Gothamist: City Needs More Dry Docks (Like the One Taken by IKEA’s Parking Lot)

thefacts

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:46:04 -0500

"most" of the ikea furniture? That qualification is important. I'm sorry. The stuff I got from Ikea was junk. Looks nice, but wobbly. Good for four years of college dormitory life. And a bed took took two hours to assemble. Then I bought my B&B Italia stuff, and that has lasted 25 years and still looks great. You get what you pay for. #18, what's inaccurate? You mean, you also pay $12 for the NJ toll? Rather hapless of you, isn't it?

ANGRYGOD11

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:20:05 -0500

I've never assembled furniture in under 30 minutes. But, I know I'm doing it better than you because I always have so many extra parts left over.

mocanlagunas

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:45:54 -0500

hmm... I've assembled most of the ikea furniture I have in less than 30 mins (not 1 hr, and definitely NOT 2 hrs.), and I've had them for more than four years... maybe you're not doing something right....

rulebook

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:16:22 -0500

#17: Rebuking babyhitler and his special brand of "humor": good. Doing so inaccurately and with questionable reasoning: bad.

thefacts

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:44:45 -0500

#16 But you spent an additional 2 hours assembly a cheap piece of junk that will fall apart in four years. And if you pay $12 in tolls you got robbed, because tolls are only $6. Duh!!

babyhitler

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:38:01 -0500

Ikea was a good idea. You know why? Cuase I just got me a bookcase for 90 bucks and I didn't have to drive 35 minutes to jersey and pay 12 bucks in tolls.

sonyactivision

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:27:34 -0500

There's already an old Drydock Savings Bank in my neighborhood. How many more do we need?

thefacts

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:42:42 -0500

GM,#12, just what have you done for your community recently, besides whine on Gothamist? Btw, I don't live anywhere near Red Hook, have no inherent interest in this project and don't know McGettrick. But I am curious when I read an anonymous blogger bad mouth a hard-working community activist for no good reason. Are you a do-er or a whiner? Give us YOUR resumé of activism or accomplishment for RH!!

Politburo

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:40:28 -0500

"Read further in the Post today where Ikea refuses to say how many Red Hook locals are employed there." Good. Companies shouldn't put up with this political blackmail. No matter what the number is, it's not going to be high enough for some people.

GM

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:27:35 -0500

This story smells worse than the transfer station they were going to put in RH. If we were going to go back 5 years and deny the land to IKEA and give it to a shipbuilder, do you think that they would keep the civil war era-buildings, build a park, and employ some Red-Hookers? At least with IKEA, we got two out of three. John McGettrick has no vision, no sense, and nothing ever good to say. The sooner we quit thinking about him as a voice for us RHers, the better.

thefacts

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:22:11 -0500

Read further in the Post today where Ikea refuses to say how many Red Hook locals are employed there. They won't even tell the numbers to that idiot, Marty Marcus, Bklyn Boro Pres, a big booster of this project. "It's like a Swedish State Secret" the Post reports That's because there are NO locals employed. Promises turned to lies. Watch the Atlantic Yards! Remember how all the morons - Marcus, "Rev." Daughtry and other minority hustlers - whored themselves out to Ratner, claiming locals would be hired Once bitten, twice shy. Caveat Emptor.

capnbadger

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:15:00 -0500

This is more a question of long term strategic planning. While shipping in the harbor is near an all time high, the increased cost of waterfront property has made it too expensive for much of the maritime service industry to operate. While the immediate impact of this is small, longterm it could lead to a significant decline in shipping through the harbor, at a cost of billions to the local economy. Whether or not this will be offset by a permanent shift to commercial and residential waterfront development will remain to be seen. Shipping is the industry that New York was built on and the loss of this backbone may have effects that we cannot estimate today. The shipping industry has been a historically resilient cornerstone (with fluctuations and evolutions of course) since the opening of the Eerie Canal, almost two hundred years. Will new development provide that type of stability? http://workingharbor.com/home.html

JRod5417

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:06:57 -0500

It's been years since the graving dock in RH was used, but now that Ikea has taken over it's a "billion dollar boondoggle." Judging from the crammed MTA buses and shuttle buses driving through my neighborhood all weekend, Ikea will make more than enough revenue for the City.

Goodnight Jagdish

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:53:17 -0500

While we're at it, let's in-fill the entire NY harbor. It's not like it's of any strategic importance.

Peter

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:34:27 -0500

Maybe the city shouldnt have forced the shipping industry to Brooklyn and kept some of the docks along the Manhattan shore in use instead of letting them fall into disrepair. The worldwide switch to containerized shipping, which began in the early 1960's, pretty much doomed the Manhattan docks. Container docks require large amounts of landside storage space that's not available in Manhattan. Manhattan also lacks on-pier rail capacity for container-on-flat car trains. Brooklyn lacks that too, which is part of the reason why its docks are relatively underused.

mocanlagunas

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:29:08 -0500

What do you need a dry dock in RH? it will create heavy traffic (trucks and stuff) and ruin the neighborhood... I'm curious to know when was the last time these docks were used...

Politburo

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:26:40 -0500

Gothamist: Due to an unexpected increase in shipping through the Port of New York, the city now lacks the necessary number of dry-docks... The report press release: Based on the expected increase in port activities in New York Harbor, the study found that it is likely that additional dry-dock capacity will be needed...

spiritross

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:25:51 -0500

Maybe the city shouldnt have forced the shipping industry to Brooklyn and kept some of the docks along the Manhattan shore in use instead of letting them fall into disrepair.

Politburo

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:19:18 -0500

Is it just me or are these groups just latching onto anything that reinforces their view that the IKEA was a bad idea? Is the MAS or Red Hook Civic Alliance usually concerned with shipping traffic? Certainly doesn't seem like it, based on their websites.

Alex

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:18:52 -0500

What's to account for the increase in shipping to the Port of NY? Does this include all ports under the Port Authority (increase in shipping to just NY or to ports in Elizabeth and Bayonne too)?

grooverider

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 10:57:23 -0500

Has there been any cost-benefit analysis of what sort of taxes Ikea will generate, additional business nearby stores will generate, or if this will stimulate that specific region? Seems as though developing that area may outweigh 50M dollars in 'revenue'.