Some Day Everything's Gonna Be Different...
…When Doctoroff paints his masterpiece. “If you go from the border of Queens at Newtown Creek all the way to Coney Island twenty years from now, on almost every stretch of that waterfront you will see something very different than there is today.” So spake Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff. It’s certainly starting to feel like…
…When Doctoroff paints his masterpiece.
“If you go from the border of Queens at Newtown Creek all the way to Coney Island twenty years from now, on almost every stretch of that waterfront you will see something very different than there is today.” So spake Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff. It’s certainly starting to feel like that’s a real possibility, despite New York’s long history of not seeing through master plans. And while we feel naturally protective of the small-town feel that has defined Brooklyn for long, we do agree with Amanda Burden when she says that parks and housing are preferable to power plants and transfer stations. The reality is that the city needs more housing and we would rather see it in these largely undeveloped swaths than plunked down in the middle of existing smaller-scale, low-density neighborhoods. In the best case scenario (like, in our opinion, the Richard Rogers design above), this will also provide an opportunity for the city to take a leadership role in modern architecture; in the worst case scenario, the waterfront will be lined with a bunch of mediocre housing complexes like Schaefer Landing in Williamsburg.
Waterfront in 2016 [New York Magazine]
Love the implied opposition between good design and “positive” things for working and poor people. God forbid we should demand of people that profit hugely — yes, despite our terribly burdensome regulations that occasionally keep construction workers alive, when the city can be bothered to enforce them — off of public investment that their work not be horrifying to look at *and* successfully engage community concerns.
What’s “small-minded” is a proudly sleazy and venal development industry, aided and abetted by a tired architectural profession, that have forced people into making false choices between a reasonable scale of waterfront development and afforable neighbourhoods.
As for the power plants and transfer stations, I guess it’s out of sight, out of mind. Woe betide the less fashionable neighborhood that serves as a dumping ground for the unprofitable uses of the waterfront. Want fewer garbage trucks on the streets? Generate less waste, and deal with it closer to home, so there’s less to transfer.
But god, can’t you see how small minded that is. I mean, Schaefer will have 40% of the units devoted to middle income renters that would never be able to even think of living here. Poor families too. I know someone (through work) that is in line to live in a two bedroom apartment where section 8 will pay most of the rent. She is a single mom, and she used to live in a run down building in the South Side of Williamsburg that was really a disaster. Do you think regular luxury condo buildings rent to Section 8 voucher holders? This building is a big positive deal to working and poor people, and no amount of snark from upper class aesthetes will change that.
You’re right that we were commenting on the aesthetics and not other attributes the building might have.
Schaefer Landing isn’t mediocre at all. It is probably one of the most progressive developments in the United States. 40% of the units are affordable, and the building’s size is not completely outsized for the community. It doesn’t surprise me that you care more about looks than the positive way working people will be helped by this, but not all of us agree with you.
Cut the guy some slack, he was so right with his Olympic Plans.
Here is an Article from 1992 NYtimes on planned waterfront changes. “Charting the Future Of the Waterfront”
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE5D8153AF936A25752C1A964958260