Somehow I can’t help but to wonder what Martin C. Pedersen would think if this stadium proposal landed in his back yard (“Brooklyn’s Proposed Stadium: Not Such a Bad Idea”). While I certainly think there could be worse things to look out on than a Frank Gehry building, I’d rather not have my home taken away be eminent domain. It all sounds so easy when Mr. Pedersen floats phrases about “displaced families” being “fairly compensated and properly relocated.” How would he like to be “displaced” and forcibly “relocated?” How would he like a billionaire developer coming in and taking his home?
Mr. Pedersen tries to convince his readers that the neighborhood wants to keep the rail yards as is. This could not be further from the truth. People here would love to see some sort of development over the rail yards: perhaps a park, or perhaps some nice buildings in the same scale as the surroundings. What we don’t want is the city and state giving away hundreds of millions of dollars in land, bonds, and tax breaks to a rich developer in yet another stadium scam. We don’t want local businesses and family homes bulldozed to make room for a congestion-causing nightmare, no matter who designs it.
I can appreciate Mr. Pedersen’s point: that the neighborhood should try to make the best of the situation with a good designer. But I, for one, hope this can be accomplished without tearing down some beautiful apartment buildings and constructing massive towers to cast shadows on the neighborhood.
It would behoove Mr. Pedersen to do a bit more research on the actual requests of the community, as well as into the true economic ramifications of previous stadium developments before he passes off the current activism as “stale…battle cries from a previous war.”
Maxwell Knight
Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
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