Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

Tonight's the big night for you to sound off on the application by Cornell Realty to rezone a couple key square blocks in order to build taller and (one would assume) more profitably along Franklin Avenue, just north of the Spice Factory.

I will leave to others to determine whether such uproar would have been needed had MTOPP and others not bullied-away a zoning study for the entire neighborhood. It would appear that residents are left fending for themselves, one project at a time, with no coherent strategy or underlying assumptions about what should and should not be protected, or height limits, or requirements for affordability. It gives me no great pleasure to tell y'all the Q told you so. And this is just the beginning.

So where are we? Come to Ebbets Field Middle School tonight and share your thoughts. But remember, your voice AGAINST the project is also against the creation of affordable below-market permanently rent stabilized housing, the very housing that gets created when developers are allowed to build taller, in this case 17 stories rather than 23 at 626 Flatbush. It is easy to assume a posture of offense, taking offense at plans to ruin one's views. But were actual people living in these proposed buildings, actual people as in actual neighbors, many of whom would likely be grateful for the apartment near garden, transit and park - would you feel any differently? What if that person were, say, you?

Either way, I suspect you don't like the height of these buildings, and should say so. Where and when?



I love some of the ominous looking caricatures floating about, especially this one on the online petition (sign if you like.) 

rendering by Fernando Conteli de Castro

"Soft sites" identified decades ago