Are we looking at 15 years of construction bedlam?

Hey Neighbors -

Happy Saturday. It looks like another strangely warm day and I’m eager to get outside to enjoy. Any idea why a helicopter is circling above?

I started my weekend at Strong Rope Brewery last night for Rusty Zimmerman’s show, which is part of Red Hook Open Studio’s this weekend. Gowanus Open Studios is next weekend, October 17th. I highly recommend even if you don’t consider yourself an art-lover, as it’s fun to check out the studios and meet the artists.

I signed up to help with the Red Hook Long Table tonight, as I loved when BK Heights had a similar event. I missed the Cobble Hill longtable-ish potluck last Saturday, but I heard they had a solid showing despite the rain.

Thank you, thank you to all my new readers. As I’ve said before, I cannot justify writing Ward 6 every week unless I have continued support from the community. Ward 6 is a grassroots, community newsletter so I need YOU, dear reader!

Please consider supporting Ward 6 with a $6 a week donation or $6 a month. Ward 6 will always be FREE.

Post#55 (what?!): Seen and Heard around the n’hoods, includes some gossip, perhaps? Jane Doe on my mind; how your kid (and you) can help give away millions! Construction bedlam just got even crazier: the latest on the BQE and BMT; why are some bodegas using AI to set prices? Other BK News and Mark Your Calendar!

Tips? Ideas? [email protected] or ward6_brooklyn

Around 10:00 PM on Tuesday, a friend alerted me to an online conversation about an unmarked white junky police vehicle, without sirens, allegedly ran a red light on Atlantic Ave and hit a CitiBiker.

From one witness: “I am in complete shock. They (police officers) attempted to stop her [the cyclist] from calling 911, take her property and laughed at us as we got her in an ambulance.” 

At least 200 people responded to this person’s initial post with suggestions on who to call and what to do. Impressive.

An Atlantic Ave merchant provided this security camera footage to law enforcement.

Carroll says to stop by or call Council Member Lincoln Restler to file a complaint: 410 Atlantic or 718-875-5200. 

I called Jo Ann Simon, one of our Assembly Members (the state’s version of a House member), yesterday after reading that State Speaker Carl Heastie (D) appointed her to a working group with 14 others to identify issues and develop legislative recommendation for the 2027 legislative session.

While Simon didn’t offer more on the working group (“its confidential”), she said they might recommend to the speaker more than one bill when the legislature returns in early 2027. 

Responding to media reports calling for the Governor to call a special session to consider passing legislation before 2027, Simon said this is unlikely because they’d want to wait until the completion of the two ongoing investigations, the Special Prosecutor’s and New York Attorney General Letitia James, and the one headed by Sally Yates for Cornell. She also mentioned a few legislature in-the-weeds reasons why a special session may not be practical.

While stronger laws will help, Simon said, there are also societal issues that need to be addressed, like fraternity dynamics. “There’s no magic bullet.”

For the record, I rarely went to public meetings before I started Ward 6. I became more involved when the State sold Long Island College Hospital in Cobble Hill to developers, but that’s all I had time for. That was 20 years ago (!), BTW, and only now does it look like construction is starting on the majority of new buildings in Cobble Hill, close to Atlantic Ave. 

Right now there are ongoing meetings about issues with serious implications for all our neighborhoods, like this week’s Department of Transportation BQE Zoom and, of course, my least favorite topic: the controversial Brooklyn Marine Terminal redevelopment proposal.

Some weeks, like this one, I spent a good three hours on Zooms listening and trying to separate the spin from the facts to include in today’s post. 

Short aside: In past posts, I’ve compared “BMT North (Atlantic Ave to Degraw St.)” to Battery Park City to help visualize part of the proposed new neighborhood the city wants to build. This week, I finally compared them using aerial images. Looks similar, ah?

Before I get into the details of this week’s meetings, a reminder that the BMT “vision plan” is NOT a done deal. A lot can still happen to stop it or convince Mayor Mamdani to rethink Eric Adam’s vision.  

My sources tell me that the Mamdani administration loves the sheer numbers of apartment units connected to the BMT proposed plan, as did Adams, for obvious political reasons. If you’ve promised New Yorkers an unrealistic number of new housing units, I get that the BMT could look like a no-brainer of a project to support. It’s the bang for the buck here.

However, in my opinion and many others, it fights Mamdani’s power of the (regular) people agenda in so many ways, including deprioritizing a port with union jobs and potentially wasting billions in taxpayer money on a bunch of magical thinking by dozens of, I assume, well-paid consultants and a quasi-city agency. DId I tell you that one of these well-paid consultants suggested building a 400-room hotel above the BK tunnel to Manhattan at the Red Hook Cruise Terminal and the city agency didn’t catch the mistake until at least six months later? Don’t get me started.

Despite the time suck this week on Zooms, I learned important details about both proposed projects that will affect our communities.  

Traffic: I know this comes up a lot, but we still don’t have satisfying, plausible answers about how NYC plans to add 20,000 more people in its new neighborhood proposal on the waterfront.  

