There was recently word that the city is putting $20 million toward Dumbo street improvements, some of which will go to reconstructing more of Dumbo’s Belgian block streets, and now the Brooklyn Paper has a stir-the-pot article about how some neighborhood residents see the renovations as historically inaccurate. Doreen Gallo of the DUMBO Neighborhood Alliance says “there’s nothing historic about this — it looks like Disney World.” Evidence of historical inaccuracy includes stuff like the blocks being placed in the middle of Washington Street to make it more bike-friendly. Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council, says the city doesn’t do a good enough job of maintaining historic streets and reconstructing them costs too much and isn’t historically sensitive since it involves “ripping everything up without numbering it and retaining historic materials.” The city, for its part, says the work is historically accurate since streets are “restored with the original Belgian blocks, which were removed, cleaned and stored while underground work was completed.”
DUMBO — Historyland or Disneyland? [BK Paper]
Closing Bell: $20 Million for Dumbo Street Improvements [Brownstoner]


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. There are a handful of historical districts with special street pavement. They include SoHo and portions of Tribeca in Manhattan. DUMBO is a similar historic manufacturing area, now turned residential, where the city, probably at the insistence of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, is repaving the streets in stone rather than the generic blacktop. I think that is fine.

  2. There are a handful of historical districts with special street pavement. They include SoHo and portions of Tribeca in Manhattan. DUMBO is a similar historic manufacturing area, now turned residential, where the city, probably at the insistence of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, is repaving the streets in stone rather than the generic blacktop. I think that is fine.

  3. Not actually sure what the objection is, but it seems like that it is based in a bike lane issue. that is the women is complaining that putting bike lanes into the brick, is not historically accurate.

    Either way my conclusion is the same – Who the F cares.

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