The city announced plans which may potentially eliminate the need for new housing on Pier 6 of Brooklyn Bridge Park, yet would still drop housing in Brooklyn Heights. The Cobble Hill Association has long fought for an inclusive, community oriented park without private housing, not piecemeal plans which pits neighborhood against neighborhood.

Our friends at Cobble Hill Blog covered some of the story, as did the NY Times.  However, the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund released a very strong press release in response, with Cobble Hill Association President offering these words –

“We deeply regret this inevitable result of the Mayor and the Brooklyn Heights Association’s preferred ‘housing only’ alternative to financing the park,” said Cobble Hill Association President Roy Sloane. “It is especially sad given how hard community activists and former Borough President Howard Golden fought to secure this Con Ed brownfield for a park to serve the residents of DUMBO, Vinegar Hill and the Farragut Houses. Seeing park land given up to development especially when so many viable funding mechanisms were identified in the recent “Committee for Alternative to Housing ” conducted by Bay Area Consultants, is especially disturbing.”

Click for full BK Bridge Park Defense Fund press release.