Eulogies for the Pre-Ikea Red Hook
The Times goes man-on-the-street in Red Hook and finds a wide range of opinions on how this week’s opening of Ikea will affect the neighborhood: -It will change for the worse, said a musician. -German Mendez, who runs a store called the Red Hook Bike Shop, called Ikea a blessing. All these people in the…
The Times goes man-on-the-street in Red Hook and finds a wide range of opinions on how this week’s opening of Ikea will affect the neighborhood:
-It will change for the worse, said a musician.
-German Mendez, who runs a store called the Red Hook Bike Shop, called Ikea a blessing. All these people in the new houses, they don’t like it, he said, as he inspected a customer’s tire. They gave us back the pier, he said, referring to Ikea.
-Now this is Mayberry, said a customer in Mendez’s shop, with a big blue box.
-If it was a Wal-Mart, I’d be protesting, said the owner of a Van Brunt Street wine bar. This could be a really good thing.
-I’m taking a picture before the funeral, said a video artist. In a week from now, the deserted streets won’t be deserted.
And yourself?
Awaiting a Big Blue Box and an Altered World [NY Times]
Big Retailers May Follow Ikea to Red Hook [NY Daily News]
Photo by alphabetjenn.
14,000 cars a day on the weekends for Ikea? How is that even possible? The traffic will be insane.
i second the request for a bed bath & beyond
Why do people throw the word ‘ghetto’ around so easily on this site?
It’s a tough word to use when it’s a big box retailer from Sweden plunking itself down in the middle of an area where most resident live in subsidized housing.
Also- look up the history of the word ‘ghetto’ and then also look up the history of IKEA’s founder.
get real
no one on this blog really gives a rat’s ass about the local community…it just makes some of us feel better and less guilty to pretend to care about the people in between our brownstones and our meatballs.
ikea will be an enormous success, and hopefully the start of more non-ghetto retail in brooklyn
peace
If Ikea put a plant in that location that was going to build furniture, I’d have supported it. But as a store, it’s going to provide marginal eonomic benefit for the local community. Anyone remember how the Brooklyn Cruise terminal was partly sold as a jobs program? In the end, there are hardly any full time jobs related to that facility. This project treats Red Hook as nothing more than a driveway.
columbia street will be pretty bad, especially the part where you have to roll up your windows and duck as you pass the ghetto..very difficult to drive like that
how bout we all, i dunno, let it open first and see how things go
it might actually all work out in the end
thanks
was it built legally or not?
I love love love IKEA, but the location is going to be a traffic nightmare for Red Hook residents. Have any of you who are pro this development actually walked around the new IKEA? I visited last weekend and there simply isn’t enough room for all of the cars that are expected.