Man on the Street: How're You Feeling About IKEA?

I would tend to agree with the person who expressed concern about the traffic management.

That said, I'm happy not to have to drive to LI anymore.

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 9:46 AM

My main concern is safety. Any building that's built with those cheap Ikea bolts and tightened with allen wrenches makes me nervous.

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 9:47 AM

Someone please tell the British chick that Ikea is on the Todd Shipyard site, not the former Revere Sugar.

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 9:50 AM

when does Ikea actually open? will it be open before Christmas?

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 9:52 AM

Yeah, when does it open?
I need chairs.

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 10:01 AM

british chick is hot

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 10:15 AM

I must admit, I have a now 2 year old IKEA gift card that I would use in Brooklyn, but can't be bothered to shlepp to the 'burbs for.

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 10:20 AM

I'm down with Marty.

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 10:24 AM

The furniture is great if you're a college student, on a budget, or looking to save some $$. Otherwise, it's flimsy crap that will never last.

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 10:24 AM

Shes not that hot, just English.
If she said she was from Bayonne, would you still think shes hot?

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 10:25 AM

I can't wait. Let hope the help is better than the staff at Fairway.

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 10:28 AM

9.46, you can stop at IKEA on your way back to Park Slope after shopping at Fairway. There will be plenty of parking for your Volvo. Then you can tell everyone how you roughed it in Red Hook on Sunday.

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 10:34 AM

she's hot...

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 10:44 AM

going to red hook is roughing it?

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 10:49 AM

Where is this Red Hook you speak of?

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 10:49 AM

Bayonne chicks are hot.

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 10:58 AM

i'k like to show the brit my red hook, nah mean?

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 11:00 AM

i'm going for he meatballs

cant wait

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 11:02 AM

ikea will be great for the community, they can finally afford to have some style in their homes

josephine
-jcondo resident

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 11:03 AM

are we starting to sign our posts now?

francine
-kensington co-op dweller

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 11:08 AM

Anyone buying from IKEA should assume a 5 year life span on furniture, anything longer is gravy. Speaking of gravy...swedish meatballs in Red Hook....to hell with the street vendors!

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 11:16 AM

thwarted,

i bet your house looks like crap

bren
-prospect hieghts brownstone owner

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 11:17 AM

My prediction is that traffic will be so bad that Fairway and all the other business will suffer and Ikea will close. Also they are closing the closest F train stop in a year and there is construction bot in and out of Red Hook. The shoppers will spend as much in gas idling in traffic as they will save buying cheap crap made in China..better check the lead content.

Also it is fine in Red Hook without the Ikea. I have lived here 12 years.

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 11:19 AM

the ikea shopping experience will be tainted by all the project folk who will clog up hte aisles with their obese bodies, not buy anything other than a frame, and totally hog up hte cafeteria.

so i'll still drive out to LI

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 11:20 AM

How would one get to this IKEA by public transportation? I'm a fan of IKEA incidentals - napkins, gift boxes, little kids toys...

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 11:20 AM

My prediction is that traffic will be so bad that Fairway and all the other business will suffer and Ikea will close. Also they are closing the closest F train stop in a year and there is construction bot in and out of Red Hook. The shoppers will spend as much in gas idling in traffic as they will save buying cheap crap made in China..better check the lead content.

Also it is fine in Red Hook without the Ikea. I have lived here 12 years.

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 11:21 AM

"10:24: I have a bunch of 10-year-old Ikea furniture (dresser, desk, blanket chest, other stuff) that's held up just fine."

Very, very sad. You must have been incredibly careful to ensure that crappy, flimsy, pseudo-wood, particleboard-and-bolts garbage didn't break apart every time you used it! I can imagine the angst. Meanwhile, you could have spent around the same money for some REAL furnishings. Two words: upragde now!

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 11:34 AM

I think that Marty's comment wins.

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 11:36 AM

11:21 AM

Red Hook has been okay for you for the past 12 years because you're obviously a white, college-educated homeowner with a car. I know the folks in NYCHA don't share your point of view.

If you think Ikea and Fairway are going to close, I recommend you put your Conover Street (or is that Coffey or Beard Street?) house on the market asap. You've had a good run for twelve years and your house is probably worth ten times what you paid for it. Get out while you're ahead.

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 11:36 AM

is it true that Bed Bath and Byond is soon to follow??

that would be grrrrreat!

