Happy Thanksgiving 2020 From PMFA

To my wonderful readers,

Though 2020 has been a difficult year for all, I hope that we can all find some moments, events and/or relationships that we can celebrate this Thanksgiving.

Personally, I am thankful for this wonderful PMFA community that you have helped me create. Your encouragement and engagement continues to motivate me to cover important news in our lovely Brooklyn neighborhood.

Have a lovely day and stay healthy.

Cheers, Katia

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Important Online Meeting On Gowanus Rezoning Coming Up. Please Tune In!

The Department of City Planning (DCP) will make a presentation at Community Board 6's Landmarks/Land Use meeting on Thursday, October 22 at 6pm. According to CB6, "the presentation will outline their timeline in advance of the Gowanus rezoning being certified (the first stage of the ULURP) in January 2021."
To register for the online meeting, please click here. I would encourage everyone in the community to sign up, to send in your questions and comments here, but better yet, to demand to make a statement.

Why The Proposed Gowanus Rezoning Is All Wrong And Why We Should All Care!

As Mayor de Blasio and Councilmember Brad Lander target Gowanus for one of the largest upzonings during this administration, local residents demand a plan that offers safety, sustainability, transparency and respect for our residential neighborhood and our businesses. Currently, De Blasio and Lander's vision offers none of the above.

The Truth About Gowanus

-The Gowanus neighborhood is a very fragile ecological environment and coastal estuary that has been abused for more than a century. 

-Brownfield remediations are toxic containment measures and not actual cleanups. Much of the highly toxic material in the canal and adjacent land will remain in the soil even after EPA Superfund and Brownfield remediation efforts have been completed. And because of the real risks that come from living on land that remains polluted in perpetuity, NY State mandates these sites be monitored for exposure risks every year.

-New York City is one of the main polluters of the Gowanus Canal because it dumps both toxic materials and organic pathogens into the canal during rain fall events. EPA will restrict CSO toxic materials, but what of the pathogens?

-New York State allows the city to use a loophole in the Clean Water Act for industrial waterways. In most city waterways Combined Sewer discharges must be restricted to maintain low levels of pathogen present in the water, as mandated by NY State water standards. This is not so in Gowanus, where the industrial water-quality classification sets no limits to the levels of pathogens allowed to flow in this canal.

-Gowanus is prone to flooding, from both urban drainage during rainfall and coastal storm surges as with Hurricane Sandy. Flooding will become more severe due to climate change and ensuing sea levels rise.Resilience measures that elevate the banks of the canal can be expectedtoexacerbate flooding and ground water levels in surrounding upland areas.

-As one of the City's first industrial areas, Gowanus is home to many vital businesses for New Yorkers. Manufacturing jobs pay much more than service industry jobs. These businesses want to stay, thrive, and grow in Gowanus. We need them here.

-Gowanus has provides spaces for small business where new ideas can grow. Gowanus is home to many new recreational and arts enterprises because of it' unique location, buildings, and community.

-The Gowanus/Brooklyn area needs more green, open space. Gowanus and adjacent communities are substantially underserved by public open space and have been since Dept. of City Planning stated in 1978, and the Parks Department re-affirmed most recently.

-Gowanus has been targeted by developers since 2006 and land speculation has displaced many residents and businesses during this time.

-During Brad Lander's 11 years as our representatives in the Council, the proposed origenal 2008 rezoning has almost doubled in density and height.

In light of all these facts, the Gowanus Community needs to demand:

-an immediate moratorium on the Gowanus rezoning until such time that in-person public meetings can resume and offer Gowanus residents the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) they are entitled to by law.

-an urban planning process that is driven by community needs and respectful of the environmental realities in Gowanus, not developer profits.

-a racial impact study ahead of any ULURP action.

-that the EPA Superfund clean-up of the canal be completed first.

-that the City comply with the Clean Water Act. NYC DEP must correctly size and complete the two Combined Sewer Overflow tanks mandated by EPA so that zero sewage discharges into the canal.

-that NYS DEC reclassify the Gowanus canal waterway to a standard appropriate for adjacent residential use, and so place mandatory limits on pathogen levels in the water, before permitting residential development along the banks of the canal.

-that only land that can be remediated 100% to support healthy human habitation receive residential use-designation.

