New Yorkers are overall very suspicious of new developments in the South Bronx.
With Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr under fire soon after attending a horrendously insensitive gentrification-themed rave in support of the "Piano District" development slated to introduce more above-market/non-affordable housing in the Bronx, people are unsure about him.
Add that to his incendiary dismissal of a Bronx resident on the radio recently who was attempting to get Diaz Jr. to confront the gentrification problem in the borough, many New Yorkers smell something fishy.
The good news is that not every development happening in the Bronx is necessarily a bad thing, nor even aimed at swiping people's homes out from under them with the slow choke of gradually rising rents.
For example, one of the companies involved with Anthony Bourdain's Pier 57 "Super Pier," called Youngwoo and Associates, who acquired the Bronx General Post Office last year, aspires to develop the property into a "Beautiful place for food and thought."
The idea is to keep the Post Office, and develop around it within and above the space, rebranding the property at 149th Street and Grand Concourse Bronx Post Place, "a crossroads community, commerce, and culture."
Youngwoo Director of Marketing Christine Nebiar believes that, "There's a lot of culinary talent in the South Bronx and in the Bronx, so we are envisioning some sort of food hall space."
For the rest of the space, Youngwoo is planning for two floors of commercial space. One will be 50,000 square feet of office space dedicated to a single business, and the floor above will be separated into smaller units for professionals ranging from lawyers to yoga instructors, according to Nebiar.
There are also plans in the works to create a place to grab a bite on the rooftop.
Nebiar commented, "We'll have some sort of restaurant, which is cool because there are no spaces in that neighborhood for anyone to go to a rooftop and have a drink."
With all the above-mentioned Bronx gentrification worries swirling around the borough, John Howard Algarin of Community Board 4, commented, "I don't think it's that kind of party."
Instead of creating an exclusive, pricey, and elitist haven, Algarin continued, "It's the General Post Office. It belongs to the community. There's not going to be a red velvet rope outside."
We couldn't agree more.
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[via DNA Info] [Feature Image Courtesy SaveThePostOffice.com]