary operations."

Firms like Bovis and AKRF are for-profit businesses accountable to their owners. They are taking advantage of a situation created by public authorities like the EDC and the ESDC. (AKRF has a tenuous connect to the Deutsche Bank fire, since its role was limited to leading the team that wrote the GEIS.)

Neither our mayor or nor governor seemed to be concerned about insuring that the public authorities serve the public.

The mayor and governor are supposed to serve the citizens. But if they are not doing their job, it is up to the citizens to force them to do the right thing.



It sounds idealistic to say that the citizens should really be in control, but what choice do we have after the Deutsche Bank fire? What choice do we have when the mayor wants to destroy the Duffield Abolitionist homes to build a parking lot?

NY Post extoll the glories of parking on ruins of Abolitionist homes

The NY Post praises the wonderful new park which the NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) would create by destroying the Duffield Abolitionist homes. See DOUBLE 'PARK'ING: B'KLYN TO GET REC SPACE WITH CAR GARAGE.

The article fails to mention the controversy over the potential Underground Railroad site. The Post also bends over backwards trying to make the small park that Bloomberg wants to build sound important. The Post compares it to Bryant Park, which is more than six times larger than Bloomberg's glorious new grassy knoll.

Here is a sample of the rhetoric:

"What we're trying to do is create a dynamic downtown, and this would be a miniature version of Bryant Park that, like Bryant Park, could offer concerts, films and displays of public art," said Joseph Chan, president of the city's Downtown Brooklyn Partnership.

The residents of Duffield Street have already turned their homes into a cultural attraction. The buildings are open for public tours on Sunday afternoons. There have been a few performances at 227 Duffield Street... but it looks like Joe Chan missed those.

It should also be noted that while providing amenities to drivers may be very important, the EDC has been tearing down parking lots to build housing, though on Duffield Street, they are tearing down someone else's homes to build parking.

A victory for Brooklyn or a new justification to demolish the Duffield Abolitionist homes?

This is not a quote from Bloomberg's press release today:

In view of the Underground Railroad’s great importance has in our nation’s history, City Planning and EDC acted immediately to investigate the claims presented at the CPC public hearing of Underground Railroad activity in the area.

This is a quote a NYC Department of City Planning press release from 2004.

The Observer reports on a new released press release (PDF) in Mayor Appeases on Underground Railroad Rancor. Here is an excerpt:

MAYOR BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCES PROJECT TO RECOGNIZE BROOKLYN'S ROLE IN 19TH CENTURY ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT

Widely Respected Panel Selected to Assist with Commemoration Project

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced plans to develop a project to commemorate abolitionist activity that occurred in Brooklyn in the 1800s. To assist in that effort, a six-member panel of noted historians, community leaders and academics has been selected to work with the City and the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership.

"Recognizing and honoring the historic role that Brooklyn played in the abolitionist movement is a worthy endeavor, and a role we should be proud of," said Mayor Bloomberg. "It's important that as we work to bring new jobs and housing to downtown Brooklyn that we also work to ensure that the noteworthy deeds of our ancestors will not be forgotten.

The announcement is certainly a victory for those who want to promote the development of Downtown Brooklyn through the commemoration of the Abolitionist history at 227 Duffield Street and other nearby historic properties. It is a clear recognition by the Mayor that these buildings can provide an important cultural resource to the area.

It remains to be seen whether today's press release is just an excuse to tear down these properties and to build a memorial at some other location. The EDC made this suggestion at the May 1st 2007 public hearing on the historical claims surrounding the Duffield Street homes threatened with destruction by their Downtown Brooklyn plans.

There are some disturbing hints in the Mayor's press release. Most strikingly, the EDC hired a team of eminent historians to act as Peer Reviewers for the report written by AKRF and published by the EDC in March 2007. These academics worked to legitimize the AKRF report, which concluded that there was not sufficient evidence at the time to preserve the properties. The Peer Reviewers came to the conclusion that the properties should be preserved.

