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November 24, 2006
What If...
What if you were a wealthy philanthropist who could write a $100 million check to fund any infrastructure or public project in Brooklyn? What would it be? A selective high school to rival Stuyvesant in Manhattan? Hundreds more patrol officers on the police force? A monorail above Atlantic Avenue? Let your imagination run wild.
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Comments
Get trolley cars running again. How cool would it be to have vintage trolley cars running to Red Hook, Borough Hall, up and own Atlantic Avenue...and even maybe even up to Propect Park and the cultural district...or down Fulton St to BAM.
Posted by: coco at November 24, 2006 11:32 AM
Again...I'd subsidize a major developer who wanted to do a major development for his own profit in the middle of Brooklyn.
Posted by: Loser1 at November 24, 2006 11:38 AM
Bike lanes. Real ones, with little concrete curbs and evenly spaced metal posts between them and the rest of the street, so the bikers are actually protected from traffic. On major roads, like the length of Flatbush, Fulton, Bedford, maybe 4th Ave.
There's already a nice one that runs the length of Ocean Parkway, on the pedestrian median. Maybe a similar one on Eastern Parkway?
And don't tell me we don't need them. It's clearly a case of if-you-build-it-they-will-come-ism.
Posted by: sylvia at November 24, 2006 11:40 AM
The high school, the high school! We need a good high school. Please.
Posted by: Anonymous at November 24, 2006 11:41 AM
Ooh, that trolley idea sounds great too...
Posted by: sylvia at November 24, 2006 11:42 AM
A school that services the 5-12 grades that requires academic acheivement to enter. No exceptions.
Maybe a private transportation company that takes people from their door to their offices (kind of like a city bus but with a more direct route, no bums and hot coffee and newspaper)
Posted by: Anonymous at November 24, 2006 11:53 AM
I would build out a complete trasportation system for the northeastern portion of the borough, complete with a high-speed rail line that would run parallel to the Belt Parkway from Queens, around the outer portion of the borough last stop in Sunset Park and then straight into lower Manhattan. Perhaps even a second Manhattan stop at Grand Central? Of course this would cost billions so my $100mm would be just a drop in the bucket, but that's for folks like Shelly and Elliot to work out.
Posted by: Oh Lord! at November 24, 2006 11:55 AM
A monorail, that's just crazy talk! What if something goes wrong?
Posted by: Marge Simpson at November 24, 2006 11:56 AM
I would build out a complete trasportation system for the southeastern portion of the borough, complete with a high-speed rail line that would run parallel to the Belt Parkway from Queens, around the outer portion of the borough last stop in Sunset Park and then straight into lower Manhattan. Perhaps even a second Manhattan stop at Grand Central? Of course this would cost billions so my $100mm would be just a drop in the bucket, but that's for folks like Shelly and Elliot to work out.
Mass transit in southeastern Brooklyn = Saving brownstone Brooklyn
Posted by: Oh Lord! at November 24, 2006 11:56 AM
A large parking lot for BH, PS, CH so I can shop there easily. (I know this is evil.)
Posted by: Anonymous at November 24, 2006 12:01 PM
Buy off Ratner and make AY go away. I have lived in PH 25 years through some ugly times and now have to look forward to the destruction of our neighborhood by developers.
Posted by: Anonymous at November 24, 2006 12:03 PM
I'd develop a series of neighborhood community centers, each housing one or more pre-schools.
Posted by: Anonymous at November 24, 2006 12:10 PM
Idea 1:
Bike Lanes. When I was biking everywhere on a trip in Amsterdam, I was thinking why doesn't NYC have bike lanes. I'm afraid for life and limb, so I don't bike in Brooklyn. If there were dedicated bike lanes for all the major point "A" to point "B" AND high tech racks to lock the bike once there, I would, for sure, bike places.
And increase the water taxi availability at major dock points in Brooklyn and make it easy to bring you bike on the water taxi, so you can bike from Bklyn to Manhattan.
