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May 18, 2007
Fighting to Save Underground Railroad Site
Our Time Press
By Carla Murphy
An article about Duffield Street, the "other land grab," includes the history of the controversy and the flawed study that the city is using to justify the use of eminent domain to seize historical homes that played a role in the Underground Railroad in Brooklyn — in order to build a parking garage.
Joy Chatel's home at 227 Duffield Street, possibly one of Brooklyn's best historical links to the Underground Railroad, could be seized by the City of New York in a matter of weeks and turned into an underground parking lot. Above will sit Willoughby Square Park, a one-acre public plaza approved in 2004 as part of the 59-block Downtown Brooklyn Redevelopment Plan.
...
"They're saying we don't have a story but we built this country," a pleading and at times, teary-eyed Chatel said at a press conference before ascending City Hall steps to sit through a six-hour City Council hearing. On May 1st,a standing-room-only crowd, at least in the beginning, squeezed in a side chamber to confront AKRF, the research firm that found "no significant association" connecting seven Duffield and Gold Street residences with the Underground Railroad. Based on oral histories and one early owner's "consistent, long-term commitment to abolitionism," AKRF assigned the highest ranking, 3 out of 5, to Chatel's home. She needed a 4 in order to halt eminent domain proceedings.
Posted by lumi at May 18, 2007 7:47 AM