Saturday, May 3rd. 11am-3pm: Red Hook NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program Open House

Greetings Friends and Neighbors,

On Wednesday, April 23rd Gita Nandan and Danelle Johnson and several other members of the Red Hook Committee of Governor Cuomo’s NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program attended the final Conference in Albany, NY. While there, they presented two of Red Hook’s resiliency projects at the conference, and stole the show. Speaking to hundreds of attendees, representing 50 NYRCR Communities across New York State, Gita and Danelle shared Red Hook’s unique challenges and strengths, highlighting innovative approaches to improving the resiliency of the Red Hook Houses. Their presentation is in Part 2 of the conference videos here.

With the first phase of the NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program coming to an end, the Red Hook Planning Committee will be holding a final community engagement event to share with the community the contents of the Final Red Hook NYRCR Community Reconstruction Plan, the recommendations, and to discuss next steps for implementation. An Executive Summary of this Plan is attached. Details on the final public engagement are below and some background information follows.

You can find more information HERE

Red Hook NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program

Open House

Realty Collective, 351 Van Brunt St

11am – 3pm on Saturday, May 3rd

1:30pm presentation by the Red Hook Planning Committee

Or visit our information booth at the Red Hook Spring Flea Market

PS 15 Yard – on Van Brunt St. between Wolcott and Sullivan

11am – 3pm on Saturday, May 3rd

See you there!

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Sat 2/22 and Sun 2/23, 11am - 6pm: OPEN HOUSE for "Red Hook NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program" - COME ALONG!

Red Hook NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program
Open House

Realty Collective, 351 Van Brunt St
Sat 2/22 & Sun 2/23 11am – 6pm

Only a few months of planning remain in the Red Hook NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program and the Committee is excited to engage the Red Hook community in the critical final phase of the program. The upcoming public meeting will be an important opportunity to gather community input on the top Priority Projects that may be recommended for funding with Red Hook’s $3M CDBG-DR allocation. We encourage everyone to attend this event and have your voice heard. At this event the Red Hook Committee will share ideas that its members have heard from you to date and answer questions you may have about the program and possible resiliency projects. Details for the event are on the attached flyer and as follows:

Experts will be on hand to discuss specific topics on Saturday and Sunday at the following times:

12pm-1pm: Infrastructure & Coastal Resiliency

1pm-2pm: Social Resiliency & Economic Development


Red Hook Resiliency Innovations event Sat 2/22, 3-6pm

Guest speakers to include: HUD Rebuild by Design, Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, Fifth Avenue Committee (FAC) and Architecture for Humanity, and others.

We also have a few newsworthy pieces from the past few months to share:

The Committee held its 11th meeting on Monday, February 10th in which we discussed benefits, feasibility, and considerations of possible priority resiliency projects.

Youth from the Red Hook Initiative/South Brooklyn Community High School film production program completed a video documenting the November 19th Public Engagement at the Miccio Center. This will be featured at the public meeting as well.

On December 18th, the Red Hook Planning Committee partnered with Good Shepherd’s Services at the Beacon Center to engage teens in the NY Rising program. At this event, teens brainstormed with planners and Committee representatives about resiliency challenges and solutions for Red Hook.

The Committee applauds the incredible news from Governor Cuomo’s Office of a $200M New York City & New York State combined commitment for the development of an integrated flood protection system in Red Hook. This announcement provides great momentum to our work and is proof that Red Hook can and will become a more resilient community.

We hope to see everyone at the upcoming public event.

As always, thank you for your continued engagement in the Red Hook NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program.

Sincerely,

NY Rising Red Hook Planning Committee & Committee Co-Chairs

Gita Nandan

Ian Marvy

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nystormrecovery

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NYStormRecovery

www.stormrecovery.ny.gov

Second Red Hook-Wide Public Meeting for NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program - 7pm, Nov. 19th, 2013 - ALL WELCOME!

Help Red Hook Strategize for the Future!

The NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program is holding its second Red Hook neighborhood wide meeting on Tuesday November 19th at 7:00, at the PAL Miccio Center (110 W 9th St, Brooklyn, NY 11231) to help shape the future of resiliency in Red Hook.

Please visit this website for more information about the program, project and up to date process - redhookcrp.wordpress.com

Over the past several months, this program's committee has taken our community's input and, with the help of our Planning Advisors, has identified and documented the many Needs and Opportunities pertaining to our waterfront community. You can see the final document published here -

http://stormrecovery.ny.gov/nyrcr/community/red-hook. 

