Two Trees Snail Mail Spam

By on April 30, 2009 11:13 pm in Brooklyn Heights, Development, DUMBO
Letter from Two Trees asking for support

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A tipster sent us this unsolicited letter they received today, from Two Trees Management, asking for support for their Dock Street Dumbo plan. Yelling “IT’S NOW OR NEVER FOR A NEW MIDDLE SCHOOL IN DUMBO AND OUR NEIGHBORHOOD’S FIRST EVER AFFORDABLE HOUSING!”, they ask the recipient to contact David Yassky immediately, and attend a hearing hosted by the NYC Council Subcommittee on Zoning & Franchises on Thursday, May 14th at 11am.

Sound intriguing? Would you like to subscribe to their newsletter? Contact Nora Mattingly at 718-222-2500 or at nmattingly@twotrees-dumbo.com.

Anyone else out there receive this mailing?

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  • nabeguy

    Glad to see that the issues at hand are now back on the table. Da, I see your point about the air-quality of modern buildings, as I happen to work in one. Personally, I am not of fan of hermetically-sealed buildings where the inside atmosphere is dependent on the quality of the filtration system, and I’m pretty sure the Legionnaires aren’t either. I love your faith in the air-clearing winds off the river. In case you’ve mistaken Brooklyn for Chicago, I invite you to visit the area on a calm day at low-tide.
    As for the hurricane scenario that you are so quick to dismiss, would you care to explain to me why my home-owners insurance was just dropped by Allstate explicitly due to the threat of impending hurricanes? Or why the OEM expends money on hurricane preparedness brochures and mailings? Give me a little bit more credit than to imply that I ever suggested that children would be attending school in the midst of a hurricane. However, given that the area could be under two feet of water, do you know exactly how long my child would be displaced?
    Da, I think we both want the same thing for our children, namely a high-quality middle school in the area (although I must point out that, at only 300 seats for a district-wide school, there are no guarantees for local residents). However, for the reasons I’ve stated, I’d like to think that we can do better by our kids and not capitulate to expediency and “gimme” deals negotiated behind closed doors between developers and elected officials looking to build their campaign chests. My own daughter has told me that she would hate to go to school in that area. I’d hate to be in the position as a parent of telling her that it’s the best that we could do.
    cre (tin), you want obnoxious? Go sniff the air under the bridge. Oh, and don’t forget your BB gun. The water rats make for great practice shooting at night.

  • davoyager

    I’m talking about banning the big trucks from all residential streets in NY. They are illegal now but the law is rarely enforced.
    And I was thinking specifically of closing Dock St. during school hours, not Water and Front Sts. Livery cabs will just have to drive slower or risk having their ticket pulled.
    And I think the air is great in Dumbo what with the constant breeze off the river. The Promenade is toxic with the fumes off the highway and the lovely odor from the occasional garbage barge floating by.
    Sometimes in the summer when the air is real bad up here on the hill I will go to Dumbo just to get a breath of fresh air.

  • nabeguy

    Hate to P.S., but I need an explanation on how exactly traffic patterns in that particular area can be amended to make it safe as Davoyager suggests? Unless you can channel the spirit of Bob Moses to undo his legacy, I can’t imagine how there’s a plan in place to ameliorate the traffic flow to the BQE on rush hour mornings. Despite my tone, I’m not kidding, and would love to hear any ideas on how to get our children safely to that location without having to cross 4 lanes of traffic if you’re coming from the north.

  • epc

    Clearly, once drivers see THE CHILDREN, they will all slow down and cease acting like it’s critical that they progress to the next level of Gridlock in the next 30 seconds.

    Closing Dock Street itself will not help much. Assuming demographics hold true and for sake of argument some percentage of students will come from Brooklyn Heights, they have only two pedestrian access points to DUMBO: under the BQE at Hicks & Fulton, or across Fulton at Columbia/Everit. The BQE onramp at Hicks & Fulton is not fun to cross at any time of the day, moreso during rush hour. Crossing Fulton at Everit is easier, unless there’s a backup on the BQE in which case the contestants in Gridlock fly down Fulton and barely make the turn onto Furman.

    Now, if someone wants to commit to paying for a pedestrian underpass of the BQE (say connecting Hicks to approximately Vine St), or for additional crossing guards on the various crossing points (preferably armed with anti-tank weapons), then, then you might have a chance in getting your kid to/from the proposed school safely.

