(photo credit: emptyhighway on flickr) You can call me an idealist, you can call me naïve, hell, you can call me a N.I.M.B.Y for all I care, but one thing is for sure: something is rotten in this town of ours.
We have a mayor who is hell-bent on development without adding sufficient new infrastructure. We have a building's department stretched to its limit, unable to keep up with all the reports of unsafe, unauthorized construction going on around the five boroughs of New York City. We have no-reveal deals struck by our Building Department Commissioner with rogue architects like Robert Scarano and we have self-certification. We have sweetheart deals put together by politicians and developers. At the same time, there are threats of eminent domain used against home-owners.
Quite a combination! This would make one exciting movie if it were not reality.
I know what you are going to say: " It's always been like that. Money makes the world go round, Ms. Pardon Me! ." Well, yes, but only until the residents of this city say stop! There are so many voices out there saying exactly that. It seems like every neighborhood, especially here in Brooklyn, has a group that is demanding some sanity from the city when it comes to developing new housing stock.
Residents are banding together, documenting and protesting out-of context construction and dangerous building sites. Now I guarantee you that the city would listen if all these groups banded together, spoke with one voice. How about the creation of one organization to include all neighborhood groups? Just a thought, dear reader, just a thought.
Related reading: Call To Arms: Over-development Foes Anxious For Action ( Carroll Gardens Courier)
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