Ben Crane, prominent attorney, active in fight for Brooklyn Bridge Park, dies at 92
The world lost a giant figure in law practice last week when Ben Crane, 92, a former corporate partner of Cravath, Swaine and Moore, died at his home in Brooklyn Heights. But Brooklyn also lost a skilled and key supporter and advocate of numerous civic accomplishments, including the world-famous Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Indeed, it can be said that Ben Crane’s authoritative confrontation of the Port Authority in a public meeting in the 1980s laid the groundwork to block the PA’s plan to build housing on the piers below Brooklyn Heights. Such a development, particularly a Port Authority plan for high-rises and waterfront sea-level promenade, had one particularly destructive element: the public view plane of the PA’s waterfront promenade would negate the protected view plane of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, enabling construction of high-rises.
Ben Crane’s courage and foresight to bring a copy of the Port Authority by-laws to the public meeting, and issue a fierce, credible challenge to their plans, brought immediate clarity to the determination of Brooklyn Heights to fight them — and to prevail.