Idea 2:
Reliable safe and inexpensive transportation to/from JFK and LaGuardia for Brooklyn residents. It's cheaper and easier for people to get to Manhattan from the airports then to get to residences and destinations in Brooklyn. Countless thousands of taxi, car service and personal cars take one Brooklyn person to/from the airport every year because there is not a good mass transit or inexpensive share ride system in place. The waste of money, gas and increased pollution must be enormous.
Idea 3:
Create a think tank of Architects, Urban Planners, etc. to come up with a plan for a cost effective, environmentally friendly, low density, contextual and visually pleasing plans for new residential constructions in Brooklyn. Then if your tearing down a non land marked building you just pick from an assortment of plans for row/townhouse, semi detached house, detached house (depending on the lot and surrounding buildings). Provide the plans for free to developers so they don't slap up more frugly fedders.
Posted by: Anonymous at November 24, 2006 12:18 PM
Affordable housing...
Posted by: Anonymous at November 24, 2006 12:38 PM
deck over the BQE trench from Hamilton Avenue to Atlantic Avenue and turn it into open space with lots of trees!
Posted by: Anonymous at November 24, 2006 12:48 PM
Um, I hate to break it to you people, but Brooklyn Tech is a selective High School that rivals Stuy. I guess the student body at Tech is too ethnic for Brownstoner to realize its one of the four best high schools in the city, along with Stuy, Bronx Science and Midwood High. Maybe we can build another school just like Tech in the parking lot @ LIU and designate it Whites only.
Posted by: Tree at November 24, 2006 12:49 PM
bury as many elevated subway lines as possible! [though that amount of money would only get you a couple of miles probably]
Posted by: Anonymous at November 24, 2006 12:50 PM
Brooklyn Tech totally off most Brownstoner's radars because it's mostly Asian. We can't send Johnny Trustfund to a school where he can't compete.
Posted by: Anonymous at November 24, 2006 1:08 PM
bulldoze all the projects in Boerum Hill - Happy Thanksgiving!
Posted by: Anonymous at November 24, 2006 1:14 PM
Day care centers and more social workers administering $ to those who really need it. Those stories in the NY Times Neediest Cases Fund are so heartbreaking. There are so many poor people who really need help. Why don't we start a fund through this website to help one of those Bklyn charities now that the holidays are coming and everybody is feeling like giving (or should be!) I challenge you Brownstoner to do this! Enough of the rich guy scenario. Let's get some $ to those who need it now.
Posted by: Anonymous at November 24, 2006 1:16 PM
i'd buy up all the bed stuy brownstones i could, renovate them and sell them at cost or finance at a very, very low rate to residents of the neighborhood. set up some sort of home ownership program for poorer folks in the boro.
Posted by: pietro at November 24, 2006 1:58 PM
pietro: you'd have to sell them way below cost for the average resident of bed-stuy to be able to afford them.
Posted by: sylvia at November 24, 2006 2:21 PM
brooklyn tech is great, but let's have another one too -- this is all a what if thing, so what if we had another one? nice, eh? why you gotta be so mean, people?
Posted by: Anonymous at November 24, 2006 2:24 PM
Yes, Brooklyn Tech is a great school, but it's HUGE and that doesn't work for lot of kids. How about some excellent small schools like the ones in Manhattan (many of which EXCLUDE Brooklyn kids) -- don't Brooklyn kids deserve some small, selective schools like Baruch, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Lab School?
Posted by: Anonymous at November 24, 2006 3:08 PM
Gentrify Bed Stuy, Crown Heights and Sunset Park
Posted by: Future at November 24, 2006 3:09 PM
I'd use the money to bring a lot more involvement in areas that are still struggling with crime, poverty, etc. such as East New York and some areas of Flatbush, etc. These neighborhoods are the ones that need better schools -- the idea of one good school is so much less powerful than small improvements to 10 really bad ones. And I'd do a lot more to give them better opportunities for jobs -- anyone recall the insane line to work at Hershey's or something just bc it paid $10.75/hr and had benefits? En bref, I don't think the people who need help could care about a bike lane (though I bike and would love it) or better transportation (though I'd love that too). They don't need newly renovated brownstones either. They need opportunities to make a living, police their own neighborhoods, and then they can help themselves.
