Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Art Invading The Neighborhood

The National Parks Service has allowed St. Ann's to renovate an old Tobacco warehouse in Dumbo to create a new theater. And apparently the neighborhood is none too happy:
Sure enough, in November, the world-renowned theater troupe St. Ann’s Warehouse was given development rights to convert the crumbling and roofless building into a $15-million mixed-use performance hall and plaza.

Opponents, including the Brooklyn Heights and Fulton Ferry Landing associations and the New York Landmarks Conservancy, then sued, saying that the “state was pursuing a personal agenda on behalf of private commercial interests.”
I like St. Ann's a lot, and although the opponents may or may not have a point about how this happened, I'm not sure what their intrinsic opposition to the theater itself is.