{"id":619,"date":"2006-01-19T10:21:08","date_gmt":"2006-01-19T18:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2006\/01\/wheres_robert_moses_when_you_need_him.html"},"modified":"2006-01-19T10:21:08","modified_gmt":"2006-01-19T18:21:08","slug":"wheres_robert_m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2006\/01\/wheres_robert_m.html","title":{"rendered":"Where’s Robert Moses When You Need Him?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Will anyone ever be able to figure out Red Hook? Unlikely<\/a>; it seems to be a case of the blue-collar businesses against the box stores against the artists against the developers against the factory owners — did we mention that everyone hates the box stores? — except for the residents of the housing projects, who want the jobs in the box stores! — yet then there are the musicians who aren’t like artists but who need cheap rent (and seem to be unaware of any other borough) and . . . and everybody hates the Jews* . . . !<\/p>\n

No, seriously, it sounds like that:<\/p>\n

Red Hook is poised to receive stores like Ikea and Fairway, million-dollar condominiums, humming factories and bustling docks, and even a pier for the 1,132-foot Queen Mary 2 and other cruise ships. Yet, its future is caught up in a battle royal.<\/p>\n

Developers want to convert waterfront warehouses and factories into apartments, even though the areas are zoned for manufacturing. But factory owners and cargo haulers fear that well-heeled apartment dwellers would not take kindly to their trucks barreling through Red Hook’s narrow cobblestone streets or their middle-of-the-night foghorns and bright lights.<\/p>\n

“You’re going to be doing something they don’t like, even if it’s interfering with a guy barbecuing on the block,” said Michael DiMarino, owner of Linda Tool and Die Corporation, a precision metal fabricator with clients like NASA and Boeing. “I don’t blame him, but we were here first.”<\/p>\n

Many factions dread the prospect of big-box stores like Ikea, which plans to build a waterfront furniture emporium with 1,500 parking spaces by 2007. Blue-collar businesses fear that Ikea’s shoppers would clog Red Hook, stalling their trucks. Homeowners worry that Ikea would shatter the quiet.<\/p>\n

Yet residents of the housing projects, whose 8,000 tenants represent three-quarters of Red Hook’s population, are eager for the 500 jobs Ikea is dangling. Dorothy Shields, 74, the president of the Red Hook Houses East Tenants Association, who has taken a liking to Ikea’s Swedish meatballs, supports the store because one of every four of the projects’ tenants is unemployed.<\/p>\n

“It’s the jobs,” she said. “I have so many people who needs jobs.”<\/p>\n

Artists and craftsmen trickling in from Dumbo and Williamsburg fear any change because they suspect they will end up priced out of another blossoming neighborhood. Madigan Shive, a 29-year-old cellist, moved from San Francisco into a rental house with three other artists.<\/p>\n

“There’s a good chance we could lose our house in the next year,” she said. “If I lose this space, I don’t know that I can stay in New York.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

*As per Tom Lehrer’s “National Brotherhood Week”<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Will anyone ever be able to figure out Red Hook? Unlikely; it seems to be a case of the blue-collar businesses against the box stores against the artists against the developers against the factory owners — did we mention that everyone hates the box stores? — except for the residents of the housing projects, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blatant_localism","category-brooklyn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}