Carroll Gardens Historic District May Grow
The Landmarks Preservation Commission released the boundaries of the expanded Historic District it is pushing for in Carroll Gardens and, not surprisingly, not everyone was pleased. The city would like to expand the pitifully small area that was protected back in 1973 (shown above) to include all the blocks bounded by Court Street, Henry Street,…
The Landmarks Preservation Commission released the boundaries of the expanded Historic District it is pushing for in Carroll Gardens and, not surprisingly, not everyone was pleased. The city would like to expand the pitifully small area that was protected back in 1973 (shown above) to include all the blocks bounded by Court Street, Henry Street, Huntington Street and First Place. Sounds like a nice idea to us but there are bound to be some whiners, right? Right. “Landmarking will force the old-timers out,” said John Esposito, co-founder of Citizens Against Landmarks. “All the new people who have $100,000 income a year think this is a great idea.” (This choice of this number seems reminiscent of Dr. Evil’s famous “one million dollars” line in Austin Powers; after all, it’s not like $100,000 a year goes too far in the Carroll Gardens housing market these days!) The plan for expanding the historic district is supported by the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association and the Brooklyn Preservation Council, and seems to be in keeping with the spirit of last year’s rezoning which made it harder to put up new out-of-context buildings in the low-rise community. No-brainer!
City Wants Second Carroll Gardens Historic District [NY Post]
Babs and MM are right. We were always nervous walking in Carroll Gardens because we had bad experiences there. We were shut out of apartments, and even told once that we couldn’t move into an apartment because the puerto-ricans in the neighborhood would not like an interracial couple. I never had any Puerto-Ricans say anything to us ever. And I would also like to point out that some of the worst racial incidents ocurred in Howard Beach, and Bensonhurst. Both, I am sorry to say, heavily Italian.
This is not a blanket condemnation of Italians, by any stretch. I’ve met wonderful Italians who are warm, funny, and haven’t a bad bone in their body. I count many of them as friends. But it is irresponsible to deny that there was a racial problem in those neighborhoods. It is what it is and denying it helps no one.
“I don’t think there is enough Public Benefit to socialize the costs of this benefit. ”
Bingo
Benson, you don’t read at all. Until you made a issue of it, no one was damning the entire Italian American community of Carroll Gardens. You took it there, and made it personal.
What does that have to do with landmarking, which was the topic of the thread?
I agree with Montrose and cgman.
They make the most compelling arguments by far.
I’m interested about the source of these grants and low-cost loans… Landmarking is controversial at best. I don’t think there is enough Public Benefit to socialize the costs of this benefit.
If there is a fund paid for by a PURELY PRIVATE homeowner’s association in the landmarked area, then fine. If it’s being subsidized by the City, State or Federal Gov’t, I’m not OK with that.
Education, Health, Transportation, Safety. Those are public benefits.
Also, if landmarking ALSO meant that a $3 million home would have to pay more than $4500 in property taxes, then I’d also support it. We’ll spend PUBLIC resources to regulate your neighbors, but when you sell your property, the property taxes will be based on the NEW value… not the value in 1923.
The new zoning laws do not protect the gardens, they merely corrected the zoning of the Place blocks as ‘narrow’ streets, thus lowering the FAR, preventing ‘out of context’ development.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/carroll_gardens/index.shtml
The only regulation regarding the gardens is an ancient city ordinance that says they must be maintained as ‘courtyards’ and it’s been shown that the city is unable or unwilling to enforce this.
http://carrollgardenshistory.blogspot.com/2008/04/nyc-administrative-codes-that-protect.html
Bill De Blasio’s recent attempts to allow construction onto a garden showed how vunerable the gardens are to developers, pro-development city councillors and back room political deals, agaist the wishes of the local residents.
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/32/49/32_49_sb_hannah_senesh_deblasio_update.html
You can argue about the wider implications of landmarking, have a bitch fest about who’s telling you what you can or cant do to your home, the cost of new windows, whateve – but at the end of the day, Landmarking is the best option Place block property owners have to protect the Gardens, so I’m all for it.
cmu, I am not a apologist or an employee of the LPC, and I agree that some of their rules are a bit much. But until there is an alternative to their rules, or some kind of middle of the road approach to certain kinds of repairs or replacements, we got what we got. They are a city bureaucracy, it’s what they do. They also have protected some small part,(3%) of this city for posterity. I’m extremely glad of that, and for now, have to take that good with the over regulated and over paperworked bad.
Montrose;
Sorry to disappoint you that I don’t read from the choir sheets.
The Historic Preservation Grant Program is a federally funded program through New York City’s Community Development Block Grant:
http://home2.nyc.gov/html/lpc/html/about/hpgp.shtml