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July 20, 2011
Brooklyn Broadside: Tobacco Warehouse: Opportunity Destroyed
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
by Dennis Holt
The cranky Eagle columnist has found something that makes him even crankier than Atlantic Yards opponents do — and he may have good reason.
Here is the perplexity: does the judge’s decision mean that the federal government cannot ever negotiate with the city or state of New York about transfer of ownership of both the Tobacco warehouse and the Empire Stores?
If this is true, it means that a ruin of a building and the bulk of the Empire Stores can never be efficiently re-used. This is so preposterous as to be unbelievable.
...The long delays in the Atlantic Yards development have already cost Brooklyn a watershed building designed by Frank Gehry. We will never get that unique chance again. Loss of the St. Ann’s group is so lamentable as to raise new hackles. And there is no sensible reason for this loss.
Let's not get carried away their, Dennis. You know and we know that no Frank Gehry building was ever really going to get built on the Atlantic Yards site. Can you say Trojan Horse?
But Dennis comes to his senses, just a wee bit.
One can make a case for all the fuss about Atlantic Yards, even if one doesn’t believe the time lost and money spent was worth it. But one cannot find an intellectual argument of merit for crippling a well-thought out plan for the Tobacco Warehouse and the needed reuse of the Empire Stores, and the potential loss of a stellar performance group founded in Brooklyn.
NoLandGrab: There, now. That wasn't too hard to admit, was it? Bet you even feel better getting it off your chest.
Posted by eric at July 20, 2011 5:41 PM