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]
Good thing Yassky’s already come out against it.
Check out http://www.savethebrooklynbridge.org
Great argument against this monstrosity.
I’ve seen the rendering produced by the “protesters” and they are misleading to say the least. They even collected signatures from tourists and gallery goers who obviously did not live here. Being a diehard liberal, I’m ashamed that my fellow NYers resorted to the dishonest Republican tactics.
The community group is delusional. I posted the 10:23 comment and I have nothing to do with Wallentas, thank you very much.
I am afraid that the community organizations are alianating many of us by being a bit over the top. A new school and affordable housing are really importnat amenities. The fact that the building is to be built on a lot near the bridge’s on-ramp (it is nowhere near the towers or midspan) seems to me no reason for saying that it will somehow diminish the enjoyment of the bridge. that is nutty. The truth is that the proposed building is no larger than many of the old industrial buildings in DUMBO, and it will have no effect on the Brooklyn Bridge. I have studied the renderings and I think that the bridge-damaging argument is just baloney and NIMBY on toast.
I wrote a letter to Yassky in support of this.
The neighborhood needs more housing, and needs a middle school. We’re in a major housing crisis, and building another 400+ apartments is just what we need.
But more fundamentally, it is a massive waste of peoples’ time to prevent a builder from putting up this building on shaky aesthetic grounds, and, in doing so, force about 1000 people to commute an extra 15-20 minutes each way — DUMBO and Bklyn heights are close to manhattan, and should have much higher densities.
Not to mention that this building will eventually pay a lot of taxes, so the pols are not doing what is best for the city.
Forget about the school! There will not be and never was going to be a school. Never. A school would be a really great thing. Everyone agrees to that. Or should anyway. Just because someone says they are going to build a building and put a school in it does not mean that a school will just materialize. It is far, way, way more complicated than that. Even two trees knows this. Of course they will not admit this. The school was used as a ploy to get folks juiced up about this building they want to build. So people can say “if you oppose this building than you oppose kids” You were tricked people.
Please stop the empty posturing and tell us exactly how the development “will permanantly destroy the quality of the Brooklyn Bridge and the neighborhood” and be “bad for the rest of New York City, Brooklyn and America.” Two Trees hasn’t convinced me yet and neither have the naysayers.
Glad to see the TT PR team is awake this AM. Free Dock Street T-shirt to the employee who posts the most comments!
Affordable housing? See how well that’s going over on Court Street if you’re black.
Nice tall buildings in Manhattan next to the bridge? Yeah, that Verizon building rocks, glad it’s there.
Badly needed middle school? Since when do we sell our public services to developers. If so, I would at least like to see a Halliburton bid for the school and get a little auction going.
Chop down Two trees!
Don’t do it for us, do it for the Bridge.
Stop this building not because it will block our views and make scads of money for our nemesis, but because it is near the bridge and buildings near the bridge WILL DESTROY THE BRIDGE!!!
Don’t you get it?
Only a racist would not understand that new buildings destroy old bridges!!!
This project has absolutly nothing to do with race or income and to suggest that is disgusting, disengenuous and rascist! To suggest that people that oppose reckless, large scale development are trying to keep people out of the area or are are rascists is such a low life tactical ploy. Typical of Two Trees.