Hannah Sennesh Shalt Not Build on Courtyard
On Friday, Hannah Senesh, a 152-seat private Jewish day school in Carroll Gardens, announced it was officially dropping its plans to try to circumvent a 160-year-old zoning law in an effort to erect a two-story building on an empty lot at the corner of Smith Street and First Place. News that the school had hired…
On Friday, Hannah Senesh, a 152-seat private Jewish day school in Carroll Gardens, announced it was officially dropping its plans to try to circumvent a 160-year-old zoning law in an effort to erect a two-story building on an empty lot at the corner of Smith Street and First Place. News that the school had hired a lobbyist in December to gain an exemption to the city law that treats all front yards on the “Place” blocks of Carroll Gardens as public space resulted in a huge backlash from area residents and lots of bad publicity for the school and outgoing City Council Member Bill de Blasio, who had sponsored the change. We were most afraid that once law changed for [Hannah Senesh] other people would get the same idea and it would be changed again, and the signature courtyards would vanish, corner by corner, Triada Samaras, a member of the group Carroll Gardens Coalition for Respectful Development, told The Brooklyn Paper. Since then State Senator Daniel Squadron, State Assemblywoman Joan Millman, and Councilman Brad Lander have all come out against amending the law. “Their plan would have set a dangerous precedent,” said Millman in a statement on Friday. “The courtyards are an integral part of Carroll Garden’s charm and character and must be protected.”
School Comes to Its Seneshes [Brooklyn Paper] GMAP
Hannah Sennesh Backs Off Plans to Expand [PMFA]
Photo from Pardon Me For Asking
*The fact that they hired a lobbyist to try and influence politics is extraordinarily distasteful.*
now that’s a good one. i highly recommend not reading or watching political news.
Lesloaf:
It has nothing to do with “how this proposal threatens anyone’s garden or open space.”
No, it’s just another example of the potential for people like Markowitz and Ratner to steamroll over rules, politics and land use so that their entities can profit. This is a private school. It is a business. It should adhere to the same rules as other businesses and not get a political break. The fact that they hired a lobbyist to try and influence politics is extraordinarily distasteful.
Not sure why I’m bothering, but (a) I personally know a number of teachers and students at Hannah Senesh who live in that neighborhood or nearby, (b) parents and teachers who come from elsewhere patronize the local businesses, and (c) I haven’t heard anyone claim that the empty lot is serving the community in any way by remaining an empty lot. I think the request for an exemption is reasonable, but more troubling is the venom and fury this issue has triggered. I can’t see how this proposal threatens anyone’s garden or open space and I don’t see why the school should be accused of having evil or underhanded motives. Disagree, but don’t be disagreeable.
Petebklyn sums it up well:
“So those that can afford private tuition should not follow same laws as rest of neighborhood[?]”
There is something very telling about New York City morals when we live in the richest city on earth and the public school system is a joke. The tax credits on just one or two of those luxury Manhattan and Brooklyn towers could hire a lot of good teachers.
If you can afford to go to St. Anne’s, you can end up being a smug New York Times food critic like Sam Sifton. But if f you are unlucky enough to be born in the wrong neighborhood, study hard as you may, you are going to still suffer the politically motivated tossing of pennies to your struggling local prison-like public school, while rich, connected developers who hire lobbyists seem to have a good success at getting just what they want using legal bribery. This rare piece of just action (especially it being a Jewish school that is petitioning the city govt) is a breath of fresh air.
The school themselves admit that they don’t need the building space for additional students, but that they don’t have the facilities that they need for the enrollment that they currently have. Thiseither indicates very poor planning, or more likely that they went into the project with the intention of waiting a year or two and then using their political pull to have the zoning overturned. This rubs me the wrong way, especially when you consider that the land was originally part of the whole Oliver House project at 360 Smith Street where more political chicanery took place, once again with DeBlasio in the middle of it all.
Anytime you need to hire a lobbyist for a zoning change, something is wrong. The project should be able to stand on its own merit, not pass or fail based on polical considerations.
Bkre talks about Carroll Gardens being a beautiful neighborhood but full of “whiney” people. How long do you think it would stay beautiful if the “whiney” people didn’t fight to keep it that way?
i think i read somewhere that this school had already sold their air rights to OliverHouse development next door…that’s why they need more space. Sounds like they’ve already been greedy enough…now trying for round 2?
“Jewish day school in Carroll Gardens” sounds so strange to me.
lesloaf –
name one job that has been created for area residents or how the school has spurred commerce by one dollar? teachers drive, park, and leave. students get driven, stop traffic, and leave.
no commerce, no jobs. this isn’t a store or other comparable commercial development.
ALSO, the lot is not a lot, but a required SETBACK, and it is ON a place block, just the same as any lot that is part of the original street grid by Butts.
Well you understand wrong, Lesloaf. It is the schools land and if littered then they are not taking care of it and should receive a summons.
And it is the school asking for a variance.
Why should the school be exempt? If this were Scarano trying to build on that part of lot, all would be screaming against it.
But no, this is some private school. So those that can afford private tuition should not follow same laws as rest of neighborhood.
As I understand it, the empty lot in question is not even remotely comparable to the front gardens that line the streets of CG. It is a small, littered plot of land that hasn’t been used by anyone for any purpose in decades (if ever). And Hannah Senesh has brought jobs and commerce to the neighborhood (not to mention a good school option for many Brooklyn families). I don’t buy the “bad precedent” argument for one second. Based on the public comments that some local residents have made (including at a neighborhood meeting to discuss the issue), it seems pretty clear that zoning and land use are not the primary agenda here.