There is the opportunity to provide additional input on this interactive map - http://redhook.nyrisingmap.org/page/about - where you can add your detailed ideas on the shape of Red Hook's future.

The next step is to create a set of Strategies, linked to our Needs and Opportunities. These Strategies will lead to specific projects to help us reach our resilient community goals. Identifying these Strategies is critical to laying the foundation.

We need your voice and input.

The event on November 19th will be a series of round table discussions so we can talk, neighbor to neighbor about our visions, ideas, and consider our neighborhood's future reconstruction.

Please come along!

Second public meeting on November 19th from 7:00 – 8:30pm at the PAL Miccio - 110 W 9th St, Brooklyn, NY 11231

https://www.facebook.com/events/195387567311782/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming

Join the conversation using #NYRising

Twitter.com/NYStormRecovery

Facebook.com/NYStormRecovery

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Atlantic Basin News: NYCEDC Wants MORE Trucks at Pier 11. Beaks Promise to Red Hook on Public / Cultural Use in Portion of Pier's Shed. UPDATE: Star Review Confirms Phoenix Move

The New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) has just put out an RFP (Request for Proposals) for an operator for 100% of the Pier 11 shed, a structure that lies along the Eastern edge of the Atlantic Basin on the Red Hook waterfront (on the left of the photo, above). A portion of this shed and surrounding site, including 600 feet of Atlantic Basin water frontage, was supposed to be the home of PortSide NewYork and their ship, the Mary A. Whalen, which they use for their cultural, educational and community outreach programs. PortSide is now looking for a new home as they have been kicked out of the Atlantic Basin and the EDC's promise to allow them to make a permanent home at this site has been withdrawn. The EDC, through the new RFP, is asking for a respondent (developer) to sub-lease the site to operate and develop "cargo industrial warehousing and distribution operations".

You can see and download the RFP here.

The creation of this RFP must mean that Phoenix Beverages, the beer trucking company that currently uses the Pier 11 shed for recycling and garbage, will be moving out of that site and consolidating their entire operations at Pier 7, at the bottom of Atlantic Avenue. This is where most of their activities already take place.

UPDATE (10/10/12): The Red Hook Star Review (story HERE) confirms that Phoenix Beverages will consolidate their operations at Pier 7. The Star Review story, however, makes no mention of PortSide's inauspicious removal from the plans for the Pier 11 shed and Atlantic Basin, nor the fact that the EDC's new RFP excludes ANY community use, public space, waterfront access at the site, as was promised.

It would seem like an obvious and logical move to accommodate Phoenix at a single location - in fact, many of us have been advocating for this for a while. The main reason Phoenix (a.k.a. Long Feng Trucking) trucks have been a problem for our neighborhoods is because of the EDC's insistence, when the final and contentious deal was done in 2009, that Phoenix split their operations between Pier 7 (bottom of Atlantic Ave) and Pier 11(bottom of Pioneer Street), which meant that their trucks had to shuttle through local streets between the two locations, noisily rattling and racing through Red Hook and Columbia Street's residential neighborhoods, imperiling pedestrians along the way. This problem was "solved" when community uproar about broken promises (my post here), which were made to keep the trucks on "internal roads" within the container terminal, forced politicians to step in and, with the co-operation of the Teamsters, the Phoenix truck drivers were directed to use the BQE to get from one end of the neighborhood to the other. If the comments on this blog are anything to go by, trucks re-routing along the often congested BQE regularly costs the drivers up to 30 additional minutes (without overtime pay) at the end of their work day - something I bet they'll be happy to be rid of, when (or if) this consolidation at Pier 7 does take place.

But that doesn't mean we'll have fewer trucks coming in and out of the Pier 11/ Atlantic Basin location.

Unfortunately, the RFP - calling for 100% of the shed to be used for "cargo industrial warehousing and distribution operations" - will mean MORE trucks for this site. If what we suspect is happening, Phoenix's 200+ truck trips a day will come in and out of their Pier 7 location (Atlantic Ave), and the operations of the new "developer" at Pier 11 will bring additional truck trips in and out of the Red Hook location (as of yet unknown in weight, size, number and type), entering and exiting on Bowne Street, feeding out into our neighborhoods and onto our streets.

That doesn't sound like what we were promised back in 2009.