It’s to the point that many more knowledgeable people think there is no way to mitigate traffic/congestion, especially if DOT can’t do it today in our neighborhoods.

And get this…  at the Department of Transportation virtual BQE meeting on Tuesday about the Mayor’s proposal to fix the city-controlled 1.5-mile stretch of the BQE/Triple Cantilever, I learned there are now FOUR construction projects potentially happening simultaneously over the next decade or two. What!?

Here's the city’s response to the public’s concerns about these four projects:  

A: “We don't have all the answers for how that looks year by year, as both projects and as you pointed out, other projects in the neighborhood are phased. What I'll say is we're working with the BQE team at this point just about daily. We're meeting with them. I think you're right that, particularly during construction, there's going to have to be really careful coordination.”

“But there will be congestion here as there is today. We haven't been saying that's not the case. It's kind of a question of where. // I anticipate that could be fairly congested in the future, in the daytime, just as Columbia is today (BMTTF#7).”

Here is one example of how the BQE and the BMT could overlap:

Important stuff you may have missed at the BQE and BMT meetings:

During Wednesday’s BMT meeting, the moderator prefaced everything by saying the materials provided to the public & task force members: 

“What we show in the following slides will represent one version of the district's designs, but ultimately the buildings that are constructed might differ.” (as also noted in the footnotes of every picture/diagram) -

In other words, what we’re showing you might not resemble what the developers will actually build.

Re: continued concerns about the density (buildings and people) with approx. 18 apartment towers (3800 units) between Atlantic Ave and Degraw St.  (+2200 more units near the Red Hook Ferry/Cruise Terminal)

Answer: While not addressing the density of people, the project consultants' solution for density remains the same: 

Shorter buildings, around 6 stories, along Columbia St. in front of 30-43 story towers (Quay Tower at Pier 6, by comparison, is 30 stories), closer to the East River and at Pier 7.  No change to the number of buildings, just shorter ones along Columbia St. (see below)

Re: How to protect commercial business along Columbia St (Popina’s, Hop Shop, etc…) with so many commercial spaces proposed on the ground floor of apartment buildings in the new neighborhood. This one is gobbledygook.

Answer: “The BMT North ground-floor use strategy offers a corridor activation on both sides of the street. That's a proven way to enhance commercial activity and to build on Columbia Street's existing local business.”  What?@! For shits and giggles.

Re: Continued questions about how a 24/7 port with bells ringing, clanging noises as cranes move containers up and down, and bright lights can coexist with million-dollar apartments on the East River. (condensed for space)

Q: “My concern, our concern of the Red Hook Business Alliance, is that we keep the port as active as possible without any constraints and moving it towards the port of the future, which is we want. (Susan Povich, Red Hook Lobster)”

Answer: “The port planning part of this is still to come.”

Q: “Is the concern that the existence of residential will lead to changes in, I guess, like the operations of the port, like calls to not operate at night or reduce lighter noise?”

Answer: (Susan) “We know what happens when people buy $5 million apartments next to a port, right? Next to a port. // The fact that you haven't gotten the port design that we seem to be moving forward with the luxury residential a little more quickly than the port is of great concern because they should be being developed together.”

This is not the first time the city/consultants have said this project will prioritize real estate versus a port despite the port being its #1 stated goal:

"... no matter what we do on the port operator RFP (request for proposals), we are going to make one of the requirements for that port operator, that their operations minimize their impacts on the surrounding residential neighborhood to the maximum extent possible (July, TF meeting).”

And then the long-promised street-level renderings back in June that the city told us would be shared at this month’s meeting (#7) weren’t street level at all, as evidence by the proposed 40 story building in the image on the RIGHT.

Forget that it’s called Participatory Budgeting or The People’s Budget/Money. Instead, think about how fun it is to spend the city’s money, your tax dollars, on initiatives you think will benefit your community. 

I’m talking about $1.5 million (“capital” $) for things like new school bleachers + $50,000 (“expense” $) for non-profits or others, according to Council Member Shahana Hanif’s office. District 39 is one of only two in NYC that includes expense money in the giveaway program.

Another cool thing: you can be as young as 11 years old (not sure how they came up with this cut-off) to play.

This is a council district initiative, not to be confused with the Mayor’s program, which distributes $4 million throughout NYC.

Beyond BK

Turning Six Figures Into Seven By 18 about “a new private high school in the Financial District guarantees that its students will launch businesses that clear at least a million dollars in profit by the time they graduate—or they get a full refund on four years of tuition. Critics decry the program’s emphasis on artificial intelligence. “

Today! Red Hook Open Studios (see above for more details)

Today! 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM | If you’re in the market for high-quality jewerly | Alexis Bittar Fall Sidewalk Sale, 162 Court St.

Tuesday, October 27th, 6:30 PM | Center For BK History: Haunted Brooklyn: Ghosts, Folklore, and the Stories We Tell.

Tuesday, October 27th: Heatwise Yoga Studio x BUZZY Pop Up Celebration at Carroll Gardens Grand Opening | Class Details & BUZZY Vendor TBD

Thanks for reading! jlh