Posted by: c at November 24, 2006 3:09 PM
Re: Brooklyn Tech - it also has some extremely wealthy alums (e.g. Charles Wang) who provided the athletic field and another person whose name escapes me who donated several million dollars to the school. I think they may have more famous, rich alums than Stuy. Also, Please don't flame about trustfunders - I assume you never had to pick a school for your child. NYC public high schools are no laughing matter and you don't put your kid into just any school without doing your homework. Brooklyn Tech is an extremely large school and many kids do not do well in that kind of environment.
Posted by: Anonymous at November 24, 2006 4:39 PM
My kid goes to Stuy and wishes he'd selected Brooklyn Tech. Great programs but less high pressure competition. They need to lose the drill presses and get some computers though. It's 2006, not 1956.
I like the idea of lifting up some of the really desparate neighborhoods with cleaner, better schools, decent grocery store and some jobs. Subsidize businesses to open there who need unskilled to semi skilled labor.
Posted by: Anonymous at November 24, 2006 4:59 PM
Second Avenue subway through Dumbo, Cobble Hill West, Red Hook, Sunset Park. Anything left over, I'd knock down those hideous Robert Moses towers off Cadman Plaza and restore the Heights street grid.
Come to think of it, none of this would be an enormous public good beyond making me happy. Maybe it's good that I don't have $100M lying around.
Posted by: BklynJace at November 24, 2006 5:29 PM
I have 2 goals, both of which would cost much more than 100MM, but here goes:
1. Along with 12:18's architectural think tank for affordable housing idea, I'd put the money into starting some kind of venture capital development specifically for building affordable housing that is cost effective, esthetically pleasing, and well built. While new construction would probably constitute the bulk of it, I would also try whenever possible to use existing structures and keep the traditional feel of brownstone Brooklyn in mind. I think it would be relatively easy to come up with good design, I would spend as much as needed in hiring scrupulously honest and dedicated oversight people who would make sure corners were not cut in terms of materials and construction. As we have seen over and over, new construction, especially for the middle classes and below is shoddily built and usually fugly as all get out. This should not be the case.
My second idea, and this one may be even more close to my heart in terms of "if I'm ever rich, I would....." I would buy a large building, a school or factory building somewhere easily accessible to public transportation, and open a school training young adults and up in age, for real jobs with real possibilities for a living wage and a chance for upward mobility.
Service jobs have been relegated to the barely educated and to those without any other skills. Our communities are full of people who cannot, or will not be steered into high paying professions. Not everyone is able to go to a good college, or even any kind of college. But a good living can be made in the building trades, and in other service industries such as sales and the restaurant industry. You don't find too many people of color in high end retail sales, or as wait staff in expensive restaurants. These are good jobs making good money. Part of that is institutionalized racism, and part is because there is no training available, and few existing mentors to bring younger people along, plus an attitude that it is somehow above us now. My school would train people how to speak, dress, comport themselves, learn about food and wines, and other job specific skills, and how to wait on people in high end retail and food industries. Training in these areas, besides providing well paying jobs, can lead into management and entrepenurial and teaching/mentoring jobs. I would also train master carpenters, furniture makers, and other skilled building finishing trades.
Some may bitch that people of color do not need to learn how to be good servants again, but there in nothing servile in working in the higher echelons of the economy, and the skills learned can be used in many other ways. If you don't have the education, or the means of egress into the boardroom of a Fortune 500 company, it's better to be the well paid personal staff in the executive dining suite, than slinging burgers at Micky D's. There's nothing servile or dishonorable about that.
My school would be open to anyone of any background. I fully expect to get reamed for this idea from people who see in it a little too much G.W. Carver, and not enough W.E.B. DuBois, open for debate.
Posted by: CrownHeightsProud at November 24, 2006 5:37 PM
I think the people who need the training are those members of the upper classes (or any class for that matter) who don't appreciate cultures other than their own. Diversity training is important. And then kids today who want to succeed should get a shot at having a connection with a strong role model so that they stay in school. Jobs training for the service industries is only going to take people so far in this world.
