Locals Put Heat On City For Ignoring House of D Plan
A group of Boerum Hill residents is not at all pleased that the city is ignoring the one plan put forth to transform the House of Detention on Atlantic. The coalition is composed of local “stakeholders” including the Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association and the Boerum Hill Association, and has this to say: Although the Stakeholders…
A group of Boerum Hill residents is not at all pleased that the city is ignoring the one plan put forth to transform the House of Detention on Atlantic. The coalition is composed of local “stakeholders” including the Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association and the Boerum Hill Association, and has this to say:
Although the Stakeholders are not endorsing the Atlantic Gateway proposal, they feel strongly that it incorporates intelligent solutions across multiple dimensions: service to the judicial process, affordable housing, and Atlantic Avenue retail; and it addresses longstanding quality of life issues for neighborhood residents. What the plan does not propose is adding on to an already outsized jail facility standing at the gateway to Brooklyn in sharp contrast to the renaissance of the surrounding area since the jail closed its doors in 2003.
They’ve launched a website with a goal of “building consensus to stop the [jail’s] expansion.”
Brooklyn HOD Community Stakeholders Group
Groups Band Together to Push Brooklyn Big House Alternatives [Curbed]
Brooklyn Neighbors Really Don’t Want Jail in Their Backyard [The Real Estate]
A Look at the (Rejected) House of D Condo-Retail Plan [Brownstoner] GMAP
Photo by vidiot.
10:37 — i believe you have summarized the negative effects pretty well. add to that the effect on neighborhood character — perceived or real — and a stigma that may be perceived with operating jail.
I think the decision to put the jail there had more to do with the site being on Atlantic Avenue and close to the courthouses.
If anything, this jail probably made the area rapidly decline once it was opened. North of Atlantic Avenue was a decent place in the 1950s.
word to 10:54 — a lot of city money though has gone into making downtown and boerum hill poor no more.
I remember reading on another Brooklyn yuppie blog something to the affect of ” why don’t they just move the jail to a poorer neighborhood?”
word to the clueless- Boerum Hill at one point WAS a poor neighborhood.
What negative effects would this jail produce?
The chief complaints I’ve heard include prisoners catcalling from the roof, long lines of relatives waiting to visit inmates, and the congestion created by transporting inmates to the courthouses.
These are part and parcel of operating a jail. How would any of this change simply by including a retail store in the building?
I also live in the hood and second 10:24s comments.
I’m sick of these whiny bi-atches who just moved into the hood and want to change everything. As a friend of mine said to someone who recently moved into Boerum Hill and was complaining about something or other, “shouldn’t these folks adapt to their new environment, rather than expect that the environment will change to suit them?”
I also live in the hood and second 10:24s comments.
I’m sick of these whiny bi-atches who just moved into the hood and want to change everything. As a friend of mine said to someone who recently moved into Boerum Hill and was complaining about something or other, “shouldn’t these folks adapt to their new environment, rather than expect that the environment will change to suit them?”
AABA’s position is nonsensical — they oppose retail with the jail, despite the fact that it would lessen the negative effects on the surrounding area. as is, the jail will reopen and expand without retail. is that what AABA wants? there needs to be a clear leader of the community groups.
i agree with the previous poster. I live in the neighborhood and would not, for obvious reasons, want the jail to resume operations. Nevertheless, the case for using/expanding the facility is rational and right. I don’t believe, as residents, we can stop it from happening. Nevertheless, we should work with the Dept of Corrections, as the website advocates, to ensure that they are sensitive to the neighborhood needs and goals