Forgotten NY Ponders the Atlantic Yards
With all the emotion and politics wrapped up in the Atlantic Yards debate, it was refreshing to read Forgotten NY’s take on the project’s implications. While many of us were still recovering from Christmas, FNY chronicled the buildings that are likely to be demolished or seriously overshadowed by the project, including the Hot Bird building…
With all the emotion and politics wrapped up in the Atlantic Yards debate, it was refreshing to read Forgotten NY’s take on the project’s implications. While many of us were still recovering from Christmas, FNY chronicled the buildings that are likely to be demolished or seriously overshadowed by the project, including the Hot Bird building on Vanderbilt. At the end of the report, FNY weighs in on Ratner’s proposal:
Looks like as presently designed it’s way too out-of-proportion to the low-rise brownstone area and is better suited for someplace like the Meadowlands and some of the Dean Street buildings Ratner wants to raze are too good to lose; nothing like them will ever be built again. Clearly, though, something has to be done about Pacific Street, which is a mess.
My fantasy: Clean up the area by the yards, lose the old warehouses if you must and build brownstone buildings that resemble the century-old ones already there. And, make them available to lower and middle income persons; not just “affordable” in Bloomberg’s sense ($500K per unit), but truly affordable. Subsidize, which for me isn’t a dirty word. Like I said, my fantasy.
What We’re Losing: Razing for Ratnerville Begins [Forgotten NY]
there’s also a hot bird sign on court st.
this is funny:
http://www.lightningfield.com/2002/07/1712__on_the_7_line.html
“The taking of property from residence in Fort Green, Prospect Heights and other surrounding areas 15 years ago when gentrification commenced, was a crmiminal and modern emminment dormain”
What??? No one “took” anyone’s property – as Brown Bomber says gentrification is an economic phenomenon not a “criminal” one.
Are the young “rich” people who arent rich enough to afford a family sized apartment in Manhattan “victims” of a “criminal gentrification” process because they have to move to Ft Greene to get it?” – Dont think anyone is going to agree with that but it is the EXACT same situation.
As for Forgotton-NY’s desire for low-moderate income brownstones on AY – it might be a nice dream in the abstract but who on earth can afford to build a platform over the yards (100 Mil+) only to build rel low density housing that is selling/renting below market value – and what sense does it make. And it certainly makes zero sense to build low density next door (above) one of the largest transit hubs in the country.
Well, Anon, sounds a bit to me like sour grapes. First, many black folks in FG, CH and BS have profited handsomely – more than they could have ever managed – from gentrification. For the most part, people don’t sell because someone has a gun to their head. They sell because the money is “just rigtht”, i.e., it’s dictated by the free market system and supply and demand. Second, black folks don’t have a monopoly on displacement and thus should not warrant special consideration from anyone. Many ethinic groups (e.g., Jews, Italians, Hispanics, Irish, Asians, etc.) have been displaced at one time or another throughout our great city by other ethinic groups or classes. Such “community cleansing” is a cyclical phenomenon that didn’t start with black displacement nor will it end there.
BrownBomber,
Thats a awful thing to say, but it’s on the mark.
Unjustice for one is unjustic for all. The taking of property from residence in Fort Green, Prospect Heights and other surrounding areas 15 years ago when gentrification commenced, was a crmiminal and modern emminment dormain. Between the banks, real estate corp, Tax levies, individual preying on the elderly, insurance companies, red-lining and gentrification. A lot of Black people living in this areas were pushed out, and no other race said a word. Now when it doesn’t serve the purpose of the new comers, there’s a major problem. No, I’m not for an individual or corporation confiscating property, but Unjustic for one is unjustic for all.
Build low to moderate income housing on land worth tens of millions of dollars? Who are you kidding? Let the dominoes fall where they may. Either you’re for gentrification or your not. Most of us are but we tend to draw lines only when it serves our own selfish interest, i.e., “last one up, pull up the ladder.”
Sorry, Hot Bird is long gone — but I used to order from them all the time — remember their trucks with the yellow thing on top? Oh, they were great…
Oh man I used to eat Hot Bird all the time. Haven’t had it in the last… 8 years maybe..but now that I’ve remembered it, I think I’ll get it tonight. So cheap, so good…
I loved hot bird when it opened, (and apparently alot of others did too…in the beginning) then it deteriorated and faced compitition when routisserie chicken became hot (pun intended). Fast rise fast fall.
Anyone ever get delivery from Hot Bird? I remember loving it, in my pre-vegetarian days.