Posted by: Anonymous at November 24, 2006 7:01 PM
i would upgrade every police/fire street corner station to ensure the buttons work and install street camera's throughout bedstuy, clinton hill, and fort greene to make those streets somewhat safer.
Posted by: anon at November 24, 2006 7:40 PM
I think all public and private schools should start from day one in kindergarten with "diversity training" in the form of incorporating different cultures, customs, histories, etc, in everyday teaching, instead of making it somehow separate, or special or exotic and other. If, for example, black history is only taught in Feb. during Black History Month, I fail to see how any student, black, white or otherwise, can help but feel that black history is not important or rich enough to rate being taught as a part of world or American history during the rest of the year. What about all the cultures that haven't even been given a "history month"? Of course, all of this will mean fixing way back before it even gets to the classroom. Educators need to be taught, textbooks need to be written or re-written, and everyone concerned needs to realize that we live in a big world made up of so more than white middleclass Christian Americans.
Seems to me a lot of diversity training in later life just either accentuates our differences or makes excuses for someone not coming up to standards. I don't think this does anyone any good, and it's almost too late. Get 'em while they are young, and have kids growing up learning as much as possible about the whole wide world.
PS - I am not advocating service jobs as the solution to dead end jobs, unemployment or racism. I want us to be doctors, lawyers, Wall St. wizzes, and rocket scientists. But the reality is that not everyone can or will. Better to be a highly paid sales associate at Chanel or a highly paid skilled cabinetmaker, or even a highly paid butler, than a part time cashier at Wal Mart, not even able to make ends meet. If training to make that possible appealed to people, it would be great to have it available.
Posted by: CrownHeightsProud at November 24, 2006 8:13 PM
I saw really fun diversity training at Viacom when I was there.
Posted by: Anonymous at November 24, 2006 9:03 PM
There is actually a new selective high school in Brooklyn named Brooklyn Latin. It's specialized, like Stuy and Tech, which means you need to take an exam, but it is much smaller and the focus is on the humanities and progressive teaching. This is its first year. Check out the profile here at Inside Schools: http://www.insideschools.org/fs/school_profile.php?id=1530
Posted by: anonymous at November 24, 2006 9:07 PM
gowanus expressway -- stick it underground. you'll have to spot me a bit more cash...
Posted by: pfa at November 24, 2006 11:30 PM
Bring the Dodgers back!
Also restore all the old movie theaters like the one on Flatbush and Church. Fix up Fulton Street/Downtown Brooklyn.
Posted by: Anonymous at November 24, 2006 11:48 PM
Unfortunately, $100,000,000 isn't enough to get rid of big developers like Ratner. I would rather give maybe $10MM to Marty Markowitz so he could run for governor or Promote Brooklyn in China- that way he'd ignore us for a few years. He would be upstate in old factories or farms trying to get the residents to say "Fuhgetaboudit!!!!!" Use another $30 Million to get rid of the other electeds who we'd be better off without. Then we could start giving our teachers and cops decent salaries, fill some potholes, start job programs, study the feasibility of trollies, help out local businesses.
Oh, but we'd better set aside a few million for a really big statue of all those politicians. That's what they really want anyway. I think my solution will make everyone happy.
Posted by: essence at November 25, 2006 9:15 AM
designated bus lanes, with barriers, so that express buses are really express... could be real cost-effective alternative.
Building subways is too expensive these days, and trollys have too much liability issues.
Posted by: OE at November 25, 2006 9:41 AM
Most of the school ideas people mention shouldn't require additional money, it's just reallocating what's already there... Also bike lines are a waste.. average brooklynite it not going to use them.
Posted by: OE at November 25, 2006 9:46 AM
i'd create a 300ft elevator to a platform, that looks like a parking lot with foam rubber flooring, where people can hang out and really do whatever above the borough.
Posted by: doueg at November 25, 2006 9:51 AM
i'd create a 300ft elevator to a platform, that looks like a parking lot with foam rubber flooring, where people can hang out and really do whatever above the borough.
we can call it the soft skydeck
Posted by: doueg at November 25, 2006 9:52 AM
College scholarships for public high school students, regardless of immigration status.
