Public Showdown Over Admirals Row Scheduled for July 22
July 22 will mark the latest public showdown over the fate of the Navy Yard's Admirals Row -- the string of old mansions along Brooklyn's Flushing Avenue that has pitted preservationists who extol the homes' dilapidated grandeur against the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation and residents of the Farragut Houses, who support a plan to raze the buildings and erect a much-needed grocery store.
The Brooklyn Paper reports today that a public hearing is scheduled for July 22, and that Councilwoman Letitia James of Clinton Hill has recently adopted a more conciliatory tone, presumably in an effort to reconcile the competing demands of her constituents:
Councilwoman Letitia James now says “some” of the tumbledown, historic houses in the Brooklyn Navy Yard should be saved, though she still supports the city’s plan to tear down the rotting Admirals Row to build a much-needed supermarket.
But James, who in the past was squarely on the side of the city’s plan which called for razing all 10 structures, hasn’t gotten too sentimental about the dilapidated buildings, many of which served as homes for high-ranking naval officials.
Ms. James told The Observer, however, that she has not altered her position. "I've always supported preserving some of the homes, if it's cost effective," she said, adding that the supermarket remains her top priority.
While the Navy Yard falls under the jurisdiction of the quasi-public Navy Yard Corporation, Admirals Row remains under the aegis of the National Guard.
According to The Paper, "The National Guard wants to sell the land, and according to local law, must give the city first dibs. But because of the houses’ historic significance, the Guard must also go through an arduous public comment and historic review process."
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DEPARTMENTS OF THE ARMY AND THE AIR FORCE
NATIONAL GUARD BUREAU
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
1411 JEFFERSON DAVIS HIGHWAY, STE 11200
ARLINGTON, VA 22202-3231
July 14, 2008
ADVISORY
Call Rick Breitenfeldt, 703-607- 2575 until July 21; cell, 202-425-3200, July 22
National Guard to hold public meeting on Brooklyn Navy Yard Admiral’s Row
The National Guard Bureau (NGB) will hold a public meeting Tuesday, July 22, 2008, 7-9 pm at the Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, NY.
This meeting is being held to provide information about the historic preservation efforts at Admiral’s Row, Brooklyn Navy Yard.
NGB also will seek public comment required by Section 106, National Historic Preservation Act, regarding the proposed property disposal of Admiral’s Row.
The NGB, in consultation with the New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) has determined that Admiral’s Row is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Also the NGB and the SHPO concur that the property disposal and the redevelopment plan will adversely affect the sites’ National Register eligible buildings.
The NGB is complying with all federal regulations relative to the disposal of Admiral’s Row. The National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) Section 106 review includes steps to identify and evaluate historic properties, assess the effects of the agency’s proposed action to historic properties and, if there is an adverse effect, consult about ways to avoid, reduce or mitigate those adverse effects.
The NGB staff will be present to discuss the project with interested citizens. The meeting will be organized with information tables and displays, rather than a public hearing. The NGB will gather written comments only.
Documents and reports regarding NHPA compliance are located on the project website:
http://www.nan.usace.army.mil/business/buslinks/admiral/index.htm. Comments also can be submitted to the NGB by emailing AdmiralsRowBNY@usace.army.mil . For more information, please call 703-607-2780, or email mike.milord1@ng.army.mil
-END-
Let it be noted that while Tish placated a few people in the days prior to the hearing which occurred last night, during the press conference that was held BEFORE the hearing (and hence before anyone has a chance to speak to each other) she opened her speech with a statement about how she thoroughly supports demolishing Admiral's Row.
As if insult to injury, not only did she present to her constituents behind her the proposal that they could ONLY receive fresh groceries IF the buildings were demolished, but she began a chant of "tear the buildings down."
I wonder how this woman can sleep at night, polarizing the individuals who look up to her against their own neighborhood heritage, and presenting options as black and white. Not once did I hear her mention that "tearing the buildings down" would actually only provide the footprint for a giant parking lot... which few of the residents she brought along with her to that conference would ever be using.
I had briefly had some faith in Tish James and her preservation efforts and honesty toward the community.
Now I am simply disgusted with her overgeneralized mantras. I'm sure the BNYDC couldn't be happier with her.
