James Opens Door to (Partial) Admiral's Row Preservation
Coucilmember Letitia James has modified her position on the preservation of Admiral’s Row, the group of ten historic houses along Flushing Avenue, according to an article in The Brooklyn Paper. James had previously advocated razing the structures to make way for a supermarket, but the councilmember is now saying that “some” of the houses could…
Coucilmember Letitia James has modified her position on the preservation of Admiral’s Row, the group of ten historic houses along Flushing Avenue, according to an article in The Brooklyn Paper. James had previously advocated razing the structures to make way for a supermarket, but the councilmember is now saying that “some” of the houses could be preserved and some kind of balance struck between preservation and addressing the lack of supermarket options for nearby residents. James told us that “the key to preserving some of the buildings is money. If the economics are resolved, we can move forward on preserving some of these buildings, but, my first priority is to meet the immediate needs of residents of Public Housing and Vinegar Hill.” A formal public review of Admiral’s Row redevelopment plans begins next Tuesday at a meeting at Borough Hall (209 Joralemon Street, 7 p.m).
James gets in middle of ‘Row’ [Brooklyn Paper]
Guard Starts Talks ‘To Come Up With Alternatives’ For Row [Brownstoner]
Photo by SmithersJones.
Continued again:
That’s why your idea was a bad idea. While it may lead to preservation of the houses, it doesn’t respond to the development corp’s mission of maintaining the yard. A really creative “out of the box” solution would be one that would provide for some level of preservation of the some of the houses, and respond to the Navy’s yard need to fund their core mission – providing space for industry.
Continued:
You may come along and say “it would be great if the new shelter could be environmentally sensitive – if you use recycled floor tiles it’ll only cost you $5,000 more”. Since it’s only a little more expensive – I might be inclined to do it. But if you said “You should put solar panels on the roof – it’ll cost $200,000 more” then I’d probably shy away from it. The environment is not my issue, and I’d rather use that $200,000 to run my homeless shelter. Let some environmental non-profit spend $200k on solar panels.
Same thing here. The brooklyn navy yard is a non-profit whose mission is to operate and maintain the navy yard in a way that will maximize their ability to provide space for industrial businesses. They will do what they can to provide cultural or educational uses and also to achieve historic preservation goals when they can. They have already renovated and put back into use many old warehouse buildings from the 1800’s and there was just an article in brownstoner yesterday about the historic dry dock 1. They are also taking another building in the yard that can’t be re-used for industry and with some cooperation with other non-profits, turning it into a historic center. But at the end of the day, they need revenue to maintain the whole yard. When you look at admirals row, the cost of renovating the houses starts to be so huge that it starts to get in the way of their core mission, which is providing industrial space. So as important as preservation might be – they can’t afford it here and would rather use the site as a way to earn some cash to subsidize the rest of the yard. That’s why your idea was a bad
Oy. Ok – I’m going to give this one more shot – because you seem earnest:
First of all – on behalf of everyone who doesn’t have as much non-profit experience as you, I apologize for sam’s insults. I thought that I had already indicated that I thought sam had gone over the top in his insults, but in case it wasn’t clear, i’m saying it now. I wasn’t trying to defend sam, just pointing out that you were not completely innocent here. Your whole attitude of “I’m a creative thinker and you’re all a bunch of boring business types” comes off as extremely condescending and more importantly is untrue. Maybe you didn’t mean to come off that way, but you should know that that’s how it reads. Take it not as an attack but as constructive criticism.
Now on to my main topic. Everything I said before is not my real point. You keep on saying that you do in fact get my point, but then all you focus on is sam’s rudeness and how you know that the national guard is really part of the arms, etc and never respond to my actual argument. So let me lay it out for you in terms you’ll relate to.
As a non-profit professional you know that every non-profit is a mission-driven organization that is usually organized around a single issue. To the extent that they can incorporate other issues into their work, that’s great, but if other issues get in the way, they will always refocus on their core issue. FOr example – let’s say I ran a non-profit that was focused on providing temporary shelter for the homeless. Let’s say I’ve got a project to build a new shelter. You may come along and say “it would be great if
Arguing with you is like talking to a brick wall. Nothing i can say will convince I have been listening and or that i understand anything or even what my issue is. I don’t feel superior to anyone but I am not the one who resorted to insulting people whose ideas I don’t agree with. In fact the only idea I didn’t agree with or consider is tearing the row completely down. So what was your problem with that? That I agreed with other ideas besides mine? Or that I stick up for myself and what I believe in. If you can’t handle that, and it seems you can’t,you’re not a person I want to have a conversation with either.
