Monday eve I was asked to film a meeting at the Brooklyn Heights library in down town Brooklyn. The meeting was put on by Marvel Architects and Reps from the library so people in the neighborhood could look at blue print designs at tables and pick whether or not they liked certain designs put forth for a new library. The plan is to demolish the existing library that was built by Francis Keally in 1962 who also built the library at Grand Army Plaza, the main library on the north end of Prospect park. These libraries are built like fortresses and are built to withstand the test of time, unlike what's being built today.
I really had no idea what I was walking into when I went, I just knew someone requested this meeting to be filmed and felt it was very necessary. I was under the impression this plan was a go and that was why the people were sitting around tables choosing color patterns and designs for the new library. As the evening progressed, however, I learned more about what was going on. As I went around to talk to people and film/video I found people who were not so hot on the idea being presented and I finally found the man who had requested the meeting to be filmed.
Apparently, Big real estate wants to demolish the existing Brooklyn Heights library, shrink it down to a 1/3 it's original size and build luxury condos some 33 stories high was the height I heard. There is also some plan to build off site affordable housing for the "poor" a few blocks away as some consolation prize for the Billionaires getting what they want. As time went by and people took to the stage to give their feelings as to what they wanted in the design of the new library, some got up and said they wanted this or that feature, like picking features on a new car. Others got up and expressed outright disapproval to the entire process. They called the Charette, a Charade. Some could see right through what was going on.
Citizens Defending libraries was created in 2013 in response to libraries being sold off to Big real estate. Michael White shared with me some facts about a library called "Donnell" that was across the street from the Museum of Modern Art which was sold in 08 and has been under construction and delayed due to an economic down turn. They took down Donnell and are building a high rise hotel and shrinking the library down from 96,000 to 28,000 sq ft.
The Donnell library was closed in secret without much public notice at all.
The same thing is being done to the Brooklyn Heights and at least 3 other libraries in Brooklyn; Williamsburg, Sunset Park, Red hook, and Pacific. The RE developers want to build as high as possible with the Brooklyn Heights library to access the view which protesters have said will block out already limited sun that reaches down town Brooklyn, not to mention the added congestion, traffic, the added population to an already over crowded area.
Michael White of CDL, says more and more the community is complaining about the off site affordable housing being built on an off site a few blocks away is some attempt at driving a wedge in the community by dividing up the "rich" from the "poor".
Michael White referenced an admonition on the north face of the library that reads, "Don't come here to seek treasure, come here to seek truth". Michael White says, if the library does get demolished and a reduced one gets built he said the admonition should have a footnote that reads; "This was always part of this library but, someone came here seeking treasure and stole our truth".
As the meeting progressed it seemed as if more and more people were against the project. Carolyn McIntyre who is part of CDL spoke out when Marilyn Berkon was speaking about the RE developers being "failures as Human Beings" and "stealing public treasures".
Others from CDL I interviewed after the meeting shared their honest feelings that the plan had nothing to do with the library and was all about RE and $$ and the Bloomberg admin to underfund libraries, get the RE developers in, take over the land and public assets, shrink the libraries and they have their big high rise.
Nydia from CDL told me Mayor DeBlasio said he was not in favor of the plan to demolish the libraries and build high rise condos then, ended up defunding the libraries. "He's not going to play us for fools" she said. "we're going to go to him and remind him of his promise".
Carolyn McIntyre of CDL said she's opposed to the plan of "stealing public assets like libraries then giving them to private wealthy billionaires who are going to build stash pads".
It's an unnecessary demolition because "we live in a city with a record # of 'billionaires'", said Carolyn. "this is about selling RE, it was from the beginning". "In the beginning they said they were only going to be selling this library the, we found out that that wasn't true. The, we found out it was also Pacific, then we found out it was also Sunset Park, the we found out it was also Red Hook".
A lot of this I already went over in the previous piece but, the reason I wanted to reiterate many of the points is because there is such an obvious pattern going on. Every time I discover a new story like this I find so many similarities to what I've been saying since I was very young.
People are perpetual children asking for what they want and those with the 'power" can do what ever they want. This is why feel so compelled to continuously go back to what I went through "growing up". it was a CLEAR sign of what so many are dealing with today. There is No question the people deserve what's happening. They did it,, they created it. I was seen then when I was young, like I was a Nobody who didn't deserve to be heard and valued, just like people are being treated like more and more by the $$ Junkies. Nature is always giving people the signs of what is real and True and if they don't head the warning, then suffer the consequences.
Just like whats happening with the libraries, the very things that should be being preserved and protected are the very things being sold and shrunk down.
Listening to the people from CDL I could not help but feel so moved and that they were sharing feelings I've felt all my life and was trying to tell people about ME,, that I am not to be shrunk down. The people have been shrunk and compromised all along and I've been trying to make that so clear to people and they simply don't see it. The public and those I knew and grew up around were just working class people who had no desire to grow to "full size". People can't even see or feel that they don't get to grow to full size and they're only "raised" to grow so high,, unlike the Luxury high rise condos that they want to build as high up as possible.
The point is is that people don't pay any attention to the fact that they are shrunken down and the PTB do what ever they want to us. The people think those in "power" are there for them and their interest when it's Clear they are not!
Carolyn said during the interview, which can be found on my youtube channel, April Watters, that the plan is not in the interest of the public. It doesn't get any clearer that we're living in a system that is out to crush the people. SIMPLE. I could feel it 45 years ago! and NO one listened!! If "families" aren't even capable of being on each other's side, if "parents" are incapable of being there for their own children, backing them, supporting them and instead, stealing they very thing they should be protecting and valuing the, what is happening today should be No surprise!
Who is protecting Morals, Justice, valuing children, raising them to value themselves and live with self respect? WHO is standing up for truth, decency, REAL beauty, REAL Family where people actually value and respect each other?
Are the people going to allow EVERYTHING to be sold for the profit of the "billionaires?" Have we Sold nature and real wealth for fake man made, slight of hand, GMO wealth that is not Real?
It All comes down to what's REAL. Man does not make anything that's REAL. Only Nature has the power to create anything of Real value.
I pushed fitness all my life because I could feel inside that people were allowing what was need to live fully and happily to die and be sold to Big Business. I could feel that the people were not fit and did not challenge the PTB and Assumed the PTB were looking out for them when it was clear that they were not! People do not know what healthy relationships are or they would have caught on and recognized the signs and symptoms and began stepping up a long time ago.
I pushed all my life for people to learn healthy relationship skills, active listening techniques, giving others the space to feel their valid feelings even if they didn't like it. Emotionally stretching and anything that comes from Nature and fitness. It was instinctual when I was younger, I could FEEL the deterioration of all that was natural and healthy being demolished and shrunk. NO one else took an interest in what I saw as a complete EMERGENCY. I was the one being shrunk and compromised the most as a kid more than others but, it doesn't mean that they were not being shrunk too. I might have gotten the brunt of abuse as a child but, it didn't mean others were not getting some degree of it also. And even if I was the one getting it, it Still should have been a warning to others that what's happening is coming from "out there", that this was just a micro cosm and that if this low quality is happening right here in your own house then what is it going to be like out there?
Carolyn of CDL told me that what was being told to the people of Red hook, Brooklyn Heights and Sunset park about their library that just needed a new AC system was that they would have to sell their library if they wanted AC back, "that's Extortion". 'They will not get AC unless they're willing to sell the community owned library".
It's like a larger version of the abusive "family" system! It does ever end. The people stay trapped in arrested development for their entire lives being ruled by Sociopaths who only care about $$!
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