To the Editor:
I hope your readers will accept my comments as somewhat authoritative, since they are based in facts that have been thoroughly vetted by those at the state and national level of our government who have long established and widely accepted statutory responsibilities to protect our nation's heritage. Be they the Secretary of the Army or the district office of the US Army Corps of Engineers, or, the Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces, when it comes to protecting and honoring the remains of American Prisoners Of War, none has a higher duty than to protect such remains from DISHONOR or DISRESPECT that may come from any action, be it civil or military.
Now you might be saying to your self, there goes Paterson again. Well, the folks who might have lived in the down draft of the City's proposed Kent Avenue Garbage Incinerator were at first also skeptical. But they thought enough of my early research that uncovered the historically accurate map of Wallabout Bay during the American Revolution to have their highly regarded attorneys-Berle Cass and Case double check my facts and then they presented them to the New York State Commissioner of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. After much fuss and frustration and after the City Comptroller Elizabeth Holtzman reviewed my research the City was forced to withdraw it's application for the Incinerator. I believe such will be the result with respect to the City's plans to tear down any part of the National Guard Bureau property being proposed for development as a parking lot for an unneeded retail use, supposedly to serve poor people most of whom do not have a need for a parking lot.
This would be tragic in these tough times if the people of New York City were interested in trampling on the sacred honor of those "who gave their last measure of devotion" and made the supreme sacrifice...not for a nation not yet established, but rather for a cause that still endures...for the cause of FREEDOM.
My final comments are directed to those in authority in that established nation and in New York State, where the first formal engagement of Gen. Washington's Army (and Navy) took place. After all of the remaining vestiges of state's rights and home rule are stripped away, we are still nation of laws and of super-ceding national laws. I believe we are still a nation where higher duty to national honor and commitment to service takes precedence over an unnecessary and avoidable local interest.
There should be little argument among national military historians, particularly the US Navy historians at Annapolis and the national historians in charge of the Third Naval District records at the National Archive, as well as the US Army historians in charge of records on file at the Military Academy of US Army at West Point that between 12,000 and 20,000 of the Prisoners Of War held aboard several British prison ships anchored in the sand bar channel of Wallabout Bay were buried in and around the Bay during the American Revolution. In fact, the Daughters of the American Revolution long ago obtained documentation from the British Navy's Admiralty Archives of 8,000 burials that were recorded in the logs of just one prison ship-the Jersey.
These were facts that had not been brought to the Defense Department's attention until after 1988 and after the National Guard Bureau formed up its initial determination that there was no essential mission for the National Guard or its New York State elements. We have seen just recently that new ideas and new information can change previously well established missions of our Armed Forces, even in the face of battle.
If the US Army and it's National Guard elements who claimed to those Guard units supporting the fight for "Enduring Freedom" for the Iraqi and Afghan people, and continue to claim to new recruits that their military heritage was established from a long line of citizen soldiers who formed up the local and state (provincial) militias in the early days before the Declaration of Independence it must hold true to its commitment to honor and serve those who have paid the price of freedom. So it is that those in charge of meeting that duty to honor and serve those in service to our nation must see to it that all military planning for the readiness of critical military elements-such as the National Guard state its mission statements, or findings of no mission, for its resources in terms of how the mission statement or finding of no mission best reflects on the national commitment to honor and serve those who have given the ultimate service to their "belief in the ideals upon which this nation was founded".
In doing so, I believe that the US Army and the National Guard Bureau will see that the new information, developed after the passage of Public Law 100-202, section 129 by the US Congress on December 12, 1987 by the Secretary of the Navy and Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Northern Division based in Pennsylvania which conducted base closing procedures for the Naval Station Brooklyn facilities located along the eastern side of Wallabout Bay between 1988 and 1996, and see that the new facts that are on the record with the New York State Historic Preservation Office that were evaluated and authenticated after the passage of PL 100-202 give sufficient grounds for super-ceding any order to dispose of such historic property of national importance to the US Army and The National Guard and that is of such intrinsically significant importance not only to the telling of the true history of the National Guard, but also demonstrating the Guards commitment to honor and serve those who have given service to the cause of "Enduring Freedom".
