Second Development-Related Rally in May Expects Hundreds
Brooklyn is expected to see its second massive development-related rally this month on May 17, when hundreds are expected to march to Albee Square protesting the “lack of community involvement in upcoming development plans,” according to a press release from Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE). Last Saturday, hundreds of Brooklynites clashed in…
Brooklyn is expected to see its second massive development-related rally this month on May 17, when hundreds are expected to march to Albee Square protesting the “lack of community involvement in upcoming development plans,” according to a press release from Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE). Last Saturday, hundreds of Brooklynites clashed in a protest and counter-protest over Atlantic Yards. This rally addresses a myriad of other, less publicized effects of Downtown Brooklyn’s development boom that have perhaps been overshadowed (pun intended) by the massive arena and high-rise project, or at least its opponents’ more forceful media efforts. A few of the more noted past events expected to be addressed at this coming rally: Albee Square Mall was emptied to make way for City Point; dozens of small business owners on Bridge and Willoughby streets were evicted so new towers could be built; large apartment building for low-income families and a handful of smaller buildings were taken through eminent domain for Willoughby Square Park, a planned public plaza and underground parking garage (a home many believe was involved in the Underground Railroad was spared from the wrecking ball, but may still be lost to foreclosure). And nearly all of Myrtle Avenue’s neighborhood services between Flatbush Avenue and Fort Greene Park were cleared for construction of luxury high-rises, leaving residents of the nearby public housing complexes with nowhere to shop for groceries. Do you think the end result will put Brooklyn better or worse off in 10 years?
DoBro’s Household Income to Double? [Brownstoner]
Atlantic Yards or Atlantic Lots [Brownstoner]
Much of Downtown Brooklyn Going Out of Business [Brooklyn Eagle]
Albee Square Mall Clears Out [Brooklyn Eagle]
I think community organizing is important. Too often developers get away with anything they want as community boards and city planning let developers do whatever they want.
Only when community members get involved do people get what they want. So what is wrong with letting people ask for what they want.
I hope that community members fight hard for what they want. Nobody will fight for them.
I think community organizing is important. Too often developers get away with anything they want as community boards and city planning let developers do whatever they want.
Only when community members get involved do people get what they want. So what is wrong with letting people ask for what they want.
I hope that community members fight hard for what they want. Nobody will fight for them.
In this fast-paced world of high-speed internet, cable TV, blackberries, video games, cell phones, and iPods, protest as a form of social action is obselete. The attention span of the public is simply too short to take notice, especially when attendance is as low as it was at the recent AY rally. Protests, marches, etc. may earn a few seconds on the local news (though even that is rare), and are then quickly forgotten. This protest will surely suffer the same fate.
11:24 – “They never acknowledge that shopping district exists because those same shopkeepers are afraid to open stores in the neighborhoods from where their shoppers come…”
Really? I would love to read the empirical evidence you based this comment on. That shopping area exists as it is, in fact, because it is profitable and ideally located in the middle of the second biggest subway hub in NYC. Of course it used to be an almost exclusively white space (not that white people ever notice when something is predominantly white) until all of your parents and grandparents fled to the suburbs. Those without that luxury or option filled the vacuum of white flight. The businesses in Fulton Mall are a reflection of that and the concomitant disinvestment by the city, as well as the lack of capital resources available to the tenants for major structural improvements.
But these days white flight is going the other way; the upper-middle class is pouring back into cities and suburbanizing them as quickly as possible, remaking them in their own image. And just like their parents couldn’t possibly understand why blacks would be angry about economic disenfranchisement, social exclusion, and segregation (yes! I am talking about 20th century BROOKLYN here), these wonderful new “Brooklynites” can’t possibly imagine why people would be angry enough to fight back, when what little space and community they have garnered for themselves is ripped away to make room for the aesthetic taste and consumer culture of the “upper class.”
1:36 – congratulations for being black “for the record.” Even Bill Cosby and Condi Rice have to pull that one out from time to time to keep their cred.
2:14 if you have to ask that then you just dont have any love for bklyn and are probably one of the main reasons that it is losing its edge.
When the rezoning process occurred there was very little community input.
It seems from the xenophobic comments above that there’s an inability to be open minded and ask REAL questions about why people are protesting this in the first place.
I don’t think anyone is against development as long as the process is democratic, inclusive and takes existing community needs into account.
Where will the thousands of low income families go if they are pushed out the neighborhood?
Also, it was the poor, Black people some of you referred to that made the neighborhood the 3rd largest shopping district in New York City. And, this is long after white flight of the area after WWII and building of Fort Greene and Downtown Brooklyn from the ground up.
Whether its a 99 cents store or a Zales on the corner of Hoyt, its about protecting the diversity that makes Brooklyn and NYC unique. And, that diversity should not be boiled down to “allowing” poor people of color entrance in the neighborhood as street sweepers and retail cashiers.
2:10, there are plenty of sites for residential buildings on the periphery (Livingston, Schermerhorn, Myrtle, etc.) that can help downtown become a 24/7/365 community. But when you build residential buildings immediately adjacent to Metrotech (Lawrence, Willoughby), you’ve lost those sites forever. Just like you need a critical mass to have a vibrant neighborhood, you need a critical mass of commercial tenants to have a vital CBD. The city has already killed most of its industrial areas; is it now going to write off the outer-borough business districts? — 2:03
DoBro!!?? that is ridiculous. If you dont like the way downtown looks, dont go there. I bet 99% of you dont live there anyways. You want nice views, fancy shops, go to the city, or smith street or 5th ave (c’mon you live there anyways!!) we need to keep the variety and the options alive!
2:07 — what is brooklyn?