The Q at Parkside

(for those for whom the Parkside Q is their hometrain)

News and Nonsense from the Brooklyn neighborhood of Lefferts and environs, or more specifically a neighborhood once known as Melrose Park. Sometimes called Lefferts Gardens. Or Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. Or PLG. Or North Flatbush. Or Caledonia (west of Ocean). Or West Pigtown. Across From Park Slope. Under Crown Heights. Near Drummer's Grove. The Side of the Park With the McDonalds. Jackie Robinson Town. Home of Lefferts Manor. West Wingate. Near Kings County Hospital. Or if you're coming from the airport in taxi, maybe just Flatbush is best.

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Wanna Make Some Noise About the Spice Factory Skyscraper?

The Q's been getting an unusual number of requests on what to do about the alarmingly tall project being proposed for the Franklin Ave Spice Factory site, one of many super big projects going up north of Empire (and soon ON Empire). This surprises me a bit, since I've been opining on this stuff for literally years now. But if this is what it takes to get people motivated, well then here we go.

The most recent info about how you, dear citizen, can get involved came in from CB9's office just a minute ago. There are a few things you can do.


  • Reach out the Botanic Garden's president Scott Medbury and tell him how you feel about towers next to the garden. Call 718-623-7200. No, you won't get through to him. Just ask for his office and leave a polite but firm message. Enough people do that, he'll know he has public support for shorter buildings.
  • Go to the ULURP meeting on the topic - Wednesday March 6 2019 - at 1185 Carroll Street (see below)
  • Prepare a statement for the Scoping Hearing (see below)
  • Send me a note that you'd like to be part of a CONSTRUCTIVE conversation with your neighborhood organization PLGNA. Hopefully we can set up a meeting soon to discuss ways to combat overdevelopment.
  • Don't use MTOPP or FLAC or any other Boyd related orgs to register your complaints, lest you associate your opinions with those most despised by the council person, other elected officials, the Garden and anyone with a sense of decency. We need constructive dialogue.



  • But here on National Michael Cohen Day, I just wanna say again...the train left the station a long time ago, and we'll be playing catch-up for years. Especially if we don't find a way to work WITH the City, not just saying no-no-no and screaming and yelling all the time. No partner likes to be treated that way. Dig?




Let this email serve as notice that the ULURP Committee Meeting, Public Hearing re: 960 Franklin Avenue Rezoning has been scheduled for Wednesday, March 06, 2019, at 7PM, to be located at Crown Gardens Community Room - 1185 Carroll Street, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11225, directly across from the Brooklyn CB9 office; please standby for an agenda.

Furthermore, a public scoping hearing for 960 Franklin Avenue has been scheduled for Tuesday, March 12th at 1:00 PM at the NYCDCP, City Planning Commission Hearing Room, 120 Broadway, Concourse Level, New York, NY.

Draft Scope of Work, Environmental Assessment Statement and scoping notice can be viewed and downloaded here: https://nycdcp.box.com/s/6thn5t6bqsqluou1qkxwwood7613q2me

The scoping notice and materials can also be found on the Dept of City Planning's website here: https://www1.nyc.gov/…/pl…/applicants/scoping-documents.page

Please contact our office should you have further inquiries. Thank you.

Unella Rhone-Perry
ULURP/Land Use Committee Chair
Brooklyn Community Board 9

2 comments:

The Q said...

So far 1500 people have read this post. And I've gotten 3 emails from people interested in finding a way to prevent the full height. Maybe there's some big effort out there (constructive!) to fight overdevelopment and under-affordability.

I get 10 times more emails when a new restaurant opens.

Conclusion: For all the hemming and hawing, I don't believe people really want to do something about outsized development. Or for that matter, they're not interested in working for more and wider new affordable housing. They "meet," form "talking committees" with cute acronyms. Meanwhile, owners are fat with equity. Same as it ever was.

There are lots of us who have been talking about the coming BIG D development for years. I"m done. And good luck. Happy to sign a petition, donate a small bit, show up at your meeting, post it on the blog.

Sometimes I wonder if people have started to think venting on Facebook is the same thing as community organizing?

I love you Lefferts. But I'm a bit underwhelmed.

Camille Acey said...

As a person who quit Facebook a year ago, I do feel like nearly everyone is on Facebook (and Twitter and Instagram) chitter-chattering away to no consequence.

To quote my good friend Eleanor Finley, "The tragedy of our time is that people do not know what it means to be truly political."

I will definitely re-circulate this post to the people who I think care, but I think this whole system is concocted to disenfrachise regular people, and unfortunately it is succeeding.