Marty DK's Fifth Avenue Housing Project
Since it was proposed earlier this year, the supported housing facility that the Fifth Avenue Committee wants to build on a municipal parking lot on 16th Street and 5th Avenue in Park Slope has been dividing the neighborhood. Of particular concern and debate among residents has been the composition of the potential residents. In an…
Since it was proposed earlier this year, the supported housing facility that the Fifth Avenue Committee wants to build on a municipal parking lot on 16th Street and 5th Avenue in Park Slope has been dividing the neighborhood. Of particular concern and debate among residents has been the composition of the potential residents. In an unexpected turn of events, Borough Prez Marty Markowitz has come out against the project in its current form. In order for the Beep to get on board with the project, the site’s zoning would have to be amended to accommodate families, including seniors, within the project; the role of the community advisory board would have to be restructured to his liking; the residential entrance to the building would have to be moved to Fifth Avenue; and parking garage would have to be incorporated into the building. We’re unclear on whether this is a death knell for the project or just a bump in the road. Can anyone comment on the ramifications?
FAC Development at 575 Fifth Avenue [Brownstoner] GMAP
Nobody here mention how deceiving this project actually started, MICHELLE DE LA UZ actually collected signatures by the corner of 5th ave and 16th st. asking support from the neighbourhood for LOW INCOME HOUSING. (?) As someone mention, take a stroll by Warren St. and just imagine living here, I actually live on 13th st. where they have one of the CINDERELLA project, this is for housing low income folks,most of the people living there are very nice, but the others make my neighbours and my family living hell by the screaming,loud music,profanities and destruction of our properties…(I got video tapes)So there it goes for all this people here who call the victims of MICHELLE DE LA UZ elitist by just being plain ignorant, those are the real NIMBYs.
Nobody here mention how deceiving this project actually started, MICHELLE DE LA UZ actually collected signatures by the corner of 5th ave and 16th st. asking support from the neighbourhood for LOW INCOME HOUSING. (?) As someone mention, take a stroll by Warren St. and just imagine living here, I actually live on 13th st. where they have one of the CINDERELLA project, this is for housing low income folks,most of the people living there are very nice, but the others make my neighbours and my family living hell by the screaming,loud music,profanities and destruction of our properties…(I got video tapes)So there it goes for all this people here who call the victims of MICHELLE DE LA UZ elitist by just being plain ignorant, those are the real NIMBYs.
16th Street Resident, Or is it anonymouse? Whatever! Excuse me for interrupting your duel with whoever. I’d like to step in and entertain the voyeur in you.
I am a long time resident, a professional and a mother who has many concerns about the way our neighborhood has been treated. I’ve been following this story and this blog and am now beginning to see the light. You and your friends have every right to ask questions. You do not have the right to pass out fliers that highlight your opinion in an attempt to strike fear in others. It’s one thing to ask questions out of concern it’s a different thing to ask question which inflame or to only be satisfied when you get the answers that you want. It’s as if everyone who is not completely in agreement with you is being cross examined at the witness stand by an over zealous lawyer. That’s not “looking for facts”. That’s looking for trouble or a specific answer or out come.
I have taught my children to be tolerant and that sometimes in life you won’t get the answers that you’d like. Your web site and your fliers are inflammatory and will do nothing to help this Community in the long term. You do, however, pose an interesting question. What will happen in 2 years? People like you, are already hoping for failure so as to justify your position, while others (many who have similar concerns) are hoping for some thing good to come of all this. If this project is a success we all win, if it fails we all lose. That’s the difference between you and the rest of us. You hide and stir the shit in the background while playing both sides against the middle. Hoping to either benefit from a successful outcome or gloat at it’s failure.
You have your rights and so do the rest of us. That includes anyone who may be moving into the FAC building at 575 Fifth. They, to, will have the same protection of the law that you revel in. To ask how long it will take to evict someone is an absurd question. Go ask a Judge in housing court and see what he will tell you. You do not have the right to make those decisions or to demand a time line. Talk about intolerance. How would you like it if someone arbitrarily decided to deny you of your rights to due process. You shouldn’t be passing judgment on others. If you want to live in a place were someone can decide who, what, where and when others can move in, you might want to move to a gated community. Or maybe a prison. This is still a free country and even people who you don’t like have rights.
You can say what you want – That’s your right – But you do not have the right to impose your opinions and prejudices on everyone else who lives in the area.
Finally I’d like to say that many of us are not “Gung ho” for this or any project, but we are satisfied with what FAC has done and continues to do. On the other hand we are very displeased to know that people like you want to “regurgitate” your elitist and bigoted views.
It is amazing to see the names that are being thrown at the residents who have questions about this project. If you are willing to give the FAC a blank check to do anything they wish that is your business.