You see, one of the assurances made to our community when the deal was done to move Phoenix to the Red Hook waterfront - and, inexplicably into BOTH Piers 7 and 11 (when they only ever wanted one pier) - was that, when Phoenix moved in to Pier 11, a portion of the shed and the surrounding site around the Atlantic Basin would be allocated for community, cultural use, public and open space, accommodation of the Brooklyn Greenway, waterfront access, transportation, etc.

It must be remembered that previous EDC plans, Community Board 6 guidelines for the development of Piers 7-12, and Red Hook's own 197a Plan, have all called for industrial maritime use to be maintained on the waterfront, but also called for the creation of community-friendly elements - we're talking open space, public access to the water, cultural and educational uses, and better waterborne public transportation. In 2007, when the Red Hook Container Terminal secured its lease to remain on the Red Hook waterfront, that lease fulfilled the requirement for significant maritime-industrial use of the piers. The Container Terminal retained Piers 7, 8, 9, 9a and 10. After that lease was signed, the only remaining parcel of property that could possibly be used to fulfill the other needs -  those for the community-friendly elements - was the Atlantic Basin and the Pier 11 shed. That was all that was left!

That's why, in 2009 when we found out that the EDC wanted to also "take over" the Pier 11 shed (and the Atlantic Basin) by leasing it to Phoenix Beverages, the community was in full revolt.

In an attempt to placate community concerns about the Phoenix plan - including questions about congestion, pollution, appropriate use of precious, publicly-owned waterfront land, etc. - the local non-profit organization, PortSide New York, was tapped by the EDC to take on the task of making the "community-friendly elements" a reality, using part of the shed and a 600 foot length of the Atlantic Basin. At the time I wrote it was a "small concession", but at least it was something! Representatives from the EDC, including Vice Presidents Venetia Lannon and Andrew Genn, assured us at meeting after meeting that PortSide was an integral part of the whole deal, and we were told we shouldn't worry about being shut out or cut off from the waterfront to which our community - both residential and commercial - was craving more connection.

That's what we were promised.

Well, that promise was broken. Initially, things seemed to be heading in the right direction. Since 2009, PortSide has been given the opportunity to create a few very successful events in the Atlantic Basin using temporary, short-term permits. There were "Tanker Concerts" (pic below) in collaboration with with local venue, "Jalopy", the Dutch Flat Bottomed Boats event (pic above), community sailing trips with tall ship, Clipper City, and more. But, earlier this year, PortSide were inauspiciously kicked out, ridiculed by the Port Authority as being like a "gypsy" camping out at "Terminal 2 at JFK" ... and now, they are looking for a new home - possibly, at great loss to our community, outside of Brooklyn.

To add insult to injury, we see now that the EDC is not even looking for a replacement for PortSide. They want to take over the whole site for warehousing and industrial use. There is no mention of the community-friendly elements - not even accommodation of the long and carefully planned Brooklyn Greenway! Why are they ignoring the clearly articulated needs of our community? This goes against all of the rhetoric previously coming out of government and the community itself.

Time after time - in Red Hook's 197a Plan, to the 2003 and 2006 Community Board 6 Guidelines for the development of Piers 7-12, in statements from local representatives, Red Hook Civic Association, the EDC and even the Port Authority themselves - the consensus has been that our mixed use neighborhood needed more access to the waterfront, more public space, waterborne transportation, connection of local businesses to the waterfront - what everyone called a "balanced" use of the waterfront.

Even recent studies, including efforts supported by the City, have called for more "balanced use of the waterfront".

The Vision 2020 NYC Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, which was hashed out in 2010, stated that the area around the Atlantic Basin and the adjacent cruise terminal should be assessed for further "public use", "active water related public use", "proper alignment of Brooklyn Greenway", "recreational and educational programming" (my post here).

If the EDC is looking for someone to develop 100% of the Pier 11 shed for industrial use and warehousing, doesn't that torpedo any possibility of realizing these community-friendly elements?

Can someone tell me, what was the point of that whole Vision 2020 thing?!!

Just to list a few of the broken promises made by the EDC about uses for this site:

*Phoenix trucks will use internal roadways
*Inclusion of Governors Island Ferry
*More public waterborne transportation - East River Ferry, perhaps?
*Enable creation of new home for PortSide NewYork
*Berth and 600 foot water frontage for Mary A. Whalen and other commercial boats on Atlantic Basin
*Open space
*Recreational / educational uses
*Increased public access
*Community use for Cruse Terminal / Parking lot
*Accommodation of Brooklyn Greenway
*Creation of view-ways
*Connection to Van Brunt Street commercial strip

..... and the list goes on!

