Squibb Bridge Axed from Brooklyn Bridge Park Budget

Judi Francis is most certainly NOT a spokeswoman for the BHA. Judi Francis IS, however, President of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund, and a spokeswoman for a real Brooklyn Bridge Park, rather than a housing development with some green trim around the edges and big berms on the sides.

The BHA is right on many issues, but not on this one. (There are some signs of a change in their position on BBP - but only time will tell.)

We can have hope now, thanks to the Squadron victory and his new financing plan, that we won't be seeing Battery Park City East rise up on this side of the East River. How people will get to this park now, with yet another connection severed, still remains a concern.

Posted by: bklyn20 at May 8, 2009 12:38 PM

Bkre -- By "fuzzy math," might you also be speaking of the park plan that includes the acres of water to increase the number of acres in the plan, and consequently to drive down the maintenance cost per acre and make the absurd plan for Battery Park City East seem more reasonable? Quite fuzzy!

This is how the BBP planners made the costs into a rationale for housing and PILOT payments. But have you ever mowed an acre of river water? How might one irrigate an acre of river ?? Maybe we should pay for seaweed (riverweed?) on the river bottom to complete the landscaping....

If the 20+ acres of water are excluded from the funding formula, a park without additional housing seems far more reasonable and possible. Why would condos/housing be a good finance scheme, when 360 Furman is less than half sold?

It's imperative to have a bridge or ramp from Squibb, or ideally from the Promenade. Of course the Squibb bridge may come later -- Bloomberg is probably just flexing his muscles. And far better the Squadron financial plan than the O'Connor model, where he literally sold the park down the river without informing any of his constituents!

A (smallish) hotel is fine by me. A safe water zone -- maybe. I'd rather see the grandiosely overpaid Van Valkenburg and Co earn their bloated fee by revising the park plan, removing the berm, and making an accessible world-class park in Brooklyn, not Teardrop Park II (his work in Battery Park City.) The only part of Teardrop that's ever used is the kiddie slide. The rest is just a backyard for the fishbowl of buildings around it.

Posted by: bklyn20 at May 11, 2009 5:42 PM

Bkre -- By "fuzzy math," might you also be speaking of the park plan that includes the acres of water to increase the number of acres in the plan, and consequently to drive down the maintenance cost per acre and make the absurd plan for Battery Park City East seem more reasonable? Quite fuzzy!

This is how the BBP planners made the costs into a rationale for housing and PILOT payments. But have you ever mowed an acre of river water? How might one irrigate an acre of river ?? Maybe we should pay for seaweed (riverweed?) on the river bottom to complete the landscaping....

If the 20+ acres of water are excluded from the funding formula, a park without additional housing seems far more reasonable and possible. Why would condos/housing be a good finance scheme, when 360 Furman is less than half sold?

It's imperative to have a bridge or ramp from Squibb, or ideally from the Promenade. Of course the Squibb bridge may come later -- Bloomberg is probably just flexing his muscles. And far better the Squadron financial plan than the O'Connor model, where he literally sold the park down the river without informing any of his constituents!

A (smallish) hotel is fine by me. A safe water zone -- maybe. I'd rather see the grandiosely overpaid Van Valkenburg and Co earn their bloated fee by revising the park plan, removing the berm, and making an accessible world-class park in Brooklyn, not Teardrop Park II (his work in Battery Park City.) The only part of Teardrop that's ever used is the kiddie slide. The rest is just a backyard for the fishbowl of buildings around it.

Posted by: bklyn20 at May 11, 2009 6:51 PM