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| DATE | 2005-05-24 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] For Billy
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Brooklyn's tough old waterfront gentrifying
May 24, 2005
BY MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN
NEW YORK -- Red Hook once was known best for gunplay and graft, an urban
wasteland along the Brooklyn waterfront where the mob ruled the docks,
and crack took over the projects.
''When people were looking for a place where they could shoot someone
and knock 'em in the water, they came to Red Hook,'' said developer Greg
O'Connell.
Today the burly ex-cop is building luxury apartments and a $10 million
gourmet supermarket in the neighborhood whose violence and union
corruption inspired ''On the Waterfront'' and ''Last Exit to Brooklyn''
in the 1950s and '60s.
Down the street, Ikea hopes to sell contemporary sofas and lingonberry
preserves from a 22-acre superstore.
Brooklyn's waterfront is on the verge of historic change.
Big opportunity
>From lumberyards to coffee piers, the last remnants of the once-mighty
working waterfront are disappearing. Thousands of high-end apartments,
dozens of acres of parks and berths for the world's biggest cruise ships
are rising in their place.
''Most of the change in the city over the next five, 10 years is going
to take place along the Brooklyn shore,'' said Kent Barwick, president
of the Municipal Art Society, a nonprofit urban planning group. ''It's
the biggest opportunity to remake the city in over 100 years.''
A $30 million terminal for the Queen Elizabeth 2 and other luxury liners
is set to open a short distance from O'Connell's new supermarket with
its 50 types of fresh bread and 500 kinds of cheese.
The lease on the last cargo-handling port on the Brooklyn waterfront
expires in 2007.
AP
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