Community Board Gives Condo Developer Green Light to Purchase Brooklyn Heights Library

July 17, 2015 — New York's landscape and skyline may be changing at a bewildering pace, but one thing that has remained fairly constant is the way New Yorkers react when something ticks them off. They may be bookish types and they may have known that their protests would not stop Hudson Companies from buying the Brooklyn Heights Library — but they still showed up to watch Community Board 2 approve the library's sale this week. According to DNAinfo, "the general board conditionally OK’d the proposed $52 million sale of the city-owned property at 280 Cadman Plaza West to Hudson Companies in a motion that passed with 25 members in favor, 14 opposed and four abstentions. The private developer in partnership with Marvel Architects seeks to demolish the existing structure and redevelop it into a 36-story tower with a 21,500 square-foot library to replace the old one and 139 condo units on top." Detractors of the project have many concerns, one of them being that the new library space was to be smaller than the existing space. But the sale was approved with conditions, reports DNAinfo, and one of them is that the new branch will have the same usable floor space as the existing branch. While that seems like good news for the existing library, which is reportedly falling apart and in serious need of renovation, opponents are dismayed to see public spaces funded with private developers who are fattening up their wallets by building luxury condos. Not surprisingly, "opponents of the sale heckled, protested, and repeatedly interrupted community board members as they spoke." New Yorkers don't go down without a fight. And at least the city still has that going for it.