The people who have to live near the proposed facility have unanswered questions. At the 3 previous rushed meetings that started this process the FAC has either not answered questions or given vague assurances that they will resolve the matter at some later date.
Have any of you spoken with the neighbors at the Warren Street Facility?
I have. Many of them are not as happy with the FAC as some on this blog are. I keep hearing how the community advisory board is going to handle any problems with the community but can one person here explain how the board is going to work? Why wasn’t it already put in place? I hear about screening but can anyone explain the screening process? Anyone? We know 60% of the people in the facility will have mental disabilities. What will the FAC do if someone stops taking their medication?
It is true that some tenants may just be depressed but it is also true that some may have schizophrenia or other serious mental disorders. Do we know for sure? Can anyone tell me? Some of these people had issues with drugs. What happens if they become active in addiction again? (Before Mr. Me-thinks states how we don’t know if condo owners are doing the same thing I submit that a condo owner or home owner who is a drug user will probably be defaulting on his mortgage long before someone is removed from this SRO) If someone becomes a problem in the community how will it be resolved? All these questions are valid questions that have not been answered by anything approaching a detailed manner. The names that some people are calling other community members who want more information is alarming to me. The only intolerance I see is on this and other blogs. It is intolerance is for anyone who has a different outlook than what the FAC wants. If your neighbors are fearful then help them understand don’t belittle them for speaking their mind. You want to know who we are and what our agenda is? Are you kidding me? We are your neighbors who have invested in this community with our blood and sweat. Excuse us if we don’t take the FAC’s talking points and go silently into the sunset. If you don’t agree with someone is your only strategy to attack them personally? It will be very interesting to come back to these blogs a year or two after the SRO is built and see how things turned out.
I am a resident on the block and have personally contacted the FAC. They sent me a nice picture of the proposed facility and a one page pamphlet. If I am wrong for wanting more information than that that, I don’t know what to say to anyone. Once this facility is built it is there for good. All the people who are so gung ho for this project better hope the FAC delivers because I think they are just regurgitating FAC talking points rather than truly looking for facts. I went to each FAC meeting in the last month and gave them the benefit of the doubt. I don’t think they have given us enough info and wish they would be more forth coming. Does that make me a bad person? Who is being intolerant now?
I do not consider myself to be an unreasonable person but do feel myself to be a charitable person. I think there are issues with how this project was pushed through without input from the residents. I and many of my neighbors support affordable housing on our block, or any block. It is truly the fact that 39 studio apartments (less than 400 square feet) will be the only type of units in the building. It just doesn’t fit with the existing community at all which is very family oriented. The plan doesn’t make sense in its current form.
as a single person with no kids who rents her apartment, i have to laugh at jeremy’s comment that people who own property and have kids “think a little differently” about “things”. just because you don’t “think differently” doesn’t mean you’re RIGHT. new york is a city where renters are equally vested in their neighborhoods and livelihoods, and i’m pretty sure that the “owners” of 2 and 3 family homes wouldn’t find them nearly as affordable without our rental incomes to support their mortgages. people who live in studio apartments (low income or other) aren’t discouraged from planting roots or starting families – they just move when they decide to expand. the funny thing about roots – you need to water them and feed them to make them grow, and that’s just what supportive housing does for its residents.
Hey another Anonymous with an inferiority complex,
First let me amend my remark “many of the people who are buy the luxury condo’s”
You should really stop with the arrogance remarks because it’s wearing thin. It shows your true paranoia and who you really are. If you really want to hide you should be careful what you say about others. Any lawyer will tell you that you should not develop a pattern of hypocrisy when spewing your venom.
My2cents
What a stupid judgmental comment. “People are either buying on speculation or will be foreclosed” What the hell do you know? IT is insulting and arrogant. Just for that comment alone, I cannot seriously consider anything else you write.
Jeremy,
You, unlike many who are opposed to this project, sound like a very reasonable person. With that in mind I take what you say very seriously. Just the same I think you are making some big mistakes in your thought process.
“Roots” – I do not believe that the people who are overpaying for luxury condo’s, will be planting any “roots”.
Many have bought on speculation and others will end up being foreclosed. So the roots issue doesn’t hold much water.
As for changes to the project (Amended)-What changes would you like? The City and State are the ones that have determined how to allocate the money to be used on this piece of Property. Do we really want to waste many more years and Tax dollars to try to please everyone. Just look at the World Trade Center- 6 years and thanks to City and State, and private interests we still have a big hole in the ground. FAC unlike any City, State or private Developer, has a tremendous track record of doing well by the Community.
The last thing I want is for that property to be left to in the hands of the City, State or a private Developer.
End of story