Bay Ridge Becoming McCondo Central?
As the battle to save Bay Ridge’s Green Church from being razed and reborn as condos winds down, the Observer finds the neighborhood is becoming a haven for such “McCondos.” Despite a three-year-old rezoning preventing “‘out-of-character development’ in the low-rise neighborhood,” they write, “tensions between nostalgic residents and developers who continue to squeeze three- and…
As the battle to save Bay Ridge’s Green Church from being razed and reborn as condos winds down, the Observer finds the neighborhood is becoming a haven for such “McCondos.” Despite a three-year-old rezoning preventing “‘out-of-character development’ in the low-rise neighborhood,” they write, “tensions between nostalgic residents and developers who continue to squeeze three- and four-story apartment buildings into plots once occupied by single-family homes show no signs of abating.” Residents fear the area will become another “mini Manhattan,” or transform at the pace and scale of downtown Brooklyn. Perhaps as offensive to some as the onslaught of “Feders” buildings are the demolition of century-old limestone townhouses and single-family Victorian homes, the old preservation-versus-progress paradigm, that inevitably recalls nostalgia for an earlier time and extends beyond an attempt to rescue buildings. As one resident said, “We were just telling my brother’s kids about how all the kids in the neighborhood used to play stickball in the street when we were young. Now all the kids are inside playing those electronic games. The whole neighborhood thing is really changing.”
McCondos in Bay Ridge [NY Observer]
Bay Ridge Row Houses. Photo by bondidwhat.
polemicist- you may not have noticed but quite a few posters took issue with your many and varied stupidities. You keep trying to pass yourself off as an intellect and yet you persist in posting some of the most ignorant drivel I’ve ever read.
“(truly, does any noble person want to die as an old man asleep in bed? Be happy for them).” this is your comment on deaths in Iraq- this is your assessment of what makes a man noble- that they die young? In that case, I’m sure you’ll live to a ripe old age.
lurker:
You’ve provided nothing of substance to debate or discuss. Certainly, your many vitriolic insults prove you are either insane or delusional. I would reflect carefully on this matter – clearly, you are concerned about your legacy and lot in life. Directing such rage towards an anonymous poster on a real estate related website is not going to make your life any better. It certainly won’t stop the progress that so clearly deeply disturbs you.
East New York:
In regards to my comments regarding civil rights, I would direct you many of Thomas Sowell’s books. He discusses these very issues in much depth with more citations than you are probably inclined to verify. Unfortunately, I am right. This doesn’t mean I prefer a past where segregation could be allowed, only that such a change has not created a world of free ice cream and eternal sunshine for the average black man. The generations I am criticizing had very little to do with the major civil rights advancements of the 1950s and 1960s, they did however have a lot to do with the many destructive social programs that created a net detriment.
As for the happiness rate of women, the medical journals that discuss such drug use rates are not publicly available (check medline someday if you know someone with a subscription). If I come across it, I will try to provide it for you in the future.
My point regarding highways is they should never have been built. They do not in fact offer superior travel time in comparison with trains and require far more maintenance. As an example of travel time, my grandmother is from a small town near the Canadian border. Back in the 1930s, she would take the train from our fine city to Montreal where her father would pick her up and drive her back to her home town. You know how long that train ride was? 5 hours. You could never drive there that fast, and the train today takes 12 hours.
The big issue of course is the dependence on oil, which is increasingly becoming a scarce commodity. The finite nature of oil was well known even in the 1960s, and was one of the chief reasons for World War II. It was incredibly foolish to waste untold trillions of dollars building such a system that provided no net benefit in terms of commerce and really only allowed for the creation of many suburbs. We like to think the highway system is impressive, and perhaps from a technical standpoint it is, but ultimately it is in fact an albatross around our necks that will make it even more difficult to cope with the coming resource scarcity.
As for India, I’ve know more than a few Indians – many of whom are greater anglophiles than me. The British Raj did much to improve the standard of living in that country, and ended many barbaric practices, most notably the caste system. Many schools were built, a train system was created. Until the past decade – most aspects of modernity in India were relics of British colonial rule. I wasn’t kidding about using 100-year old steam engines.
India has been ruled by different foreign invaders since the days of Alexander the Great. I don’t think any of them are particularly worse than the other. What I do know is India today is not really much different than it was under the British Raj. If there is no difference, who is to say one system is better than the other? Also, I have been to India.
Considering how many different concepts I’ve brought up regarding this simple issue of multifamily development in Bay Ridge, do you really think I’m shallow? I do find it amusing how so many Brownstoner posters fail so miserably at crafting poignant insults.