Today's press release announces a "Widely Respected Panel Selected to Assist with Commemoration Project," but none of the Peer Reviewers who spoke out against the EDC's conclusions were included. Apparently, their years of work on the subject mean that they are no longer "widely respected," since they disagreed with the EDC.

It is also quite curious that the Mayor did not include Four Borough Neighborhood Preservation Alliance as one of the community groups on his panel. Four Borough has been at the forefront of the initiative to advocate for Downtown Brooklyn through the promotion of the history at 227 Duffield Street and nearby properties.

The press release continues:

In connection with the City's efforts to implement the Downtown Brooklyn Plan... an extensive research effort was completed in response to suggestions that certain houses on Duffield and Gold Streets in Downtown Brooklyn played a role in the Underground Railroad. The research did not directly connect Underground Railroad activity to the houses, but it did confirm a great deal of abolitionist activity in the area. As a result, the City is seeking to develop a commemoration program that will celebrate and embrace the role that Brooklyn played in bringing an end to slavery.

AKRF did spent two years researching this history, but for serious academic research, this is just scratching the surface. And it is factually incorrect to say that this effort "was completed in response to suggestions" etc. The research was done because AKRF was caught lying. The well respected historian Dr. Cheryl LaRoche testified before the City Council that Duffield Street is the most promising site for Underground Railroad research in the country. It is wrong to characterize this as a mere "suggestion," and I hope the Mayor corrects this error.

We applaud the Mayor for moving in the right direction. We just hope it is the right direction.

Pro-construction, Pro-Abolitionist Homes

What can DDDb and the Carpenter's Union agree on? The two groups are vocally opposed to each other on the Atlantic Yards debate, but the pro-Ratner and anti-Ratner activists find common ground on Duffield Street. One side stridently advocates for transparency, the other for jobs, and both oppose the NYC Economic Development Corporation's plans for Duffield Street.

Here's a video of the June 2007 union rally on Duffield Street. 227 Duffield, home of prominent Abolitionists, can be seen behind William Cotton and Peter Abbate:



Incidently, Congresswoman Yvette Clarke has written a letter in support of the protection of the Abolitionist homes. Anthony Pugliese showed his support by attending the June 19th press conference at 227 Duffield.

Here is a link to a pro-union website opposed to the Sheraton hotels on Duffield Street. The focus of these construction advocates' ire is that the Duffield Sheraton hotels are being built with non-union labor.

There are various reasons the unions would support the promotion of the Abolitionist homes on Duffield. One could argue that the EDC's proposed parking lot is really a free taxpayer gift to the non-union hotels. The EDC is saving Sheraton a ton of money, because instead of building their own parking lot, the taxpayers will pay for it.

Of course, some people get to pay more for gift of parking. The EDC want to force the owners and residents of Duffield to pay with their homes and businesses.

Condo buyers mouth off- the EDC should listen

Brownstowner.com asks:

Since sales started last Fall, roughly a hundred buyers have dialed in to buy a place at the former New York Telephone Company building at 101 Willoughby Street that's better known in real estate circles these days as the Belltel Lofts.... Any readers out there who're in contract here? What sealed the deal for you?

The responses, as with most boards, were all over the map. Here are two opposing views:

There is a nice atmosphere of Art Deco and the history of the building is a positive. But that's where the positives ended for me....

The area is horrendous and if you think it will change by the time you move in, keep dreaming. This area has been a rundown dump for years and only now being cleaned up with CITY money. The private developers would not be here if the city wasn't giving tax breaks and so on.

You could say that part of the incentives that the City could give would be destroying old homes to spruce up the neighborhood. Or maybe not- here's what another reader said:

Even if developers tore down everything around you and built new (which they seem to be doing), you're not going to get a great neighborhood rich in character or architectural interest--you're going to get a mini Houston or, worse, MetroTech part II.

