Unprotected Sunset Park Being Destroyed Bit by Bit
The website Cititour has an advocacy post about the destruction of brownstones in Sunset Park. The item focuses on the house above, on 54th Street and 6th Avenue, part of “a row of turn-of-the-century brownstones with stained glass windows and fireplaces [that] are being destroyed bit by bit.” The blog writer argues: Witnessing this destruction…
The website Cititour has an advocacy post about the destruction of brownstones in Sunset Park. The item focuses on the house above, on 54th Street and 6th Avenue, part of “a row of turn-of-the-century brownstones with stained glass windows and fireplaces [that] are being destroyed bit by bit.” The blog writer argues:
Witnessing this destruction should make the case for giving the area landmark status before it’s too late. The neighborhood has been seeing an all-out assault on row houses in recent months as real estate prices remain fairly high. Some are being torn down to make room for condos, others are having additional floors added, and still other two-family homes are being converted into 4-families, again with the city’s blessing, and a total disregard to the neighborhood. It’s a crying shame.
While we don’t doubt that new construction in Sunset Park is felling older buildings, we’re unaware of whether there is an organized movement afoot to landmark the area. Can Sunset Park readers fill us in?
A Brownstone Dies In Brooklyn [Cititour]
Photos from Cititour.
The people in Sunset Park who are trying to keep the historical value of these homes are also keeping up the property value of the Sunset Park. If they start tearing down these brownstones and building Fedders, the young urban professionals will not want to live in the hood anymore. Who is going to pay a half a mill for a studio in the ghetto?
I grew up and still live one block away from this horrible mess. It started with the unnecessary laundromat about two years ago and now this. My mouth dropped wide open when I first saw this. Recently, I asked the construction manager what was going up. He said a storefront and residential space. I asked why? My stomach turned and tears came to my eyes.
Let me just say this: This is not a renovation by an owner who would like to fix his “dilapidated brownstone” Chinese are buying these beautiful homes with lots of cash and destroying them to make 10 studio apartments (you could fit a family in them for sure!) to make money. Not to mention the cheapest, shoddy construction techniques (some of which led to massive death in China earthquakes). It is third world style at it’s best. I feel sorry for their next door neighbors who should now just take the cash and run because their property value just sunk and their block looks like shit. They ruined the whole set.
Directly accross the street is a beautiful block-long set of brownstones. I hope the owners stand strong and don’t sell out.
My parents bought our beautiful brownstone down the block on 54th street in 1979 for $37,000. The area was redlined and banks were not giving out mortgages. Now Sunset Park is the next hotspot to get hit by the wave. My parents put their blood, sweat and tears into restoring (not renovating) our house. They would NEVER sell it to people who will reverse that restoration. No matter how much cash is offered. It’s called having pride.
A row of brownstone buildings is pleasing to the eye. It has beauty in it. Even if the individual owners renovate the inside of their homes in different ways, the outsides
of the houses fit together as one picture.
The partial destruction of one and then total destruction of another brownstone on 6th Avenue tore that picture up forever.
The last writer is an idiot… and armchairwarrior is afraid to say what’s really going on here.
LOL……oh my goodness!!!!! I agree that sunset park has many beautiful brownstones as well as ALL THE OTHER NEIGHBORHOODS in New York. Some are well preserved by their owners, others are just shit inside!!!! Have you lived in or even been in more than ONE of these houses??? Everywhere you turn co-ops and condos are being put up in place of the “landmark homes”….Sure! We all love a beautiful preserved brownstone that has trash in its front yard overflowing out of the garbage. I don’t think these are landmark neighborhoods as much as they are semi-slums!!!! Sections or portions like 2-4 block radiuses may be well kept, but the rest of the people and public as well as owners treat them like crap. There is history to every part of brooklyn, so if you have the money to go and preserve it all, by all means do so. And don’t forget to build a gate around the whole thing so you can keep your brownstones “beautiful and historical”. Maybe you are just a creature of habit and can’t stand the changes being swiftly made left and right. I, myself, love a brownstone, but I also love everything about Brooklyn, from it’s trashy neighborhoods to it’s very fine ones. That’s what makes Brooklyn what it is. A diverse melting pot full of renovations and opinions. Keep it fun and interesting to be here. Its not like they’re removing dead bodies out of the ground or anything…LOL.
why can’t sunset park be designated a landmark district?
Sunset Park is the largest federal register historic district in the northeast U.S. But as a poster indicated, this affords no protection whatsoever. Sunset Parkers tried for years to create a NYC historic district – it didn’t happen and won’t happen.
To argue that destroying “historic” buildings is in anyway excusable because of a housing shortage is ridiculous.
I believe the issue is managed growth, people sized neighborhoods and quality of life.
A nice two family next door to me was converted into a rooming house. The folks for the most part are really nice – although there is the most minimal of communication (just smiling & hi). But no one stays more than 2 months at the most. Instead of two families (with a total of 8 people) we now have about 18 people. My biggest concerns are:
1. congestion & over-taxing of our utilities – our electric grid (not the supply) is inadequate and we are experiencing burnt out cable, manhole fires and carbon monoxide poisoning as gases seep up into homes thru the underground electric conduits.
2. congestion of our mass transit – this is a plus & minus – the crowded subway makes traveling safer throughout the night, but folks not being able to board the incoming subway or bus is a growing problem.
3. congestion of the streets & sidewalks – a daily newspaper ad from 100 years ago showed a scene of kids playing on the sidewalk with the caption “you wouldn’t see this in manhattan” – well soon you won’t see it in Brooklyn either.
4. quality of life – the stress of noise through the night, the stress of people living so close together (even very nice people) just wears people down.
5. education – in three years, sunset park will face an explosion in elementary school population – there is no place to put these kids – they will have to be bussed out of their neighborhood – making parental involvement in their kid’s school difficult.
6. the asthetics – it really makes a difference – it may not be life and death, but it has an impact. Fire escapes running up the front of a beautiful brownstone, electric conduit scaling the outside walls, twisting and turning like a maze, utility boxes outside, piles of trash, gate plantings replaced with cars, on and on – this is not the beautiful neighborhood I put my life savings into. to younger folks it isn’t as big a deal – they either don’t have a past to compare this to, or they are not invested financially or emotionally to the area – they will move on, or believe they will.
What is the answer? Community involvement – voluntary involvement within democratic “collective” structures – that don’t overwhelm or abuse individuals, but includes them in the future of their community. Will this happen? I doubt it, we are a people that “vote” by moving away and towards the environment we desire (and hopefully can afford).
tony
you people make baby earth cry.
Neo-Malthusianism, rears its ugly head. One blogger says there is plenty of housing, another says there is not enough. Apparently that cause another to conclude that there was plenty of housing just too many people. Landmark this.