Yet again, the EDC is letting our community down. Depriving us of meaningful access to our publicly owned waterfront. Making bad decisions that impact our community with trucks and pollution - I haven't even mentioned the EDC's role in bringing unmitigated, polluting cruise ships to our residential neighborhood, spreading asthma-inducing emissions over our kids' heads and into their lungs (an evil notorious enough to have a cameo in Spike Lee's new movie, "Red Hook Summer"), and the EDC's role in sending relentlessly noisy helicopters into our air space.

I really don't know what the EDC is thinking - but shouldn't we let them know a few of our thoughts?

Maybe people would like to attend one of these site visits:


Should NYCEDC elect to keep the RFP open for additional Submission Dates, additional information sessions/site visits will be held at 10AM on the following days:

Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Tuesday, May 7, 2013


Those who wish to attend should RSVP by email to Pier11SubleaseRFP@nycedc.com 

From the EDC's RFP - click to enlarge

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DEADLINE: 5pm, Friday November 12th. Last Chance for Public Input on NYC's Vision 2020 - Comprehensive Waterfront Plan - Comment On-Line

5pm tomorrow, Friday November 12th, is the deadline for the public comment period of the New York City Vision 2020, Comprehensive Waterfront Plan. Comment on-line HERE.


After public workshops in all the boroughs and other city-wide meetings including those regarding the future planning for waterborne transportation in the city, something the Department of Planning is calling the "Blue Network", the public input period is drawing to a close.

Comments can be made on-line HERE till the deadline, 5pm, Friday, November 11.

The draft recommendations have been out since early October (my post HERE), so have a look at them if you haven't already, have a think about what you might want included in plans for our waterfront. More transportation? Better waterfront access? More connection to the upland residential and commercial communities? Creation of a connection to Governors Island? Better and more equitable use of publicly owned property - e.g. Cruise Terminal site, Atlantic Basin? More programs like the successful ones PortSide New York mounted over the summer? Cleaner and greener port practices like "cold ironing"?

Below is a summary of the draft recommendations for our stretch of the waterfront - click HERE to see a more comprehensive Google doc version (Red Hook is in the section on Reach 14 South).


Make sure you voice your opinion - this plan is set to shape the use of our waterfront for decades to come.



PortSide / Jalopy event on the Mary Whalen, Atlantic Basin, Summer 2010
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Red Hook's Archaic Zoning Regulations Kill Plans for CIty's First Zero Emissions Building

Photo from Redhook Green website

The sad news came this week that "Redhook Green", Jay Amato's proposed live/work building project in Red Hook - the first "zero emissions building" to have been constructed in New York City - has been 'killed' by a ruling in the Department of Buildings.

Jay writes on his blog post, titled "Buyer Beware" (here), that when he was looking at plots of land on which to put his building he was having a hard time finding an appropriate block - one that was zoned either R - residential, or MX - mixed use, that was on a corner which would be most appropriate for a solar powered building. He did, however, find a perfectly located block with an M-manufacturing zoning.

Jay writes,

"I was advised that given my particular use, I could make an “M” zoned plot work. What that means is that given the majority of my structure was to be dedicated to commercial use, the living quarters would be an ‘accessory’ to the true function of the building. Therefore we would request the building department grant us permission to live in what would is called a “caretakers apartment”, which would be incidental to it’s primary use. Jim Garrison ( Jay's architect) assured me on the advice of a former NYC Building Commissioner and “a careful and correct reading of the zoning law”, that this was very common and would “sail through the building department” without incidence."

Well, unfortunately it seems that wasn't to be. After proceeding appropriately and "dotting his I's and crossing his T's" this is how things turned out for Redhook Green. Jay writes,

"That brings us to where I am today (basically screwed)! After a telephone hearing last week, the all knowing, politically charged and narrowly minded men and women of the NYC building department capriciously determined “that the proposed living or sleeping accommodations for caretakers in this case is not incidental to the principal use”. To quote James P. Colgate; Assistant Commissioner of Technical Affairs and Code Development “ The request to have a living or sleeping accommodation for caretakers as per ZR 12-10 as an accessory use to this new office building is DENIED.”

Just to give you an idea of how inappropriate partial residential use would have been on this site, let me show you a screen shot of the Google maps Street view of the location -



That's the lot on the left - NEXT TO THE TWO HOUSES!

... and Jay's structure would have had a street front and whole first floor that looked more industrial than residential - take a look at more of his renderings (here).

