Rezoning Greenpoint and Williamsburg

You have to love the Community Plan for sending a singing telegram (MOV file) City Councilman David Yassky to beg for the rezoning of Greepoint and Williamsburg to include more parks and open space, plus afforable housing and a limited on how high buildings can be (see their campaign overview). No word on the reaction of Yassky, who serves Williamsburg, Brooklyn Heights, Greenpoint, DUMBO, Park Slope, Boerum Hill, Vinegar Hill and Fulton Ferry Landing, but Gothamist hopes he was also given the text of the telegram, because it went pretty fast.

The Community Plan has also developed a project where concerned residents tell Bloomberg to Fuhgeddaboutit, "it" being his rezoning plans, by taking a picture in a cut-out board; there's a rally planned on Sunday to get ready for Monday's City Council hearing. The Williamsburg Warriors have helped to create a link that lets people email all 50 City Council members at once about the rezoning. And Block Magazine sent us some pictures of the balloon "protest" Brooklynites have organized (another photo is at UrbanPhoto, which explained the balloons represent the questionable proposed height of buildings). Here's one photo at right (click for bigger image) and we'll put others up later.

Photo by Sullivan Walsh

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By Jen Chung in News on April 1, 2005 2:43 PM

Comments [rss]

Jack

Thanks dd for the insight. Developers would not be building anything if there were not a sign of profit connnected to it. The idea that a developer is just some neutral altruistic entity is not only false, it's damned hillarious.

dd

The residents of Greenpoint should be fighting the residents of Manhattan. No one wants to live in Greenpoint; people are looking there b/c there are no apartments in Manhattan or Brooklyn Heights. The residents of Greenpoint should argue that zoning restrictions should be lifted in all parts of the city, then let things happen naturally. Greenpoint would be one of the last places on people's lists. Of course, this is unlikely to happen since residents of UWS, UES, and the village have more political pull than the residents of Greenpoint. Which do you prefer, the free market or an oligarchy? That's the choice.

Regarding the "greed" of developers, you're blaming the wrong group, either unintentionally or intentionally. Developers build apartments b/c there is a demand for apartments from people who want to live in them. I guess it's harder to blame the average joe and instead use developers as your scapegoat. It's not developers, it's people and they're having babies and they need somewhere to live. Let them live where they want (in Manhattan) and Greenpoint could be farmland.

dirtgirl

williamsburg and greenpoint residents are going to have a much harder time trying to preserve their neighborhood than others have. unlike most of brownstone brooklyn, these neighborhoods have shitty, ugly, cheap housing stock (vinyl siding, anyone?) that is hard to argue is worth preserving. i agree that parks and open spaces should be kept, but there are so few of them to begin with. every time i start thinking "hey, maybe i should think about looking at places in b-burg" i actually go there and see very quickly how little green there is. most streets have zero trees or grass. it's depressing.

ratnerville

amen brother.

Captain Obvious

"People have to live somewhere."

Thank you Robert Moses Jr.

Yes, people have to live somewhere. But without parks and open spaces and a place to do things outside of the overpriced apartment you buy, this city is worthless. It's not unreasonable to hear people speak out.

Would you rather land developers just build and build and collect rents and that's it? Ultimately developers could care less about anyone but their paycheck.

And you know, this is really all the legacy of Robert Moses. Thanks to him setting the distubing precedent he did under his tenure, the idea of a small thriving community being bulldozed fro the "greater good" is not only more common, but accepted.

I never thought I'd live in a city where people think it's weird or stupid for others to fight for their own homes. Now I finally understand why people have moved to Long Island, Staten Island & New Jeresy. This city is just feeding on itself and could care less about long term residents.

dd

People have to live somewhere. We either have to keep paving over open space by building out or we have to build higher on land that is already paved. If people want to live in a low-rise community, they should move to a less popular city. It shouldn't be surprising for anyone who lives in Greenpoint to know that others want to move there as well and mostly for the location, not the height of buildings.

Jim

I spent the last few days in Greenpoint and I notices many balloons floating above the hood (you can see them in this picture too). Anybody know what those ballons were doing there?