Civics and Urban Life

ANGER AT PARK SLOPER’S SHORT SIGHTEDNESS

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Here’s one Park Slopers response to the recent One Way No Way controversy. I was just waiting for charges of NIMBYism (NOT IN MY BACK YARD). Yes, it’s true. Most Park Slopers stood on the sidelines for the Atlantic Yards debate.  This is in today’s Brooklyn Paper:

To the editor,

The proposal to convert Sixth and Seventh avenues to one way, has made me furious (“7th Avenue Express,” March 17).

My
anger, though, is not directed at the Department of Transportation or
Bruce Ratner, but instead at my fellow Park Slopers. Had the Slope
mobilized in 2004, when Atlantic Yards was in its infancy, we might
never have been at this point.

How clearly I remember the
reaction to those passing out brochures against Atlantic Yards at the
St. Patrick’s Day Parade in 2004. The comments I heard, consistently,
were “It’s so far away from here”; “It’ll be great for our
neighborhood,” and “We don’t live in that part of the Slope.” Instead,
the response in those critical first few months was anemic at best —
“negligence” and “apathy” are more apt terms.

Now that traffic
pattern changes are coming for the arena — as we all knew they would —
people are getting off their arses and starting to notice that Atlantic
Yards is going to destroy our quality of life. Did it need to take
three years to figure that out?

Shame on Park Slope — a place full of smart, vocal and active citizens — for letting it get this far.

Rob Underwood, Park Slope

2 thoughts on “ANGER AT PARK SLOPER’S SHORT SIGHTEDNESS”

  1. Many apologies to Pastor Martin Niemöller
    When Ratner, Gargano, Markowitz created the MetroTech
    I remained silent;
    what do I know about a MetroTech?
    When Ratner constructed that antiseptic dark Mall,
    I remained silent;
    I was not going to be shopping at that mall, anyway.
    When Ratner came for the blighted area called
    Prospect Heights.
    I did not speak out;
    I’m a Sloper!
    When the DOT threatened to ruin MY PARK SLOPE,
    I used my resources and savviness to stop this travesty.
    Mission accomplished. I can go back to my insular little world.

  2. AWESOME LETTER, Rob! I, too, a Boerum Hiller, heard the same “let them eat cake” tone from Park Slopers (and Carroll Gardeners) whenever I broached the AY development last year or the year before. It’s almost enough to make me write a letter in support of one-way 6th & 7th Avenues to take some of the pressure off 4th Avenue. All right, not almost at all.

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