Brooklyn Friends Relocation Gains Support
As we first reported in September, Brooklyn Friends School, a pre-K through 12 private school based on Quaker principles, has been looking to relocate and one site on their list is the corner of State and Hoyt, currently owned by the IBEC Building Corporation. IBEC had originally bought the site promising to build townhouses, back…
As we first reported in September, Brooklyn Friends School, a pre-K through 12 private school based on Quaker principles, has been looking to relocate and one site on their list is the corner of State and Hoyt, currently owned by the IBEC Building Corporation. IBEC had originally bought the site promising to build townhouses, back in 2004, and some residents, calling themselves Keep State Street Residential, have opposed Brooklyn Friends’ possible schoolhouse (which would be five stories and 55,000 square feet), arguing that it could lower property values and increase traffic to their carefully planned neighborhood. Now, the Brooklyn Eagle reports, hundreds of residents and businesses have signed a petition to support the school, arguing that a well-regarded private school would only attract families, increase property values, and benefit overall quality of life. Brooklyn Friends has said that they are considering multiple sites, and for the school to take the State/Hoyt site, IBEC would have to nullify the contract it signed with the city in 2004 to build 29 residential townhouses.
Friends’ Expansion Making Enemies on State? [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn Friends on State Street? [Brooklyn Eagle]
I don’t have a dog in this fight, but the following anti-Friends on State Street letter was sent to the Boerum Hill egroup yesterday:
This isn’t the right forum to get into the issue. There are a lot of people on State street who are very upset about this because years of community planning went into the designation for the site as residential and we already feel encumbered by Downtown Brooklyn, institutions like the jail and the court system. There is a site on Schermerhorn that Brooklyn Friends School has been offered. Its slightly more costly to build over the subway, but that street is zoned for a school and can handle the traffic that a lower school would bring. So we are not against a school, just a school on State Street. I urge people, if they would like to hear ALL the facts about the issue, to come to the [Boerum Hill Association] meeting. If you cannot make it, we have a website- http://www.keepstatestreetresidential.wordpress.com
Ratner is not building a school. Having lived less than a block from Brooklyn Friends for years I can say they were absolutely no problem. Trying to equate the 2 situations doesn’t hold much water. Brooklyn Friends has a great reputation and good schools are part of what makes a good neighborhood better- not more luxury housing in a neighborhood already saturated with new home construction.
My school upstate was K-12 in one building, as were all of the towns around us. The elementary school was on the first floor, the junior and high school on the second. We all shared the cafeteria, auditorium/gym, schoolyard, and buses. Of course there were only about 250 kids in the entire school, as there were only 600 people in the town. Looking back, it was a marvel of planning, as lower grades and upper rarely interacted, it was a well run machine.
kinda funny that you aren’t all up in arms about the bait-and-switch here. just imagine if the developer was big, bad RATNER what you might all be saying…
anyway, i’m ambivalent about this one – houses are better, but if the houses really won’t happen (as opposed to a developer just trying to back out of a deal that turned out not to be as good as it seemed), what next? but the point is, i don’t own there and, at this scale and type of development, it really is the neighbors that are the most important stakeholders. and there are lots of reasons to prefer the residential development that was promised to a non-profit (i.e., no taxes), selective (i.e., no benefit for local families) private school. scale of the buildings, context, effect on other undeveloped properties, increased traffic on small streets, and the closed-times dead zone that institutional properties create. also, keep in mind that just as this developer is now trying to renege on its agreement, who’s to say that brooklyn friends won’t do the same? back out and sell the land or a big empty building (now, ten years from now, whatever) to another institution that you all might find less cute?
ah. im pretty sure MOST normal people would prefer to live next to an empty lot than a school (any kind of school really). no?
*rob*
haven’t you heard of 1 room schoolhouses.
If I lived in immediate vicinity, (as opposed to 6 blocks away), I would be happy that something was going to be built instead of empty lot. But apparently from lots of other Brownstoner threads and comment people prefer empty lots to new buildings.
And especially since this block borders downtown which had all th\ose empty/parking lot blocks for decades sitting usesless and making area ugly.
(btw, I don’t know if that’s the case here… but I know that’s how it generally is.)
Rob, it’s not really one school… it’s divided as an upper and lower school. Most schools like this have this division. While there may be one principal/headmaster, there is usually a pretty clear administrative and operational division between the two “levels.”
LOL MM
*rob*