Open Thread Wednesday

For those that are on social, this is a brilliant post from nycurbanism on Instagram with great pictures as well:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWOxX-8l3Rz/?utm_medium=copy_link

The caption:

Brooklyn Civic Center and Cadman Plaza urban renewal – Urban renewal
in Downtown Brooklyn started in the 1930s and was not fully completed until the mid-70s. After the demolition of the Fulton Street El elevated train line that connected today’s Fulton Street Mall with the Fulton Ferry at Pier 1 of the East River at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, planners’ immediate response was to raze many of the historic buildings instead of restoring them. Robert Moses envisioned an open plaza that would rival those in the great European cities. Cadman Plaza was carved out of the blocks north of Borough Hall connecting to the Brooklyn Bridge. Fulton and Washington streets were widened and renamed Cadman Plaza West and Cadman Plaza East. Every building north of Borough Hall would be demolished except the Romanesque post office and a new courthouse would be constructed in front of Borough Hall. A library was also constructed on the west side of Fulton at the beginning of Clinton Street. The blocks to the west of the former Fulton Street were filled with 19th-century buildings, mainly walkups with apartments and businesses. Notably, Walt Whitman worked in one of these buildings on the corner of Cranberry and Fulton where he published his first version of Leaves of Grass. The buildings would all be demolished and replaced with large housing blocks. Brooklyn Heights would become the first historic district in 1965, ensuring what was left of the neighborhood would be protected from demolition.

One of my first videos, quite amateurish, was on this very topic. (see below). Holy cow, that was 11 years ago. Seems like yesterday. Claude, time flies way too quickly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l_cztCwXhg

Great photos, which I’d not previously seen. Have taken screen shots of them. I do have some of the images of Moses’s plan for the area north of Borough Hall. He subscribed to the failed “tower-in-a-park” idea of urban renewal.

Here’s one of the ideas of what should be there:
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ae6e77d2603299e4ced253e1cdb7786b290024ff773f0ea70511106d285671ef.jpg

We created candy bags for a corporate event using goodies from sahadi’s https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/13e10ba09810a37a70d39bd61cef155e26f4b4f99a00268c6e23c573ee272961.jpg

This is a great idea!

There are other reports in the Heights on that map.

Anyway, no surprise about 128 Montague. The backyard is strewn with garbage.