Read Heights Preservation Leaders’ History of Brooklyn Bridge Park

Brooklyn Heights preservationists Scott M. Hand (photo) and Otis Pratt Pearsall have written a history of the efforts that led to the creation of Brooklyn Bridge Park. This is the opening paragraph:

This is the improbable David and Goliath tale of three pivotal years, roughly 1986 through 1988, during which the Brooklyn Heights Association (the “BHA”) rallied a coalition of affected communities, civic groups, politicians and engaged individuals to stalemate the Port Authority’s (P.A.’s) and Koch Administration’s joint ambition to monetize Brooklyn Piers 1-6 through the densest achievable private development, and to advocate, instead, its bold concept of a grand “Harbor Park” stretching all the way from Atlantic Avenue to the Brooklyn Bridge, even today being realized as Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Sam Howe in The Eagle has this to say:

Looking back more than two decades, the report captures a very dramatic conflict between determined waterfront developers and powerful quasi-public agencies versus some of the sharpest legal minds in our great city—who just happened to love their home turf.

Origins Brooklyn Bridge Park

The full text of the fascinating story is also available through the Brooklyn Historical Society at its website here.

Scott Hand photo: Manulife Financial.

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