April 23, 2009
Last month, The MTA doomsday plan was voted in, but a rescue plan from Albany is still being worked on. See this recent article in Newsday for details.
If there is no rescue, the plan goes into effect on June 1st, with the bus cuts probably happening at the end of the month.
This PDF shows the planned extension of the B67 bus to Fulton Landing to make up for the loss of the B25. Seems like some folks who now take the bus up the hill to the High Street A station might switch to the B67 bus to the York Street F station instead.
April 23, 2009
Application has been made to construct a new building at 9 Old Fulton, in the currently empty lot. This is within the FFL historic district, but since it is a new building next to an historic row of houses, the height and design will be extremely important. The application was approved by the CB2 Land Use Committee over several no votes; a motion to approve without a rooftop “mezzanine” was defeated by one vote.
The design has been described to us as a penthouse “cube” on top of the 4-story building. We have concerns that the bulkhead will encroach on the view of the Bridge, will be seen from the street, and will be inconsistent with the historic character of this row of houses, whose history extends back to the 1830′s.
A Public viewing of the plans will be held at the Landmarks Preservation Commission office, 1 Centre Street, 9th floor, on May 1st followed by a Public Hearing on Tuesday, May 5th, starting at 9:30 am. If you are interested please come, see for yourself, and most importantly, speak to the LPC on May 5th about the importance of maintaining the character of this historic neighborhood.
April 23, 2009
Pulitzer-Prize winning author David McCullough expresses his views regarding the planned tower adjacent to the Brooklyn Bridge in this week’s Newsweek edition.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/194596/
April 23, 2009
David McCullough speaks out against the planned Dock Street tower adjacent to the Brooklyn Bridge in this video, view it here. You can also read more about it at about.com.
April 23, 2009
An outline of Senator Squadron’s innovative Brooklyn Bridge Park financing plan has been published on his website. We have downloaded it for your review here as well. Although his plan calls for the removal of the planned additional housing in the Park, it leaves the hotel as part of the Pier 1 plans. FFLA continues to advocate for a smaller hotel complex, conforming to the footprint of the Cold Storage building, rather than the 5-block long structures in the current BBPDC plans. brooklyn_bridge_park_presentation_final_draft
April 5, 2009
Over the past few years the Watchtower Society, also known as Jehovah’s Witnesses, have sold off several properties in Brooklyn Heights, most notably 360 Furman, now known as One Brooklyn Bridge Park. Recently, it was reported that the Witnesses have purchased 291 acres in Rockland County, with plans for a live/work complex to accommodate 850 of their members. This has led to speculation that they might sell the former Squibb Pharmaceutical buildings on Columbia Heights, or the buildings on Sands Street. Alternatively, they could choose not to build the proposed dormitory on the Jay Street superblock in DUMBO. At this point it is too early to know anything for sure, so don’t count on the Squibb buildings as potential condos to fund Brooklyn Bridge Park just yet. Read more in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, if you can make it past the triple negative in the first sentence, that is.
April 1, 2009
An article today in the New York Post reported what we and the local Brooklyn blogs and papers published last week, that suspect dealings took place during the latter half of 2008 between the DOE and DUMBO developer Two Trees. The article goes further in revealing the extent of the lobbying ( over $400,000 spent in the past 2 years) including campaign donations to Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Councilwoman and Land Use Chair Melinda Katz (See article from City Hall News).
March 27, 2009
Last week, Senator Squadron outlined his plan for a new Brooklyn Bridge Park funding plan. You can read about it here and here and here and here.
FFLA is looking for input from Fulton Ferry residents about this plan. Among the items to consider is that Pier 1 development, including the hotel and some residential housing (his plan would reduce residential by approximately 40%), would still be in play. Would the reduction be enough to allow the footprint to be solely the dimensions of the current Cold Storage building, rather than the 150% of Cold Storage footprint in the two buildings in the current plan? Probably not, if you do the math.
March 27, 2009
In a Daily News article on March 25th, Mayor Bloomberg asserts that if the city is not given full control of the Park, no future city funding would be forthcoming. Senator Squadron – your turn.
