New NY State License Plate Revealed—And Required On All Cars
Cops: Fort Greene Violence Sparked By Chicken Wing Promotion
Flashback: Last Brownstone Standing
City Records Big Spike In Commuter Cycling
64 Things Restaurant Patrons Must NEVER Do
The New York Times has one of those stories today that exemplifies the friction that occurs in a transitioning neighborhood, but with a twist that involves a group of residents who would be there against their will. In this particular case, it's about how neighbors feel about the proposed re-opening of Brooklyn's House of Detention on Atlantic Ave. and Boerum Place.
By any reasonable measure, developers and new residents helped soften the economic blow to the neighborhood following the 2003 closing of the Brooklyn jail, when the owner of the Soul Spot restaurant across the street had to trim his operating hours and menu after a 20% decline in business.
When the jail closed, the area surrounding the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Boerum Place, where it sits, was trying to reinvent itself. It was an unremarkable neighborhood of gas stations and hunched old office buildings. Today it is home to some of the newest high-end apartment buildings in Brooklyn. There’s a sparkling new YMCA a block away from the old jail, a high-rise is being built next door and rows of condos line State Street a block away.The new residents are upset at the proposed re-opening of the jail, which they feel will cast a pall over a neighborhood they feel they've rejuvenated. A separate article in yesterday's Times highlighted some concerns:
“Court officers abused placard parking thought the area, and some visitors to the jail would urinate in people’s yards, hide weapons and contraband in flower pots,” Mr. Perris said. “So there is concern that if the jail reopens and doubles in size, these problems will reappear and be worse than they were before.”According to today's Times, merchants that have been in the neighborhood longer and used to cater to the people who worked at the jail, are nonetheless hopeful that the Brooklyn House of Detention will return, and seemed bemused at new residents' fears. The Times also sets a new standard for finding an angry neighborhood newcomer when it quotes "Corey Baylor, an investment banker who moved into a State Street condo four days ago". [emphasis ours].
Last year, Curbed looked at some alternative proposals about what to do with the closed jail that included plans to knock the current building down and build a new jail next to a luxury condo tower and another plan to re-open the existing building as a jail but with street-level retail establishments.
And 2004's House of D is about a young man who navigates a rough patch in his life with the help of advice shouted from behind bars by a woman locked in Manhattan's "House of D."
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Gah. Please don't bring up that piece of sh*t movie, House of D.
someone should find investment banker Corey whatever his name is and publicly flog him. i can't decide where the flogging should take place. any suggestions?
i would certainly prefer a jail-less city, but having the jail at that site is a benefit to brooklyn residents, who will no longer have to endure the trip to Rikers to visit their loved ones (the NYC equivalent of being jailed on the Canadian border). same goes for the attorneys who represent them.
Excuse me if I don't have too much sympathy for the perps who terrorize Brooklyn and make it an unpleasant place to live. If these people had any sort of family structure, half of these crimes wouldn't be committed in the first place, so spare me the "visiting their loved ones" routine.
the point is moot. the city spent too much money and time renovating the building. have you seen all that beautiful marble?
my favorite of the high-end condos is on boerum pl directly adjacent to the house of d. south facing apartments in this building are not only treated to glorious morning sunlight, but also a quaint view of the detention center courtyard/outdoor space next door. i can just imagine how creative those corcoran brokers were into trying to sell those units. the barbed wire is so brooklyn!
Corey Baylor can go back to Manhattan or even better, wherever he came from. I hate people who complain about the neighborhood even before the furniture is unpacked. We all know that he'll probably be gone in a year or two.
I don't see why a 'transitioned' neighborhood should be exempt from housing jails. Somehow it was better for a jail to be around the working class Arabs, Italians and the Latinos who lived there pre-transition? Brooklyn House belongs near the courts. It just makes sense. If you don't want to live across from it, don't buy the damned condo.
The house of detention was never permanently closed. It was closed for renovations. If people did their research (or didn't delude themselves that just because they are considered financially well off they will have their whims met) before buying they would know this. How is having a jail in an area with kids whose parents are affluent any different then having a jail in an area where the parents of children are needy? Having money doesn't exempt you from reality.
Every day for the past many summers, my daughter and I have walked by this building on our way to her summer camp and we've not had any problems, whether it was open or closed. It started when she was five, and there was not one day either of us felt threatened. It's not a biggie, unless poor minority folks rub you the wrong way.
Baylor's a schmuck and so are his ilk. Would they rather there not be any jails?
These morons bought apartments ACROSS THE STREET FROM A JAIL! What did they expect?
I agree with ultraclay - the surrounding area houses most of Brooklyn's courts and government agencies. Where else should the city put the jail?
Also, I can't believe anyone would even try and make the lame argument that this is about court officers abusing parking, either.
The parking situation, like the presence of the jail, is just a reality of living within Brooklyn's municipal district. And, really, we all know this is not about parking.
the real issue behind the story is the deficiencies of our criminal justice system, not real estate.
cops are too willing to arrest. half the people at rikers are not convicted and leave within 50 days. if we invested more into our social service system, instead of grand "economic development" schemes, maybe some of these issues would be solved. call me a communist, but at least i'm not the one complaining about my businesses failing because the nearby jail closed down. can you believe they are planning to have a jail-retail space? have we gone insane here?
re:"the perps who terrorize Brooklyn and make it an unpleasant place to live." are you an idiot?
if the police only knew you ordered pot through a delivery service, you'd be a riker's statistic.
the real issue behind the story is the deficiencies of our criminal justice system, not real estate. prison overpopulation and criminalizing legal behavior is the real issue. i can't believe this entire debate turned into finding an appropriate place for the prison, as if its necessity were a given.
cops are too willing to arrest. half the people at rikers are not convicted and are discharged within 50 days. if we invested more into our communities and services, instead of subsidizing "economic development" schemes, maybe some of these issues would be solved. call me a communist, but at least i'm not the one complaining about my businesses failing because the nearby jail closed down. can you believe they are planning to have a jail-retail space? have we gone insane here?
re:"the perps who terrorize Brooklyn and make it an unpleasant place to live." are you an idiot?
if the police only cared that you order pot through a delivery service, you'd be a riker's statistic.