Sorry, but Belltel will end up being wedged between a bland and deserted office park (the awful MetroTech) and a bland and generic strip mall (what Fulton Mall is fast becoming).

So if the EDC wants to attract buyers like these, they are better off keeping the Duffield Street homes, and turning it into another "generic strip mall." This is today's example of how the EDC's planned use of eminent domain is either unnecessary or ill-advised.

More proof that eminent domain is not needed on Duffield

The NYC Economic Development Corporation claims that the destruction of the Duffield Street homes is important because economic development of the area cannot proceed without their proposed parking lot and grassy knoll. The Daily Eagle, a big booster of the massive developments in and around Downtown Brooklyn sums it up in Atlantic Yards Still Largest Project on the Table. The article dutifully publishes the reports of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership:

Another milestone project, long in fruition, is One Brooklyn Plaza, a 640,000-square-foot office building at the corner of Fulton Street and Boerum Place. There will also be about 160,000 square feet of retail. This project will completely change the western end of what used to be called the Fulton Mall. A second development called Albee Square Center, a housing development at the old Albee Square Mall site, will change the other entrance at Flatbush Avenue.

Another new development, which could also be a milestone, is a new 923,000-square-foot building scheduled to be built on the site of the Klitgord Auditorium of the New York College of Technology. The plan now is for 600 units of housing, all market rate; 23,000 square feet of retail; and 300,000 square feet for offices and facilities for the CUNY school.

Speculation is that either this building or Albee Square Center could become the tallest building in Brooklyn. One flatters the Manhattan Bridge entrance, the other the Brooklyn Bridge.

My! That's a lot of milestones. While most people's eyes will glaze over by these numbers, it is important to understand that a huge new neighborhood is rising.

We can still have the economic benefits of these buildings without destroying the Abolitionist homes.

The EDC backs down with its parking plan... in Queens

The NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) seems arbitrary in its plans to build and tear down parking in Brooklyn. They have been doing the same thing in Queens, but they have backed down from a plan after public pressure. This doesn't mean that they are responding to that public pressure, but it does give us some hope in Brooklyn. The Queens Chronicle reports in City Shelves Proposal To Raze Courthouse Garage:

Kew Gardens residents wary of losing precious-few parking spaces to a sprawling new mixed-use facility near the courthouse can put their fears to rest — for now.

After seeking bids for over eight months, the city shelved its proposal last month to raze the parking garage near the Kew Gardens Courthouse and replace it with an enormous new facility featuring extra office space, apartments, even a high school.

The decision came after the Economic Development Corporation’s “request for proposals” failed to spark enough interest from developers to undertake the project.

On complex land-use choices and "land monopoly"

What planet does the NYC Economic Development Corporation live on, thinking that it is worth destroying the Duffield Abolitionist homes to build a parking lot?

Norman Oder's Atlantic Yards Report addresses this question today:

Sociologist Robert Fitch's bracing 1993 book (updated 2002), The Assassination of New York, considers Robert Moses far less responsible for urban outcomes in the city than the FIRE (Fire Insurance Real Estate) elite, notably the Rockefeller family, expressing its wishes through the work of the Regional Plan Association.

The posting touches upon several issues related to the EDC's plan to confiscate private property for the sake of economic development, but Mr. Oder does address the Downtown Brooklyn plan once directly:

[T]he issue is also the way incentives shape markets; why, for example, has Downtown Brooklyn become a home for housing, when that was not anticipated in the Downtown Brooklyn rezoning? Because tax breaks make the projects that much more attractive.

And in an aside describing the EDC, the Arts Commission, and how many projects are interrelated:

[Note: the Public Development Corporation, headed by Jim Stuckey before he went to Forest City Ratner, is now the New York City Economic Development Corporation and the Urban Development Corporation is now the Empire State Development Corporation. Both are Atlantic Yards backers.]