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 11:42 AM

So 11:20, you can type well enough to slam the obese, and you can manage to spell cafeteria, but you're dyxlexic on "the" twice? And we're supposed to respect your ridiculous postings? Save your classist bs and go to Long Island, and leave Red Hook and its people alone.

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 11:52 AM

people who jump all over typos really need to pull their boyfriend's d*ck out of their ass

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 11:56 AM

"people who jump all over typos really need to pull their boyfriend's d*ck out of their ass"

No, you first!

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 12:08 PM

11:19 - here is my prediction...this Ikea will follow the recent history of all other big box retailers in Brooklyn like Home Depot, Lowes, COSTCO and Target - within a short time it will be one of (if not THE) highest grossing Ikea in the country.

FSRG

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 12:22 PM

I would love some Ikea furniture.

Sam
- Cardboard box in Prospect Park dweller

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 12:30 PM

Dear Sam (Cardboard box in Prospect Park dweller),

"Zach" and "thwarted" can help you out.

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 12:34 PM

To 11:36...if you think your transportation woes are bad now, then wait until Ikea opens. Public transportation (e.g THE BUS) will be halted due to the influx of cars and all the kiddies in the Red Hook houses will triple their cases of asthma.
Ikea is a bad employer, it is aprivate company that does not need to answer to anyone. All its papers are private. Tt does not offer real benefits as it keeps everyone on part time. If you think Ikea is the solution to poverty in Red Hook then you have drank way too much Koolaid. How much have the Hall brothers paid you?

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 12:46 PM

A cottage industry of drivers will emerge at Ikea, just like they did at Lowe's. I bought stuff there and paid five bucks to some guy with a van to get it home. Voila, problem solved.

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 12:55 PM

How clueless are some of you people? Ikea furniture is well-designed and inexpensive. If you expect it to become a family heirloom, or even compare it to fine furniture, you're a dumbass.

For budget situations, kids rooms, or pretty good style at a low price, Ikea is great. It is what it is, not something that should be compared to pieces in the D&D Building.

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 1:01 PM

12:46 PM

I think you and your ilk in Red Hook have lost. Moreover, the battle you waged was never about improving quality life for the major of RH resident. It was always about increasing property values and preserving a quasi-suburban lifestyle (read: easy parking and empty streets) for a very small minority of hipsters and bo-bos living in "the back." Until I see you volunteering at PS 27 or PS 15 so kids can friggin learn and get real jobs, don't pretend you are anything but a NIMBY.

Have one more bottle beer at Sonny's and call it day.

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 1:15 PM

this will be the healthiest, affordable food Red Hook has ever seen

i'm being totally serious

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 1:46 PM

"For budget situations, kids rooms, or pretty good style at a low price, Ikea is great. It is what it is, not something that should be compared to pieces in the D&D Building."

I thnk that was my original point, Mr. Obvious.

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 2:44 PM

Hey 10:34, that's about as much creativity as I would expect from a kid from Fairfield County with a Pratt degree wedged up his ass. Park Slop? Volvo?

Your twitness oozes out of every pore, you hypocritical poseur of a limp-dicked shitstain. To paraphrase my good friend Ice Cube, "I drive a bucket." And I moved to Brooklyn twenty years ago, right around the time your MILF was carting you off to your Cos Cob Pre K class. I ain't rich, I like cheap Ikea shit and I laugh every time a moron like you so much as TRIES to put someone down. You're an amateur, Shirley.

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 3:00 PM

Shirley got served.

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 3:18 PM

all of this nonsense aside..

Ikea will be good to Red Hook, it will spur the need for real public transportation to the land to the West of the BQE. A trolly from Ikea to Fairway to Brooklyn Bridge should be invested in. The fact is there is gold on the waterfront and everyone knows it. In 20 years the entire area to Atlantic Ave will look radically different. Views like these are cheap and when someone ever figures out a way to link the nabe with Gov Island.
The area from the Grain Terminal to Fairway are going to be big box.

Traffic will suck, but the thing is moaning here won't help. The city need make Ikea deliver on every promise. and fine. That is the biggest issue in this city, every plan is just brushed aside and promises are forgotten because its already done.

Traffic Lights Traffic cops etc. and money for improved streets, these are all on the table and must happen.

and if we could get builders besides pizza men to build buildings maybe there might a few less eyesores and actual places to live. If you put jobs in the nabe maybe people will have jobs...

anyway. I bought a sofa from Macy's and what a piece of crap that was.

