This land is your land — and that land is my land, says the owner of the Bay Ridge glass shop Windows We Are.
The family business, which flung open its doors — and windows — for presumptive presidential candidate John McCain in April, has been more reluctant to welcome city officials who want to tear it down to build a new school.
Scott Turnbull, an owner, has kept the School Construction Authority at bay since February, when he found out that the city was considering booting his store from its 22-year home on Fifth Avenue between 91st and 92nd streets.
Turnbull told The Brooklyn Paper that he is planning to allow officials to look at his property for a new school or annex for PS 104, which is across the street from his shop.
But he wonders why the city is considering displacing his shop, plus a veterinarian, a bakery, and a soon-to-open law office instead of building on a tree-covered lot next door to the K-8 grade school or in the yard behind the building.
“We understand that schools have to grow, we just can’t figure out why they want to build on our land,” said Turnbull, who claims that the city has threatened his shop with eminent domain. “Why not redevelop your own land before you take ours?”
A spokesman for the School Construction Authority said the agency is considering five locations for the school, but would not elaborate.
