Today is another cheat blog. I'm linking you to two articles about Mayor Bloomberg's plans for the Brooklyn Waterfront.
The thing is, whenever people walk through an area of Brooklyn known as DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), they notice a whole bunch of abandoned red brick buildings and always ask what they are. They are actually old Tobacco Warehouses and Empire Stores. They date as far back as 1869 and have been deteriorating since being abandoned in the 1970. The buildings are currently owned by New York State and are landmarked. Developers have seemed at a loss about what to do with the large, spacious, and beautiful buildings. Many ideas seem to come and go - shopping malls, artist colonies, restaurants.
One idea that has stuck is St. Ann's Warehouse that will be presenting pieces such as Julius Caesar presented by London's Donmar Warehouse and New York City Opera's production of "Bluebeard's Castle" this year. It has grown a lot since its inception in 1980, diversifying it's programming form all classical music to include cutting edge theatre, blues musicians, and performance art, and raising over $4 million for the building's restoration.
Mayor Bloomberg plans on revitalizing the Brooklyn waterfront. It's odd, in the boroughs of New York, waterfront property has never been the coveted property. The reason for this is it used to be all industrial warehouses. The old Tobacco Warehouses were where tobacco goods were imported and exported, as well as coffee, sugar, molasses, and illegal immigrants from Africa, South America, and The Caribbean. (The "hides" would hide in the cargo and get off the boat at the warehouses.) This did not make it coveted residential space. Now that the buildings are no longer used for that purpose, there is no reason to not make the waterfront a bustling vibrant residential area. It started with Brooklyn Bridge Park and is continuing to grow throughout other areas of DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights. Here are two articles outlining Bloomberg's plans for the Brooklyn Waterfront. They do a better job of explaining it than I ever could, so I give you to the New York Times and the Gothamist.
The New York Times
The Gothamist
No comments:
Post a Comment