    More likely, though, is that parents will do what they do now at PS 8 and drive their kids to the school. Accepting that there would be some school buses, that’s still a lot of car traffic to dump into DUMBO.

    I thought Hicks Street was a dangerous raceway when I lived there, but I’ve been stunned at how people drive in/around DUMBO and have witnessed one car v. pedestrian assault (I don’t see how you can call it an accident) as well as seen the results of two others. Throwing 300 children into this mix is irresponsible.

  • epc

    Oh, and I’m still looking for the precise dimensions of the Dock Street complex. Close to 100 people have downloaded the Google Earth model I threw together, I’d like to make it semi-accurate. Could one of the proponents, supports of Dock Street post a link showing the proposed dimensions? There’s nothing on either the http://www.dockstreetdumbo.com/ or http://savethebrooklynbridge.org/ other than vague references to numbers of stories. Just the dimensions in feet, that’s all I ask. Shouldn’t be a state secret at this point.

  • davoyager

    I’m sorry Nabeguy but I don’t see the problem. The city is planning to calm the traffic thru dumbo regardless of Dock St. There is serious talk of Furman St. becoming 2 way with the continued populating of the flood plane you so fear.
    They can use, what traffic lights to stop the flow of traffic off the highway? Much of that traffic should not be coming thru the neighborhood anyway. They take advantage of the free east river crossings to avoid tolls where they should use the tunnel. I don’t understand why you think the traffic problem is unsolvable.

  • davoyager

    Oh Gee the rest of the tired catalog of specious arguments. I told you the context argument was your ticket. These other arguments are old and tired.
    Since we haven’t seen the 2 foot flood you predict in all the years of European occupation of NY I don’t understand why we should worry about it now. If it happens it happens. We’ll deal with it.
    Since the graduating class at PS 8 is less than 100 and many of them will go else where, and since most of the rest of district has neighborhood middle schools as a choice I don’t expect a huge over subscription. in fact I wouldn’t be surprise if we had to scramble to fill all those seats the first few years.
    Since we’ve been waiting over 40 years for a middle school expediency is all we have left: message from the middle class. Show us a plan that doesn’t involve a jail, or overcrowding, or wild expenditures during serious economic turmoil, or a neighborhood school in some far off neighborhood, in the next few years and we’ll listen. Otherwise … now is now..

  • No One Of Consequence

    “Since the graduating class at PS 8 is less than 100 and many of them will go else where, and since most of the rest of district has neighborhood middle schools as a choice I don’t expect a huge over subscription.”

    Then the original report from the DOE is true… there is no need for a new middle school in this district.

    Hurricanes in New York? Just Google it.

    Enough about the proposed school already. It’s a distraction from Two Trees and it’s all you got.

    Now, log back in as Carlo T. to create the appearance that you’re not the only one arguing in favor.

  • davoyager

    So 60 to 70 kids a year is “no need” in your mind. Just so we’re clear.

  • Publius

    I’m being paid by the spare change left behind in the seat cushions at Jed’s lobbyist’s office. When you get paid north of $180,000 during the past two years to lobby the CB, CPC, and City Council, sometimes all of it can’t fit into one’s pockets and some gold coins fall behind the couch.

    I also get some left over loose change that falls behind the seat cushions at the offices of Councilwomen Quinn and Katz. This is from the money Two Trees has paid through its “employees” to subvert political donation laws limits. Both of these stories have been reported extensively in the NYT and the NY Post and have previously been posted here.

    DuhVoyager is either:

    a) using Rovian tactics intentionally to smear his advesaries with exactly what his side is doing (hey, it worked for GWB for 8 years until everyone finally got wise).

    or

    b) he’s subconsicously projecting himself and his “side” (you know, the one that’s spreading many hundreds of thousands of dollars around buying political support, onto his advesaries).

    The effect is the same.

    Folks, this is your last chance to write to key City Councilpeople and tell them to stand strong.

    You can also try Quinn and Katz, but as last week’s NY Post article shows, they were each paid over $25,000 by Two Trees in “contributions”.

    Here’s the email addresses:

    http://council.nyc.gov/d3/html/members/home.shtml
    This links you to Christine Quinn’s website.

    katz@council.nyc.ny.us

    avella@council.nyc.ny.us

    yasskydockst@gmail.com

    You’re in front of the computer, so take a few moments to stop Dock St. DUMBO as it’s currently configured to diminsh the Brooklyn Brige.