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 7:28 PM

Someone needs to tell the Limey Brit cunt Jenny that she only has to look into the mirror to understand why the Ikea has followed her and the other yuppie transplants into northwest Brooklyn. Duh, Jenny. Guessing you didn't arrive here from Cambridge...

Posted by: guest at November 2, 2007 9:00 PM

"Limey Brit" is a tad redundant, Einstein.

Posted by: guest at November 3, 2007 8:50 AM

Ikea furniture may not be high end quality, but it serves its purpose for many people and will do well. Not everyone is awash with cash in Brooklyn, despite house prices, or maybe because of them.

Didn't Brownstoner get his kitchen from Ikea? What does he have to say?

Posted by: guest at November 3, 2007 9:12 AM

I cannot think of a greater tragedy than to give the New York City waterfront, to big box stores.

Posted by: guest at November 3, 2007 10:13 AM

I can't wait until Ikea opens so that I can take a huge crap on their front entrance. Which is essentially what Ikea did to Red Hook.

Posted by: guest at November 3, 2007 10:16 AM

Ikea's food will not be able to compete with the Red Hook food vendors, unless of course the Red Hook vendors are not there anymore. Or, even better, the city hits them with so many new expenses that they can't compete with a juggernaut like Ikea.

Posted by: guest at November 3, 2007 10:20 AM

I had to scroll through the entire thread to get to the one really important point -- Guest at 10:13 nailed it. Why did the City give a huge stretch of waterfront to a box store with getting any public waterfront space out of the deal? That's really the shame of Ikea in Red Hook. Transportation issues can be dealt with, but that section of the waterfront is gone forever. New York should be aspiring to greenways along all of its water frontage. And no, Ikea won't be using the water front to bring in goods; it will be using trucks.

Posted by: guest at November 3, 2007 12:44 PM

1. Why is there always a discussion about "jobs in the neighborhood?" Lowe's and Home Depot are only a few blocks further from the RH Houses than IKEA is. And how many people actually work in their "neighborhood" anyway. You want to work? Get on a train, like the rest of the world.

2. IKEA is under no obligation to hire "from the neighborhood." And, in a similar deal, even the Hall Brothers are complaining that Fairway has mostly staffed Red Hook from their Harlem store.

3. Could anyone establish a precident by which a big box store "improved" a neighborhood? Not only is there the ensuing traffic problems, there is the problem of killing small businesses. Think the Sunset Park furniture shops are going to last?

4. IKEA is a notorious tax-dodger which has shown little concern for the communities they affect. Look it up:

http://www.evb.ch/en/p11676.html

The idea that they will come to Red Hook and help improve the lot of the downtrodden is utterly laughable.

5. They have already been fined for improper asbestos abatement, have mysteriously "lost" 15 tons of potentially contaminated fill, and have pressured the city to get rid of the Red Hook vendors. This is the neighbor you "can't wait for."

6. IKEA does not represent gentrification. It represents suburbanization. Whatever you think of Red Hook, it ain't the suburbs.

7. There is the issue of what could be there instead of IKEA. Perhaps the ship repair facility that was once there, and that the city is now encouraging be built in Sunset Park? Perhaps housing?

8. Finally - and somebody alluded to it - IKEA is the mere tip of an iceburg. In ten years, Red Hook is going to be a strip mall. Plans are already in the works for the Granery, for the Revere site, for the corner of Halleck and Columbia. What do you think is going to fill O'Connell's bus lots? Chili's, Peir One, and TJ Maxx. And then, you folks that need jobs might have them. But trust me, what you won't have is a neighborhood, or cheap city housing to live in. Because the same machinations that brought IKEA to Red Hook are good and ready to turn the RH Houses to rubble, and you know it.

Posted by: guest at November 3, 2007 1:09 PM

The rsidents of the projects - long time residents seem to be in support of this store. The newcomers are the ones that are opposed. To bad for them.

Posted by: guest at November 3, 2007 1:40 PM

I agree with 10:13 and 12:44,

1. Losing stunningly beautiful waterfront space to a hypocritical, foreign-owned and legally menacing corporate big box store is sick.

2. Knowing that they won't even use the waterfront they're on for transportation of their wares is extra nausea-inducing.

Posted by: guest at November 3, 2007 2:34 PM

if you think that waterfront space is stunningly beautiful, i feel sorry for you.

Posted by: guest at November 3, 2007 4:56 PM

"In ten years, Red Hook is going to be a strip mall."

