Saturday's Tower Protest Weak and Misguided

Last Saturday, around noon, Carrie and I wandered past the site of the Concerned Residents of Greater Prospect Lefferts Gardens protest of the planned Lincoln Road tower. There were maybe a dozen or so people holding posters and beating on drums.

The 'Concerned Residents' claim that the tower will lead to higher rents and landlords harassing long-term tenants out of their apartments. The effect of the tower on rents is, at best, indirect and likely negligible; its effect on other landlords is irrelevant. For one thing, the building is likely to be mostly--if not entirely--condos. That means a possible net change of ZERO rental units. If the building is going to have any impact on the housing market it will be to slow the appreciation of value of properties for sale. Whereas there is currently a dearth of properties in move-in condition for sale in the neighborhood, there will suddenly be a burst of units available in various sizes.

Rising rents are a problem for some in PLG, just as they are in every urban neighborhood in a period when people are flocking to cities. PLG will continue to see rising rents whether or not this tower goes up. Tenant advocacy--and preserving the existing rent stabilized and rent-controlled apartments in our neighborhood--is a much more fruitful avenue for addressing the problem than trying to stop a single building that will itself displace nobody.

The real objective behind the formation of CRGPLG seems to be stopping a tall building from going up near Lefferts Manor. If that means shifting blame for the basic economics of supply and demand, exaggerated warnings about the coming avian holocaust, or stoking fears about gentrification, so be it.

It may all be moot anyway. As the protest was going on, a backhoe was busily moving about the site. It was probably getting the site ready for the foundation to be poured so that the developer can lock in the current zoning rules and make the next protest even more toothless.

Related:
Hawthorne Street's position on the Tower
First CRGPLG meeting recap
The first tower rendering

Comments

[LM]

I remember when my family moved from Brooklyn to Staten Island in the mid 60's. The common cry was "tear down the bridge behind us, all of the people that are coming over after me are ruining the Staten Island I moved to".

PLG has been "undiscovered" for a long time and it looks like the covers are about to be blown off. I can't think of a single neighborhood in NYC that succesfully stopped change from happening. Certainly zoning can change and building heights can (and should) be held in check but that is highly unlikely in this case and new people are on their way. Perhaps this tower is balanced by a lot of "low price", multi-family houses being built in the area.

[Brooklyn Boy]

Thanks for the report on the protest. Given what transpired at the meeting earlier, I guess we shouldn't be too surprised at the turnout or lack thereof.

In the meantime, I think CRGPLG should direct its concern in more fruitful directions. One example is the cadre of young people who still loiter on Flatbush Avenue and Lincoln Road to sell drugs.

[Iron Nick]

I used to live in PLG up until a month ago, and if I was still living there, I would be glad to see that eyesore of a building next to the subway being replaced with the glass tower. I agree with Brooklyn Boy about the loitering kids...they probably aren't talking about last Sunday's sermon on midnights during the week. Maybe they should be hired as construction workers for the tower, and then they'll be too tired after a long day's work on the girders to hang outside at all hours of the night!

[adrock]

This is a silly and mean-spirited post. You mock the central tenets of opposition the Concerned Residents provide through ad hominen attack. It serves no purpose on a sometimes purposeful blog. This tower, good or bad, will have a major impact on the community as a whole. I disagree with your position, but watching this blog attempt to silence differing opinions through mockery and dismissal is dissapointing.

[Charles Star]

I'm not attempting to silence anyone, adrock. (I posted your comment as soon as I saw it was pending.) "Silencing opinions through mockery and dismissal" doesn't exist - among thicker-skinned people it is referred to as "open disagreement." All this post did was state my opinion - about both the tower and its detractors.

I don't pretend to speak for the neighborhood, just for myself (and sometimes for the blog). Anyone is free to disagree with me here in the comments (as long as it is coherent), with drums in front of the construction site or in a petition to the city.

If all it takes to silence CRGPLG is my "mockery" then the opposition is even weaker than I realized.

[babs]

No worries, Charles, you will not silence CRGPLG. And not only are we working on the tower issue, but also have committees targeting such problems as the lack of any sort of community facility that might offer something for these teenagers to do other than hanging out and selling drugs, so we're thinking in that direction, too -- the tower has just been the most visible and urgent issue, considering the June 30th deadline that just passed (without any foundation being completed or even excavated from my recent look at the site from the elevator passageway at the Prospect Park subway station). And considering that very few of our members live in Lefferts Manor, I don't think anyone is really thinking about protecting that enclave alone from a tall building, but rather our entire neighborhood from an out-of-scale and inappropriate structure. And the relationship between that building and rising rents is simple (assuming, of course, that the apartments there sell well): successful condominium sales = increase incentives for owners of exiting rental properties to push out long-term tenants to either increase rents for people newly attracted to the neighborhood and/or convert their properties to condos as well. Higher selling prices for properties will also mean higher rents in general. I love this neighborhood and I am all for more apartments available for sale and rent here -- I just want to ensure that they are available to different income levels and that people already living here can continue to afford to do so.

Additionally and unfortunately, there aren't any "low price" multi-family houses being built in the area -- the hideous fedders-style crap going up all over is not priced any lower than anything else -- and actually, these builders generally prey on moderate and lower-income buyers, often offering 100% financing, knowing that the buyers will fall behind in their payments and they can foreclose on them, do whatever repairs and repainting is necessary, and sell the house again to another unsuspecting person. Other new buildings, such as the condos on Maple St. between New York and Nostrand Aves, while less expensive that apartments in some other areas, are still priced well beyond existing co-op properties in the neighborhood.

[Eli Lamb]

You seem to be forgetting that this is not economics 101; A building like the one going up on Lincoln road affects nearly everything about its neighborhood. Luxury condos attract people that have the extra cash to shell out for, say, expensive groceries and restaurants. Local businesses will catch on to this fact, and begin to raise their prices. Eventually, the more transient of residents will move, not due to costly rents, but costly goods and services. With every turnover, a landlord can and will raise the rent to match the general affluence of the neighborhood; a vicious cycle is born. Your callous remarks and near-complete absence of understanding of this issue are characteristic of the mindset it takes for a neighborhood to go from containing a diverse range of inhabitants to a community of disgusting yuppies. You should be ashamed.

[Jeanne]

Please point out one neighborhood in Brooklyn that has only upscale gourmet stores as you envision for PLG. I can't think of any myself.
If one luxury building could make every single storefront throughout the entire neighborhood go expensive gourmet, then Keys and Associated would not still be located in Park Slope and doing totally fine. As are the many bodegas there. PLG has an Associated Food on Nostrand and it isn't going anywhere. Neither would Western Beef, it's staying. And of course sadly we'll always have the fast food restaurants on Empire.

I think the fact low income people often eat badly and do not have access to better foods in their neighborhoods, is tragic. The rise in childhood diabetes in that demographic is massive. I have a friend in the CDC who is working on that very issue. I think it's disgusting to declare organic produce/meats and healthful eating as some kind of elitist "yuppie" thing to do, and attach a stigma to it like that.