  • Kalkton

    Why don’t the yuppies who moved into Dumbo 15 years ago, fully aware that the area lacked schools, pool their enormous returns on their real estate appreciation to build themselves a school that doesn’t wreck the bridge views?

  • my2cents

    i sent yassky a notesky, btw, arguing against the project.

  • neighbor

    Davoyager already outted himself with his bogus Nabe Car owner defense and his fingerpointing to others for what he was called on originally. Duh!

  • No One Of Consequence

    my2, Yassky and Avella are already on our side. Send to Quinn and Katz.

  • davoyager

    Now Pub bully the hired gun is AstroTurfing multiple web sites with the exact same message.
    I remember the slimy lawyer and the other hired consultants at the public hearings at which I spoke to my friends and neighbors. If I’m wrong let him/her come out of the shadows and tell all of us who he is and what his agenda is.

  • Publius

    DuhVoyager:

    Again you show your hypocrisy. You’ve copied and pasted your messages on multiple websites including this one, dumbonyc and the Brooklyn Paper. By your defination, that makes you an astroturfer.

    Keep calling yourself out and diminishing your own credibility.

  • davoyager

    Ka-Ching!
    What do you charge per hour Pub bully esq?

  • amused

    NYC has a housing emergency. Rents are insanely expensive. Walentas has offered to speculatively build a new building WITH A FREE SCHOOL, and the NIMBYS say no?????

    NYC desperately needs housing units. Last I checked, 800 people will live in this building, and they’ll be very close to their places of work, saving numerous hours, putting less strain on the transportation fabric, etc. . They’ll also add to the property and income tax receipts, and some of them will be able to drop their kids off downstairs.

    This is worth tens of millions annually to the citizens of NYC.

    Against this, we have some BS arguments about ‘context’ (as if buildings are more important than peoples’ lives) and the fierce opposition of disgruntled condo-owners. The current use of the site is pretty grim.

    This is an economic boon, it should go forward.

  • nabeguy

    Bemused, I’d argue that most of the opposition to this proposal comes from outside of Dumbo, so your claim of nimby-ism doesn’t really hold water. As for the housing emergency you mention (sounds a bit like me and my Chicken Little flood warnings, doesn’t it?) given the recent economic downturn, affordable housing will find it’s level, but if you’d bother to read the facts, this building is not being constructed to house 800 people in need of it. Your idea that some residents will be able to “drop their kids off downstairs” sounds like a blurb from a Two Trees brochure touting the building, so I’m rather suspect of your arguments.
    Publius/Da, both of you need to back off from your respective rhetoric and stick to the pros and cons of the proposal. Neither of you is advancing your arguments with off-topic bickering.
    I’m all for responsible and respectful development as exemplified by the proposed PS 8 annex. The fact that the building will, in fact, obliterate my current views of Poplar Street in the foreground and the Manhattan Bridge tower in the background doesn’t bother me whit, as I appreciate the need for expanding the school in light of the growth of the neighborhood. The DSP, however, does not pass my litmus test for all the reasons I’ve laid out.

  • nabeguy

    BTW Da, I feel compelled to ask you a question. Given all your posts that betray a disappointment with your own public school experience, why are you so quick to put your faith in the same system that let you down? Do you truly believe that the DOE has advanced its priorities any more today than when you were a child?

  • nabeguy

    Da, since your multiple posts are as hard to keep up with as your refutations (astroturf, anyone?), I apologize for not noticing your ignorance of the havoc that Hurricane Donna caused in lower Manhattan and resulted in South Street being under three feet of water. Yeah, sure, the area survived, but I’ll ask the question again in another way. How willing are you to pile up sandbags and man a sump pump to guarantee that your child can go to school? As much as you’d like to frame my argument in end-of-days language, go to the NOAC website and educate yourself as to my claims. They don’t talk about possibilities, just probabilities.

