Demolition
Forest City Ratner is planning to demolish six buildings, beginning this Tuesday: 620 and 622 Pacific Street, 461, 463 and 585 Dean Street, and 608-620 Atlantic Avenue (The Underberg Building). According to a report in the Times by Nicholas Confessore, there is some damage to the interiors, including, “tin-ceiling panels, drywall, even a broken-down piano”.
But from all appearances on the exterior many of these buildings are not in bad shape. 461 and 463 Dean Street, for example (above), are fine examples of period housing and contribute to the urban fabric. Is FCR grouping solid buildings with some damaged ones in order to expedite the clearing of the site and circumvent due process? They should be maintained in place while the Environmental Impact Statement process is underway.
posted by Jonathan at 2:31 PM
3 Comments:
Is there anything "we" can do to save these buildings?
If not (and the situation does seem hopeless),
Is there a "chess move" that the community (or any other entity) can play to intercept his next? It seems critical to slow down FCR until the EIS process is complete; and until the public is informed of all the facts about this out of scale project.
461 and 463 Dean Street look pretty much like any other 4 story buildings in Brooklyn. Ratner is obviously using bullying scare tactics so that the neighborhood thinks that the review process is finished and he is starting the demolition process. The irony is that he will try to use blight for his justification for eminent domain. So is he clearing blight now and then he can't use it for his rational later? Or is he punching holes in the neighborhood and creating "developer blight" as Daniel Goldstein so aptly called it? There are efforts currently underway to stop this premature demolition urge of Bruce Ratner's.
We could move to have these buildings landmarked, which might mean that we should landmark most of the neighbhorhood. The New York Times suggested doing this, and that doesn't mean it's a bad idea.
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