BAM Park: Terra Infirma

For more than thirty years, the little triangle of land formed by Lafayette Avenue and St. Felix and Fulton streets, half a block from Brooklyn Academy of Music, has been locked up. It used to be a gathering place, a bit on the gloomy side from a dense canopy of trees the City planted after it demolished the (affordable) tenement housing that had stood on the spot for 100 years. The houses weren't falling down. The City said they were unstable and tore them down.

Around this time the Brooklyn Arms Hotel, half a block from BAM the other way, was also torn down. The Brooklyn Arms had burst to life in 1927 as the fabulous Granada Hotel, a 16 story elaboration of Spanish brickwork by architect William Holshauer, built to last. It did, but fell on hard times and into the hands of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. The Department decided Preservation and Development didn't apply and ran the place as Housing only, a welfare hotel, the instantly infamous Brooklyn Arms. After about thirty years of officially deteriorating the premises and the families trapped there, HPD said the building was unstable and knocked it down. Holshauer's masterpiece was in fact still solid even after all HPD's abuse, and there was a developer who wanted to bring it back to its Granada glory days but HPD wasn't interested in Preservation.

A couple of years ago the City sold the parking lot that had been the Brooklyn Arms to developer Jonathan Rosen for $1. Now rising is an ultra-lux apartment building.

Three years ago the Department of Transportation and Fulton Street Business Improvement District FAB announced the temporary phase of Fowler pedestrian plaza was over. The decommission of a strip of South Elliott Street in 2010 for a trial pedestrian plaza had met with opposition but FAB and the DOT made a temp plaza anyway because they said the need for parks in Fort Greene had become urgent. People said, "We have Fort Greene Park just a block away." Next question! "Why not make the abandoned BAM triangle the pedestrian plaza? It's just across the street." They said, no, it couldn't be done. The ground was unstable.

Spring 2017: FAB and the DOT have cut down trees on Fowler to make room for a several million dollar capital plaza makeover. Fowler Permanente safely underway, there came the announcement that several million more dollars had been found to bring BAM triangle back as an HPD park. Turns out, demand had been building for a concentration of parks at Fulton/Lafayette. BAM Cultural District now calls for a "bowtie" -- Fowler triangle on the east and BAM triangle on the west -- across the neck of Fulton Street.

A couple of days ago the parks committee of Community Board 2 met to look at the landscaping plans for BAM park, which include eliminating the gloom-giving pines, saving the beeches and adding lacy honey locust, benches and an entertainment area. FAB heavily programs Fowler plaza so why another outdoor performance space 30' away? The answer seemed to be "just in case."

Why was Regina Myer with a flush of staffers at the obscure parks committee meeting? She's the head of the mighty Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, the three-in-one Business Improvement District of big Brooklyn developers. Forest City Ratner calls Regina Myer "a visionary." Myer wants BAM park. She wants it to stay HPD so DBP, BAM, FAB, DOT, City Hall control and decide what happens to it. If the tiny triangle were demapped to make it a real NYC park, it could be swapped out only through a lengthy procedure involving the State. In HPD's hands, the park can be whatever DBPBAMFAB wants. Like another skyscraper.

Luxury towers now crowd BAM Cultural District. Why would we need another one? We might. Regina Myer is a visionary and down the road she might see a triangle skyscraper instead of a triangle park: BAM park must remain terra infirma until then.

We know HPD doesn't do Preservation. It doesn't do parks either. What's it doing with a "park" in its hands?

Why isn't NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver fighting for BAM park? To pull the precious parcel to safety within the Department of Parks? Is he afraid of Regina Myer?

(When HPD tore down the tenements, it left the land full of toxic construction debris. Andrew Kalish, public relations for DBP, says remediation is not a problem. It won't take long.)