Man on the Street: How're You Feeling About IKEA?
As the under-construction IKEA looms ever larger over the Red Hook waterfront, we asked a few folks how they’re feeling about the store opening in the neighborhood. “Anything different is going to be good for the neighborhood. It’s a small community and you usually need to go out of it to get stuff. So any…
As the under-construction IKEA looms ever larger over the Red Hook waterfront, we asked a few folks how they’re feeling about the store opening in the neighborhood.
“Anything different is going to be good for the neighborhood. It’s a small community and you usually need to go out of it to get stuff. So any time things come to us, like Fine Fare or Fairway, it’s great.” Annmarie; has lived in Red Hook for 10 years
“It’s going to be crazy from a congestion point of view. I used to go to the IKEA on Long Island, and out there they’re equipped for all the traffic going in. But I just don’t see where the traffic arteries are going to come from here.” Jerry; has had a business in neighborhood for 15 years
“I think it’s sad but inevitable. I’m from England so I’m not really privy to the history of gentrification or development here, but it’s sad to me to go and see the blue and yellow where the sugar factory used to be.” Jenny; has lived in Red Hook for 3 years
“It’s going to be a terrific help for this neighborhood. Anyone who’s against the IKEA hasn’t been here long enough to remember the bad old days.” Marty; has lived in the neighborhood for 42 years
I agree with 10:13 and 12:44,
1. Losing stunningly beautiful waterfront space to a hypocritical, foreign-owned and legally menacing corporate big box store is sick.
2. Knowing that they won’t even use the waterfront they’re on for transportation of their wares is extra nausea-inducing.
The rsidents of the projects – long time residents seem to be in support of this store. The newcomers are the ones that are opposed. To bad for them.
1. Why is there always a discussion about “jobs in the neighborhood?” Lowe’s and Home Depot are only a few blocks further from the RH Houses than IKEA is. And how many people actually work in their “neighborhood” anyway. You want to work? Get on a train, like the rest of the world.
2. IKEA is under no obligation to hire “from the neighborhood.” And, in a similar deal, even the Hall Brothers are complaining that Fairway has mostly staffed Red Hook from their Harlem store.
3. Could anyone establish a precident by which a big box store “improved” a neighborhood? Not only is there the ensuing traffic problems, there is the problem of killing small businesses. Think the Sunset Park furniture shops are going to last?
4. IKEA is a notorious tax-dodger which has shown little concern for the communities they affect. Look it up:
http://www.evb.ch/en/p11676.html
The idea that they will come to Red Hook and help improve the lot of the downtrodden is utterly laughable.
5. They have already been fined for improper asbestos abatement, have mysteriously “lost” 15 tons of potentially contaminated fill, and have pressured the city to get rid of the Red Hook vendors. This is the neighbor you “can’t wait for.”
6. IKEA does not represent gentrification. It represents suburbanization. Whatever you think of Red Hook, it ain’t the suburbs.
7. There is the issue of what could be there instead of IKEA. Perhaps the ship repair facility that was once there, and that the city is now encouraging be built in Sunset Park? Perhaps housing?
8. Finally – and somebody alluded to it – IKEA is the mere tip of an iceburg. In ten years, Red Hook is going to be a strip mall. Plans are already in the works for the Granery, for the Revere site, for the corner of Halleck and Columbia. What do you think is going to fill O’Connell’s bus lots? Chili’s, Peir One, and TJ Maxx. And then, you folks that need jobs might have them. But trust me, what you won’t have is a neighborhood, or cheap city housing to live in. Because the same machinations that brought IKEA to Red Hook are good and ready to turn the RH Houses to rubble, and you know it.
I had to scroll through the entire thread to get to the one really important point — Guest at 10:13 nailed it. Why did the City give a huge stretch of waterfront to a box store with getting any public waterfront space out of the deal? That’s really the shame of Ikea in Red Hook. Transportation issues can be dealt with, but that section of the waterfront is gone forever. New York should be aspiring to greenways along all of its water frontage. And no, Ikea won’t be using the water front to bring in goods; it will be using trucks.
Ikea’s food will not be able to compete with the Red Hook food vendors, unless of course the Red Hook vendors are not there anymore. Or, even better, the city hits them with so many new expenses that they can’t compete with a juggernaut like Ikea.
I can’t wait until Ikea opens so that I can take a huge crap on their front entrance. Which is essentially what Ikea did to Red Hook.
I cannot think of a greater tragedy than to give the New York City waterfront, to big box stores.
Ikea furniture may not be high end quality, but it serves its purpose for many people and will do well. Not everyone is awash with cash in Brooklyn, despite house prices, or maybe because of them.
Didn’t Brownstoner get his kitchen from Ikea? What does he have to say?
“Limey Brit” is a tad redundant, Einstein.