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Early Addition
While shoppers' enthusiasm for the new Brooklyn Ikea has been well documented today, opinion was decidedly mixed among residents who skipped the festivities at the new 346,000 square foot store. Jennifer Cohen, a Red Hook resident for the last eight years, voiced the most common concern, that the neighborhood's streets and buses would be overly taxed by thousands of shoppers descending on the store, which is far from the subway.
According to Cohen, the B61 is already overcrowded. (We heard multiple reports from commuters today that the B61 was unusually packed as it passed through Red Hook.) Cohen told us she's "waited for today in horror for the last three years" and is not looking forward to the waterfront landscape now being defined by "the big yellow blob" that opened its doors this morning.
But other residents were welcoming Ikea with open arms. Several people noted the jobs the store has already created for a community that has had its fair share of economic struggles through the years. Al and Lisa Kirton were shopping nearby at Red Hook's Fairway, a store that made a somewhat smoother transition into Red Hook over the last few years. They took aim at the hard-line stance of some of Ikea's opponents, saying, "Not every corporation is bad."
In the end, most residents we spoke with regarded Ikea's arrival and success over the months to come as inevitable. Perhaps Antoinette Edwards, a longtime Red Hook resident (pictured), summed it up best: "Money wins out. Rich people--they get what they want... And we sat out all night waiting for them."
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4
the Fairway made a smoother transition cuz it used an existing building. from what i have heard, ikea destroyed some history and built their ugly-ass blue and yellow building. mainly, the issue here is apollution up the wahzoo (yes people can be pollution too)
yeah..trashy streets are better than a little progress
....And that massive lawn is just a nightmare for all the industrial wasteland living status of depressed neighborhoods! How do IKEA dares to change anything!?
UM... industrial wasteland?
The site they built on was a working waterfront from the turn of the century up through the eighties. It was a MAJOR part of the community, not only in Red Hook, but in Carroll Gardens and the surrounding communities as well. IKEA demolished the buildings, and, as if that wasn't enough, they incinerated a century's worth of documentation which set out the history of one of the most interesting locations in our country's maritime history.
hmmmm... what else can I add on to this? Oh, yeah! They also took one of the oldest remaining graving docks in New York, outside of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and filled it in with cement to make a parking lot.
The only "transportation alternatives" they have presented to get to this criminally negligent monstrosity, other than the fucking water taxi you can "take a bag" on, is to send cars and shuttles every 15 minutes DOWN MY ONCE QUIET RESIDENTIAL BLOCK!!! This would be to accomodate their expected 17,000 visitors every weekend. Awesome.
I better get some free meatballs out of this.
And out of all the Ikea comments today, rbeshenk FTW! Bronze that baby.
You should walk into Ikea in full view of their security cameras, walk out, and call in a false overcrowding report to 911. That always works.
It's NYC. When will people stop expecting "quiet residential blocks" in the City that Never Sleeps?South Dakota has quiet residential blocks.
Oh and don't ever say "FTW".
It seems pretty obvious that some neighborhoods have residential blocks that are quieter than others, though. It's not like rbeshenk moved to West 4th between 6th and 7th and complained about the noise. A lot of people move to neighborhoods like Red Hook or Vinegar Hill because they're out of the way and quietER than other places.
@Bluealways: I was born and raised in Washington Heights, so when I say "quiet residential block," I mean I want to hear police sirens and ambulences and drug dealers having afterhours, with merengue playing in the background. I do not want to be bombarded with blue and yellow shuttle buses ruining my view of the waterfront, and irritating NYU and Pratt kids going shopping for their first apartment.
People use the B61 to go to work. A lot of them. You know how incredibly annoying that is going to become? There have been zero plans set forth to increase the amount of buses. They have simply made the bus route longer and more inconvenient.
Rich people want IKEA? I think she means "white people." Rich people ain't shopping at IKEA.
Aren't white people rich? :-p
To the people who moved to Red Hook, who did you displace? Maybe the people before you didn't want you in the neighborhood either... Hell, if RH was a MAJOR working waterfront then I guess there was TRAFFIC in those days...
^Exactly! We're talking Last Exit to Brooklyn.
Hyperbolically speaking, these white folk run everything and act from the assumption that they deserve everything that they don't have already and everything that is not being currently used in the fashion that they would like to use it. They will then set up ugly architecture which houses superfluous and cheaply made goods. They say they'll rejuvenate the local economy, but just give all the jobs to white boys and girls who don't need the money that badly in the first place (this money returns to frivolous white ventures). And as always, this space turns into another training camp for the ways of living subordinate to the white folk vision of the modern world.
Why do white yuppies think they are god's gift to urban areas ruined by capitalism in the first place?
If you don't like it, move. Capitalism is not about keeping everyone happy, it's about making money, and NYC is all about capitalism. Sad but true - it's better to face facts then spend all day complaining, which will get you nowhere fast.
All anyone seems to do around here is complain about neighborhoods changing. Since it's apparently such a common occurrence, you'd think people would be used to it.
Yeah, sheesh, huh, PLK?...SHEESH!
IKEA Benefits:
If you work 20 hours a week at IKEA you are considered a full time worker and get Full-Time benefits! Yes, it's true.
Medical, Dental, Matching 401K, Disabilty Insurance (if you're injured off the job), 1 week Paid Maternity/Paternity leave, Flexible work arrangments, Tuition Assistance ($2500 undergrad $5000 grad per year).
So while everyone complains about how the neighborhood is changing (I agree) please also remember that people need good jobs.
BTW, part time workers (12+ hours)get almost every benefit mentioned with the exception of disability insurance.
This is NYC, it's crowded, get over it. If you want a nice quiet street move to the country.
what an ugly bitch
The Economist says Ikea uses the foundation structure for corporate tax-avoidance.
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/14675
don't let that fake Ikea goodwill fool you,
ask a Swede what they think of Ikea.
and, their crap stuff is coming from Eastern Europe now.
*sigh* I don't think some people realize what a ugly, dirty craphole New York can be sometimes and how it has been left to stagnate in what I like to call pseudo-bodega hell, where people complain about the good old days being wiped away by what are, really when you get down to it, far superior places of business. (only in New York would you have outcry about a major research institution wiping out...wait for it...an auto repair shop and a storage facility). You have a Duane Reade on every corner next to a Famiglia, but when an Ikea or a Chipotle moves in, holy crap, look out! Gentrification! Oh no! I live in Harlem...I am freaking happy that Starbucks opened down the street two weeks ago...you know why? Because it used to be an empty f'ing lot. I wish they would bring a Chipotle, a Fairway, and a Five Guys and line them right down the block because what are they pushing out? Yeah, that deli where a kid was knifed because all the no-good hoodlums have street fights there on a regular basis. Good riddance. Maybe some of you will understand when you live in an area like Harlem, the Bronx, etc, every Pinkberry means I have smaller chance of getting mugged and stabbed on the way home. Viva Ikea!
harlem's been pseudo gentrified for decades. it's a vibrant self sustaining neighborhood with no need for a starfux, five fuks or fukway. the word gentrified only came into existence when whitey started moving in above CPN.
only in NY kiddies, only in NY.
"but just give all the jobs to white boys and girls who don't need the money that badly in the first place"
I wish that was the case, ikeas usually hire your ghetto brethren