Sounds like a vast improvement.

Posted by: guest at November 3, 2007 4:59 PM

1:09 PM

You still lost. Plus, you’re not much of a community activist if, at this late date, you’re still spewing polemic nonsense. If you really cared about the nabe, you would admit you lost and start negotiating for more community benefits and amenities or working on rezoning measures to ensure something like Ikea won’t happen again. God forbid the smartpants, cooler than tho white folk work with the NYCHA folks and industrial advos to prevent the proliferation of big box stores.

Obviously, you would rather just rant and point fingers. Plus, you don't want your pot smoking trustifarians pals from Bait and Tackle calling you a sell out.

Posted by: guest at November 3, 2007 6:26 PM

12:44
The Ikea site was privately owned. The city didn't give it to them, the bought for $50M. The reason Ikea is getting away with not providing any major site improvements is due to the fact that there was no one credible and savvy enough to put in the ask on behalf of the community. During the ULURP, the Red Hook Civic Association and the other ad hoc opposition groups can off like a bunch of goofy villagers storming the castle gates - no tact whatsoever. Recently, the mustached civic leader tried in vain to stop the Ikea by starting an insipid and utterly false rumor that Ikea had ordered the demise of the Red Hook vendors. Sorry, but the Papusas v. Goliath approach is just plain amateur and ain't going to stop a $100 million dollar project.

Posted by: guest at November 3, 2007 6:41 PM

I can't WAIT for IKEA!!!

My prediction - a ferry shuttles people from Manhattan. It will become a New York institution.

Posted by: guest at November 3, 2007 8:19 PM

IKEA. Traffic? Yeah. The steady flow into Red Hook to IKEA and Fairway will start the gears turning for major neighborhood road improvements.

IKEA is building it, and the shoppers will come. When they do, the roadway improvements will follow.

Furthermore, building the long-discussed Cross Harbor Freight Tunnel that would connect the Long Island Railroad yard at the 65th St Rail Yard in Bay Ridge to Jersey City might finally occur. Talks have started again. It's time.

Posted by: guest at November 3, 2007 10:25 PM

Why bother going to Red Hook? Just buy the crap online!

Posted by: guest at November 4, 2007 1:39 AM

1:39, you can't buy all the crap they have online, only some of the crap. for the rest of the crap, you (and i don't mean YOU, because you have no crap in your life--except the crap between your ears) you have to haul your crap-ass to the big box.

Posted by: guest at November 4, 2007 1:42 PM

Okay, what's the problem with avoiding taxes? And I ask this in all seriousness and as a Swedish/Norwegian. Do you know what Scandinavians pay in taxes? It's insane. And yes everything is taken care of and I'm not entirely sure how corporate taxes work in Sweden but if they're anything like individual taxes then they are A LOT!!!! And why, just because they are based in the Netherlands, never mind that most of their business (i.e. profit) is elsewhere should they support Dutch schools, roads, government? I know many huge corporations in the U.S. that get tremendous tax breaks from the states where they are based just to stay put because the trickle down impact is much more valuable.

I know this is sort of an aside (and I can't wait for the cafeteria--meatballs, bring 'em on) but painting IKEA as an evil corporate monster because of their tax structure is a little strange in a country where individuals (and I'd guess corporations too) have a much lower tax burden than Nordic countries. I don't understand why they are keeping the foundation documents secret but if it's a private foundation, do they really have to publicize their giving just to satisfy curiousity?

Posted by: guest at November 4, 2007 8:40 PM

For a taste of the road improvement expected to follow Ikea in Red Hook, examine the state of the roads surrounding the Ikea store in Port Elizabeth, NJ, ten or more years after that store opened. I expect more potholes, a long line of exhaust-spewing combustion engines, inattentive drivers who are careless of toddlers in nearby streets and the store's own parking lot.

There will be at least two hit-and-run or other vehicular manslaughters within six months of opening day. Guaranteed.

Posted by: guest at November 4, 2007 10:02 PM

thanks, lordy. i mean 10:02.

Posted by: guest at November 4, 2007 10:23 PM

Like I said, buy the crap online.

Posted by: guest at November 4, 2007 11:12 PM

I hope they have them cinnamon buns! Mmmm... I can smell em now.

