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June 15, 2011
Preservation Makes Capitalists Nervous
Bay Ridge Journal
Here's a little historical context for Brooklyn's latest "super block" plan.
Ironically, economics professor Sandy Ikeda, who lives in beautiful, desirable Brooklyn Heights, the city's first historic district, has a problem with historic preservation.
What is it? Well, this is an economist, right? So it's about what Ikeda sees as the cost of preservation.
In 1939, 125 buildings east of Brooklyn Heights were razed to create the 21-acre urban renewal "super block" we know as Cadman Plaza -- sort of the Atlantic Yards of its day. Then, from 1947 to 1954, came construction of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE) along the north and west borders of the Heights. Then in 1965, Mayor Wagner signed legislation making the Heights the city’s first historic district and paving the way for the creation of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Cadman Plaza and the BQE, says Ikeda, have acted as a buffer between the Heights and commercial development in neighboring districts, and the Landmarks Preservation Commission has made it difficult and expensive to change the built environment in the Heights' precious 50 acres -- which is, of course, the whole point.
Posted by eric at June 15, 2011 10:01 AM