This is a problem not only for Jay Amato and Redhook Green, but for Red Hook as a whole. How can this archaic zoning and the Dept. of Building's strict adherence to it serve our community's need for more housing and residential regeneration. Our own 197a Plan has laid out the need for supporting residential uses in Red Hook, as have Community Board 6 recommendations - such as the ones that were laid out when the plans for Pier 7-12 were being discussed. Despite the fact that these recommendations have been often ignored by City planners, the NYC Economic Development Corporation and others (as was the case with the uses of Piers 7-12), it's not an excuse for these anti-residential attitudes to continue.

The recently released draft recommendations for the City's "Vision 2020 - NYC Comprehensive Waterfront Plan" (my post here) - omit any significant mention of the potential for the regeneration of residential use in the City's waterfront neighborhoods. The Wall Street Journal has an article titled "A Sea Change in Waterfront Plans", in which the writer, Eliot Brown, states, in regard to the City's draft recommendations,

"there is a notable omission: new housing and commercial redevelopment. While it was a top goal of prior strategy documents, it's barely mentioned in the new strategy. The emphasis instead lands on areas such as expanding the maritime industry, ferry service and public access."

Maybe the Dept of Planning didn't see residential planning as being 'within their scope' this time, and I get that the city doesn't want a rerun of the high rise development on the Williamsburg waterfront taking place in Red Hook, or Sunset Park, for instance - the residents of those neighborhoods hardly want that either - but I hope the Department of Planning isn't relegating our mixed use waterfront neighborhoods, like Red Hook, to a more industrial and more polluted future, with disregard for the quality of life and health of our residents.

Isn't it all about balance? Residential use. Industrial use. Commercial use. Upland connections. Waterfront access. Public transportation. All working together to everyone's benefit.

That's why this decision seems so wrong-headed. Red Hook has a history of these battles, where reasonable residential development is thwarted by pro-industrial advocates who - falsely, in my opinion - complain that residential uses can't co-exist with industrial uses (despite the evidence to the contrary in my old home town of Sydney and elsewhere in the world). This was seen in the fight for the rezoning of the 160 Imlay Street building, where the battle was so drawn out that, despite the ultimate court ruling allowing for at least partial residential use of that magnificent building, it has been left empty, shrouded in black netting and generating no activity, no economic prosperity for the neighborhood and it's small businesses, nor revenues for the City. It's a waste and an awful shame.

I remember another example of wrong-headed zoning decisions when, in 2006, the Community Board voted against recommending a variance for 146 Conover Street, a vacant lot which was zoned, like Jay Amato's block, M-Manufacturing. The owners had wanted to build a residential building on the site, but because of the CB6's denial of the zoning variance, they couldn't.

Here is the lot in question -


... right in-between the TWO HOUSES. How inappropriate!

So, Jay, you're not alone in being on the wrong side of one of these wrong-headed decisions.

Unfortunately, these decisions don't bode well for the regeneration of Red Hook's residential population and innovative solutions such as Redhook Green's. Without residential regeneration how can Red Hook's burgeoning small businesses hope for more activity, how can our residents hope for better transportation or services, or a greater say in what goes on in and around our neighborhood - more advocacy for cleaner air and better quality of life? If Jay Amato can't get this one done, what is the hope for anything else?

Redhook Green has laid out their possible options going forward (from Jay's post)-

1. Build a green office building - It’s too small and off the beaten path to make a sound business case for such a structure in the next few years.
2. Apply for a zoning variance - 60 to 100K in professional services expenses, one year and no guaranty that it will be successful.
3. Walk

None of these seem particularly appealing. Any thoughts, ideas, recommendations, contacts or kind words of encouragement would be appreciated. I will think about this a bit and keep you posted on my progress.

Contact details HERE

If Mr. Amato can't find a way to get around this decision, it will be a great loss, not only to him, but to Red Hook, Brooklyn, the City as a whole, and the advocates of healthy cities around the world - ones in which, in Jay's words, we can all "live and work responsibly".

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Phoenix is Using Pier 11 for Recycling Only.

More information has come to light on why Phoenix trucks are shuttling between Pier 11 (photo above) and Pier 7, speeding and rattling their way through Columbia Street and other residential streets, despite the lies ... um, I mean assurances made by Phoenix, their owner Greg Brayman and the NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) via their Vice President, Venetia Lannon, that Phoenix trucks would be using the internal roadways of the container terminal as much as possible.

Apparently, Phoenix is using the Pier 11 shed for recycling the empty bottles that they collect when they make their deliveries. This is what the I've been told the split is between the uses of the two piers on our waterfront.

