Pictures from Brownstoner.com- September 22, 2008
Commentary from SunsetPark-Brooklyn-Matters
This sad scenario has played out on 6th Avenue & 54th Street (exact address to come). This block has now been hit twice by greedy and tasteless owners (see blue awning to stage-left/your right of new building). Unfortunately, this facade teardown & additional floor would be legal under the proposed R6A re-zoning, the commercial overlay or commercial use of the 1st floor would not be allowed. These unscrupulous owners will continue to deface block after block even if all they gain is 1 or 2 more housing units into which they'll dangerously pile up many times the allowed number of people. As to devaluing (in dollars) adjacent properties, it hasn't been the case. There are so many other morally and aesthetically-bankrupt buyers whose need to hide ill-gotten cash is so dire that property values won't suffer. Housing prices in Sunset Park (Flushing , Manhattan's Chinatown or other cash-rich enclaves, for that matter) haven't decreased as in other parts of NYC or the nation. What will suffer is the racial, ethnic, generational and economic diversity of Sunset Park that we so want to preserve, as well as it's architectural and aesthetic context, of course, . If this abuse continues, only buyers looking to hide cash from questionable sources will occupy Sunset Park. This an occupation, folks- and it's being enabled by our own governmental agencies: Buildings Dept., DEP, Dept. of City Planning, City Council, and so on. We wonder what the reaction would be if the above monstrosity was attempted on the Mayor's block or next to the homes of the City's Commissioners or Council Members. Legal or not, would it be allowed to go on? We wonder.
Thanks for posting the photos of the 39th Street project. I'll try to send in photos from 7th Ave and 43rd Street. They have zero permits posted, yet they build and build and build. It's as though current construction is operating under a bubble of protection.
ReplyDeleteWe look forward to the photos. We ran into the same Dept. of Buildings Inspector several times last week and this individual is beyond overwhelmed. We're contacting Building's Dept. to ask about possible backlog on complaint response. Keep calling the Building's Dept., CB7 and Sara Gonzalez's office about this situation; they must be pushed (embarrassed, if necessary) into acting. It's an election year in the 38CD, after all.
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