You are here

Home

Williamsburg

Domino Sugar Historic Designation

Testimony last updated June 26, 2007

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.

Read more

Northside Town Hall Community Center

Past Project last updated June 23, 2009

Engine 212 – “The People’s Firehouse” – served North Brooklyn for more than a century; the Pratt Center is now helping transform it into a community and cultural center.

Built in 1869, Engine 212 was threatened with forced closure in the 1970s by a cash-strapped city government. New York City’s poorest neighborhoods were then suffering waves of arson and destructive fires. At the same time, City services, including fire-fighting, were being slashed.

Read more

Pratt Center News - Summer 2009

News last updated July 20, 2009

In This Issue:

  • A Message from Director Adam Friedman
  • People's Firehouse reborn
  • Ending East New York's retail drought
  • Coney Island for All yields community gains
  • Retrofit Bedford Stuyvesant Blooms
  • Bus Rapid Transit Goes Public
  • Bronx wins Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence
 

Read more

East Williamsburg Workers

Map last updated October 4, 2010

Read more

Energy Efficiency Comes to New York Neighborhoods

News last updated November 24, 2010

City Council Speaker helps Pratt Center and partners launch citywide green home upgrade program

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn joined the Pratt Center, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation and other partners on November 16 in the front yard of Theresa Braithwaite's Hancock Street house to inaugurate Retrofit NYC Block by Block, a new initiative to get New Yorkers to reduce their energy use through smart investments in their homes. Energy retrofits — home improvements that reduce the use of heating fuel, electricity, and water — can significantly reduce energy bills, make homes healthier and more comfortable, and reduce greenhouse gas and other emissions.

The New York City Council is sponsoring a one-year program that calls on community development groups in Staten Island, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens to enlist property owners in their neighborhoods to undertake retrofits, with the help of incentive programs from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), utility company programs, and federal grants and tax credits.

"When we saw the opportunity to fund $400,000 to help hundreds of homes throughout the City, particularly for underserved neighborhoods in the outer boroughs, we jumped at it," Speaker Quinn said. "This is a great initiative that I’m proud to support and I want to thank Pratt Center for Community Development and all the neighborhood partners for making our City green — one home at a time.”

Read more

Pages