Developer for South Bronx High-Rises Trying to Move on From Controversial Party
NY1
By Erin Clarke
It's been three months since a party designed to generate buzz about a South Bronx neighborhood triggered a backlash by residents. Now, the developer who threw the bash is trying to clear the air and move forward. NY1's Erin Clarke filed the following report.
Developer Keith Rubenstein says his company, Somerset Partners, plans to transform the South Bronx neighborhood of Port Morris when it breaks ground on high-rises along the waterfront this year.
"Imagine in a couple of years from now when this is kind of open space along the water for the public, with park benches and lights and planting, and people could come and walk with their children here and feel safe," Rubenstein said while near the waterfront. "I think that's a good thing."
But that vision was overshadowed by a Halloween party that Somerset threw to get people talking about the area. Some thought it sought to romanticize the Bronx is Burning era.
"It was insulting," said Mychal Johnson, the co-founder of South Bronx Unite.
The developer says he wasn't trying to glorify the bad days.
"What we would have done differently was make sure our message was clear," Rubenstein, who is the president of Somerset Partners, said. "There was a whole misunderstanding of what was meant as art."
Now Rubenstein wants to make clear his goals: improve the neighborhood by hiring locally for construction work, create green space to reduce the high asthma rate, and empower local artists, points that he made in a recent op-ed.
