DNA on Dock Street DUMBO: Investigate “Possible Criminal Activity” by Two Trees, SCA and DOE

By on June 1, 2009 1:11 pm in Development, DUMBO, Government, Landmark Preservation, News, Real Estate

The DUMBO Neighborhood Association (“DNA”), which has opposed the Dock Street project proposed by developer Jed Walentas of Two Trees Management, today sent a four page letter to the Inspector General of the New York City School Construction Authority (“SCA”), and to the Inspector General for Lobbying Activities, demanding “a thorough investigation into the activities of the SCA, the Department of Education (‘DOE’), and Two Trees Management, its principals, lobbyists and attorneys.” According to DNA’s press release, this letter was prompted by “stunning testimony” given at a recent City Council hearing concerning the Dock Street project, which is pending Council approval. This testimony, according to DNA, revealed “questionable dealings” between the SCA and Two Trees concerning the siting of a proposed middle school in the Dock Street building. DNA also cited a New York Times article reporting that Two Trees had made substantial contributions to Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Council Member Melinda Katz, who chairs the Land Use Committee, as well as spending “about $400,000 lobbying the Council and city agencies.”

In the conclusion to the letter, DNA President Gus Sheha accuses both the SCA and DOE of refusing multiple requests to release all documents relating to Dock Street and to the siting of a middle school in this area. He states, “We believe that more inappropriate behavior and possible criminal activity by the SCA, DOE and Two Trees Management will be revealed should all documents requested be released.”

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  • nabeguy

    As hard as I’ve fought in opposition to this project, I’ll fight even harder in defense of the integrity of Homer and this site. Stop that desperate nonsense, it reeks of the smell of flop sweat.
    Please try to follow along. The majority of the opposition to this project have no vested interest in it. No views, no loss of R/E values, no hidden agenda against TT’s, nada. What they do have is a well-founded nausea born from the manipulation of the public trust by Two Trees, the SCA and CC members, as evidenced by the FOIL documents and articles in the Times and News.
    Adam, perhaps in your world, being 53 makes me an old coot. But if that means that I can’t cop to your infantile fascination with all things new and shiny, then I’ll wear the appellation with pride.

  • adam

    nabeguy, you are not as smart as you think. you write your posts on this site with the assurance of knowing that anyone who responds to you in the negative will be censored. But (I think) the Berlin Wall has fallen and you have to face the truth my friend. At best you are a NIMBY reactionary, at worst a racist who does not want Black children or affordable housing in DUMBO. At this point you have to admit the Brooklyn Bridge has nothing to do with anything.

  • nabeguy

    Adam, you have nothing to do with anything, The Berlin Wall has fallen (check Wikipedia in case you’re in doubt) and I’m not your friend. If you are in support of this project, then face it, I’m your enemy. Deal with it, and step up your game but stop with this censorship BS and playing the race/class card. If you bothered to read my posts on this subject over the last few months, you’d realize that my objections to the school are safety-based and have nothing to do with race, and I resent any implication to the contrary. As for affordable housing, I’m fully in support of it, given the desperate city-wide need for it. But if you’re willing to swallow that cup of Kool-Aid, then all I can say is good luck to you waiting on line to sign up for it.

  • adam

    nabeguy, not only are you arrogant but you are a nincompoop.
    are you saying that any school located outside the hallowed boundaries of Brooklyn Heights is dangerous? Is Old Fulton Street dangerous for little BH children to cross on the way to Middle School in DUMBO but not so dangerous for DUMBO and Farragut children to cross on their way to Brooklyn Heights? In fact the location at Dock Street could not be quieter or safer. there is no traffic down there. Hicks Street is much more fraught. And I know that someone as enlightened and self-assured as yourself is convinced that affordable housing is an OK concept as long as it is not too close to you. Right?
    How contemptible and arrogant are you exactly? Were you an executive of AIG by any chance?

  • bornhere

    adam – I know nabeguy only from his posts on the BHB, and from those posts, I have gleaned that he is capable of fighting his own fights. I have also found his comments to be of an essentially consistent philosophy, and I have to say that I have never discerned any racism or classism. I think your swipe is a bit ill placed. Be that as it may … I have previously posted that I am against the TT plan for two reasons: I think the location is NOT kid friendly; and I would hate for the view of the Bridge to be compromised (from the street). When my son was age appropriate, one of the major reasons I did not enroll him in Friends was because I thought getting from the Heights to the Pearl Street location was a bit more than I would care to have him contend with. If middle school were now still an issue for me, I would not consider a school anywhere around Old Fulton — I hate crossing Hicks to get to Eagle Warehouse, and I hate crossing Old Fulton to get … to the other side. Surely you can understand this. The other issues raised by those opposed to the building are certainly provocative; but I am just too simple-minded to get swept away by them right now. To review: I think the area is too dangerous for kids; and I think the Bridge is too important for compromise. (Way down on the list, I think the proposed building looks ugly. And I live just south of Montague, and from my window, I can see Alaska better than I can the Bridge or almost anything else.)

