Post’s Peyser on Middle School Pickle

By on May 27, 2008 8:31 am in DUMBO, Kids, Landmark Preservation, News, Real Estate

That eternal ray of sunshine, the NY Post’s Andrea Peyser, writes today about the Brooklyn Heights/DUMBO middle school issue. Guess which side she’s on:

NY Post: Give B’Klyn This School!: CARLO TRIGIANI has lived in Brooklyn Heights for 20 years – working, paying taxes, sending his 6-year-old son, Luca, to public school. And making the city a little better with every waking breath.

Now, it’s as if he’s being thrust out of town with a gun to his head…

…”Everybody likes to hate the big bad developer,” counters Jed Walentas of Two Trees Management Co., which practically invented DUMBO. He insists the building fits the skyline… Ironically, Walentas could put a factory of 17 stories on that spot without permission. Two Trees needs a zoning change to build a residential tower that would include the school.

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  • http://www.savethebrooklynbridge.org SavetheBrooklynBridge

    Sign the online petition to (again) stop the Walentas building monstrosity next to the Bklyn Bridge.

    http://www.savethebrooklynbridge.org/

  • amanda

    I would be very surprised to see if Walentas comes through on his promise of a school. He is merely providing the space, not furnishing it with desks, teachers, equipment, etc.: it would be up to the department of education to provide those needs and it would be up to Bloomberg to find city financing for it. Not to mention the fact that even if your kids live in the neighborhood, there is no guarantee they will get into the school: it will be open to the entire district.

    The school proposal is a sham just to get people to support this huge monstrosity right next to the bridge.

  • Joba Chamberlain

    When you name the petition “save the brooklyn bridge” and the only thing that is actually threatned is the view FROM the access ramp facing EAST, you lose any and all credibility.

    I wonder what “it’s open to the entire district” could mean. If kids from the Farragut houses get to go to a new school, too, I’d consider that a plus.

  • Snoopy

    Not for nothing, but the holier-than-thou Andrea Peyser lives on Warren Street in Cobble Hill, which really shatters her journalistic credibility, particularly since her daughter, Eliza, is approaching middle school. From her fragile soapbox condo in Cobble Hill she will not lose a view of the bridge, nor will she have to contend with the mass of humanity that a building of this size will thrust upon Dumbo, a neighborhood that is already overbuilt and overpopulated. Build it now? Build it on Warren Street, you self-righteous, self-centered cow.

  • bklyn20

    Also, I believe her child goes to Packer, even though Peyser lives in District 15, which has better schools overall than District 13 (Bklyn Heights.) She has been very good (i.e., effective, she gets attention on issues that need it) on some local problems over the years, but I think she’s a private school parent. That doesn’t make her an evil brownstone baroness, but is does color her opinion a bit, I think.

  • amanda

    In the interest of full disclosure, yes I am a DUMBO resident and an owner in 70 Washington. We don’t live on the side of the building that faces the bridge, but we looked at apartments on that side and were GUARANTEED (*wink, wink*) by David Walentas himself that no one could sully our precious views.

    Cut to two years later and the scumbag himself is trying to pull one over on us by proposing a so-called school in his high-rise rental building. Many of my neighbors on that side of the building are outraged.

    The truth about this development is being glossed over by those parents who are desparate for school choices for their kids. The truth of the matter is that the school will a) probably never happen, b) may not even get funding, and c) won’t guarantee your child a spot even if they live in the neighborhood.

  • nabeguy

    Hey, if Manhattan can have the Verizon monolith ruining the view of the bridge, why can’t we have our very own version on this side of the river (and in a hurricane flood evacuation area, no less)? Amanda raises some salient points against this plan even though, as a Dumbo resident, she stands to benefit from it, especially given that she lives on the other side of Old Fulton Street. As a parent, I wouldn’t let a kid of any age try to cross that stretch at 8:30 in the morning, not with all that commuter traffic screaming off the bridge to the BQE or tearing down OFS to avoid the jams on it and taking the Furman Street by-pass. Anxious as I may be about the middle school situation, I won’t accept a plan at the risk of my daughter becoming a crash-test dummmy.

  • ABC

    I looked at 70 Washington and was told, and saw in writing, that the views were not protected and were unlikely to last long. I was told both about this lot and also the fourWitness towers that have yet to be built.

    Also, I think Two Trees has been a pretty good developer. I don’t think “scumbag” really fits.

    Hey, I think this building looks nuts, and a 300-seat school is not good for anything. But the savethebrooklynbridge.org visuals are misleading too (those angles are really crazy). I love the idea of a middle school on that site — I have no issue with the location — but I wish I had better information.

  • desd

    Yes, by all means let’s never build another building in Brooklyn. Schools, hotels, commercial space — stop it all! New York got to be the city it is by standing still and making sure that no one’s delicate feathers ever got ruffled or view ever got obstructed.

    People need to get a life.

  • HDEB

    Where will Jane Walenta’s restored carousel go if the proposed building is built before it can be placed in Brooklyn Bridge Park?
    And what about St. Ann’s warehouse?
    Anyone up for Save the Carousel, St. Ann’s warehouse (and my view of the East River)?

  • nicky215

    a middle school is needed- downsize the building a bit and everybody will win

  • ABC

    The proposal is for St Ann’s to move to a larger space in the renovated Tobacco Warehouse. David Walentas is on the St Ann’s board of directors (and brought them to Dumbo in the first place).

    The carousel has been denied space again in the BBP which I think is a shame. I’m sure that Two Trees will find a spot for it within their property.