Speaking of the future of large abandoned structures in the neighborhood, what do you suppose will happen with Caledonian Hospital? Why does no one discuss that as a possible new school location? And when do you suppose they will take down all of the signs pointing to it as a still functioning hospital?

Its refreshing to see other things available away from this Cortelyou Road centric neighborhood.

I bet that the reason no one bought the property is because it used to be a gas station, and it has old huge gasoline tanks in the ground…they have to be removed at a great expensise. Therefore it cant be a park either without removal of the rusted old gas tanks…

NYPD is on it…

Does anyone know where this stuff is coming from? It seems like last week the lot was filled with a HUGE pile of unopened cardboard boxes that seemed to hold files and other random medical supplies. Odd and potentially dangerous stuff to be randomly popping up on a street corner….

Walked by there this morning, cops had the area roped off and a detail in a car on the corner.

A fence around the property? Wouldn’t a fence be a magnet for grafitti, and also do nothing to improve the neighborhood? Surely, there is a better solution. Tearing down the building, tearing up the asphalt, and planting grass and trees would address all the problems that Mr. Rabinowitz is rightly concerned about. If there is nothing there but grass and empty space, there will be no vermin, no stench, no fire hazard, and no graffiti.

Looks like a meth lab.

@Andrew, if you can get any party to mount a campaign against her, I’d be pretty surprised. I have nothing against her, but just as an exercise my husband and I checked out who was running against her in the last election. I can’t remember the guy’s name but he barely had a web site, and I doubt he ever set foot in the district. It wasn’t even a campaign. The Dem machine is strong in Brooklyn!

The property used to be a gas station, and it has old huge gasoline tanks in the ground…they have to be removed at a great expensise. Therefore it cant be a park either without removal of the rusted old gas tanks…

Reply to DR — Fence is not a long term solution. It was just a temporary solution to a despicable dumpsite. Perhaps FDC can undertake to fast track a project for suggestions and implementation of positive reconstruction/redevelopment of this dumpsite. Ok DR- I like your idea of greening the dump. How about a community garden with a raised bed in which the plants would not be affected by the underground rusted old gas tanks? A neighbor tells me that they recall those tanks were removed prior to Granite Construction using it as their worksite to rehabilitate Newkirk Plaza.

Mr. Rabinowitz’s idea about a (raised-bed) garden at the site is great. And if the tanks in the ground were indeed removed (as his neighbor tells him), that would obviously be huge in terms of improving the site significantly in some form in the future. Any way to confirm if the tanks have been removed? Did anyone else witness their removal? Does anyone else know about it?

The city has a program to address this issue, commonly known as “brownfields”:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/oer/html/nycbcp/nycbcp.shtml

Google doesn’t have shit on 601 Marlborough… Go figure…

So about that primary challenge? lol

This morning, a few men were taking measurements of the old auto-shop building on Newkirk and Marlborough. I asked the one in charge if he knew the owner’s plans for the building, and he said the owner, whoever that might be, is planning to put a discount store in the building. Of course, the owner has a right to put whatever he wants there, but if what I was told was true, do we need another discount store in the neighborhood? And wouldn’t it hurt the business of the other discount stores?