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“I was born in Queens and grew up on Governors
Island. My parents met at the Brooklyn Navy Yard at a Coast
Guard dance. I have been pretty fascinated by this area because
I had this really strange dream a few years ago about a small
town that was near a large metropolis. I wasn’t sure
whether it was New York or Philadelphia. But then when I was
brought to Vinegar Hill it was almost exactly what was in
my dream.” “Location
on the river determines the fate of the neighborhood. The
1765 map shows that this area is predominantly tobacco plantations.
And that was soon replaced by the maritime industry, which
then gave rise to the foundries and the manufacturing that
predominated in this area until the BQE was built. We love
the river and fight very hard to maintain what little access
we have.” “There were so many skirmishes, it wasn’t even a battle. They fought at all the forts that were built in this area, whether it be in Fort Greene, which was actually Fort Putnam, or the fort at the reservoir and Prospect Park. All those were captured. Washington had about 2000 men here. The British came in with 10,000.
The
Brooklyn Historical Society has an etching by a revolutionary
soldier who etched what he saw out in the bay. He said there
were so many ships coming down the East River that you could
no longer see the river. All you saw were the sea of white
masts as the British came down and landed on Staten Island. I
would just like to say that certainly that battle and Washington’s
retreat, and then the building of the Brooklyn Bridge are
probably the best known, most dramatic historical events.
For me what’s fascinating are the things I don’t
know. You mentioned something I never heard of, that the first
ferry was burned down because they thought Manhattanites were
taking over the waterfront. I’d like to hear more about
that, what did that mean and what are the circumstances surrounding
that? Or the fact that this was a tobacco growing area, and
what did the Empire Stores really do?”
“This
was historically a shipping and manufacturing district….and
now there’s a new form of creation, there’s a lot
of artists and other light industry that’s going on.
The suggestion is now to create this enormous entertainment
and shopping complex, a destination for people from all over
Brooklyn and Queens and a million tourists a year on the Circle
Line, to come and consume. To go to the same chain stores
that are found in any mall anywhere in America. I speak more
personally, it’s a very depressing period to be in where
people’s leisure is spent shopping and sitting in food
courts. I just went to the Baltimore Harbor, and people talk
about that as being such a great place, and I went inside
to see all these people on this beautiful day sitting inside,
eating this food, going from chain store to chain store schlepping
their bags, when they’re on this beautiful site that’s
just been obscured.” “It sounds like your description of the sort of homogenization of the area and DUMBO and Fulton Ferry turning into a backdrop for consumption, I think what you’re also bringing up is the way that kind of experience will help nullify everyone’s personal experience of the place as they discover it now. It seems like everybody speaks of it as, you come here and you go wow, how did this happen? Or why did this develop in this particular way. I’m not even sure if it’s a problem merely of consumption, but the fact that you’ll have hoards of people here who will never go through that discovery process.” |
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