What If...
What if you were a wealthy philanthropist who could write a $100 million check to fund any infrastructure or public project in Brooklyn? What would it be? A selective high school to rival Stuyvesant in Manhattan? Hundreds more patrol officers on the police force? A monorail above Atlantic Avenue? Let your imagination run wild.
What if you were a wealthy philanthropist who could write a $100 million check to fund any infrastructure or public project in Brooklyn? What would it be? A selective high school to rival Stuyvesant in Manhattan? Hundreds more patrol officers on the police force? A monorail above Atlantic Avenue? Let your imagination run wild.
Anon 3:33: Would you kick the shelter for homeless women with substance abuse issues out of the armory, or let them share the space with the kids? Just wondering…
Anon 4:42: They do have lockers. Their stuff still gets stolen (people know how to pick locks), and some of them refuse to use the lockers because the shelter staff have to have access to the lockers (otherwise people would store drugs and weapons in them). Which means, of course, that sometimes the shelter staff are the ones stealing from the lockers. Sad but true.
Also, many of the mentally ill homeless people are compulsive hoarders, and one locker just isn’t enough for their piles of stuff.
NYC doesn’t really have a huge problem with homeless people living on the streets (compared to, say, L.A. or San Francisco). One reason for this is the weather. No matter how nasty and dangerous the shelters are, a lot of people will choose to live in them rather than freeze to death.
Build bike paths over the Q line and all the other open subway lines throughout the borough…
donate lockers to all the homeless shelter
One of the biggest complaint that homeless people have is that their stuff gets stolen.
So if every resident had a secure locker they wouldn’t have to worry about getting their valuables stolen.
Would probably help to keep the homeless off the streets, especially near the arena.
1.) Turn the Park Slope Armory into a huge, interesting cultural center for all Brooklyn residents: classes, art studios, gymnasium/pool, performance space, cafe. (Principal of overcrowded PS 107 is already trying to get some of this space for her students to use for gym)
2.) Build a pedestrian overpass from Prospect Park to the Grand Army Plaza Library — intersection is dangerous and lights are ill-timed; it would be safer if people could get to the library from a foot bridge
I would buy the entire retail strip on Fulton between Vanderbilt and Washington, renovate the buildings and create a low tech retail center (with nice apartments above), complete with
a green grocer, bakery, restaurant, cobbler, butcher and drycleaner. I would have an afterschool school center with tutoring for language – Latin, foreign languages, arts, and mathematics for neighborhood kids. It would be so good that it would attract kids from all over.
I’m surprised no one has talked about free or subsidized medical facilities. I thought Brooklyn was the borough of the unorthodox workforce where private health insurance can often be as expensive as a monthly rent or mortgage payment. I would like to see a borough-wide initiative that doesn’t stop at Marty urging us to keep trim or walk a little but actually provides health care because that, along with food, shelter is a basic requisite that we in America tend to forget even though our Canadian and European cousins take it for granted.
I would open 24 hour child drop-off centers — fully staffed. No parent would have to drag a child around the city , or leave them home alone, or lose them in a terrible accident (like the fires that have cost thelives of too many young children). Kids could come after school, in the mornings or at night and be safe and have a enriching environment.
I’m confused. Several people want to put money into struggling neighborhoods. But doesn’t an influx of money, better schools, etc. into a neighborhood cause the much dreaded “gentrification”? After all
If a neighborhood improves, won’t more people want to move there? It seems to
me that the only way to stop gentrification is to keep neighborhoods sad and undesireable.
If you’re going to dream
1) Turn Atlantic Yards into a park
2) Make Brooklyn Bridge Park free of Housing and expand into Red Hook.
3) Turn Fulton Mall/Downtown into real business district.