WNYC; Amy Eddings; Ikea in Redhook

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WNYC
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Amy Eddings
Episode
Ikea in Redhook
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WNYC (New York, New York)
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cpb-aacip/80-59189ppg
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Description
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BROOKLYN, NY (2003-09-03) Click here to view a slideshow of Brooklyn's Red Hook neighborhood. IKEA, the Swedish furniture store, is known as much for its huge stores as its inexpensive, stylish, ready-to-assemble products. Plans to open IKEA stores in New Rochelle and near the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn raised a public outcry about increased truck and car traffic. Now, IKEA is trying again to come to Brooklyn, this time, in Red Hook. And many residents there are ready to welcome the store with open arms. WNYC's Amy Eddings reports. Most visitors to this corner of Red Hook are here unwillingly. They stand outside a squeaky gate, at an old, desolate shipyard, waiting to get their car from a city tow pound located on the property Security Guard: Pat Smith? Pat Smith: Yeah. Can you call Jim and tell him we're going to walk around the site? But Pat Smith is happy to be here. He surveys the cars and vans .a few, large, tired-looking buildings .several big, white equipment trucks that belong to a film company .and a vast expanse of gravel. Smith: We're just sitting here in a perfect spot. Smith works for IKEA as a site manager, finding places to build new stores. The furniture company would like to replicate the success of its Elizabeth, New Jersey outlet on this 22-acre site in Red Hook. Smith: I mean, the area from Brooklyn Heights down to the Bay Ridge is the number one customer area for the Elizabeth store. Twelve percent of our sales comes from that hook of Brooklyn, right there. As I said, our best customers are here, so if you put a store where your customers are, they're going to come more often. IKEA will invest $75 million dollars in Red Hook for a 345-thousand square foot store it expects will attract three million visitors a year, making it IKEA's most popular store in North America. IKEA's traffic consultant expects 85 percent of those shoppers will come by car, and there will be 14-hundred parking spaces for them. The company will provide free shuttle busses from three subway stations on the weekends, as well as a free ferry from Manhattan. Passengers will get dropped off at an esplanade park along the waterfront that will be open to the public. Yes, Pat Smith thinks an IKEA store would have an enormous impact on Red Hook .and he thinks it will be wonderful. Smith: I mean, there's nothing happening down here. You're standing on the site, it's 5:00 in the afternoon, and there's nothing. This is Brooklyn, for God's sake. There should be a buzz, people comin' and goin', and there's nothing happening down here. This place needs a shot in the arm. And I think we could be the start of something great. McGettrick: I think it's somewhat misleading when they say they'll improve a situation by adding over 2 million vehicle trips a year into a community. John McGettrick is co-chair of the Red Hook Civic Association. With his long, waxed mustache, McGettrick is a visible - and vocal - opponent of IKEA at local meetings. McGettrick: The emission rates invariably would increase dramatically. Those with asthma would have spikes on a regular occurance. We also have major ballfields and recreation areas, about 70 acres, the main route to IKEA would go right down the middle and create a moving wall of traffic through a major park. Traffic is the long shadow that trails big box stores. IKEA dropped plans for an outlet in New Rochelle in 2001, after bitter opposition from area residents (IKEA says the project became too expensive). Several months later, IKEA backed out of negotiations for a site along Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal. Word of a potential deal prompted a local congresswoman to threaten a lawsuit. IKEA will conduct an environmental review on such issues as air quality and noise. And the company says traffic will be eased by improvements to the neighborhood's main streets, and to key intersections along Hamilton Avenue, a six-lane road that cuts off the Red Hook peninsula from the rest of Brooklyn. And while McGettrick agrees that Red Hook could use a boost - forty-six percent of its residents live below the poverty level - he thinks small businesses and mixed income housing will bring people and jobs back ..not IKEA. McGettrick: The idea of having a superstore of this size on the waterfront with some of the most extraordinary views in this part of the United States, shows a terrible lack of vision on the part of planners and decision makers. McGettrick lives in a row house about two blocks from the community's only waterfront park, along a quiet, cobblestone street. This area is known as the back of