City Fishing for Jail Block Developers
Trying to soften the blow of sticking the newly revitalized community with another 700 to 800 inmates, the city is testing the waters with developers to gauge interest in erecting two 10-15 story residential buildings with ground floor retail on the back side of the jail along Boerum Place and State Street. (Boerum Place runs…
Trying to soften the blow of sticking the newly revitalized community with another 700 to 800 inmates, the city is testing the waters with developers to gauge interest in erecting two 10-15 story residential buildings with ground floor retail on the back side of the jail along Boerum Place and State Street. (Boerum Place runs along the foreground of this photo; State Street recedes back into the photo.) If the developers don’t bite, the city will just build something else. There’s no preference for residential, but we certainly wanted to test the market to see what the developers thought, said Jennifer K. Friedman, a vice president in the city’s Economic Development Corporation, which is soliciting the responses. “It’s absurd to take an obsolete building and sink more taxpayer money into it, said Sandy Balboza, president of the Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association. At this rate, Sandy may have to worry about a rival neighborhood group springing up: How does the Atlantic Avenue Detriment Association sound? Does anyone remember how much taxpayer money is going to be spent on this effort at making criminals’ lives more convenient? On the other hand, the neighborhood really could use some more places to get bail bonds. People are getting really tired of restaurants and clothing boutiques. They are so 2006.
City Tests Idea of Building Apartments by Brooklyn Jail [NY Times]
City Eyes Unlocking Brooklyn Jail [Metro]
Change in ‘Store’ at B’klyn Jail [NY Post]
Ella – I agree with alot of what you said including this:”there’s a perfectly good prison building that already exists in downtown Brooklyn across from the courthouse on top of 72 subway lines” – unfortunatly the City doesnt agree. Despite spending 50+ million of our dollars in the last 5 yrs or so – the City apparently feels that the jail is inadequate (despite the fact that it is 100% empty) and wants to spend hundreds of millions more to essentially demolish and rebuild the jail all over again.
My point (besides the fact that I am appalled at this massive waste of money) is that before you go throw more money into this, why not rethink which makes the most sense economically for the city. And secondly if we really need this jail space – then for goodness sake open the f’ing thing up while you decide – instead of having a 100 million dollar edifice to government waste sitting empty.
I just love it how whenever anyone has a project that noone wants to live near (a jail, a power plant, a basketball arena, an incinerator, a sewage treatment plant, an impound lot, etc) someone says “Hey just put it in the Navy Yard”. Yes it sounds like a good idea on the surface – noone wants to live near these things, so put it behind a wall away from residences. But it completely ignores what the needs are of those uses (need to be near public transit, etc) and also completes ignores the purpose the Navy Yard serves. The Navy Yard is one of the last places in the City where small light-industrial businesses can find affordable space without being concerned with eventually being priced out by developers who are converting the site to residential uses. While the Navy Yard is fairly large (about 300 acres) there’s already 5,000 people working there and space demand for the limited unused space right for other light industrial and manufacturing businesses is very high. It would be a horrible waste to use up several acres of land to build a prison (that prisoners families could not even get to easily b/c of lack of subway) when there’s a perfectly good prison building that already exists in downtown Brooklyn across from the courthouse on top of 72 subway lines. Y’all gotta start thinking about the big picture when it comes to this kind of development and not only see things through the provincial lense of how it affects your little world and start thinking about how it affects the whole city.
The as of right expansion, as 4:43 rightly points out, is another reason why the authorities would never ever, in a million years, want to move the jail. Why start that political and emotional nightmare when you have a grandfathered facility right smack where you want it to be?
The Navy Yard suggestion is so wrong on so many levels, first of all, there are plenty of residnetial blocks adjacent to the yards, secondly the fenced-in arguement would not work so well if you worked there and were inside the fence too, lastly the area at the periphery where the Admiral houses are is to be part of the greenway bike path and a much needed, much needed, big discount grocery store for the folks who live in the projects across the street and elsewhere in Fort Greene. Forget about the Navy Yard, that is as likely as moving it to Prospect Park.
Even for those who bought near the jail while it was closed, those lived there while it was still open, or those who just think it would be a good area to live… Who can blame anyone for putting up a little fight and voicing their concerns!!! Even if it is just on some message blog or if it is some more formal complaint, I don’t see how everybody expects people to just take it with no questions asked. You gotta stick up for yourself a little in this world.
But I’m sure everyone screaming racism or NIMBY would just keep your mouths shut even if this has an impact on your lives or that of your families, just b/c you are such good, fair people.
Ultimately, the only thing that would sway the DOC would be a strong economic argument as to why they should move, otherwise, it is what it is.
What’s not mentioned in the three news articles, Stoner’s intro and the 50-odd comments above is that DOC can roughly double the size of the jail ‘as of right,’ without going through ULURP. So, as far as DOC is concerned, the ‘move it here, move it there’ comments are besides the point … DOC believes that it has already compromised.
The NY Times articles states that “City officials will decide whether those buildings would contain apartments, hotel rooms or offices.”
Hotel rooms sound more plausible than condos.
Room rates at the Brooklyn Bridge Marriott are $250 and up, if available. So 10-15 stories of hotel rooms could be a real money maker for the right developer.
I also agree, for the record, with those who say “you bought near the jail, so deal with it”. I do sympathize, however, with protests over jail expansion.
Fair enough putnam-denizen. I just don’t have an issue with people protesting a jail being built or expanded in their neighborhood, whether it is a rich neighborhood or poor one. That is why I was trying to suggest a non-residential area such as within the Navy Yards confines. I also don’t think the jail where it stands poses any threat other than to property values.
I do see a real difference if the jail is within a walled compound, not adjacent to residential buildings. I’m not saying it’s the answer, just a suggestion. Plus, you don’t have to worry about the property value of Farragut Houses unless you want to tear them down and build something else.
As to racism playing a large part in urban planning in 2007, I disagree. Money and power play the strongest role in my opinion (whoever has money or power, or can gain in a deal, will stomp on whomever they need to regardless of their race to achieve their ends). In NYC property development, racial arguments are often used to achieve ends without regard to who ultimately gets hurt in the process (read: AY development).