Sometimes tall fences make bad neighbors

From the Brooklyn Paper:

They say good fences make good neighbors — but these fences ain’t good.

Greenpoint residents, community groups, and politicians are calling on the city to force waterfront property owners to remove illegal gates that have been erected across public streets.

Two weeks ago, city workers tore down a chain-link fence that had long closed the riverside foot of Kent Street from the public, but the ends of other neighborhood blocks — including Java and Noble streets — remain obstructed.

“They have privatized what should be public land,” said Stephanie Thayer, executive director of the Open Space Alliance, a group that joined Councilman David Yassky (D-Brooklyn Heights) in the fight to reopen the long-closed section of Kent Street.

According to Thayer, business owners along the North Brooklyn waterfront erected the unpermitted fences during the 1970s and ’80s to protect their properties from trespassers.

But as crime declined and civilian demand for waterfront access increased, the land owners never removed the unpermitted barriers — and the city never laid down the law.

David Yassky has been the councilman here for 8 years. He just noticed this now?