Monday Links

has anyone offered any rationale for why the NYTimes does a, “Red Hook – The new, Next Best Neighborhood” story once a week. For, like, the last five years, like clockwork every Sunday?

I’ve lived in both neighborhoods and I think both developments are a problem and both communities were sold out by the powers that be. But since RH is low-density and low-income the IKEA doesn’t get a lot of grief on this site. Just yuppies psyched for cheap furniture who could care less about anything not happening in their own back yard. And to the person who was psyched not to have to take a shuttle bus anymore–how do you think you’re going to get to Red Hook Ikea considering the closest subway is about a mile away? I wonder if they put an IKEA in Atlantic Center if all the IKEA proponents would suddenly be crying about the traffic influx and the way the big box was going to ruin the neighborhood character. Just because RH doesn’t have a preponderance of brownstone housing stock doesn’t mean it doesn’t have character and charm and a neighborhood feel that won’t be ruined by the big blue and yellow suburban style, soulless box they’re about to plunk down right next to Farm and the ballfields and the civil-war era warehouses and the WPA pool that’s under landmark consideration. If Brooklyn was smart it would learn from the way these individual incursions have gone and the constituents would band together with a larger voice that goes beyond just the wants and needs of a single neighborhood to try and direct a vision for the borough as a whole.

Well this Nets fans and Red Hook resident is thrilled with AY. However, I believe Ikea will stand as the worst zoning mistake of the past 30 years. Moreover, it will drive out the few remaining industrial and martime uses left in RH. Enjoy your particle board furniture!