Even as lawsuits delay construction, demolition on Dean Street creates facts on the ground (and blight)
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Soon enough, 489 Dean Street, another structurally sound row house will be demolished. Then what? Forest City Ratner will have to wait. The owners of the building just to the east are plaintiffs in the pending eminent domain case, and the owner of the adjoining two buildings has not, as far as I know, been negotiating with the developer.
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Why now? Why blight?
So why bother to demolish the buildings? Because they can. Surely it creates pressure on the neighbors--who likes living next to a demolition site and empty lot? And to some, at least, it creates facts on the ground, a situation that must be remediated by action.
In the short term, however, and perhaps in the long term, it's compounding blight, not--as is one of the stated goals of the Atlantic Yards project--removing blight.
As a Marxist-Leninist, you surely know that you have to break some eggs to make an omelet.
ReplyDeleteMr. W. doesn't know me that well.
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