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| Deputy Inspector David A. Wall |
"We learn of a nearby Romani village in the 1930s. It was the largest gathering of Romani in the US, with the people actually building houses. They were Ludar from Romania, noted for training bears for circuses, including the WPA Circus. The village was condemned and razed to make way for highway access to the 1939 World’s Fair. The video features an interview with a woman who grew up in the village and who remembers having to move when she was 6.The video is not so much a mourning of things past nor a nostalgia, although both those elements are present. It is more about the resiliency of a community remarkably rich in nationalities and ethnicity, many of the people on the first rung of immigration; and it is about residential neighbors living in close proximity with active industries.With development threatening from all sides, it is not to be idealized by any means; it is a precarious dynamic mix."
Dear Neighbors,
Many of you have benefited from the Prospect Park Tennis Center whether through leagues, lessons, afterschool programs, summer camp, or special aces. But this could change as the Prospect Park Alliance's concession contract is up.
The Alliance is a 501(c)(3) and any profits made by the Tennis Center are put back into the maintenance of the parade ground and into the center.
What does this mean for you?
This means the Prospect Park Alliance must compete with outside organizations bidding for it, including those that are for-profit and with a known record for substantially increasing rates. We are concerned about significant rate increases that will reduce the access to tennis for many of our neighbors.Additionally, there is no guarantee that the new vendor will keep the current pros employed, many who are our neighbors and reflect the vibrancy and diversity of this community.What Can You Do?Could you take two minutes and sign the linked petition to support the Prospect Park Alliance’s bid to continue to run the Tennis Center?1. Keep the rates affordable2. Continue to serve the community and keep tennis accessible3. Ensure that any vendor who wins the contract is a not-for profit 501(c)(3) organization with a mission that benefits Brooklyn and our park4. Ensure the employment of current staff who not only teach but are our neighbors.Amelia Costigan
Dear Kensington/Stable Brooklyn friends,
Like many of you, I was very distressed to read about this. The owners did not come to talk to me or my office about it in advance. As you may remember, we invited them to attend last summer's community meeting.
While we had representatives from the stables and from the 57 Caton site (next door to the stables), the owners of the 72 Caton site (i.e., the Calvary Cathedral parking lot) did not attend. We had not heard any more from them when we read this article in the paper.
We are reaching out to them again now to push them to present to the community on their plans.
It looks like they are trying to do the project "as-of-right" (i.e., without a rezoning). Self-storage is an allowable usage in a C8-2 zone . (And, for what it's worth, while C8-2 does mean 2.0 FAR*, that is not the same as a two-story building; depending on the lot & building size, it could be possible to build 8 stories.)
That does not mean, of course, that what they are proposing complies with the zoning automatically. We are reaching out to the Department of Buildings, to push them to carefully & fully scrutinize the project, and my office will look at it as well. If there are technical, building-code problems with their proposal, we will work hard to find them.
As we discussed at the meeting this summer, we had assumed that the owner/developer would likely seek a zoning change to propose a residential development (as, for example, the owners of 57 Caton are doing).
At that meeting, many of you made clear that your top priority was, understandably, to preserve the lot-line windows of the neighbors at 346 Coney Island Avenue.
I agreed to push hard for this and to only be open to any rezoning if it addressed this issue. Because the owners never reached out to us, we never had the chance for that conversation.
In the coming days, we will stay in close touch and look forward to working with you to achieve the best possible outcome. And we also hope to know more soon about what is taking place with regard to the stables and the 57 Caton site as well.
Brad
The parking lot at 72 Caton Place--formerly owned by Calvary Cathedral of Praise, located at 58 Caton Place--might be converted to an 8-story, 109-foot-tall CubeSmart self-storage facility. Permits were filed with the Department of Buildings on January 4, 2018.
The facility would open in 2020.
The location is mapped as a C8-2 district. All commercial uses (except large, open amusements) as well as certain community facilities are permitted in C8 districts. Introducing a self-storage facility there wouldn't require rezoning.
Suzuki Capital and Gothic Development Group had bought the property from the church but later sold it to the current developer, JEMB Realty. Suzuki had intended it to be a mixed residential and retail building.
The property is located between Coney Island Avenue and E. 8th Street.
For additional details, see the articles in New York YIMBY and Windsor Terrace Patch.
