From the Courier-Life:Mill Basin residents say the city’s plan to expand a shopping center built atop protected marshlands near the foot of Flatbush Avenue is not going to happen without a fight — and some argued it shouldn’t happen at all.
At a Feb. 18 meeting intended to get the neighborhood’s take on its plans for the Four Sparrows Retail Center between Kings Plaza and the Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, environmentalists and Walmart opponents joined forces to shoot down the project — making it clear that if the city and developer Forest City Ratner Companies want to replace the cherished wetlands with big box stores, there will be a war on two fronts.
• Front one: Environmentalists and bird watchers want to prevent any development at the site, claiming that construction will destroy a borough treasure — a priceless city-owned wetland.
“The city says it wants to build something fabulous [on the wetlands],” nature lover Vivian Carter told residents attending the hearing at Kings Plaza. “But we have something there already, thank you very much.”
• Front two: The battle over which store — we’re talking about Walmart, of course — will be housed in the new shopping center.
“We’re completely opposed to bringing in a big box store,” Assemblyman Alan Maisel (D–Marine Park) told city officials. “Local businesses in Marine Park and Mill Basin will go out of business with a big box store just down the street.”
Members of the Economic Development Corporation obviously hoped for positive feedback on the proposal to expand the small shopping strip to accommodate three more stores, more parking and more than 40 acres of parkland, but they got very little.
And it got ugly when the agency could not promise that a Walmart — either a controversial mega-store or one of the company’s newer, smaller versions — would pop up at the new center.
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15 comments:
Bloomturd will bulldoze everything until he leaves office. At what cost environmentally, financially, socially, and morally?
A private owned mall, parking lot, Walmart & 18 wheel semi's rattling the whole neighborhood 24-7 is something fabulous ?
Everyone knows those trucks cant use the Belt and Cross Island parkway's. They will have to go through miles of Brooklyn and Queens streets from 495 & BQE exits.
This is insane !!
Heh Heh Heh
I like the sound of the Cross Island Turnpike and Belt Expressway. Think I can't get my way? Try and stop me, fools!
Nyahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PS It'll make money for the city i.e. developers, construction companies, and real estate buddies of mine. Oops. Did I say that out loud?
Let's go Walmart - get in there already!
OOOO Goody Goody Gum Dropth.
More work for me!
What exactly is a "Mom and pop store"?
What exactly is a "Mom and pop store"?
You're joking right? How does bliss feel?
Incredibly sad that Bloomturd, EDC and Ratner plan to turn Mill Basin into a Wal-mart ghetto. With the Kings Plaza Shopping Center and the Erskine Avenue strip mall nearby, the area has more than enough shopping and congestion.
I wonder if they've ever even been to Mill Basin.
What exactly is a "Mom and pop store"?
You're joking right? How does bliss feel?
Answering a question with a question. Straw man time!
Why don't we bulldose Bloomturd's block. I think this project would look great there.
Answering a question with a question. Straw man time!
Ignorant much?
Big box stores bring debatable value to the city. There are some cases where the economies of scale benefit consumers and perhaps anchor an area in need of revitalization. But often they can bleed out neighborhood character and entrepreneurial activities.
But what's not debatable is how much value this area already provides through "ecosystem services." This concept helps take the intuitive respect of nature out of a hippyish context and puts it into measurable terms:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecosystem_services
FLOOD ZONE
FLOOD ZONE
Like I could give a crap...as in Queens Crap!!!
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