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June 2, 2008

Condos Come to Brooklyn, But Promised Parks Stall

060208viridian.jpg

When the Bloomberg administration successfully rezoned large parts of Williamsburg and Brooklyn three years ago to facilitate the construction of massive housing condos, the deal came with a promise to deliver lots of new park space. But while the luxury residential buildings are going up, the parks have remained a pipe dream. And local City Councilman David Yassky tells the Post he’s “sickened” that the Bloomberg administration has made “almost zero progress on the parks.”

Parks Department spokesman Philip Abramson says the delays are due to unanticipated increases in project costs, inflicted in part by the environmental cleanup necessary for the post-industrial area. But Evan Thies, environmental committee chairman of Brooklyn Community Board 1 in Greenpoint-Williamsburg, warns that if they don’t fund and begin all the promised projects before Bloomberg leaves office, the parks could fall victim to budget cuts under the next administration.

If that comes to pass, the only hope for green space will be from the condo developers, who are slowly building a two-mile-wide esplanade as part of the rezoning deal. And Magic Johnson’s Viridian in Greenpoint, pictured above, will have plenty of private green. First of all, it’s named for a greenish pigment (it’s on Green Street). And it will have a putting green on the roof! Other amenities include an indoor pool, virtual golf, billiards room, and a courtyard reflecting pond where tenants can gather to reflect on the vastness of their own immeasurable self worth.

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Comments (7) [rss]

When the Bloomberg administration successfully rezoned large parts of Williamsburg and Brooklyn... the deal came with a promise to deliver lots of new park space.

Politicians made promises that they did not keep? Shocking! Residents around Yankee Stadium know this feeling well.

But the buildings and ballparks will be built, then those movers and shakers will move on - without fullfilling their promises.

 

And in what alternate universe do you think the wealthy that live in these buildings will give a flying fuck about the "other" people living in the area? Those complainers can just stay at home and imagine what it's like to swim in the exclusive indoor pool or vegetate on the rooftop putting green.

 

What ever happened to truthful politicians like "Honest Abe," or George Washington, or Jimmie Walker? What has this world come to?

 

Who gives a shit about some park? What Brooklyn really needs is a Mandarin Oriental.

 

Parks will be developed in the vicinity of the upended ice-cube trays the latest wave of suburban gentry will be occupying in their quest to buy a life. Elsewhere, forget about it.

 

Magic Johnson?

Not that I like yuppie condos, though I do want to note that the housing stock of North Brooklyn isn't anything special, most are either post war multi-family homes and maybe some remnants of the tenement buildings, the industrial property is more historical than the residential. Might as well pay up the nose for actual luxury apartments rather than old tenement apartments that are worth probably 1/3 of the price they are rented for-like in the LES
One thing though
Will they actually build a movie theater up there? It would be a brilliant move

 

I am so drawn to Magic Johnson but one word, Netflix. Another word, save your money, buy a large screen TV with that money and sit closer to the TV. Buy a bag of popcorn, throw it in the microwave for half a minute, sit upright in a cheap velour covered chair and relax.

 
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