John Street

It’s premature to say that a decision has been made to repurpose the ConEd plant along John Street in Dumbo and Vinegar Hill as part of Brooklyn Bridge Park, but an article in the Brooklyn Eagle says that it’s not out of the question. After all, the original plans for Brooklyn Bridge Park was originally planned to stretch only betwee Piers 1 and 5. Pier 6 was added later because the Port Authority owned it. The plans for the park end at Jay Street and John Street. Related to the land near the ConEd plant, last week, politicians decided not to veto a residential building at the John Street plot, but reduced the proposed 17 story building to a 12 stories. DUMBO Neighborhood Alliance’s Doreen Gallo argued the following point in her editorial piece in the Brooklyn Paper.:

“The John Street site should remain public — a great open space to see the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges together on the waterfront. With the power plant closing this year, we should be looking at this site in its entirety up to the Brooklyn Navy Yard and not be thinking about the immediate real estate greed of the present administration.

Any building on the John Street site will eliminate this parcel and future Con Edison waterfront parcels to be considered part of the park and wall off the entrance of the surrounding communities of Vinegar Hill, Farragut and Bridge Plaza.”

A building on John Street could potentially close off the East-West access from Pearl Street towards Gold Street on the waterfront. The Brooklyn Eagle mentions that the ConEd plant in Vinegar Hill will be torn down, which Brownstoner mentioned last year, but for the land to become part of the Brooklyn Bridge Park, several pieces would need to come together for it to happen (environmental surveys, finances, clean up, etc). If the land were repurposed, it would be a nice way to connect the waterfront from the Navy Yards to Pier 6.