The Daily News Tells Park Activists to Stuff It
The Daily News doesn’t mince words today in an editorial taking opponents of the plan to have housing finance part of Brooklyn Bridge Park to task: A stunning 85-acre park is taking shape on the East River waterfront in Brooklyn at a cost of $360 million in public money – and local activists are acting…
The Daily News doesn’t mince words today in an editorial taking opponents of the plan to have housing finance part of Brooklyn Bridge Park to task:
A stunning 85-acre park is taking shape on the East River waterfront in Brooklyn at a cost of $360 million in public money – and local activists are acting like spoiled children demanding more. At a time when the city is slashing the parks budget and struggling to maintain existing recreation spaces, these folks ought to thank heaven for the magnificence they have been granted…No matter. Two legislators given veto power, Assemblywoman Joan Millman and state Sen. Daniel Squadron, sided with the naysayers…Financing a new park with revenues from new construction makes sense. Financing a new park with revenue from existing buildings, diverting that money from the city’s general fund and away from, say, parks in other, less fortunate, Brooklyn neighborhoods is selfish. But that’s what it took to get this deal done.
The opponents of the housing are by and large offshoots of the folks who wanted to stop the construction of the park in the first place. Organizations supportive of the park construction such as the Brooklyn Heights Association (BHA) always accepted the concept of the new buildings on the periphery of the park both for condos near pier 6 and for a hotel near pier 1. The Daily News should have been more careful explaining who the opposing voices are. It is not the entire neighborhood nor ” Park Activists”.
The opponents of the housing are by and large offshoots of the folks who wanted to stop the construction of the park in the first place. Organizations supportive of the park construction such as the Brooklyn Heights Association (BHA) always accepted the concept of the new buildings on the periphery of the park both for condos near pier 6 and for a hotel near pier 1. The Daily News should have been more careful explaining who the opposing voices are. It is not the entire neighborhood nor ” Park Activists”.