Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Brooklyn learning from Queens' mistakes

As with all meetings concerning the re-zoning, there are sharp dividing lines between those who believe that bringing housing developments to the shores of the Gowanus will provide the necessary political pressure to have the city clean the highly toxic land and water. And then there are those residents, including many who have poured over the extensive environmental reports done by D.E.P. and The Army Corp Of Engineers, who believe that building housing on a brownfield is a recipe for disaster. I tend to agree with the latter. As someone in the audience said, trusting developers to clean up their own sites "is like wall street self-regulating."

City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden Meets The Neighbohood

Wait, are you saying developers can't and shouldn't be trusted? You obviously aren't from Queens, Katia. Because here, bloggers sometimes experience a fleeting moment of concern over such things, but then turn their attention to more pressing matters... like will that new restaurant serve sushi or Thai food? Check this out:

...Friedman, in a press release, warned what could go wrong: "City Planning made the right decision in agreeing that a significant portion of the Gowanus Canal corridor should remain zoned for manufacturing. Unfortunately, traditional manufacturing zoning leaves big loopholes, and the area could still be overrun by big-box stores and hotels, as was recently the case in Dutch Kills in Queens."

So, how does it feel to be used as the "bad example"?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Overdevelopment is irrevocable," de Blasio warned. "Once it happens, it happens."
Yes aint that a bitch.And also cancer is hard to get rid of.So if you think your fixing up a dump,maybe its best to watch the language newbie yuppies because the land your on top of has been a toxic mess for years and developers will hide that to rip you off for a cheaply built "luxury condo".Didnt seem as though the new folks cared about the people from Greenpoint or LIC that aquired cancer from Standard oil and all the other chemical plants scattered about.
From Queensboro plaza to the Newtown creek theres still 20 buildings with toxic pools in there basements.Then again theres condos in Williamsburg next to Radiac which is a fun place to bring the kids.

Anonymous said...

How about the affordable housing set? Willets Pt, Hunters Pt, etc.

We get the pattern:

Brownfields for Brownskins.

Anonymous said...

If you claim this is toxic and unsuitable for housing, where are the mainline community presevationists, the media, the handmaidens of developers, Pratt, NYU, Hunter?

WHY DO THEY REMAIN SILENT?

SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!