Councilman Threatens Ocean on the Park Historic District
According to an email that went out last night from the Historic Districts Council, the Ocean on the Park Historic District, which has received broad support at every step of the landmarking process, is in jeopardy of being sabotaged at the last minute by Councilman Mathieu Eugene. Calling the situation a “preservation emergency,” HDC reports…
According to an email that went out last night from the Historic Districts Council, the Ocean on the Park Historic District, which has received broad support at every step of the landmarking process, is in jeopardy of being sabotaged at the last minute by Councilman Mathieu Eugene. Calling the situation a “preservation emergency,” HDC reports that the Councilman “seems to have been swayed by the anti-preservation rhetoric of one property owner, who has put their property up for sale and has marketed it specifically as a development site.” A letter-writing campaign is already under way to make Eugene realize how many constituents and other Brooklyn residents he will permanently alienate if he stands in the way of this Historic District getting signed into law. You may call his district office at 718-287-8762, fax to 718-287-8917 or email mathieu.eugene@council.nyc.gov. We’ve posted some text on the jump that you can easily cut and paste into a quick email. Please take one minute to do so.
UPDATE: We’re hearing that the Council Member has reversed his opposition to the Historic District. Wooohoooo! Hopefully there will be something in the papers in the morning providing some more detail on how the decision played out and what role the email campaign played.
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Dear Council Member Eugene,
I am distressed to learn that you are contemplating voting against the landmarking of the Ocean on the Park Historic District in its entirety and urge you to reconsider. A large number of longtime community residents have spent years working to preserve the integrity of this important architectural grouping of buildings; they, and the many thousands of Brooklyn voters for whom the borough’s history is of primary concern, would feel deeply betrayed by any move on your part to undermine this effort. Please do not compromise the trust the public placed in you by bowing to the wishes of one greedy property owner over the long-term interests of the community.
Sincerely,
My wife is from Brooklyn and partly because of an early interest in its architecture I became a preservationist. Your emergency is one of the reasons I wrote the strategic guide to getting districts designated, a step-by-step hard-nosed political game plan: “The Politics of Historic Districts: A Primer for Grassroots Preservation.” I’m not trying to sell it to you here; it’s not allowed by your terms. You can read most of it on Google books. But I suggest your surprise at last minute “politics” should have been wholly expected and there are great defensive comebacks for the kinds of issues recently raised–all of which I tackle. You should also at this stage make this about community rather than preservation. I just got back from doing a workshop in Wisconsin for similarly embattled folks. Well, enough of me. Good luck!
Well, unfortunately for him (fortunately for the rest of us!) — sorry, still doing taxes!
Matieu Eugene has caved and will formally reverse his earlier position according to folks in the know. He know believes that all of the homes should be included in the proposed district.
Unfortunately?? Is that REALLY what you meant to write Babs?
Unfortunately, slick, most people disagree with you — and I hope the LPC does as well!
The brick buildings on the northern edge of the proposed district do not merit landmark status.
How on earth did we wind up stuck with this guy?
lol!! It’s Brooklyn!
Matieu Eugene was hand-picked as Yvette Clark’s successor after her previous chosen one (Rickie Tulloch) pissed her off by supporting the renaming of part of Church Ave. Bob Marley Blvd. That guaranteed him the election basically as all Yvette’s (ie. Una’s) people fell into line. He is also the first Haitian American elected to city office.
However, throughout the term of his office he has repeatedly shown himself to be completely clueless about most issues in his district — let’s hope he’ll be out this time.
I sent my e-mail out last night, after Bob posted the HDC’s message on our neighborhood listserve (and I’ve already received one snippy response from someone on the list who wasn’t happy that I mentioned in my e-mail that “people in the 40th District support this,” as he doesn’t. Given the other comments on the listserve I’d imagine he is in a very small minority).
Let’s hope that the LPC remembers that the ONLY people who testified against the landmarking of ALL Ocean on the Park houses were the owner of 187 Ocean, her lawyer, her mother-in-law, and Mathieu Eugene’s representative, vs. about 20 pro-landmarking speakers.
Eugene is utterly worthless. How on earth did we wind up stuck with this guy?