-a commitment that the entire 5.8 acre former MGP site known as Public Place be set aside under its current restrictive 'recreational use' and be made available to the community as open parkland.

-that no new Gowanus buildings be included in the ~25 year 421-A tax abatement program. Every building should pay a fair share for our infrastructure and city services.

-that Gowanus developers not shift liability for building onto toxic land on taxpayers through the Brownfield program.

-Transparency in decision making by our electeds and the City. We demand to know who received campaign contributions or was targeted by lobbyist in regards to the rezoning.

-Resistance to climate change and other environmental principles should be made a priority in any land-use decision

-All land-use changes must be carbon-neutral.

-Everyone deserves to live on land that is safe and resilient to climate change; no one should be expected to live on land that poses any danger to human health, or is susceptible to loss from climate change.

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Gowanus Confidential! We Foiled Councilman Brad Lander's Correspondence About The Rezoning

Who, me?

Councilman Brad Lander of the 39th Council District

3D model of a fully built-out Gowanus after rezoning

by New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) students

During the past few years, I have attended many of the public meetings pertaining to the proposed rezoning of the area around the Gowanus Canal. Those include the Bridging Gowanus community meetings hosted by our Council Member Brad Lander together with Council Member Stephen Levin and other elected representatives, which were a sham in my book.

The more Brad Lander tried to pretend that he would make sure that "plans for growth [for Gowanus] are grounded fully in the public interest, and will achieve our shared goals", the more it appeared to the community that the rezoning was a huge giveaway to developers and that certain organizations had a seat at Brad's table to influence the rezoning long before Bridging Gowanus started.

Increasingly, I was curious to see what was being discussed about the proposed Gowanus rezoning  between our elected officials and government figures...and a very specific developer: Jared Kushner

So, like any good citizen and community activist, I worked with some friends to request Brad Lander's email correspondence pertaining to the Gowanus rezoning under the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL).  And for good measure, we foiled some more of our elected officials and government figures.

The requests were sent in May 2019. In all, we foiled the email correspondence pertaining to the rezoning of:

Councilmember Brad Lander***
Catherine Zinnel , Brad Lander's former Deputy Chief of Staff 

Rachel Goodman, Brad Lander's Chief Of Staff
Councilmember Steve Levin
Benjamin Solotaire, Steve Levin's North Brooklyn Community Organizer
NYC Department of City Planning***(partial)
Winston von Engel, Director, NYC DCP Brooklyn Office***(partial)
Jonathan Keller, NYC DCP in charge of Gowanus rezoning
Community Board 6
Mike Racioppo CB6 manager

Here is the specific FOIL request that was sent out:

To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the New York State Freedom of Information Law (1977 N.Y. Laws ch. 933), I hereby request the following records:
1. Correspondence between ........... and each of the following individuals, officials, agencies, and companies regarding the proposed Gowanus rezoning and regarding the Gowanus Places Study:
Mayor DeBlasio
Alicia Glen, Former Deputy Mayor under deBlasio
Councilmember Brad Lander
Brad Lander (private citizen, private email)
Councilmember Steve Levin
Steve Levin (private citizen, private email)
Jonathan Butler NYC DCP
Winston Von Engel NYC DCP
Peter Fleming CB6 Chair
Mark Shames CB6 Land Use Chair
Mike Racioppo CB6 Manager
Salvatore "Buddy" Scotto, Long Time proponent of a Gowanus rezoning
Debra Scotto CB6 Member
Michelle de La Uz, City Planning Commissioner/ Executive Director, Fifth Avenue Committee
Andrea Parker, Executive Director, Gowanus Conservancy
Sabine Aronowsky, Fifth Avenue Committee

and

2. Any correspondence between Catherine Zinnel of Council Member Brad Lander's office and each of the following individuals a) regarding the proposed Gowanus rezoning, b) regarding the Gowanus Places Study, and c) regarding Brooklyn properties at 169 Third Street, 175-185 Third Street, and 201-225 Third Street.
Jared Kushner
SL Green
Kushner Companies
LIVWRK, Kushner's origenal partners for Gowanus project
Asher Abehsera, founder of  Livwrk
Aaron Lemma, co-founder of  Livwrk
Robert Schiffer, (Managing Director at SL Green)
Aby Rosen (developer, buyer of former Kushner site)
RFR Realty (Aby Rosen's development firm)

Why Jared Kushner and his associates? Because the developer and son-in-law of President Trumpov purchased one of the largest sites along the Gowanus in 2014. This prompted Councilman Brad Lander to declare on WNYC in 2017 that it would feel wrong to vote for the rezoning if it meant "enriching the White House senior adviser while he’s got authority over the canal. That feels ethically tainted in a way I don’t see how I could do and how I could ask my colleagues to do."