The decisions of the EDC strike me as arbitrary. Fitch's book seems to describe a process that is conspiratorial (I haven't read the book, so I can't say whether he's right or wrong):

Fitch continues:
New York's City Planning Commission bears no resemblance to Tokyo's MITI. It has none of Daniel Burnham's soaring spirit. City Planning makes no plans--big or little. The master plan for New York that was the stated reason for creating the Commission has never materialized. Its role is to validate and legalize the plans and initiatives conceived by the city's private real estate interests.
(Emphasis added)

You can't say that's true today, if you consider City Planning's responsiveness to some neighborhood requests for downzoning and contextual zoning. But what was City Planning's letter regarding Atlantic Yards but a validation of a plan privately presented to it months earlier?

The parking lot that the EDC wants to build in place of the Duffield Street properties would function almost as a private parking lot for the new hotels being built across the street. It is conceivable that the destruction of the Abolitionist homes is purely a gift for these hotels.

Development Reaches Flatbush Extension in Spectacular Way

The NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) argues that the historic homes on Duffield Street must be destroyed in order to spur economic development in Downtown Brooklyn. The owners and residents of these homes counter that their homes should not be confiscated because economic development is proceeding quite well, thank you very much.

Today the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published "Development Reaches Flatbush Extension in Spectacular Way" which paints an image of dramatic new construction starting a few feet from the Duffield Street homes all the way to the Manhattan Bridge:

Although Brooklyn planners, in rezoning the Downtown Brooklyn area in 2004, hoped those efforts might lead to 1,000 new housing units, no one anticipated the wave of residential development. Few had thought through the appeal of living in Brooklyn with a view.

With height plans for four of the 10 projects still being determined, there will be at least 224 new combined stories of buildings climbing into the sky.

With five buildings contributing retail space, there should also be about 113 feet of new stores. Three of these projects are in Bridge Plaza along Nassau, Duffield and Gold streets. Three others are between Tillary and Myrtle, and still another three are on the southern part of Myrtle — all east of Flatbush Extension....

If all this comes to pass, this part of Brooklyn and the old extension will never be the same.

For yet more information, you can check out the Belltel Lofts blog, which is a "is for owners or people who'd like to be owners at Belltellofts at 365 Bridge Street Downtown Brooklyn. Also, anyone wanting to discuss Downtown Brooklyn in general."

For an angrier reaction, read "The Botox Theory Of Urban Revitalization."

With all of this economic activity, you might think the EDC might want to reconsider the use of eminent domain on Duffield Street. But the EDC remains intent on destroying these homes, despite the current conditions.

Summer of Discontent: Building blitz backlash grows

Courier-Life publications, a Brooklyn newspaper chain with wide distribution, has put the backlash against the "building blitz" on the front cover. While the Atlantic Yards gets a great deal of attention, the Courier reported on all the other issues around town:

It’s the summer of 2007 and many people in Brooklyn are sweating more than the heat.

Their neighborhoods are changing fast and it doesn’t matter if “traditional housing stock” where you live means a three-story brownstone or a street-level bungalow – all you have to do is look through the blinds. New condominiums and out-of-character buildings are sprouting up everywhere.

“Does the city want to destroy neighborhoods? Sometimes I wonder,” Jim Ivaliotis said at a recent meeting of the Madison-Marine-Homecrest Civic Association on East 27th Street. “The city is a little pro building.”

Ivaliotis is one of an increasing number of community activists who have started crossing neighborhood boundaries in search of allies in the fight against overdevelopment.

Like-minded individuals from seemingly disparate communities like Canarsie and Bay Ridge and even beyond have been gathering in the basement of the Kings Highway Reformed Church off Quentin Road all year long to vent their frustration about out-of-character development and devise a plan for how to stop it.

Opposition to the policies of the NYC Economic Development Corporation is growing and getting more organized. Hopefully the agency will come to realize that it is supposed to serve the public, not the other way around.