Posted by: mlo at November 25, 2006 9:54 AM
If I had $100 mil to spend I would spend it on restoring some of Brooklyn's historic churches like St Ann's in Brooklyn Heights and Old First in Park Slope. St Ann's has gorgeous bones and needs restoration badly so it lasts another 100 years.
Posted by: Anonymous at November 25, 2006 9:58 AM
You might be interested in this story on how some thinkers might give away just a million dollars:
http://www.slate.com/id/2153314/
Posted by: Pablo at November 25, 2006 10:03 AM
I would take the money and attempt to duplicate in Bed Stuy or East New York what Geoffrey Canada is doing in Manhattan with the Harlem Children's Zone. It's a grand social experiment that floods a big chunk of Harlem with services to children and families to get them successfully through school and ideally into college.
Yes, low-income folks need job training, but there's also something wrong going on with high school kids, particularly the huge proportion of low-income black boys who drop out in 10th or 11th grade. To prevent this, intervention must start much sooner, with both kids and families and schools.
Posted by: tinarina at November 25, 2006 11:01 AM
Tinarina, I like how you think. I would donate the money to the public schools in the area that are struggling to raise funds for better afterschool programs to keep kids off the street. Afterschool is the most dangerous time of the day for kids.
Posted by: CH mom at November 25, 2006 11:24 AM
crownheightsproud: i like your school idea. it would definitely have to take into account the fact that a lot of people are going to take it the wrong way. in my experience, having a mix of african americans, whites and latinos as teachers in that kind of setting really helps. because no-one wants to hear from an all-white teaching staff that they should be changing their culture just to get a job. and it couldn't be all african-american, either, cause honestly, if you want people to wrap their mind around the idea of working in a diverse environment, you're going to have to model it for them.
the best possible scenario: have a diverse teaching staff, with guest lecturers/mentors who are people from those neighborhoods who actually have made it into higher-paying positions.
it's not going to solve world hunger or be applicable on a huge scale, but it would definitely be a start.
Posted by: sylvia at November 25, 2006 11:30 AM
Totally clean up the Gowanus Canal and line it with cool restaurants and bars. Have gondolas plying the waters. Total entertainment district.
Posted by: Anonymous at November 25, 2006 12:08 PM
whats with all the not-so-subtle anti-white comments here?
And diversity training? Like EVERY group in the borough doesn't need that. You might care to examine your own prejudices instead of just harping on the well-worn ones. Except you won't, theres never any need to examine your own is there....
You people need to get your heads out of your asses.
Posted by: Anonymous at November 25, 2006 12:11 PM
honestly, i'd turn my back on brooklyn and write my $100 million check to a public project in a city with *no* money
Posted by: Anonymous at November 25, 2006 12:15 PM
Sylvia, I agree with you 100% about the teaching staff. Throughout my life, I'b been blessed to have been taught at some point or another, whether at school, or in life, by all kinds of people. I think it's made my life fuller, and made me more open to other viewpoints and other cultures. I agree that too many people are only taught by people who are just like them, and diversity needs to be much more widespread all many more aspects of life.
While we're at it, a good 100MM would be well spent sponsoring a program that fostered the teaching of at least one foreign language in public school from kindergarten on up. Learning French (or any other language) in 9th grade is difficult, boring and to most kids, useless. If another language was taught from childhood, the way English is taught in much of Europe, it would go a long way to helping Americans function in the world better, later in life. I wish I was fluent in any other language, as well as English. As it is, I know words and phrases in several, but am by no means fluent in them. Wouldn't it be great in Brooklyn scholars led the way in language studies? We certainly have (again that word) the ethnic diversity to make that possible.
Posted by: CrownHeightsProud at November 25, 2006 1:06 PM
I would start take 50 million and start several high qulaity small high schools with small class sizes in the lowest performing hoods in Brooklyn. Another 30 million I would invest to fund on-going lending programs for the poor and working poor to start their own businesses. Another 20 million will be used to leverage housing for the poor.
