SCH Meeting Recap

I noticed a lot more young people at last night's meeting. At first, I was psyched. But then I realized they were probably all Pratt students who were collaborating on the Broken Angel Project. 1. Clinton Hill House Tour: May 6, 2007 Lots of volunteers are needed, ranging from sponsorships to serving refreshments and house-sitting. They need 150 house sitters alone! Even if you don't volunteer, you should check this out. It's a great way to peek inside at some of the neighborhood's most intriguing homes.

2. Newcomers Welcome Pot Luck: Feb 23, 2007, 7pm

3. Composer Robert Wilson is being honored at Pratt on Tuesday, January 30. Call 718-636-3657 to RSVP.

4. 70 Lefferts Place was landmarked and saved from being demolished to make room for a 7-story condo building.

5. Atlantic Yards:* There are two cases being developed against the project: - Failure of the ESDC to: consider alternate plans, consider worst-case scenarios (terrorism), properly comment and respond to community questions (providing misleading information), produce a realistic environmental impact study - Challenge to the use of eminent domain. In order for ED to be legal, the result must have a public purpose. The lawsuit argues that the public purpose in Atl Yrds is a pretense.

6. Broken Angel: Arthur and Chris Wood spoke briefly, as did Shahn Anderson. Much of the wooden structure at the top of the building will be dismantled to meet fire codes, but will then be rebuilt per Arthur's design using steel. The design may include a revolving whale on top. The building will be turned into condos, and a community art space will be erected in the lot next door, also per Arthur's design. The expected completion of the project is a mere 12-14 months!

7. Next Meeting: Feb. 21, 2007, Refreshments at 7 pm, meeting at 7:30, Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School, 357 Clermont Ave. This will be a joint meeting of the Fort Greene Association and the Society for Clinton Hill. Topics will include Atlantic Yards status report and an update on many of the other development projects in our neighborhoods by Councilperson Letitia James and more. *The Atlantic Yards portion of the meeting took up the bulk of the time, and really went on for far too long. The attorney who spoke gave a fine presentation, but the floor was open for questions for an unacceptable amount of time, considering most of the "questions" were just rambling comments and statements. Yes, this is a very important issue that will affect our neighborhood. But such in-depth discussion should be corralled and saved for a meeting dedicated to this project alone. By the time Broken Angel came up, many people had left or become restless.