Red Hook. Census data shows the back is mostly white and Hispanic, with a median income of forty seven thousand dollars. Drinking a soda in a corner bodega, Victor Alicea believes IKEA's traffic will ruin Red Hook's rugged charm. Alicea: The isolation is kinda cool. Know what I'm saying? It's like a refuge. You get back here, you don't have to worry about too much traffic, if you can call it that. But if traffic would ignite an environmental disaster to many in Red Hook's back, it would spark economic vitality to those who live in the front - the predominantly black and Hispanic residents of the Red Hook public housing complex. Here, the median household income is ten thousand dollars. IKEA will bring about 480 full-time positions, and give public housing tenants first crack at them. Frank Perry: I hope it do come. Woman: Yeah, we hope it do come. Perry: Because it will bring a lot of jobs here to this community. Frank Perry and a young woman stand together outside the steel front door of a public housing building. Perry: Once they see an IKEA here, then, what's next? A Kmart, WalMart, a Waldbaum's a big supermarket? So imagine a Pathmark right there. And an IKEA whew. A gold mine. (Laughs) Dorothy Shields is not troubled by increased auto emissions, or traffic concerns. She's been president of the Red Hook East Tenants Association for three decades, and everyone calls her Miss Shields. She's lived in the projects for almost fifty years. Shields: And when I first came on board, there was nothing but businesses in Red Hook. We had traffic then, and it was taken care of. And I'm quite sure it will be taken care of now. But Barbara Longobardi, a long-time resident in the back of Red Hook, says there are other ways to bring jobs and services here. Longobardi: I'm an old lady over here, so this is an old story. There's always the story about jobs. And to pit somebody against another body about jobs to me is B.S. Because you can have a little business they maybe hire some kids from the neighborhood and it adds a little Brooklyn to the neighborhood! Small businesses have been gaining a larger toehold in the neighborhood, and have helped boost Red Hook's job figures by thirty percent over the last eleven years. Dan Preston's company is one of them. He makes parachutes for the sport and defense industries. Preston is renovating an abandoned building in the back of Red Hook, where he hopes to expand the company. Preston: The net gain in jobs is going to be a net loss. You'll lose jobs overall. Because we're all gonna leave. We'll have no choice. If we can't get our vehicles in and out of the neighborhood quickly, there's no point in being here. And that's gonna kill all of us. But Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce president Kenneth Adams says most IKEA shoppers will come to Red Hook after work hours, and on weekends. Adams: Let me remind you that I can ride my bicycle any Sunday down in Red Hook with my eyes closed and my hands off the handlebar. There's nobody down there on weekends. It's really quiet. Unfortunately, by the way, for retailers and people trying to get restaurants going and other things. IKEA is seeking zoning variances from the city for the Red Hook store, and that means public hearings, which are expected to start in the fall. The store could open as early as 2006. A public relations campaign is in full swing. IKEA has made more than 50 presentations to local groups and officials, mailed Dear Neighbor postcards to its Brooklyn customers, and handed out I Love IKEA buttons. Project manager Pat Smith says it's to make sure people are aware of the project. Given its size, and the passions it's stirring up, an IKEA would be hard to miss. For WNYC, I'm Amy Eddings. Copyright 2003, WNYC
Genres
News
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News
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WNYC
Media type
Sound
Credits
Producer: Keefe, John
Reporter: Eddings, Amy
AAPB Contributor Holdings
WNYC-FM
Identifier: 36584.1 (WNYC Media Archive MDB)
Format: Data CD
Duration: 00:07:47
WNYC-FM
Identifier: 36584.2 (WNYC Media Archive MDB)
Format: Data CD
Generation: Copy: Access
Duration: 00:07:47
WNYC-FM
Identifier: 36584.3 (WNYC Media Archive MDB)
Format: Data CD
Generation: Copy: Access
Duration: 00:07:47
WNYC-FM
Identifier: 36584.4 (WNYC Media Archive MDB)
Format: Data CD
Generation: Copy: Access
Duration: 00:07:47
WNYC-FM
Identifier: 36584.5 (WNYC Media Archive MDB)
Format: Data CD
Generation: Copy: Access
Duration: 00:07:47
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Citations
Chicago: “WNYC; Amy Eddings; Ikea in Redhook,” WNYC, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed April 30, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-80-59189ppg.
MLA: “WNYC; Amy Eddings; Ikea in Redhook.” WNYC, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. April 30, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-80-59189ppg>.
APA: WNYC; Amy Eddings; Ikea in Redhook. Boston, MA: WNYC, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-80-59189ppg