by Emma Davey For years, the CitiStorage building on Kent Avenue has been a blight on Williamsburg’s waterfront, a husk collecting dust as shiny new high-rise buildings pop up left and right.Â
It’s finally coming down.
We announced the news back in March, when the NYC Parks Department finally broke ground on an additional parcel of Bushwick Inlet Park, but we’re happy to confirm that it is, in fact, currently in the works. Greenpointerswas recently invited…
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Greenpointers has covered Greenpoint & Williamsburg since 2007 — community boards, rezoning fights, local businesses, and the people whose lives and work give the neighborhood its character. Local news is collapsing across the country, but we're still here: independently owned, no corporate backing, no paywall. 18+ years, 280k+ monthly readers and followers, funded by the community we serve.
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Thank you for this story. In it, I learned that it was Mayor Bloomberg who was responsible for providing for “affordable housing” in the neighborhood, via his plan back in 2005. It wasn’t Lincoln Restler, who’s been quoted in news lately bragging about his district providing “the most affordable housing anywhere in the city!” (similar words, I’m paraphrasing). Number 1 – you have no responsibility for this (on paper, at least) – your district is benefiting from Mr. Bloomberg’s work nearly a decade ago. Number 2 – it’s hardly “affordable housing” – a small percentage of the high rises on the water offer a few units via lottery (and of course they’re impossible to access, even for this neighborhood’s long time residents) and that’s about it. It’s impossible to find anything in Greenpoint b/w complete trash and a $5200/month, amenities NOT included white box (ie studio, or what they call a “small” one bedroom) in one of the high rises – that sums up housing availability in this neighborhood. So you don’t get bragging rights for “affordable housing” … when it comes time to vote for community board members, those of us who live here and deal with this will remember that.
Bragging rights? I see tou’re not a fam of Couciman rrestler, but, he figure aren’t wrong. It’s the unrealistic DEFINITION of affordable hosing that’s the problem, and the State is heavily involved in determining that. As for blame, it was Bloomberg’s rezoning plan which opened the floodgates for greedy real estate developers to stampede Into Greenpoint — causing rents skyrocket for everyone else living in the neighborhood. Of course the same real estate developers will say that is unaffordable for THEM to create truly affordable housing. It’s all about power & money, and ordinary people without money or power are disposable pawns who get screwed in the process. What else is new?