The city has finally decided that tearing down an Underground Railroad safehouse, part of Brooklyn's rich heritage, to put up a parking lot was not a good idea. From a press release from South Brooklyn Legal Services:

ISTORIC DUFFIELD STREET HOME SAVED
FROM EMINENT DOMAIN!

Brooklyn, NY 11/29/07 — In settlement of a lawsuit filed by Joy Chatel and Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE) the City has pledged that it will not use eminent domain to condemn 227 Duffield. The property has been the subject of controversy since 2004 when the City announced that it intended to take the property by eminent domain as part of their Downtown Brooklyn Redevelopment Plan. The Downtown Brooklyn Plan is a massive redevelopment plan based on a rezoning of the area in 2004. The plan calls for over 4 million square feet of new retail, commercial and luxury housing in the middle of a historically low-income community.  read more »