Another empty lot bites the dust

Long story. The former owner bought it from a failed non-profit (my former employer) that had built the park for the local residents. Guiliani was not kind to non-profits and the rest is history, as they say. Score one for the bad guys.

From the article in The Brooklyn Paper, this sounds like a clear cut (not pun intendedd) case of "hit and run" tree rape. It is true that the truck used by the "arborists" had no name on the door and the license plates were from Alabama. It's probable that the owners were expecting negative publicity. As well they should have.

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/35/26/dtg_treeskilled_2012_06_29_bk.html

The saga of "Bedford Avenue Community Park" is a big commentary about what happens when cities turn over properties directly to private developers without any strings attached.

The lots in question, 1444 and 1446 Bedford Avenue, were turned over to a non-profit developer in 1986 by the Koch adminstration. (Koch, a fiscal conservative, was pressured into this move by a lot of community pressure, not his basic "mensch" tendencies.) Many years later, the non-profit owner, BEC New Communities, (full disclosure, they were my former employer) was forced out of business when the Guliani administration decided to quit taking properties directly but rather sell the delinquent taxes to wealthy investors. While this seemed like a smart move at the time, as the City would no longer be carrying an inventory of rundown buildings with a lot of slow paying tenants, it also removed the option of the City being able to sell these buildings to non-profits, who, with City subsidies, could renovate them and return them to the market as affordable housing.

A recent example of how this policy plays out is what happened to the building on the corner of Washtington Ave and St. Johns Place. Ths building was recently gutted by a fire and subsequently sold to a for-profit developer who is taking City subsidies to create affordable rental housing. While the developer is a genial fellow and open to communtiy input, he is still a private person who, once he gets his approvals from the City, can pretty much disappear from the local scene. Were this building sold to a non-profit, such as Pratt Area Community Council, or Fifth Avenue Committee, who both have a cotinuing presence in the community, community input into the operation and upkeep of the building would be on-going.

The rape of Bedford Avenue Park is just another indicator of how far to the right this communnity has swung and how reliant we are on the private market to do the right thing.

Clearly the private market is not feeling the love.

The debts of the defunct non-profit existed because it's primary source of income, property development, dried up. As we all know, the chief source of contributions to elected officials in NYC are real estate developers. Once the market for real estate rebounded in the 1990's, in large part due to the renovation of 1000's of vacant, abandoned buildings, including 100's in Crown Heights, by non-profit developers such as BEC, the for-profit developers wanted to get in on the act and used their political connections to squeeze out the non-profits. Those that survived, such as PACC and Fifth Avenue Committee, were forced to diversify into developing supportive housing (housing for populations incapable of independent living) or to partner with deep pocketed for-profits. As BEC was staunchly committed to providing housing for people who were simply poor, not handicapped, and was ideologically opposed to partnering with the same greedy developers they had been fighting for decades, they had no place to go. The final straw for BEC came when the Local Initiative Support Corp, the lender for BEC's many subsidized rental buildings, withdrew their management contract, depriving BEC of it's only remaining source of revenue.

Personally, I'm reminded of the movie "It's a Wonderful Life". In the real world, Potter and his mega millions drives the poor Baily Savings and Loan out of business. The ensuing Pottervile, replete with lots of bars and homelessness, is the direct consequence.