Rainy Day Rally to Step Demo for Yards Parking
Despite the torrential rains, more than 200 people turned out for yesterday’s Brooklyn Speaks-sponsored “Rally Against Demolition for Parking” at the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Fort Greene. The narrow objective of the rally was to save the 20 or so buildings (including Ward’s Bakery) slated to be torn down over the next month to…
Despite the torrential rains, more than 200 people turned out for yesterday’s Brooklyn Speaks-sponsored “Rally Against Demolition for Parking” at the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Fort Greene. The narrow objective of the rally was to save the 20 or so buildings (including Ward’s Bakery) slated to be torn down over the next month to create parking and staging space for the construction of the first phase of the Yards project. In the age of sustainability and global warming and added people to New York, it’s an obscenity to knock down buildings to build surface parking, said Jon Orcutt, executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign advocacy group. To the chagrin of the many DDDB members in the audience, the more centrist approach of the organizing coalition, which seeks to reduce the scope of the project through peaceful engagement of FCR and government officials, dominated the oratory, as not a single speaker, including council members Yassky, BeBlasio, Jeffries and James, mentioned the words “eminent domain” and only one, Tish James (who, AY Report notes, drew the loudest applause), mentioned the pending lawsuits. DDDB is planning a protest at the corner of Flatbush and Pacific on Wednesday morning to coincide with the planned demolition of four buildings on that corner. More pics on the jump.
Rain Doesn’t Dampen Rally [Metro]
More Than 200 Rally Against Demolition for Parking [AY Report]
Over 200 brave storm to Rally [Brooklyn Speaks]
Shouldn’t the headline be “STOP Demo” rahter than “STEP Demo”?
Love all the protests re: everything having to do with the Atlantic Yards but barely a peep about reopening AND expansion of the House of D. Yuppies are weird.
Of course traffic jams discourage people from driving! If there were no traffic jams, I would drive to work in Manhattan!
Those who claim that the provision of parking here is a good thing, please remember that this parking is intended to be INTERIM. What does this mean? That these many acres will be parking only until Phase 2 — which is supposed to consist of 10 (12?) high rise apartment towers.
So these parking lots do not consist of a long-term transit plan for the arena. And even if these parking lots were the long-term transit plan for the arena, it would be a lousy plan. Parking lots encourage people to drive. So a whole lot of people are going to get very accustomed to driving — because there will be parking available — thus causing horrendous traffic jams radiating outward for many blocks from the arena. This will be quite lovely for the residents of Fort Green, Park Slope, and Prospect Heights. (To those who say that bad traffic will encourage people to take all of that mass transit that supposedly makes this a “transit-oriented” development, we all know that traffic jams have never stopped anyone from driving.)
Of course, if this project involved real planning around the traffic issues, we’d be seeing something very different. We would be seeing planning that would create strong disincentives to drive. Most important would be creating the conditions under which it would be extremely difficult to park your car — no on-site parking, zoning to prevent the development of parking garages, and residential parking stickers for the immediate vicinity to the arena. Additional measures such as congestion pricing for traffic going into Manhattan below 59th St. would further alleviate the congestion at Flatbush/Atlantic/4th Ave.
But none of these things are being done. Instead, a vast swathe of Prospect Heights is being torn down and turned into a giant parking lot. The build-out on Phase 2 could be as long as 15-20 years, depending on economic conditions (remember, FCRC isn’t under any obligation to build anything at all if it’s not profitable). Thus, we can look forward to this part of Prospect Heights being a parking lot for a long time to come. Talk about blight!
its hard to believe in this day an age – with pollution and oil prices such a concern that the City is helping to fund what is essentially a throwback to the early sixties.
The purpose of the lots is not only to provide parking for construction workers (i thought it was providing local jobs by the way, so why the necessity to drive to a major transportation hub) but for Nets fans.
9:52: your wrong, their are no project opponents or critics who are in favor of demolishing whole city blocks to create longterm (temporary) surface parking. and if Ratner didn’t do that, they would applaud it rather than oppose it as you so humourously suggest.
by the way, project supporters would evict their own mother if it meant getting the project done.
If it is hard to find parking, those who can take transit will do that, and there will be less traffic on our streets. Plus more parking means fewer interesting buildings or parks. Who likes to walk by a parking lot?? If you want parking, go to the burbs!
anon 9:48, it’s not supposed to funny
If Ratner did not provide parking the opposition group would be protesting the lack of parking. If FCR proclaimed the sky is blue the opposition would protest against FCR assertion that the sky is blue. Anything FCR does will always face protest from the opposition.