Posted by: Anonymous at November 25, 2006 4:18 PM
I would start three private schools in the Bed-Stuy/Crown Heights North area. Specifically, I would use the $100 million to convert the Old Boys High and the massive New York State National Guard Armories at Bedford and Atlantic (e.g. "The Bedford School") and Jefferson and Marcus Garvey Blvd ("The Stuyvesant School") into elite private schools. These nabes are some of the most architectural significant communities in New York City. Good schools would go a long way into making these nabes into tier one hoods in Brownstone Brooklyn!
Posted by: Anonymous at November 25, 2006 5:08 PM
White person here. I'm in favor of diversity awareness. Why is that racist or anti-white? I don't get it? Should we just assume everybody is totally enlightened and call it a day?
Posted by: Anonymous at November 25, 2006 5:54 PM
i'd put an outpost of local foods--baked goods, fruits, vegetables -- in every bank branch that just has ATMs in them (bc they're a total waste of space). then i'd make all banks put fee-less ATMs on street corners, like there used to be for newspapers.
Posted by: diana at November 25, 2006 7:01 PM
What Bloomberg SHOULD have done -- leave everything else in public school system the same, just cut the number of kids per classroom to 15 (typical ratio for private schools...).
MF
Posted by: Anonymous at November 25, 2006 9:18 PM
I went to Midwood, which is a great school. When I was there it had a student pop of 2400 and in some classes we had to sit on the window sills. Now the school has 4000 students. It can't be a good learning environment. The money should go to the school system, but with a plan!
Posted by: Danny at November 25, 2006 9:36 PM
tunnel the BQE underground
Posted by: TonyTone at November 26, 2006 10:32 AM
#1 - Re-build the public schools so kids have books, art, music and sports, require a full day of classes through the end of high school, and meet the salary base of the suburbs. I adopted a teenager this year and can't believe how miserable the public schools are.
Once people can read and negotiate their way in the world, the rest will follow - real bike lanes, focused transportation advocacy for Brooklyn (MIA!), small and other business development (aka jobs), community-centered development (including profitable but rational housing), all the good stuff that already defines Brooklyn but is being constantly threatened by greedy and short-sighted development.
So -- practical, targeted community-by community upgrading of the public school system, starting with central Brooklyn, is my vote. There is a whole lot of untouched imagination, power and beauty out here. (And by the way, thanks to everyone here, a wonderful discussion, and many thanks to the webfolks - a fantastic website this is.)
Posted by: scoop5 at November 26, 2006 11:23 AM
paying the police more won't work, they do so little work now. In our bad neighborhoods like Bushwick, BedSty and ENY people are urinating on the street, throwing garbage, disturbing the peace with loud music, and they don't do anything when it's right under their noses. they want to stand around and talk to one another, cashing in that 20 yr. pension.
Posted by: Anonymous at November 26, 2006 12:13 PM
Education, Education, Education. There is so much construction going on and a huge need for skilled tradesmen (women.) Paying illegals a subhuman wage where dangerous working conditions prevail has to end. There are huge numbers of young men who have no hope or skill and must get the necessary training. Not everyone can be a college graduate. Fortunately construction can't be exported overseas. We have to train folks to do the jobs that exist and can lead to productive lives. And while we are at it let's train lots of nurses. Us boomers are getting old and this is a growth industry with many positions available at high wages. Good jobs lead to stability, home ownership, family values, etc. Society will benefit all around and the middle class can expand, not contract!
Posted by: Marion at November 26, 2006 7:00 PM
To whomever up there who said that Brooklyn Tech is mostly Asian: take a clue, Stuyvesant is mostly Asian too!
Posted by: Anonymous at November 26, 2006 7:07 PM
I would hire a hit man to blow up all those idiots with booming bass car stereos
Posted by: Anonymous at November 26, 2006 8:09 PM
I would rebuild ebbets field and bring back the dodgers.
Posted by: Argyle Road at November 26, 2006 9:08 PM
If you're going to dream
1) Turn Atlantic Yards into a park
2) Make Brooklyn Bridge Park free of Housing and expand into Red Hook.
3) Turn Fulton Mall/Downtown into real business district.
