Ignoring the Waterfront That We Have

Tom Stoelker in The Architects Newspaper:

Now that Michael Marrella, who guided the massive waterfront plan, Vision 2020, into being last spring, has been bumped up to Director of Waterfront and Open Space Planning Division, he has miles and miles of shoreline to divvy up between two very different users—the public and industry. Charged with both implementing public access to the water for quality of life uses while also supporting a working waterfront, Marella made his position clear: “We’re not looking to relocate or displace industrial uses.”

The article notes that Con Ed is close to a deal with Brooklyn Bridge Park that will allow the Park to acquire a 5-acre site adjacent to the Con Ed plant in Dumbo. No mention is made of the two Con Ed-owned locations in Williamsburg – the transformer station to the south of 184 Kent and the former BRT power plan site just south of Division. Also not mentioned is why the City doesn’t development the parkland it has already created at Bushwick Inlet and along the Greenpoint waterfront, or why they City doesn’t develop land it already owns (and does not use for industrial purposes) like that at “Williamsburg Bridge Park”.