Oh I’m sure this Ikea in Red Hook thing is pissing an enormous amount of people off. I, however, am not one of them. I’m psyched that the country’s largest will be right here. One B61 bus trip away.
This is a good thing. Red Hook should be happy to get this. Five years ago the neighborhood was a wasteland. Now it’s getting itself on the map. It’s hip, it’s trendy. But calm yourself down Red Hook, you’re not as hip and trendy as you think. You still need some people willing to walk the streets at night other than starving artists and wild packs of dogs. Ikea keeps your industrial vibe intact but brings with it real, live people. People who may come back and check out your small burgeoning area going on. People who own cars cause God knows you guys got screwed out of a subway.
You’ve got yourself a Fairway, a water taxi to Governor’s Island (though I don’t really see the use of going there more than once), a portside museum, and heck there are even cruise ships coming to you. I personally think Ikea fits in perfectly.
Mmmmm, can you smell the Swedish Meatballs?