Non-Profit Community Center in Dumbo Sparks Controversy ...
Eric Shapiro - NY Press - 8/30/2010
Park 51 (or Cordoba House, Ground Zero Mosque or whatever you want to call it) isn’t the only community center creating controversy this summer. Park officials submitted a request on Wednesday to turn the historic Tobacco Warehouse located in Dumbo into a self-sustaining community center, The Brooklyn Paper reports.
“The objective is to create a financially self-sustaining model for … the facility—without subsidy from Brooklyn Bridge Park for development, construction or ongoing operations,” the proposal said. The community center would support itself through a wide variety of lessons and seminars in education, civic programming and the arts.
All this may sound nice, but it’s not quite so simple. Opponents of the facility are concerned that the not-for-profit facility will make it impossible to raise the $15 million yearly maintenance budget for the Brooklyn Bridge Park, a waterfront development that runs from Dumbo to Atlantic Avenue. This may necessitate the construction of housing in order to meet expenses.
Judi Francis, president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund, cries conspiracy: “It is important to understand this ‘bait-and-switch’ tactic. The idea is to run a not-for-profit and deprive the park of funding so that housing can replace park-like features as revenue sources.” Sounds convincing, but we know that developers always have the best interest of the community at heart.
Park 51 (or Cordoba House, Ground Zero Mosque or whatever you want to call it) isn’t the only community center creating controversy this summer. Park officials submitted a request on Wednesday to turn the historic Tobacco Warehouse located in Dumbo into a self-sustaining community center, The Brooklyn Paper reports.
“The objective is to create a financially self-sustaining model for … the facility—without subsidy from Brooklyn Bridge Park for development, construction or ongoing operations,” the proposal said. The community center would support itself through a wide variety of lessons and seminars in education, civic programming and the arts.
All this may sound nice, but it’s not quite so simple. Opponents of the facility are concerned that the not-for-profit facility will make it impossible to raise the $15 million yearly maintenance budget for the Brooklyn Bridge Park, a waterfront development that runs from Dumbo to Atlantic Avenue. This may necessitate the construction of housing in order to meet expenses.
Judi Francis, president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund, cries conspiracy: “It is important to understand this ‘bait-and-switch’ tactic. The idea is to run a not-for-profit and deprive the park of funding so that housing can replace park-like features as revenue sources.” Sounds convincing, but we know that developers always have the best interest of the community at heart.