DumboNYC Guest Post: Dock Street Building Plans
Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be inviting some neighborhoods bloggers from around the borough to write guest posts on Brownstoner. Today, DumboNYC kicks it off: Remember the previous post by Brownstoner on the proposed Dock Street building? Two Trees Management is formally presenting their proposal to the Dumbo Neighborhood Association (DNA) this…
Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be inviting some neighborhoods bloggers from around the borough to write guest posts on Brownstoner. Today, DumboNYC kicks it off:
Remember the previous post by Brownstoner on the proposed Dock Street building? Two Trees Management is formally presenting their proposal to the Dumbo Neighborhood Association (DNA) this week and have started an advertising campaign with mailers and a website, but some residents have responded with their own photo renderings and will begin lobbying against the structure citing its proximity to the Brooklyn Bridge and the skepticism of having a dual purpose school and residential tower in the same building. It’s reported that the campaign against the Dock Street building is underway, organized by residents of three Two Trees buildings; 30 Main Street, 70 Washington Street, and 1 Main Street, and 57 Front Street.
Ultimately this campaign should not be about ‘anti-developer’ or ‘not-in-my-backyard because it blocks my views’. The real issue is the need to preserve Brooklyn’s most iconic bridge view without a building next to it that stands taller than it does. Expect a full effort campaigning from both Two Trees and Dumbo residents this summer before, during, and after the formal submission of documents to the city. -Hideyoshi, DumboNYC.com
Anonymous,
That has been my wife’s exact direct experience with Two Trees as well, even when they have had a ton of open space in recent years.
(see my July 12, 2007 1:31 PM post above)
Even when ABC Carpet left its HUGE space a year or so ago and the space was subdivided into several other spaces.
The schools (including my wife’s) that inquired seeking space were willing to take on the usual challenges of getting any given space upgraded and approved by city and state to be used as a school space.
My wife’s school filed and got approval for school space conversion and improvements where they ended up anyway (not in DUMBO), after their polite inquiries were met with a rude reception by Two Trees, who seemed pissed just to have been asked about leasing to a school (nevermind that schools are booming these days, and all them families in DUMBO have few options).
Yes, after having been asked nicely for the “privilege” of paying to upgrade and rent one of their raw spaces, their response was a flat-out hell-no to having a school in their neighborhood.
Odd, since there have long been special needs educational facilities there. Guess they got sick of or regret their past decisions there, and decided to slam the door shut on any new schools years ago.
So yeah, the school thing is totally disingenuous, just a hail-mary, last-resort tactic to chalk up some false good will, get this failed plan through and otherwise put lipstick on the pig.
As they stated to my wife and representatives of other schools with similar leasing space requests — clearly at odds with the best interests of an ever-growing family community they were building there in their little dominion — they had absolutely zero interest in having any kind of school in their properties (which, Guttman aside, is pretty much all of DUMBO).
The fact that they suddenly trot out the idea of this school to look like the good guys in the face of failing to get approval just speaks volumes here.
Where exactly is the 1st photo from? as what perspective? Someone’s apartment or rooftop? or a public park?
School? Ask Two Trees what they are doing with the schools that lease from them now. And ask Jed what he thinks about children and school buses. He’s been pretty vocal about his distaste for them.
The only reason they want a school now is for the tax benefits to them. They could give two shits about whether the location is appropriate. No yard, no easy street crossing to get to the school. This is all about Two Turds maintaining control in the neighborhood. This is all about ego and $$$.
Think about one important thing. You cannot just build a building and call it a school. The Board of Education has to fund the operation of that school. There is nothing happening along those lines. For all everyone knows a “school” can be built which sits empty. A school in an apartment building? With no outdoor space for hormonal middle school kids?
I have recently searched for NYC skyline photos for a design project. Almost half include the Brooklyn Bridge. All those photos/views will be altered forever if this building is built. It’s not just about views from apartment buildings. But from everywhere on both sides of the bridge. And every photo and every poster.
The plans are hideous and look nothing like the rest of the neighborhood. This is a manipulative plan which is causing such bad feelings in a beautiful neighborhood.
Please people. Simplify your thinking and follow the money. The only one who serves to gain is Two Trees. This proposed building is an abonimation. Grossly out of scale and out of context. Much like, but even worse than, the Jay Condo and that other monstroscity who’s name escapes me. It will only detract from the quality of our neighborhood and the Brooklyn Bridge. The proposed school, which is a disengenuous deceipt, at best, and some new retail, is a huge price to pay for this absurdly large asault on our neighborhood. It is time to stop the over development of Brooklyn and the destruction of the scale of our communities. Enough is enough. Please write David Yasskey’s office and Marty Markowitz and let them know how we feel! To Two Trees and their employees who are writing these bogus entries here all I can say is “what’s the deal?” Why do you want to hoist this crap on all the rest of us? This proposed building will not be serving the community. It will not make Dumbo better. Nor Brooklyn. It will only make you wealthier. At the entire cities expense.
You don’t like it? You love it? Have a view? Suckle at the white haired teat of greed? Think this is out of context? Want a school? Fed up with developers dictating how our city looks? Tell Yassky, Markowitz, Bloomie, the BHA & DNA. Be proactive. Be heard. Nothing is happening here (besides veiled threats (see 2004 bow out) to build an as right commerical building that’ll be a waste of money – and we all know money talks, except when its for pretty carousels that the wifey likes and for perceptions of being ‘arty’) without serious zoning changes and opportunities for community input. Thats a fact.
7:31 – Actually it’s more lucrative to Two Trees than condo sales. The units will be strictly rental, not condos, no way no how. Two Trees sold the views to the condos it was going to block, so that it could be the one to own the views that are protected forever.
6:34 – the rezoning they are seeking is not just from industrial to residential but also includes additional density. The renderings they are circulating assume that extra density. The zoning of the parcels in question currently does not allow that much density. And yes, there are literal and de facto height limits on the property now. Literal based on complex code requirements for a hotel (the most lucrative commercial development they might do) and de facto based on the minimum floor size requirements of a viable building divided into the current FAR.
if they could actually build a transparent building i could like with that.