Dock Street Protesters: 20% There on Signatures
The public relations piece of the fight over the Dock Street development proposed for Dumbo is in high gear, with protesters braving the cold temps to collect signatures against the mixed-use project. (Whether it’s any match for the postcard-mailing campaigns of Walentas & Co. remains to be seen.) What’s not to like? Some folks in…
The public relations piece of the fight over the Dock Street development proposed for Dumbo is in high gear, with protesters braving the cold temps to collect signatures against the mixed-use project. (Whether it’s any match for the postcard-mailing campaigns of Walentas & Co. remains to be seen.) What’s not to like? Some folks in the area, including the Dumbo Neighborhood Association and the Brooklyn Heights Association, think the proposed building is too big and too close to the Brooklyn Bridge and aren’t being won over by the inclusion of 80 affordable units of housing or the potential for a new public middle school. One of the guys with a placard and a noteboard told us they’d collected about 2,000 sigs to date out of the 10,000 they’re hoping to get before the ULURP hearings begin.
Dock Street Plans (Marina and All) Go 3D [Brownstoner]
Yassky and Walentas Square Off over Dock Street [Brownstoner]
Two Trees Plans Mixed Use Building Next to Bridge [Brownstoner]
DUMBO Controversy Spurs Petition Drive [Brooklyn Eagle]
If that photo is the worst they have, I don’t think it’s that bad. Sure, when you’re drunk, in the gutter near the abandoned Empire Stores looking up, it’s not great. But otherwise… pffft. This is NYC!
I dont’ get people who are against this really. But I didn’t get the people who were trying to save that 1950ish utility that really does block the whole base of the bridge. Get rid of THAT and build this and I’ll call it even
1:59, people who support or at least are not against the development avoid interacting with you zealots. That’s why most people whom you talked to are on your side. Is that so hard to understand? Scientologists would tell you exactly the same thing – they are well supported and loved.
1:59, I don’t support or oppose this building as it is currently proposed. I would like the school and I think some of your materials are misleading. When you’re on the street corner of Henry and Montague, I move past and don’t engage. I’m not signing, so why would I bother. I did take the time to write to Yassky about it.
In other words, while I know you’d love to think we’re all on Walentas payroll and it’s some vast conspiracy, there may be simpler explanations. You can believe I’m genuine or not.
1:59, I can come up with several other methodological explanations for why the posts on this thread are less uniform than the results of your street survey. It’s really easy–too easy–to question how genuine other comments are.
How many postcards has Two Trees sent to Councilman Yassky? (I have no idea.) Although not generated by “some unpaid volunteer,” that’s the flip-side to your petition drive.
I am one of the people out there talking to people and collecting signatures on street corners. I’ve approached and engaged literally hundreds of people on this topic.
I’d say roughly 2%-3% of people support the building and about 97%-98% oppose it.
The very different ratio of comments here tells me either A) there are large masses of supporters of this building who don’t walk down public streets but do vocally post on blogs or B) some interested party is singlehandedly driving blog traffic.
Put another way, the day I see some unpaid volunteer on a street corner successfully collecting thousands of signatures _for_ the building is the day I’ll believe some of these supportive blog comments are genuine.
Two Trees renting to St Ann’s Warehouse (for a very very low rent) and expressly said it wasn’t forever. They are looking to find them new space, but no, it won’t be as prime. Both sides knew this going in.
Two Trees also recruited Galapagos with nice space at a really good price.
Two Trees does some things right. You may disagree with them on this issue, but that doesn’t mean they are all bad.
The whole school thing is a red herring and a thinly veiled bribe. An implicit acknowledgment by Walentas himself that this building is unacceptable as it is.
Moreover Walentas is actually giving nothing. He is simply promising to rent space to a school at market rates. Any number of other building owners would just as readily rent space to a school for the same rates.
The bigger question is should developers be the ones deciding when and where schools should go according to their personal interests. Or should the Board of Education be the ones deciding according to bona-fide public interests.
I am an offifal representative of Two Trees and I have spoken to David who wants to see the community happy. He has asked his architect to revise the plan to be only a five story building to house a middle school, afforadable housing (but not too much) an all-organic food cooperative, a swedish sandal outlet, and a yellowcake uranium enrichment cyclatron.
The building will have a low silhouette and the soft green glow will bathe the bridge in an otherworldy glow that the Jehovah’s witnesses will love.
would be interesting to know what % of dumbo residents pushing the resistance would have views from their homes negatively impacted by the current proposed building.