  • davoyager

    Last point first if I may. Scientists are looking at evidence that the NYC area suffered a tsunami over 2 thousand years ago either from an underwater land slide off the coast of Spain or an asteroid hit in the Atlantic.
    Run for your lives! It’s not a question of if it will happen again, it’s a question of when.
    By that I mean I refuse to live my life in fear or run for the hills just cause we sometimes have some bad thunderstorms. You live by the water you have bad weather that’s a given, so what, we should all leave? Sure I’ll pile up sandbags if it comes to that. Some people choose to do that, I won’t

  • davoyager

    I post less and write fewer words than you and I post as me and you know me. I write what I believe and nobody is paying me.
    And I prefer not to get into spitting matches. If you actually read my posts you know I prefer to stay positive and speak about issues and ideas. But this hired gun has gotten so nasty in an effort to shut me up I felt had to respond. that’s my story.

  • davoyager

    Your question about the ill famed DOE is just rhetorical. Your own child is in public school. We need quality public education and so we fight for public education. It is a constant struggle, a tug of war for resources. So I support public education and the gifted, idealistic, hardworking and underpaid professionals who try and provide this vital function for our community.

  • davoyager

    And while you would “argue that most of the opposition to this proposal comes from outside of Dumbo,” you would be wrong. Don’t start throwing your phony baloney petitions around; who is most active in pushing this issue? Who has hired the “consultants” who have testified that they have been hired in public? The DNA and 70 Washington St. and other big money interests in dumbo and in the Heights. Sure the developer has thrown money around but so has the opposition. And now that I know I’m gonna make them bill as many hours as I can to drain the wallet of the client(s).

  • Carlo Trigiani

    DA, thanks for you advocacy. You are to be commended for standing up for what you believe in.

    I was having dinner in DUMBO Saturday night and asked the owner if he supported Dock Street. He laughed, “Are you against it?”

    He explained that he supports the project because of the planned public parking garage. Many of his patrons drive to his store and parking is tough. His wife is a public school teacher so he understands the need for good schools.

    I encourage folks to write Christine Quinn and ask her to get the school in writing.

    Sincerely.

  • Publius

    There’s already ample public parking lots all over DUMBO (on Front Street under the bridge, on Main Street near front, and each of the high rise buildings has basement parking that’s open to the public.) There’s also the underutilized lot right off Front Street near Foragers. Parking for businesses is a specious argument.

    I sometimes use DUMBO public parking lots and have never seen them to capacity. We don’t need more parking lots.

    Many, if not most of the businesses in DUMBO are beholden to Two Trees, since the developer is their landlord.

    A significant number of speakers in favor of Dock St. DUMBO at the various hearings were business owners beholden to Two Trees due to sweetheart long term lease deals. Or, even more sinister, some business owners have anonymously said that Two Trees requested that they speak in favor of Dock St. and the business owner felt compelled to “support” the project since their livlihood depends on a good relationship with the landlord.

    Unfortunately, not all of Two Trees tennents get sweetheart deals. Witness the League Treatment School, which Two Trees is kicking out of its location despite the school’s offer to pay market rent (the NYT wrote an article about this disgrace a few months ago). It shows how much Two Trees really cares about the education of children in DUMBO.

  • Carlo Trigiani

    Dear Publius,

    Since your arguments are in large part based on sinister alliances and backroom dirty deals, why don’t you come clean and tell us who you are and where you live? I appreciate some of your arguments and could give you more credence if you would be a little more forthright with us all.

    Sincerely.

  • Publius

    Carlo:

    Frankly I don’t care if you think my arguments don’t have crediblity. I’m speaking to the vast majority of Brooklynites who are reasonable and care about this borough.

    As I’ve told you many times before, let the truth and force of my arguments be what gets focused upon. However since you’re so curious about who I am, I’ll indulge you: I’m a 4th generation Brooklynite, I live in Brooklyn Heights. I’ve lived in Brooklyn nearly all my life (brief absences for schooling), and love this place deeply.

    I am involved in several Brooklyn-based charity groups, have run several businesses in Brooklyn, including one in Brooklyn Heights. I’m the product of NYC public schools (including Stuyvesant–just like DuhVoyager), and I intend to be a lifer.

    But enough about me–it matters little in this debate and, frankly Carlo, your Rovian tactics are simply a minor annoying distraction in this debate. If you can’t win on the merits, your schoolyard attempts at villifying and discrediting those who disagree with you are sad.

    Perhaps when this is over, the banjos of Virgina will call you home.

  • Carlo Trigiani

    Thanks for the info Publius. You given me all the info I need.

    Respectfully.

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