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.
giovannina- he’s the poster child for why children should be seen and not heard. I grew up in a multi-generational household, in a neighborhood with many elderly people who enriched my childhood immeasurably. Don’t know how polemicist grew up, but it seems like something was lacking.
‘Bay Ridge hasn’t been a community of townhouses since before the Depression’.
Poley, Bay Ridge was largely a community of free standing and semi-attached homes with some streets of rowhouses.
‘Bay Ridge is a classic example of a natural retirement community’.
What, I’m retired!!
There are so many young people in Bay Ridge. Oh, my god, I say a couple of hipsters walking around last weekend. You have no idea what you’re talking about.
‘You want to have children play in your neighborhood again? Give an opportunity for young people to afford to live there!’
Young people have a better opportunity to buy here than in brownstone brooklyn. The prices are fair and I hope stay that way.
Over development is not the answer to affordability.
Thank you, Lurker. As both Italian American and elderly I’ve begun to think we’re the only ones that can still be openly stereotyped. Poley, I promise as an Italian American to improve my taste and as an old person to shuffle off this mortal coil just as soon as I can so that you can have more room.
“Often the very children of these NIMBYs who can’t afford to buy in the neighborhood since the elderly occupy most of the prime housing.”
Ahh, I see poley is on his kill the elderly to get their prime housing rant again. Poley- someday when you’re older (if you’re lucky) and wiser (if we’re lucky) you’ll look back on this and cringe. Seems to me that people who have worked all their lives, payed taxes, rent or own have a right to stay in their homes. Ageism is just as ugly a characteristic as racism. Don’t forget, your parents (I’m making an assumption here) did their time, so to speak. Why is it on that generation to now simply get up and out of your way? Doesn’t say much for your vision of society, despite all your professed concern with the environment and housing.
Tell you what, Poley- when you’ve contributed as much to society as many older Bay ridge residents have (got your military service done yet, boy?) then you have a right to open your mouth about where they should live. Until then, don’t because you make yourself look like an ignorant, biased fool.
Italiana71…if I’m thinking of the same offer. It was for the same amount of money that the developer offered. But was rejected. Fishy indeed. There are some very strange things going on or have gone on between the church and the developer.
It would have been a great adapative re-use; community center, theater, art space.
What alot of people don’t know or forget, is there is a two story building that housed a school, that is also part of the church property. There is also a parsonage, a limestone rowhouse (it’s the end unit of maybe 20) that is also part of the deal. Those are both slated for demolition. I feel bad for the owner of the house right next to the townhouse that’ll be demolished.
“the demolition of century-old limestone townhouses”
What ??
I have been around and involved in Bay Ridge for almost 8 years now. As far as I know not one limestone townhouse has been demolished in Bay Ridge. Way too many freestanding homes on wide lots have been however. Attached rowhouses are usually safer than freestanding homes as they are individually owned and on narrow lots (therefore several would be needed for development).
Let’s just hope that this crazy real estate market will calm the overdevelopment here and elsewhere in the city. At least for a while.
Actually there was a measure of public and private financing offered to the Church about a year ago with arrangements to still allow the parish use part of the church for worship and the rest to be used for community space. The pastor turned it down. So the offers were withdrawn and thats that.
It’s easier to find street parking on 1st Ave. in midtown Manhattan at 4pm with the president speaking at the UN than it is in Bay Ridge.
Huh? You aren’t affiliated with any church, but are worried about a “house of god” being torn down? You find it ironic that you are trying to save the church, but it isn’t trying to save you? You seem to be confusing a building with a “house of god.” The building is a shell, which serves the function of sheltering the house of god within, which is the community of believers and their good deeds. The church has sold the building so that it may continue as a community in a more appropriate space. It may very well be that many on the outside may appreciate the fine architecture of the building, but unless they are willing to financially support its maintenance, they cannot mandate its future. In some countries empty churches are maintained as the official state church. That is not the case here.