Posted by: Anonymous at November 26, 2006 9:55 PM
"Mass transit in southeastern Brooklyn = Saving brownstone Brooklyn" True.
Resume L service to Canarsie Pier. There used to be a trolley that ran from Rockaway Parkway to the water, but as trolleys tend to do...
But here's the kicker - ha - build a soccer stadium and training complex for a Brooklyn soccer team. Something small and as far away from Gehry as possible.
Posted by: thecannon at November 27, 2006 12:42 AM
I'm confused. Several people want to put money into struggling neighborhoods. But doesn't an influx of money, better schools, etc. into a neighborhood cause the much dreaded "gentrification"? After all
If a neighborhood improves, won't more people want to move there? It seems to
me that the only way to stop gentrification is to keep neighborhoods sad and undesireable.
Posted by: Anon at November 27, 2006 10:30 AM
I would open 24 hour child drop-off centers -- fully staffed. No parent would have to drag a child around the city , or leave them home alone, or lose them in a terrible accident (like the fires that have cost thelives of too many young children). Kids could come after school, in the mornings or at night and be safe and have a enriching environment.
Posted by: Anonymous at November 27, 2006 10:34 AM
I'm surprised no one has talked about free or subsidized medical facilities. I thought Brooklyn was the borough of the unorthodox workforce where private health insurance can often be as expensive as a monthly rent or mortgage payment. I would like to see a borough-wide initiative that doesn't stop at Marty urging us to keep trim or walk a little but actually provides health care because that, along with food, shelter is a basic requisite that we in America tend to forget even though our Canadian and European cousins take it for granted.
Posted by: SB at November 27, 2006 11:16 AM
I would buy the entire retail strip on Fulton between Vanderbilt and Washington, renovate the buildings and create a low tech retail center (with nice apartments above), complete with
a green grocer, bakery, restaurant, cobbler, butcher and drycleaner. I would have an afterschool school center with tutoring for language - Latin, foreign languages, arts, and mathematics for neighborhood kids. It would be so good that it would attract kids from all over.
Posted by: anon at November 27, 2006 1:30 PM
I'd buy as much explosives as I could and destroy Williamsburg so NYC could start over again
Posted by: hatewilliamsburg at November 27, 2006 1:45 PM
1.) Turn the Park Slope Armory into a huge, interesting cultural center for all Brooklyn residents: classes, art studios, gymnasium/pool, performance space, cafe. (Principal of overcrowded PS 107 is already trying to get some of this space for her students to use for gym)
2.) Build a pedestrian overpass from Prospect Park to the Grand Army Plaza Library -- intersection is dangerous and lights are ill-timed; it would be safer if people could get to the library from a foot bridge
Posted by: Anonymous at November 27, 2006 3:33 PM
donate lockers to all the homeless shelter
One of the biggest complaint that homeless people have is that their stuff gets stolen.
So if every resident had a secure locker they wouldn't have to worry about getting their valuables stolen.
Would probably help to keep the homeless off the streets, especially near the arena.
Posted by: Anonymous at November 28, 2006 4:42 PM
Build bike paths over the Q line and all the other open subway lines throughout the borough...
Posted by: Argyle Road at November 29, 2006 1:05 PM
Anon 3:33: Would you kick the shelter for homeless women with substance abuse issues out of the armory, or let them share the space with the kids? Just wondering...
Anon 4:42: They do have lockers. Their stuff still gets stolen (people know how to pick locks), and some of them refuse to use the lockers because the shelter staff have to have access to the lockers (otherwise people would store drugs and weapons in them). Which means, of course, that sometimes the shelter staff are the ones stealing from the lockers. Sad but true.
Also, many of the mentally ill homeless people are compulsive hoarders, and one locker just isn't enough for their piles of stuff.
NYC doesn't really have a huge problem with homeless people living on the streets (compared to, say, L.A. or San Francisco). One reason for this is the weather. No matter how nasty and dangerous the shelters are, a lot of people will choose to live in them rather than freeze to death.
Posted by: sylvia at November 30, 2006 11:34 AM
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