and speaking of the armory, and 15th street

brooklynpotter

what's the story? i know there are plans for some community sports facility... what about the homeless shelter? will it leave? (i hope so, i'm tired of the woman with the baby voice asking me for coins...)

and what's with the construction in those two empty pits; thought there were stop work orders?

i know it took a thousand years to get the scaffolding down (you can thank me. i called channel 2 news, they called brennan, then interviewed both of us in front of the place. 2 days later the scaffolding was being disassembled.)

still, i'm tired of the mess, tired of the parking spaces that are lost, tired of the homeless boyfriends belonging to the homeless women from the shelter...

(and i'm just tired)

meganlibrarian

Cynically, I've wondered for ages why the armory isn't turned into high-end housing with (if we're lucky) some moderate-income units? Seems like every freaking other building in a 3-mile radius has been or is being turned into luxury condos. Bleh.

(Me? Bitter? Naaaaah!) :roll:

seven24

meganlibrarian wrote: Cynically, I've wondered for ages why the armory isn't turned into high-end housing with (if we're lucky) some moderate-income units? Seems like every freaking other building in a 3-mile radius has been or is being turned into luxury condos. Bleh.

(Me? Bitter? Naaaaah!) :roll:

heavens forbid!
It's bad enough there's never any parking on my block due to the movie theatre, elementary school and jewish center

diane

Subject: scaffolding thank you

You certainly do deserve thanks.
Thank you for following through and getting the saffolding
taken down. Good Job!!!!

meganlibrarian

seven24 wrote: [quote=meganlibrarian]Cynically, I've wondered for ages why the armory isn't turned into high-end housing with (if we're lucky) some moderate-income units? Seems like every freaking other building in a 3-mile radius has been or is being turned into luxury condos. Bleh.

(Me? Bitter? Naaaaah!) :roll:

heavens forbid!
It's bad enough there's never any parking on my block due to the movie theatre, elementary school and jewish center

Well, I'm glad the armory is being fashioned into something that the larger community can use. I guess I was just expressing my amazement that they didn't convert it to 1-BR-for-$500K or 3-BR for $1M condos. I guess small miracles happen every day.

brooklynpotter

diane, thank you.

as for the armory not being turned into condos, i think likely couldn't because it's a historical building. and much as i would have hated to see that, the homeless women and their boyfriends really put a damper on my day.

homeowner

I think part of the reason you haven't seen more of that is that the armories are owned/controlled by the State and not the City. Therefore, the policy to sell to private devlopers would actually have an impact outside of NYC.

As far as I know the State has mostly sold/leased them to third parties in situations where it would spur economic development. I think that armories that are used as homeless shelters are actually leased to the city on a long-term basis.

oneasternparkway

If in fact the 15th st. Armory will be converted to a Track and Field/sports facility, it will likely be done with the 168th St. Armory in Washington Heights as a loose template. 168th is now one of the top indoor track and field facilities in the nation, and is used primarly by NY high school students, but hosts meets for collegians, all-comers, and professionals.

The homeless shelter that lived in the facility for many years was moved to the basement of the building. I am not sure how that affected the total number of beds in the facility for the homeless.

homeowner

OnEasternParkway wrote: If in fact the 15th st. Armory will be converted to a Track and Field/sports facility, it will likely be done with the 168th St. Armory in Washington Heights as a loose template. 168th is now one of the top indoor track and field facilities in the nation, and is used primarly by NY high school students, but hosts meets for collegians, all-comers, and professionals.

The homeless shelter that lived in the facility for many years was moved to the basement of the building. I am not sure how that affected the total number of beds in the facility for the homeless.

OEP, that's in keeping with what I've seen both in NYC and elsewhere. Seems that the State's preference is to turn the space over to local government to use as they see fit. In the 70's and 80's homeless shelters were all the rage, but they also were used for recreational facilities and additional meeting/event space.

sterling2000

speaking of the armory...I was near there this morning at around 10am when a woman was running around screaming a crazy person had a gun on the street.

I saw no such thing, but I did see a NYPD car pull up and two cops run toward the armory as another woman ran out.

Just a crazy misunderstood street scene or was there something going on?

brooklynpotter

sterling, was it the apple shaped woman with the baby voice? she's my least favorite of all of them women who live there.

quijibo

i used to live 2 blocks away from the armory
i remember a lot of women with emotional/physical trauma in that place
and they have nowhere else to go
--nobody wants them

the women would hang out with their boyfriends
in the center of the bartel pritchard square/circle
sitting amidst a few wooden benches and some plants for cover
and smoke crack and whatever

there were a couple of regulars i remember
one taller woman, with long brown hair
who would sell herself

a redhead who was always drunk and driving her bicycle
i still her see bicycling all around brooklyn

one of their boyfriends,
a very genteel slim black man
--i still see around prospect park west
he had big eyes, long lashes and was quick to smile

most of the homeless women keep to the shelter tho'

i never minded them
if you're homeless and need to live somewhere,
it's not the worst place in the world

they're just neighbors

anonymous

Yeah, homeless people are so annoying. And scaffolding. And strollers. What a bunch of whiners!

meganlibrarian

Anonymous wrote: Yeah, homeless people are so annoying. And scaffolding. And strollers. What a bunch of whiners!

Gentriconfrontation!!!