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The Secret World of the Brooklyn
Bridge Park Development Corp
Apparently we aren't the only ones who think that the BBPDC is
excluding the public from the park planning process. In a letter
obtained through our law suit, Park Conservancy Directors voice
their concern to the mayor's office about the how the BBPDC has
worked "behind closed doors ...(to make) significant changes
to the MasterPlan." Click the links below to downlaod PDFs
of the actual letter:
Download the letter here: Page
1 - Page 2 - Page
3 - Page 4 - Zipped
File of All Four
Joralemon Street a New Park
Entrance
"Besides entrances
at Atlantic Avenue, Fulton Ferry Landing, and John Street, there
will be a new entrance at Joralemon Street." Metro AM,(
6.1.06)
Are the people of Brooklyn
Heights aware of this new move by the Development Corporation?
Weren't the residents promised that Joralemon Street was to be
closed to vehicular traffic and open only for pedestrians? So
much for the "advocacy" of the Brooklyn Heights Association
and their spin group, the Conservancy.
NYC Park Funding
"Over the last 40 years, no other city agency has suffered
as high a percentage of cuts to its budget and staff as the Dept.
of Parks and Recreation," said Croft, president of NYC Park
Advocates, a nonprofit watchdog group. "Since 1991 alone,
full-time staffing has fallen 64.5 percent, from 4,285 positions
to 1,521.... the city regularly allocated 1.5 percent of its
budget to parks; today the park's share is 0.4 percent.If the
budget percentage had remain fixed, parks would have received
an extra $10 billion," Croft said. The Bloomberg administration
wants to reduce the Parks Dept.'s share of the city budget next
year by $834,000." (Metro NY, June 16, 2006)Our city
parks are in crisis and the only thing the current Parks Commissioner
Benepe can think about doing is further cutting funding and giving
away our most precious resource - open space - to private condo
developers. This is a sham beyond comprehension!
Park To Be Built with the
Remains of Another Park:
"Dirt excavated
from the new Yankee Stadium project will be used to make grassy
hills in the (Brooklyn Bridge) Park, officials said." Metro
AM (6.1.06).
So, the park that was
destroyed in The Bronx in order to make way for a parking lot
for Yankee Stadium will now be re-interred in Brooklyn Bridge
"Park" to build grassy hills for the condo owners who
will live inside the park. Does anyone see the irony in this?
Identity Theft: The Brooklyn
Bridge Park Conservancy Steals Defense Fund's web identity.
The Brooklyn Bridge Park
Conservancy, the group that supports housing and a private marina
inside the park and no recreation, shortly after the Park Defense
Fund filed its law suit, purchased the .net and .com versions
of our website. That's right they tried to pretend they
were us and directed people who mis-typed parkdefense.org with
a .com or .net to their pro-housing/pro-commercialized non- public
park website. This illegal practice is called cyber-squatting
and it is federal crime. After we sent a "cease and desist"
letter, they ceased but it goes to prove how powerful our message
has become.
Click here
for the news story.
Fundraising for a Real Park:
Conservancy fails to divulge the truth about who supports them
and why.
The Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy is supported, first and
foremost, by real estate developers. And not just any old developer
but the very one that has convinced the state to plunk housing
inside of park borders. Take a look at the home page of their
website, One Brooklyn Bridge Park was an underwriter of their
annual event (as were several other real estate developers.)
The Conservancy is becoming just like our elected officials
beholden to developers for funds to help them hold on to their
jobs.
Also, the Conservancy claims
800 people showed up for their fundraiserwhere are all these
people? From the pictures, one would be hard pressed to spot
more than 50!
Click
here for articles about
what true park believers are doing to get a real park for Brooklyn.
Brooklyn Heights Association,
in an ironic twist, thinks highrise towers aren't so good for
the Yards but they are OK for the Park. Whaz that all about?
The BHA has some nerve telling
others neighborhoods what they should/shouldn't build when they
can't seem to listen to the very same people who are advocating
for a non-highrise housing Park that everyone in the borough
will use. The same associations surrounding the park and even
the majority of people who live right inside the Heights don't
want housing inside the park. Period. Perhaps the BHA should
fix problems on their own home turf before tackling the problems
of other neighborhoods.
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