Karma Is a Bitch: 185 Ocean Developer Sucking Wind

Brooklynista, you’re definitely in the kook camp. “Yes we can” turn this into a battlefield!

People like you are going to end up in a shantytown sooner than you think. Be happy you have a roof over your head for the moment.

Brooklynista:

Nothing gives me greater pleasure on this site than pushing the NIMBY nutjobs into a crazed, rambling rant.

God, we need to start getting these people on video. I think I am going to make a documentary on this.

I am one of the longtime homeowners on this strip who has been very much involved in the preservation fight. First, here’s a very brief and partial recap of some basic facts that most here may not know:

Since the turn of the century, a magnificent and unremuddled strip of 13 private homes on Ocean Avenue has stood in place bordering Prospect Park. (The 10 limestones on the strip are the work of the renowned turn of the century architect Axel Hedman). However, circa 2000, a “Hatfield and McCoys” type of feud developed between the owners of the brick house at #185 and their next door neighbors who occupy the companion brick house at #189. The upshot of that feud was that, in 2007, the owners of #185 (a wonderful family) felt so harrassed and intimidated by the owners of #189 (expletives deleted) that the owners of #185 decided to up and flee, moving their family out of the state altogether.

When #185 went on the selling block, a bidding war ensued. I assume the property was sold to an inexeperienced, undercapitalized developer because that bid was the highest. However, I also suspect that, in order to give the final finger to the owners of #189, the fleeing family took special delight in selling out to a developer that they knew would demolish the structure and replace it with a Fedders style, sliver type multi-unit monstrosity. I remain angered to this day by the behavior of my neighbors who caused the owners of #185 to move away in the first place. However, I am equally distressed by the fact that, in the act of selling out a historic home to one ignorant developer, that sale did much more than give the sellers $1.2M and cause upheaval to the owners of #189. Indeed, that act has caused considerable, upheaval for the entire enclave.

What kind of upheaval, you ask? Well, for starters, a piece of architectural, geographic history has been irretrievably demolished. Secondarily, for those of us who live next door to this development site — whether in the adjacent apartment building or in the private homes that compose this strip — we are now left with a huge, ugly gaping hole in the ground that might possibly remain unfilled for years. And, if and when it does get filled — what pray tell will replace it? An 8 storey, 20 unit sliver style /fedders monstrosity that the current developer envisoned to tower over a plot of land originally intended to accommodate a single family structure?

For those like polemicist and benson (who I wonder if they ever know what the hell they are talking about but clearly don’t know doodedly squat about this specific situation) keep in mind that Ocean Avenue probably has one of the largest stretches of high density apartment buildings anywhere in Brookflyn, if not the whole damn City. So, I fail to see why the desire to preserve 13 (now 12 and going) original houses that have managed to remain standing on this side of Park for a century can be characterized as some kind of anti-social justice crusade against affordable housing. There is no question that PLG and Ocean Avenue, in particular, contains quite a fair share of the high density, affordable housing that exists in this borough.

In fact, polemicist’s hope that those who live here “appreciate the fact poor slobs stuck in apartment buildings can live side by side peacefully with the exclusionary rich with their mansions” is probably one of the most specious, idiotic claims I have ever heard on this site (and I’ve been here since it launched). Since when did the people of PLG, especially those of us who live on Ocean Avenue — whether in apartment buildings or in one of the 12 family houses now remaining, become the “exclusionary rich”? Heck yesterday, polemicist, you would have described us as “fringe dwellers,” “ghettoites,” “slum residents” and the good Lord only knows what else. But, today, we are the “exclusionary rich?” ROTFLMAO! This much I can tell you: My family and I relocated here from Central Harlem 20 years ago. Precisely because we couldn’t afford a home in the “established” areas of the borough, we were delighted to land an affordable home on the border of Prospect Park. Of course, the main reason why were able to do so was because this side of the Park was one that most of today’s new wave of gentrifiers never would have considered in the late 1980’s (and may still not consider today, I might add)!

When we got here, we found a highly diverse group of neighbors who were hardworking middle-class, working class, and retired elderly and who had already been living here, 10, 20, 30 or more years before us. (Fact is, these houses just don’t turn over very often.) Now surely, there’s been a bit of turnover in the 20 years we’ve been here but, given the size of the strip, I also know exactly who is living in each of these 12 houses. And, as in most of PLG, we have a little community that occasionally meets and socializes in each others homes; looks out for each other’s kids, sick and infirm partners or their elderly parents; keeps spare house keys for neighbors, accepts their packages and deliveries when they aren’t home, etc. Believe me when I tell you that not one of the owning families or rental tenants that occupy these 12 buildings comprise the class of the “exclusionary rich.”

Lastly, for those of us on this site who not only support more affordable housing in the City but also increased preservation efforts — the two causes need not be in contradiction to each othe — please be assured that the preservation fight for these homes, as well as a rezoning campaign for Ocean Avenue bordering the park is alive and ongoing. In the end, we truly are a “Yes we can!” bunch of folk over here.

Actually Babs I can think of only two real mansions in Lefferts Manor, both built for the Todd family, of ship-building fame, on Maple Street. Most row houses were built on spec for prospective middle to upper middle-class families. Early ads for houses like mine [part of rows built by W.A.A. in 1898–1900] emphasized how much less they cost, compared to similar homes in more established neighborhoods. Come to think of it, that’s sort of like now.

“I suggest you be happy with you have gotten and appreciate the fact poor slobs stuck in apartment buildings can live side by side peacefully with the exclusionary rich with their mansions”

That is about as inaccurate a description of PLG and Lefferts Manor as you can get. I can assure you, having lived in the neighborhood for nearly four years now, that the vast majority of homeowners (both in and out of the historic district) are NOT rich and certi\ainly not exclusionary!

Quite the opposite in fact — many of my neighbors have owned their homes for thirty years and more, and are solidly middle class. And absolutely no-one is excluded — quite the opposite. The neighborhood is a true melting pot, and has long been so.

Finally, I would hardly qualify the two family houses on my street as mansions. They’re nice houses with spacious accommodations for families, but mansions they are not!