Heights Homes Could Be Taken in BQE Fix
It’s Robert Moses all over again! As it prepares for the reconstruction of the triple-cantilever portion of the BQE that below the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, the State Department of Transportation is considering taking some historic homes in the area by eminent domain and demolishing them, reports The Brooklyn Paper. While project manager Peter King calls…
It’s Robert Moses all over again! As it prepares for the reconstruction of the triple-cantilever portion of the BQE that below the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, the State Department of Transportation is considering taking some historic homes in the area by eminent domain and demolishing them, reports The Brooklyn Paper. While project manager Peter King calls the destruction option unlikely, it hasn’t been ruled out. It is well-established that the public sector has the authority to acquire properties for public purposes, he said. It would be premature to rule out anything, and a violation of process to start discounting things. The cantilevered highway was designed to last 50 years and is now approaching 70. Other voices urged not jumping the gun. We are talking about a 10-year process and we’re in year one,” Rob Perris, the district manager of Community Board 2. “It is conceivable that there could be alignments that result in property being taken, but from the standpoint of today that seems highly unlikely. If the prospect of eminent domain does emerge, expect an ugly fight from a powerful group of property owners. Robert Moses isn’t here now, and if a new Moses emerges, we have practice, said Judy Stanton, the executive director of the Brooklyn Heights Association. We know what to do.
State Mulling Taking Heights Homes for BQE Repair [Brooklyn Paper]
Why does it need to happen? The traffic problems of the BQE are not caused by this particular section of the highway. Widening the exit ramps, or the shoulders here really won’t make much difference. Most of the tie ups, at least when I have to be on this slightly moving parking lot, seem to come from too many people coming off the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges onto the BQE. Both of those occur nowhere near that part of the Heights.
Yeah, because 2nd Ave is just like 5th Ave and Madison and Park Ave, CMU. I love walking along 2nd Ave and admiring the limestone mansions and wonderfully detail pre-war co-op buildings.
Wait…wat?
“The only area less likely to use homes to eminent domain is the UES”
Was it not used to acquire some properties along the neven-never 2nd Av subway line?
Never ever going to happen.
dittoburg, the same (preliminary) alignment that has some North Heights owners in a froth does go through 1BBP. I got a mental picture something like the High Line.
use homes = lose homes
Idiot!
The likelihood of this happening is very low, unless there is some terrible cataclysm or national emergency. Brooklyn Heights is on the National Register of Historic Places. The review process for demolishing perfectly intact historic buildings would be endless. The lawsuits would be endless. This is the least of our worries.
The rebuilding of the Brooklyn Bridge ramps for the nest four years, on the other hand, IS a concern. Expect mayhem on that already fraught bridge. In my lifetime this is fourth time they have rebuilt the ramps.
“expect an ugly fight from a powerful group of property owners”
LMAO. Understatement. Never. Not in a million years. It will never happen. The only area less likely to use homes to eminent domain is the UES.
I heard Commissioner Sadik-Khan is thinking of seizing the BQE by eminent domain and replacing it with a big-ass bike lane.