I have comments for our locally elected civilian officials, but they have been tirelessly and persistently put forth over such a long period of volunteer "community organizing" that I will spare all concerned. Suffice it to say that
I come to the above positions by way of once being deeply involved with the way the Wallabout area developed from it's earliest beginnings as an establishment of the Dutch West India Company and later as an assemblage of the old Dutch families that held proprietor's lots that stretched from Wal-boght where Native peoples had long settled to where the Atlantic Terminal development zone is located today. Ever since I was the Section 106 consultant to the African Burial Ground Federal Steering Committee, I have been particularly concerned with the below ground elements of our heritage. This concern bore fruit when the US Navy was forced to do an in depth study of African American seamen and landsmen participation in the US Navy occupation of the eastern side of Wallabout Bay. The recognition of Black sailors and the identification of Black grave sites at the US Navy Yard and the further results of a dtailed mitigation led to the re-establishment of the US Naval Cemetery in the Brooklyn Navy Yard after the Navy's finding that over 500 bodies were unaccounted for when the remains of sailors were moved to Cypress Hills in 1926.
I offer these lengthy comments to the editors of the Observer in hopes that it might spark some journalistic passion among both the new comers and the old timers who can smell a real story with legs. I offer them someone who was once directly involved helping to plan for the restoration and redevelopment of Fort Greene Park which is the site of little recognized national monument to the nation's first "Unknown Soldiers and Sailors". I have spent now more than 20 years researching and identifying the critical elements of Wallabout's history, particularly those related to our earliest national, state and local heritage located at the US Naval Shipyard protecting the national importance heritage. I hope that effort allows me the small right to say my piece and have it taken to heart.
The Marines have "Semper Fi", the Army has "honor and service" and for all those who are still unaccounted for and lay in their watery and mud filled graves under the National Guard Bureau site on the western side of Wallabout Bay, the call must be "Leave No One Behind".
Over these POW-MIA graves is where some would tear down one the last intact vestiges of military occupation of this hallowed place in military history and in its stead have another supermarket and perhaps a plaque or some museum display placed in tribute instead of a true and lasting tribute to the ideal of the "Enduring Freedom" they gave their lives to ensure.
The best and most enduring way to cherish the memory of their service is to have the US Army's National Guard Bureau recognize that everything has changed since December 12, 1987; that there is a new and important mission for the National Guard Bureau resources located at the western end of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. A new mission that requires close consultation with the new governor of New York State-David Paterson and with the new New York City that is in charge of its Public Education mission, two very new and important facts that were not in place when PL 100-202 was enacted. That law does not bind the National Guard Bureau into giving up possession of one of it's truly nationally significant historic sites. It does not permanently set a mission statement nor a finding of no mission. Rather, the time passed and the facts gathered offer an opportunity for a better assessment of what would be a mission critical function for military assets. I believe an expanded New York State National Guard program for "Troops to Teachers" helping to provide much needed highly qualified teachers to our urban schools, a program supported by all major elements of the Armed Services veterans organizations throughout New York City offers a unique opportunity for the Guard to develop a long range response to the mission critical need for readiness based on substantially improved recruitment and retention. The type of expanded Troops to Teachers program undertaken in cooperation with the NYS and NYC Departments of Education and the State University will be the gateway for "Enduring Freedom" for both urban school students and National Guard teachers. It will also be an enduring legacy for those who gave so much so long ago.
I am confident,as I have always been, that both the President and the Governor know how much the troops rely on their commitment to honor and serve. The troops placed in harms way, be they from Revolutionary times or from current conflicts, must know that our national and state military leadership of the US Army, National Guard and those in charge at the National Guard Bureau will now, and always, also stand true to their commitments to honor and serve.
If you agree with me that this site should not be removed from Natinal Guard Bureau jurisdiction and that the Secretary of the Army and the Governor of New York State should re-assess and re-evaluate the use of the "Officers Quarters" formerly used by the US Navy, please feel free to contact the Governor's Office and his Office of Military and Naval Affairs and well as the Secretary of the Army and his Commander-in-Chief, the President of the United States.
Thank you for having the patience and respect to hear me out.