Posted by: guest at November 5, 2007 12:40 AM

to 1:09 we resent the post about "pot smoking trustafarians of the Bait and Tackle." We dare you to come in any time and see our legions of construction workers, artisans, craftspeople, solid folk, etc., and tie one on in the company of real people with real jobs with real concerns about the hamlet in which they live... and eat your words instead of our peanuts.
The trustafarians you are referring to are the ones posting here, who don't live here, and herald the arrival of the disfiguring beast called Ikea on our beloved peninsula. Its nearly policy to make them feel unwelcome at our working class bar.

Posted by: guest at November 5, 2007 1:43 AM

10:02, you wrote:

"For a taste of the road improvement expected to follow Ikea in Red Hook, examine the state of the roads surrounding the Ikea store in Port Elizabeth, NJ, ten or more years after that store opened."

You might not like the connecting road between the thruway and the IKEA parking lot, but it's a breeze to negotiate. Okay, a few potholes that are easy to avoid. Big deal.

They're hardly as teeth-jarring as the semi-cobblestoned streets cutting through parts of Red Hook. Turning a car into a four-wheeled vibrator isn't as much fun as it sounds.

You wrote:

"I expect more potholes, a long line of exhaust-spewing combustion engines, inattentive drivers who are careless of toddlers in nearby streets and the store's own parking lot."

Are there similar problems in other IKEA parking lots, or any big-box store lots?

You wrote:

"There will be at least two hit-and-run or other vehicular manslaughters within six months of opening day. Guaranteed."

Hit-and-run? Vehicular manslaughter? Not involving IKEA shoppers. Maybe a few Red Hook residents, who have a well earned reputation for criminal activity. But I don't think IKEA shoppers are similarly known. A few shoplifters among them, no doubt. But killers? Sorry.

On Saturday, after driving out on the roadway by the IKEA site, I cut back and went past the Patrick Daly School. Daly was not murdered by an angry or inattentive IKEA shopper.

Anyway, in addition to IKEA, we need Wal-Mart.

Posted by: guest at November 5, 2007 8:27 AM

Wow. I now know why this city is turning into an outdoor mall for the rich served by the poor...

Everyone just wants to start a fight no matter if their opinions are based on research or hatred of the "other" or suspicion of change.

The kids will get more asthma, the streets will be jammed and within a few decades a big hurricane will wipe out the IKEA, anyway.

Enough hatred, Brooklyn. I'm ashamed of most of your ignorance. I thought better of you. No wonder developers can walk all over us.

Posted by: guest at November 5, 2007 10:03 AM

IKEA is going to screw Red Hook as a place to live, but what the fuck - it's always been screwed as a place to live.

But to whoever posted that "Trustafarian" thing - look around. Most people that live in Red Hook live there because they work, but they're broke. And I mean actually work. Like with tools? Where you get callouses and stuff? I've seen about as many "Trustafarians" at the Bait and Tackle as I've seen unicorns. Or, for that matter, douche bags who stay for a second drink.

Posted by: guest at November 5, 2007 11:23 AM

1:43 AM

You resent my characterization because its spot on. Maybe for a handful of people, (white, college-educated, canine loving, fancy car driving motorists) Red Hook is some groovy, hipster urban village, but this is not case for the overwhelming majority residents - people of color residing in public housing or on section-8 vouchers. Whatever you may think of them, they supported Ikea and Fairway and will mostly likely back any future national retailer’s arrival on the peninsula. Perhaps you dismiss them as stupid, uninformed Uncle Toms but the bottom line is they outnumber you and your pals 1 to 4. And here’s a crazy concept - shouldn’t majority rule? Simply put, you don’t have much of a constituency for your vision of RH which is inherently myopic, self-serving and elitist. How can you say it’s anything but? Didn’t you shill for luxury condos on Imlay Street?

Moreover, you may sleep here, buy your brownies at Baked and eat at the Good Fork, but do you really fancy yourself a community steward? Do you support any of the long-standing RH institutions (e.g. Good Shepard’s, Visitation Church, the Pool or Red Hook Rise) which are making a palpable difference in people’s lives? Do you even take B61 or do you zip around in your Mini? If you have kids, (highly unlikely since you sound like the quintessential “kidult”) do they attend the local public school or do you schlep them to one of the public Ivies elsewhere in the Brownstone Belt?

I know it sounds like I’m just spewing vitriol and maybe I am. Until there’s more empathy, respect and collaboration between the “back” and the “houses” Red Hook is a big bull’s eye for big box infiltration. And yes, the truth hurts.

Posted by: guest at November 5, 2007 12:43 PM