An indefensible B’klyn development

Brooklyn: Your editorial on 80 Flatbush missed the mark completely, and shows a profound ignorance of the actual project (“Onward & upward, Brooklyn,” Sept. 10).

Alloy Development spent more than $500,000 lobbying our local officials for this travesty of a project, and still the very diverse Brooklyn CB2 voted it down 32 to 1. All of our elected officials, plus the borough president, have come out against it. There is wide opposition to this project and describing it otherwise makes it seem like you swallowed the developer’s press release. One of the two towers is a 1,000-foot monolith the size of the Chrysler building, filled with luxury rentals that will send shadows as far as Fort Greene Park. Any notion of transitional zoning is obliterated if they receive their variance.

The developers (and the mayor) somehow think that providing the community with an elementary school is going to really bring a huge benefit? Their solution for the beleaguered students at Khalil Gibran High School is to literally trap them in a huge construction site for the next eight years instead of moving the students out. (It’s a citywide school and could be located anywhere.)

The “below-market-rate” housing is another joke, as even those apartments will be unaffordable for many Brooklynites. The community and elected officials have never said no to responsible development, but this is a vast overreach of greed under the guise of public good. Bravo to Council Member Steve Levin for pushing back and actually fighting for his constituents. More elected officials should try it sometime.