Yesterday’s Times article on redevelopment plans for Admirals’ Row more or less presented the issue at hand in the same old black-and-white terms: Either the 10 dilapidated 19th century rowhouses behind the Farragut Houses get demolished and a supermarket gets built, or the houses are preserved and no supermarket is built. The story notes that people living in the nearby projects are mostly in favor of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation’s plan to demolish the structures (Those buildings are disintegrating, and nobody’s ever done anything with them, so put in a supermarket, says a resident of the Walt Whitman Houses). What isn’t examined in the article, however, is whether it’s possible to build a supermarket and save the houses, an idea that’s likely to be discussed at a Fort Greene Association meeting tonight, where Brent Porter of the Pratt Institute will present alternate plans to save these historic homes and provide needed community services. Meanwhile, the National Guard, which owns the properties, is taking a long look at whether it should require whoever buys the houses to preserve them.
Amid Weeds and Rust, a Ruin Seeks a Second Act [NY Times]
Officers’ Row: Let’s Have Our Cake and Eat It Too [Brownstoner]
Fort Greene Association [FGA Homepage]