DUMBO area in Brooklyn says "No!" to watchtower development

by Dogpatch 22 Replies latest jw friends

  • Dogpatch
    Dogpatch

    Read the whole article at: http://www.nypost.com/business/13351.htm

    December 14, 2003 -- Another real estate turf war is cooking in Brooklyn.

    This one squares off DUMBO dwellers against Jehovah's Witnesses, whose plans to build a massive housing complex has the trendy neighborhood residents from Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass fuming.

    The religious group recently applied for city rezoning to develop a six-building, 1,000-unit residential complex at 85 Jay St., directly adjacent to the only subway station in the red-hot 'hood.

    Locals are angry because they say the castle-like complex will detract from the developing area's industrial aesthetic and waste potentially valuable retail space in what could soon be a well-trafficked corridor.

    "This huge parcel is going to become the heart of the neighborhood, and we don't want our heart to be a fortress," said DUMBO Neighborhood Association President Nancy Webster.

    There is also a website devoted to preventing the Watchtower from rebuilding their part of DUMBO. It would be good to write a letter. Who's up for a letter campaign?

    Randy Watters

    Net Soup!

    http://www.freeminds.org

    http://www.watchtowernews.org

  • blondie
    blondie
    There is also a website devoted to preventing the Watchtower from rebuilding their part of DUMBO. It would be good to write a letter. Who's up for a letter campaign?

    What's the website?

    Blondie

  • imallgrowedup
    imallgrowedup

    Count me in!!

    growedup

  • sf
    sf

    I'm in.

    sKally

  • sf
    sf
    There is also a website devoted to preventing the Watchtower from rebuilding their part of DUMBO.

    http://85jaystreet.org/

    You can have a voice in the future of 85 Jay Street and the neighborhood.
    Click here.

    Letter Center Visit our letter center to read sample letters, find letters that you can print, sign and send or paste into an e-mail of your own.
    Click here. Spread the Word! It's important to let your representatives know how you feel, but it's just as important to spread the word about 85 Jay Street to your fellow neighbors and DUMBO/Vinegar Hill residents.
    Find out More Did you know that the Watchtower was ranked #34 in New York City's top private companies of 2003? Click here to find out more.

    Visit DNA, the DUMBO Neighborhood Association.

    Read a recent Daily News article on plans for 85 Jay Street. Click here.

    Browse news and postings about the Jehovah's Witness organization at watchtowernews.org.

    Visit the official site of Jehovah's Witnesses at watchtower.org.

    sKally

  • xjw_b12
    xjw_b12

    Can anyone enlighten me as to why they need a new residential complex, if they are moving their printing and shipping facilities upstate ??

    I presumed there would be less people based in Brooklyn, once they had completed the transfer!

  • blondie
    blondie

    B12, I figure they are only moving a portion of the operation to Wallkill.

    Blondie

  • Winston Smith :>D
    Winston Smith :>D

    Quote from that web site:

    "We are going to expand," Robert Johnson, a Watchtower Society spokesman said. "The Constitution allows us to grow."

    I used to take pride that, as a JW, we were this nice, clean group in NY.

    Now it disgusts me seeing that they are realy a multi million dollar real-estate and publishing giant that is throwing their weight around the quaint, architecturally distint area of Brooklyn Heights.

    Sometimes I wonder exactly how far I had my head up my ass as I was taking pride in being part of that cult

    Aren't they pulling out of their anyways to move to Patterson?

    WTF? Are they just developing this to cash in on it's potential real-estate value???

  • imallgrowedup
    imallgrowedup

    Winston,

    Are they just developing this to cash in on it's potential real-estate value???

    From where I sit, everything points to that exact motive!

    The last sentence in the article (click on Dogpatch's link) shows that they do not need additional housing in Brooklyn.

    The Witnesses own several other properties throughout Brooklyn, including a million-square-foot Bible shipping facility at 360 Furman St. in Brooklyn Heights, which they listed for sale six weeks ago.

    Can someone tell us how many people work in the million-square-foot shipping facility at 360 Furman St in Brooklyn Heights? That's an awfully big building, with I am SURE an awful lot of "employees" who will no longer need housing in Brooklyn once that building sells.

    IMHO, they are getting into real estate investing, plain and simple, and they want to use their tax-exempt status to make more than any ordinary real estate developer would make given the exact same project and costs.

    growedup

  • worldlygirl
    worldlygirl
    "The Constitution allows us to grow."

    They certainly don't mind invoking "Caesar's law" when it benefits them, do they?

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