This, via someone with some knowledge of Phoenix's operations -

"The (trucks) begin at Pier 7 (where they spend the night), get loaded up with beer/wine/spirits, and then drive out the Pier 7 gate to the BQE and off to their destinations. When they make their deliveries, they pick up empty bottles. Those bottles are then delivered to Pier 11, where they are processed for recycling (per the requirements of the State's bigger, better bottle bill) at a facility that Phoenix has set up there. They then drive (empty) from Pier 11 to Pier 7, to get loaded up again for deliveries ... and it is these trips that go on local streets. (Moving the goods from where they are off-loaded from ships, to the Pier 7 warehouse, does take place within the Port)."


So the Pier 11 shed is being used for recycling? That explains why I saw the recycling bins inside the cavernous shed a number of weeks back, on one of PortSide NY's "community sails" on the ship, Clipper City, as we sailed past one of the huge shed's open doors. (see photo)

So that's what Phoenix is using Pier 11 for? Recycling? That's why the EDC insisted that Phoenix take Pier 11, as well as the much larger Pier 7, when Phoenix only ever said they needed one? This murky deal, all at the expense of more waterfront access and more community and people-friendly elements that were part of Community Board 6 guidelines and our 197a Plan?

The fact is that when the EDC announced their plan to relocate Phoenix Beverages from Long Island City to Red Hook's waterfront, they said that Phoenix's entire operations would be accommodated in the Pier 11 shed. Then, after the community suggested that Pier 7 would be a better location and a deal was struck to get the much larger Pier 7 shed, as was Phoenix's first preference, it seemed like it would be a win-win situation - for Phoenix and for the community who didn't want to exclude Phoenix from the waterfront, but did want to make sure that pollution and traffic issues were addressed as well as their clearly articulated desire for more public access, open space, reconnection to the waterfront and waterborne transportation, etc. That's why it was such a shock when the EDC announced that Phoenix would take up both Pier 11 and Pier 7, book-ending the entire waterfront, at the exclusion of much of what the community had so desired - except for the inclusion of PortSide NY who would be given a 600 foot length of the Atlantic Basin and a small portion of the Pier 11 shed.

So, now, to hear that Phoenix is using the Pier 11 shed for recycling, when surely that could also be accommodated at Pier 7 - the larger shed - is just astounding.

This is in addition to the news that the "EDC and Phoenix feel that they only committed that overweight/container trucks would stay inside the Port ... but that they always knew that delivery trucks would run on local streets (with Van Brunt - Columbia as the truck route)."

Well, we never heard that at any of the meetings, and they are just lying if they're saying otherwise.

All of this, including the revelation that Phoenix is only shuttling their between Pier 7 and 11 along residential streets, posing dangers to pedestrians, creating congestion and pollution, because they have their recycling bins in the Pier 11 shed - when it's pretty clear this activity, and all of their needs could be accommodated in the huge Pier 7 shed - is further reason to sign the petition.

Phoenix Beverages Should Use Pier 7 Only To Reduce Truck Traffic On Our Residential Streets

Sign the petition HERE

Help Plan The City's Waterfront - Brooklyn Meeting *Tonight* - Monday, May 17th. 6pm

As I mentioned in a previous post, here, today is the day for New York City's Department of City Planning Brooklyn-focused "workshop", convened to gather input from the public to help shape their newly announced initiative, Vision 2020 - New York City Comprehensive Waterfront Plan.

Click on their flier, below, to enlarge for details.


They held their initial meeting on April 8th (slideshow and summary of presentation here), but during May and June, as promised, the City is holding borough specific meetings - they're calling "workshops" - to concentrate on getting input regarding local issues. There is a list of upcoming meetings here.

This from their web site -

We will be holding public workshops in May and June in each borough to present an overview of each Borough’s waterfront resources and to discuss the future of specific waterfront sites. At these workshops, City Planning will present an overview of the borough’s waterfront resources and existing uses. We’ll then break into small groups to discuss particular segments of the Borough’s waterfront, what we refer to as Reaches. For each reach the groups will discuss opportunities and challenges for the future of specific sites along the waterfront. We’re also holding a sixth public meeting to discuss the Blue Network and other citywide issues.

Brooklyn's workshop will be held, as follows -

May 17, 2010, 6-8:30 pm
Brooklyn Technical High School
Dekalb Ave. & S. Elliot Pl, Brooklyn.


View Brooklyn Technical High School in a larger map

See you there.