If you are so certain in your beliefs and values, what is the harm in defending them? Why must your detractor be immediately labeled with so many simplistic pejoratives?
I think my problem with most grand plans of the 1960s, whether it’s zoning laws or civil rights related legislation, is all these things were supposed to make the world a better place. It really hasn’t, and many ways the world is worse. It is time to revisit these creeds and consider new ways that preserve the freedoms gained but makes the country better for everyone.
“Yet, average income and literacy have declined amongst the descendants of slaves. Conversely, incarceration rates, antisocial behavior, and substance abuse are all much greater. We champion civil rights, but ignore how the average black man is much worse off today than he was 40 years ago.”
What is your source material for this (mis)information? Are you actually attempting to claim that the “average black man” was better off under state-mandated segregation than he is today? You’re wrong (again).
“Yet women are unhappier than ever with over 1/4 of all women taking an antidepressant at some time in their lives.”
According to whom? Again, please share your source material for this ignorant and uninformed assertion.
“You mean, the very same system that will soon become useless as the price of fuel skyrockets? The very same system that created suburbs that will become economically unfeasible when people can no longer afford to drive to work?”
Yes, the same system that makes it possible to drive from one end of this very large country to the other, something that was very difficult and took much more time 50-60 years ago, but of course, you weren’t around then, and you don’t have much of an insight into the country’s development, so I’m not too surprised you wouldn’t know about that.
“Umm, the stuff down there seems pretty old to me.”
That’s because you’re a young fool who for some reason believes that only things built in your lifetime are valuable. You weren’t around (as I was) when large swaths of lower Manhattan (including the entire area around the WTC complex) were undeveloped and – to use a favorite Brownstoner word – sketchy.
“A lot of good that has done us.”
Quite a lot of good, from where I sit, but I wouldn’t be surprised a person like you to is uable to understand that.
“I am no fan of the British Empire, but is India really such a great place now?”
Why don’t you ask a native Indian whose parents suffered under British rule? Again, smeone as ignorant as you wouldn’t know anything about that.
Despite what you say, you don’t sound like you’re happy about the achievements I mentioned. In fact, you’ve made it a point to disparage most of them. But again, I wouldn’t expect less from a shallow, ignorant person like you.
“Yet, average income and literacy have declined amongst the descendants of slaves. Conversely, incarceration rates, antisocial behavior, and substance abuse are all much greater. We champion civil rights, but ignore how the average black man is much worse off today than he was 40 years ago.”
What is your source material for this (mis)information? Are you actually attempting to claim that the “average black man” was better off under state-mandated segregation than he is today? You’re wrong (again).
“Yet women are unhappier than ever with over 1/4 of all women taking an antidepressant at some time in their lives.”
According to whom? Again, please share your source material for this ignorant and uninformed assertion.
“You mean, the very same system that will soon become useless as the price of fuel skyrockets? The very same system that created suburbs that will become economically unfeasible when people can no longer afford to drive to work?”
Yes, the same system that makes it possible to drive from one end of this very large country to the other, something that was very difficult and took much more time 50-60 years ago, but of course, you weren’t around then, and you don’t have much of an insight into the country’s development, so I’m not too surprised you wouldn’t know about that.
“Umm, the stuff down there seems pretty old to me.”
That’s because you’re a young fool who for some reason believes that only things built in your lifetime are valuable. You weren’t around (as I was) when large swaths of lower Manhattan (including the entire area around the WTC complex) were undeveloped and – to use a favorite Brownstoner word – sketchy.
“A lot of good that has done us.”
Quite a lot of good, from where I sit, but I wouldn’t be surprised a person like you to is uable to understand that.
“I am no fan of the British Empire, but is India really such a great place now?”
Why don’t you ask a native Indian whose parents suffered under British rule? Again, smeone as ignorant as you wouldn’t know anything about that.
Despite what you say, you don’t sound like you’re happy about the achievements I mentioned. In fact, you’ve made it a point to disparage most of them. But again, I wouldn’t expect less from a shallow, ignorant person like you.
I’d prefer to use the written source, Battle of Brooklyn by John Gallagher. Wiki can be very wrong, remember.
Also try giving Green-Wood Cemetery a call or The Old Stone House, as they commemorate the Battle each August. I think they’ll back me up.
Jackson:
1. Not to nitpick, but I do live right by the old stone house. check the wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Brooklyn#cite_note-2 You might be confusing total casualties with the actual deaths.