Bxgirl – arguing with you is like arguing with an hysterical 8 year old child. Never mind, I’m done with you. You’re not listening – all you want to do is complain cause big bad sam was mean to you. Go back to your life where you can convince yourself that you’re so much more creative and superior to the rest of us. And I’ll go back to mine.
MMHtPH- as i said, i don’t denigrate your expertise. i also didn’t denigrate any of your ideas, assume you were being offensive because I may not have liked your ideas, nor did I insult your intelligence simply because I didn’t agree with you. You decided Montrose Morris and I were very offensive to poor sam. Well why don’t you take a look at sam’s posts and tell me what was he?.
Obviously you didn’t read the thread because I also agreed with other ideas that were proposed. I never said anyone was in la la land, I didn’t slap anyone down for talking about outreach to the unions, I don’t call someone’ idea i don’t agree with flaky or loony, and all I did was mention Pratt and its program. of course the idea of using the houses as “labs” was not my idea but sam’s ignorant interpretation of it.
If you wanted an honest discussion with me you could have said what your expertise was, instead of defending someone for calling me names like a 5 year old brat. But have it your way- you’re all about the money- I’m about saving as much of the row as possible and in a useful way.You don’t like the way i would do it- fine. If everyone were like you the Weeksville Houses would be gone now. There wouldn’t be an LPC. Every bit of non-economically feasible piece of history would not exist.
And in the category of “you couldn’t be more wrong if you tried”: You assume that I have a business background and don’t know anything about non-profits. Guess what sweetie? I’ve spent a good chunk of my professional life working for non-profits. Wanna take a guess what my responsibilities were at those non-profits? (wait for it people, this gets good). That’s right. My job was to come to come with potential uses for a bunch of historic buildings that required a buttload of renovation. You know what I spent most of my time doing? Triaging through all the ideas and figuring out which ones were feasible financially – which ones could be self supporting, which ones we could find donors for etc. So get over yourself and back off – OK?
Don’t take it so personally – you put forth an idea and bunch of people thought it was a bad one. And stop accusing us not coming up with alternatves, becase we have come up with plenty of them. Sam suggesteed selling them off individually to private investors. Other have suggested just saving one or two houses and having the private development subsidize the renovation. All of those are much more feasible alternatives.
As for tourism – the navy yard is already going to have to subsidize and find funding for the historic center they are currently planning – you really think they have an appetite to take on even more? And tours of the historic buildings will not bring in even close to the amount of cash that would be generated by leasing out this site for private development.
o interestingly put it). You know how businesses work- I know how nonprofits work. I’m not denigrating your expertise- what gives you the right to denigrate mine?
I am hardly missing anything. I’m expecting a blog to be a place of ideas and discussion. “Don’t flatter yourself to think that just because you work in non-profits, you can come up with ideas that we can’t.” But the point is, you didn’t.
both MM and myself pointed out the money making side of tourism, and the Navy Yard is building a museum- obviously they see money to be made in their history. I’m not going to tell you that museums or historical buildings are profitable moneymakers- usually they aren’t. Expecting admiral’s row to be a money making business is not realistic but as part of a nonprofit organization they certainly can be useful and beneficial to keep- and there are corporations and philanthropists who recognize these things are important for the same reason teaching the humanities and the arts are important. It goes to who we are and our potential.
Museums, Universities, libraries, charitable organizations, social services organizations, animal rescue organizations- they bring in money, but they aren’t run for profit. NYC Museums are moneymakers for NYC because they generate millions in tourism and sales. They serve a purpose in society- Weeksville serves a purpose. Admirals row has that same potential. If Admirals Row were restored, they could be used for movie locations- a nice chunk of change too. There are a lot of things that can be done, and a lot of people who would see the value in saving them.
I perfectly well understand your point but I’m speaking from a nonprofit’s point of view. Yet for participating in a discussion I’m told I’m in la la land, that I don’t understand my ideas cost money,and that every possibility was no good. (And to call dansk whatever to see if they’ll run programs for the “natives” as sam