Best Comment Of The Day: Have A Little Faith!

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Anonymous has left the following comment on the post "What Would Frederic Olmsted Have Thought? At Second Public Hearing For Alternatives To Housing In Brooklyn Bridge Park":

I am opposed to building housing in the park. All park development at the park should stop immediately. We do not need a park with a public budget of 16 million a year. The planing and administrators of this absurd idea should be seriously questioned. We do not need overblown destination incentives to bring city dwellers to open space. The studies that say we do are perpetuated by those planners that will profit from such studies. Open up the spaces yet to be developed and give them over to an array of community enterprises and creativity. Let these groups be responsible for maintenance by their labors and fund raising projects plot by plot. Here are some ideas of who might use and maintain these plots for all of our enjoyment. Community gardeners, national and local environmental groups for use as pilot projects, education and fund raising, Brooklyn educational institutions including local public schools, St Francis College, Brooklyn Tech, LIU, Packer, St Annes, Friends, Little league sports groups of all kinds (how about a ballpark with an outfield fence with corporate and small business sponsorship), Brooklyn Botanic Gardens,Brooklyn Museum,Brooklyn Childrens Musum ect. This list only begins to scratch the surface of groups who would use and cherish the opportunities inherent in this.

Drop the unpopular notion of goverment funding accept in most basic sense (garbage collection, security etc) and tap at least in part into corporate sponsorship. Wallstreet looms directly on the horizon and we all know they have reputations that need serious polishing. Why not ask them to fund maintenance of a pier/park?

The idea of a perfect park and the procrastination that seems to have accompanied it, should be put aside. Let it be a grass roots development even if a patchwork of results. In fact the patchwork and individual quality of the park could be it owns charm and popular appeal. How much of recent Brooklyn has successfully bloomed/developed in this way.
Have a little faith in this thriving community to be stewards of that beautiful open space.

Vince in Carroll Gardens

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