2. I place most blame on the generation that was born before or during the depression as well as the baby boomers. Past generations generally were much more self reliant and did not project their own personal wants onto future generations.
denton:
I’ve always preferred more traditional jazz to the popularized versions.
“(You are a typical modern nihilist unfortunately, right down to the pithy insults and your obsession with military service and the fallen (truly, does any noble person want to die as an old man asleep in bed? Be happy for them).)”
Well, if you think their lot in life is so great, why don’t you try it? Honestly, of all the stupid, utterly moronic statements you have uttered on this blog- and there’s been plenty- this has got to take the cake. And since I don’t see you signing up to go to Iraq to die anytime soon, I hardly think you speak for them or their families.
One of the interesting things about you poley is that you really think you have a handle on everything. So I’m a typical modern nihilist, eh? Well, beside the fact I don’t think you really understand the term, I have no obsession with military service or the fallen other than to acknowledge their service and respectit.
You, on the other hand are a narcissist, and a spoiled, self-entitled little twit who feels he owes nothing to anyone but everyone owes you. Where did you grow up? In a band of hyenas? You seem to have some very sociopathic tendencies as evidenced by your surreal disconnect from the most basic understanding of human interaction. (Puhlease don’t throw Nietzsche at me- or at least use relevant quotes, and concepts you really understand).
“But to say it once more: there are higher problems than all problems of pleasure. pain. and pity; and every philosophy that stops with them is naive” List ’em, baby. Convince me that someone with your simplistic view of life is able to do more than write a trite, meaningless statement like that in a failed attempt to impress me with your intellectual and ethical depths. It ain’t working except to show me you’ve scraped the bottom of the mental barrel.
Poley, OMG!!!!
God help us all, if this is the thought process of my generation. Poley, I hope you’re a 12 year old kid.
Are you a US Citizen? If not, please go back to the country you came from. If you are a citizen, please consider leave this country. Seriously, if you are so unhappy with all the progress, culture, economics, politics, policies, people, etc. maybe you need to find a country to live in that is more suited to your ideals.
Lurker,
You are a typical modern nihilist unfortunately, right down to the pithy insults and your obsession with military service and the fallen (truly, does any noble person want to die as an old man asleep in bed? Be happy for them). We obviously have different value systems. The question is, which will endure? I’m going to leave you one of my favorite quotes by Friedrich Nietzsche. Maybe you’ll ponder it a bit.
Whether it is hedonism or pessimism, utilitarianism or eudaemonism – all these ways of thinking that measure the value of thing in accordance with pleasure and pain , which are mere epiphenomena and wholly secondary, are ways of thinking that stay in the foreground and naivetes on which everyone conscious of creative powers and an artistic conscience will look down not without derision, nor without pity. Pity with you – that, of course, is not pity in your sense: it is not pity with social “distress”, with “society” and its sick and unfortunate members, with those addicted to vice and maimed from the start, though the ground around us is littered with them; it is even less pity with grumbling, sorely pressed, rebellious slave strata who long for dominion, calling it “freedom”. Our pity is a higher and more farsighted pity: we see how man makes himself smaller, how you make him smaller – and there are moments when we behold your very pity with indescribable anxiety, when we resist this pity – when we find your seriousness more dangerous than any frivolity. You want, if possible – and there is no more insane “if possible” – to abolish suffering . And we? It really seems that we would rather have it higher and worse than ever. Well-being as you understand it – that is no goal, that seems to us an end , a state that soon makes man ridiculous and contemptible – that makes his destruction desirable .
The discipline of suffering, of great suffering – do you not know that only this discipline has created all enhancements of man so far? That tension of the soul in unhappiness which cultivates its strength, its shudders face to face with great ruin. its inventiveness and courage in enduring, persevering, interpreting and exploiting suffering and whatever has been granted to it of profundity, secret, mask, spirit, cunning, greatness – was it not granted to it through suffering, through the discipline of great suffering? In man creature and creator are united: in man there is material, fragment, excess, clay, dirt, nonsense, chaos; but in man there is also creator, form giver, hammer, hardness, spectator divinity, and seventh day: do you understand this contrast? And that your pity is for the “creature in man”. for what must be formed, broken, forged, torn, burnt, made incandescent, and purified – that which necessarily man and should suffer? And our pity – do you not comprehend for whom our converse pity is when it resists your pity as the worst of all pamperings and weaknesses?
Thus it is pity versus pity.
But to say it once more: there are higher problems than all problems of pleasure. pain. and pity; and every philosophy that stops with them is naive.