Domino Sugar Historic Designation

Testimony on Domino Sugar Factory Landmarking

Lacey Tauber
Pratt Center for Community Development
June 26, 2007

Thank you for this opportunity to provide testimony today. My name is Lacey Tauber and I represent the Pratt Center for Community Development, a university- based organization that works for a more just, equitable, and sustainable city for all New Yorkers by helping communities to plan for and realize their future. I am also a Williamsburg resident.

Pratt Center strongly supports designation of the Domino Sugar factory buildings under consideration today. As you have no doubt heard, the National Trust for Historic Preservation recently named Brooklyn's industrial waterfront among the 11 most endangered historic places in America. This is largely due to the fact that in preparation for the Greenpoint-Williamsburg rezoning, including its environmental impact statement, the city failed to give sufficient attention to the area's historic resources, and now they are vulnerable to the heightened development climate created by the zoning actions nearby. As a result, the character of North Brooklyn is quickly fading with wave upon wave of demolition: the Old Dutch Mustard Building, the zipper factory at N. 10th and Berry, the piers of the former Eastern District Terminal... the list goes on.

In the place of these structures rise new market-rate condo developments that have begun to redefine North Brooklyn's future and alter its physical and social character. The landmark designation of Domino Sugar is extremely important because it will help to retain a piece --albeit a small one --of the industrial heritage that defined the borough's history. But it is very important for another reason --one of equal and perhaps more significance for the neighborhood: the designation of these structures is to be coupled with an initiative to create affordable housing on the site. This is a crucial issue for neighborhood residents, who face an increasing affordable housing crisis. We are very pleased that in this instance, the city has worked to strike a balance between historic preservation and affordable housing development and the designation is part of a set of actions that will help preserve the community's social character by providing places for low and moderate income families --long the bedrock of this community --to live.

Throughout its 45 year history, the Pratt Center has worked with community groups to protect the interests of low and moderate-income families --including housing, well-paying jobs, appropriate community facilities, and the protection of their neighborhood's essential character. We are firmly committed to helping communities strike a balance between their need for the basics --such as decent and affordable places to live --and their desire to retain the historic scale, quality and character of their neighborhood's streetscapes. In a city with ever-escalating land values, this is not an easy balance to achieve, and all too frequently we see the pressures of the real estate market pitting historic preservation goals against the goals of affordable housing, when in fact most New Yorkers desire to see both goals fulfilled.

We hope some of the affordable housing planned for the Domino Sugar site will be developed inside the designated historic structures, because there are far too few examples in New York City of a protected historic resource being reused to meet a community's housing needs. In addition, while we are not calling for the additional designation of other Domino structures, we hold out hope that the city will someday have a fully developed policy framework in which a far broader set historic preservation and affordable housing goals can be met simultaneously. Because to provide communities with what they need --i.e., housing --and what they want --i.e., retention of community character --will require government to step up to the plate to either incentivize or regulate property development so communities can have what they deserve, and that is: Both.