  • nabeguy

    A nincompoop? Who’s sounding like the old coot now? You can throw as many racist accusations at me as you want, but they just won’t stick. Why don’t you ask the DOE why they closed down PS 7 on Front Street and forced children from Farragut to cross that gauntlet to PS 8? Yes, both communities need a school, but I stand by my safety-arguments in regards to this proposal.
    As for “affordable housing”, I’d like to know how that’s defined? Is that the same thing as the cold-water walk-up flats of the dockworkers and janitors whose children I used to play with when I was growing up?

  • nabeguy

    Bornhere, thanks for the support. Especially given that it came with no purse strings attached. It gets lonely out here sometimes, so it’s nice to know there are some people out there with their eyes and brains open.

  • adam

    nabeguy, cue the violins, you’re the poor misunderstood goo-goo only looking out for the welfare of the LITTLE WAIFS who will have to fight their way, machete in hand, to the wilderness lowlands of Dock Street. You’re a nincompoop. i said it once and I repeat it because I sense it is true although I believe it is eclipsed by the monumental ego behind phrases such as “it is lonely out here sometimes” .

  • davoyager

    Yo nabeguy,
    What happened to PS 7? I went there for 2 years as part of the PS 8 experience. For those of you who don’t know there was a time when PS 8 was paired with PS 7 as a sort of binary school. I guess that was a failed experiment. It was an old old school building but I understood that Al Capone went there. Maybe that is an urban myth.

  • http://brooklyneagle.com Eddie The Eagle

    Hey adam, what’s the view like there, up your ass? And how much rent does Two Trees charge you a month? I’m looking for a bigger space…

  • davoyager

    Yo adam,
    Have you had comments knocked off this blog? I only know of the one by carlo one of which was changed (redacted) and one which was summarily removed. I spoke to him tonight at the ice cream social over at Plymouth and he was remarkably sanguine about it. I gotta tell you if it were me… well I don’t know.

    Somebody needs to tell the story of the so called DNA, the fun house pictures, the phoneybaloney 12 thousand signature petition (I would give you 2 or 3 hundred as legit), the press release after press release, I would like to know about the political contributions to local politicians who now seek citywide office, and so on. There has been a calculated attempt to mislead and intimidate the public and public officials and I believe it rises to the level of a criminal enterprise that could be prosecuted under say “the Rico act.”
    Let the sunshine in. Speak up “DNA”. Who exactly are you? Tell us all where you live if you have nothing to hide.
    I know all about nabeguy, bornhere, NotoW2T, anon, and others, that you don’t have views and honestly oppose this building. Many of you are preservationists and that is fine. Normally I would be in agreement with you but not this time. I understand your opposition but you are not the drumbeat, fueled by greed, which has whipped up this frenzy of opposition to what is by all measure a modest project. I am sorry we find ourselves on the opposite side of this debate but I make no apologies for my call for an investigation of the so called DNA and their activities over the last few years. And I hope you neighbors will now think twice before giving them any more cover.

  • No2Walentas2Trees

    adam,

    Calling people racist is a bit extreme. If you want to play the ‘race’ card then why does your side consistently ignore the school already in the area at 209 York St, right outside Vinegar Hill?

  • anon

    Davoyager, Since you ask this of everyone else, you go first, tell us your real name and reveal your address.

  • Publius

    The New York Observer is reporting that the fix is in for the City Council vote on Dock Street.

    The article says that the bought and paid for Speaker Quinn, recipient of tens of thousands of Jeb & Co’s bundled largess is (suprise, suprise) voting to approve Two Tree’s zoning change, which, the article claims, will make it difficult for opponents in the Council to defeat it:

    http://tinyurl.com/ounzol

  • fulton ferry res

    To the conspiracy theorists, Adam and Davo: You can drop the censorship accusations against Homer. Two persons who oppose Dock Street have also voiced their own experiences with missing posts on this blog. EPC mentioned at dumbonyc that one of his posts here never showed up, and brooklynguy told me personally that one of his was missing. So chalk it up to a hole somewhere in the spam-catcher on BHB, not on censorship.

    Davo — I love your usage of the word “so-called” when referring to DNA. Merriam-Webster defines it as 1)commonly named or 2)falsely or improperly named. Since DNA is the true initials for the DUMBO Neighborhood Alliance, I don’t think it qualifies under either definition, unless you believe that the Internal Revenue Service is also the so-called IRS!

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