After rough demolition of Brooklyn’s old jail, city promises to do better on building new one
BOERUM HILL — It was a tough crowd at Tuesday night’s virtual community meeting with the city and Tutor Perini, the contractor who will be building the new 15-story borough-based jail at 275 Atlantic Ave. in Boerum Hill.
Residents’ nerves were already frazzled by the six-month demolition carried out by NorthStar Contracting Group — which brought building-jarring vibrations, worrisome dust and traffic congestion.
Roughly 140 people attended the meeting. Adding to the mix were dozens of disrupters who were against the idea of building the jail at all, labeling it an expansion of the the city’s intrinsically racist jail system. The “chat” section was filled with pleas to stop the project and invective against the city and its various representatives, including meeting cohost Lauren Micir, an Associate in Urbanism and Planning at AECOM New York, and Councilmember Lincoln Restler, who has made clear his support for the borough-based jail plan and the closure of Rikers.