« Answers From a Brooklyn Blogger, Part 3 | Main | Barclays/Nets Community Alliance now supports Brooklyn Public Library »
June 12, 2010
Highway robbery! State is mulling taking Heights homes for BQE repair
The Brooklyn Paper
by Gary Buiso
Classic brownstones and other homes in historic Brooklyn Heights may be demolished by the state as part of the long-overdue effort to shore up and modernize the aging Brooklyn–Queens Expressway revealed this week.
State transportation planners are currently considering several ways to impliment a $300-million reconstruction project of the triple-canitlever portion of the BQE under the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, plus other portions between Sands Street and Atlantic Avenue — but one scenario calls for homes to be taken near Willow and Middagh streets to accommodate the wider highway.
Peter King, project manager with the Department of Transportation, called the possibility of an eminent domain taking unlikely, but confirmed that it is being considered.
“It is well-established that the public sector has the authority to acquire properties for public purposes,” he said. “It would be premature to rule out anything, and a violation of process to start discounting things,” he said.
NoLandGrab: Actually, it's now well established that the public sector has the authority to acquire property for any purpose, including but not limited to taking your home so a rich real estate developer and his Russian billionaire savior can build a private arena for a horrible basketball team for which we also get to foot most of the bill.
Posted by eric at June 12, 2010 8:58 AM