CARLO TRIGIANI has lived in Brooklyn Heights for 20 years – working, paying taxes, sending his 6-year-old son, Luca, to public school. And making the city a little better with every waking breath.
Now, it’s as if he’s being thrust out of town with a gun to his head.
“I don’t want to move,” said Trigiani. “Brooklyn is a wonderful place. But I have to do what’s best for Luca.”
Jane Stageberg’s 9-year-old twins attend PS 8 in the Heights. Year after next, it’s likely to be Catholic school.
“I can’t afford private-school education,” she said. Well, who but millionaires can send two kids to St. Ann’s?
“And it’s not an option to leave the city.”
Maybe they won’t have to.
What’s making hordes of families reach for the Maalox or the map to Jersey is the fact that the boneheads who run your education system plumb forgot – duh! – to build enough classrooms. Earlier this month, City Comptroller Bill Thompson issued a shocking report that pinpointed places like Downtown Brooklyn and TriBeCa, where next year, little kids are threatened with being bused as far as the Upper East Side to score a seat.
In the Heights and DUMBO – the stroller-choked nabe that didn’t exist 10 years ago – there isn’t one lousy middle school. Not one! The options are enrolling in a pricey private school, riding a bus to Fort Greene. Or leaving town. Astounding.
There is, however, a plan.
Developers want to put a 300-seat middle school at the bottom of a residential tower they plan to build in DUMBO – an acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. They’d give the school to the city, or lease it for a buck.
The naysayers – and Brooklyn is the land of “No” – went wild.
At issue is the fact that the school would be in a 17-story building, which City Councilman David Yassky and many in the Brooklyn Heights community believe would dwarf the Brooklyn Bridge and block iconic views of the span.
“When private companies approach the government and say, ‘Have I got a deal for you,’ it’s wise to read the fine print,” said Yassky.
“Everybody likes to hate the big bad developer,” counters Jed Walentas of Two Trees Management Co., which practically invented DUMBO. He insists the building fits the skyline.
“We think it’s the right project for the neighborhood. We think it’s the right project for the city.”
Ironically, Walentas could put a factory of 17 stories on that spot without permission. Two Trees needs a zoning change to build a residential tower that would include the school.
Guess who thinks it’s a fine idea.
“These kinds of partnerships are the future of new school creation in the city,” said Department of Ed spokesman David Cantor. “I don’t know how else you’re going to do it.”
Yassky wants the city to buy another building – an expensive and time-consuming option.
“Maybe if Councilman Yassky’s kids were in PS 8, he’d feel the urgency,” said Trigiani.
Two Trees is presenting its plans to the community tomorrow night at Plymouth Church in the Heights.
It’s time to halt the march to Westchester. We need this school.
Now.