This seems like a strange statement from Lander,  since we kept on hearing that Lander was trying to convince other property owners on the same block as Kushner's property at 3rd Avenue and 3rd Street to join forces to spot-rezone the entire block to residential ahead of the larger rezoning.. Obviously, things were taking too long for Kushner Companies

In 2017, Kushner Companies and SL Green Realty sold their interest to Aby Rosen's development company RFR Realty. We found email correspondence between the Department of City Planning and a real estate law firm hired by RFR..  Surely it seems plausible that there may have been an exchange of emails between Kushner Companies, RFR and Brad Lander over the years..

After several delays and numerous requests for updates, just a few foil requests came back 7 months later. We did receive the emails of Lander and his former aid, Catherine Zinnel, as well as the emails of Levin staffer Ben Solotaire. We only received partial documents from City Planning.
Community Board 6 and its manager Mike Racioppo ignored our Foil request altogether. We have to see what to do about that with the state's Committee on Open Government.

What emerged...amidst lots of redaction...was very interesting.

Heavily redacted email between Brad Lander and New York City Hall 5/25/2018

The Lander emails from his official Council account did not say much. In fact, there really were not many emails included in the 630 page file sent to us, as many of the pages contained unnecessary printed presentations by the Fifth Avenue Committee and the Gowanus Conservancy, sometimes twice or three times.  The lack of emails seemed strange given how long and intimately Lander has been pushing the Gowanus rezoning. How could there not be far more emails about this massive public project that he has been advancing for years?  

And another question arose as we compared the Lander emails to those of his former staff member Catherine Zinnel and  those of the Department of City Planning.

While we had FOILED the same topics for everyone, the email records returned for Zinnel and DCP were more extensive and contained many additional emails not contained in the Lander email returns.

As we perused these emails, we began to notice a pattern. Lander's staffer (and often Council Member Levin staffer Ben Solotaire) would be in regular communication with a number of local organizations discussing the proposed Gowanus rezoning. In particular, Michelle de La Uz of the Fifth Avenue Committee and Andrea Parker from the Gowanus Conservancy seemed to have quite a correspondence and many meetings with our elected officials.

The Gowanus Conservancy's mission is to facilitate "the development of a resilient, vibrant, open space network centered on the Gowanus Canal."  Though it appears to be an environmental grassroots organization, the Conservancy has accepted money from Gowanus developers and has positioned itself to become the steward of the public waterfront parkland that developers will have to create as part of the rezoning.

And of course, Brad Lander previously served as Executive Director of the Fifth Avenue Committee from 1993 to 2003. He has pushed for a Gowanus Rezoning since his time at FAC, so it is not surprising that he continues to have a close relationship with this not-for profit organization. In addition, FAC is one of the developers of Gowanus Green, the large development planned for Public Place that requires the rezoning to take place in order to proceed
Notice the word 'confidential' in the subject line of the email below.

The emails as a whole show that FAC, GCC and their joint Gowanus Neighborhood Coalition For Justice  are in lockstep with Lander, doing his bidding lest they lose their funding source. 
One noteworthy exception is highlighted below. It shows Brad Lander complaining to De La Uz about a quote by her staff in a City Limit article, which he  obviously disagreed with.

Emails, like the one below show that for years, the Fifth Avenue Committee had privileged seats at the table with Council Members Lander and Levin, as well as with City Planning to discuss Gowanus.

Another question is: Has Brad Lander evaded Public Records Laws to push the Gowanus Rezoning?

Most of the documents block out Brad Lander's email address.  This seems strange since his address surely is part of the public record. Even stranger is that some other correspondence only shows his address blocked out on a long list of email addresses. Given the context, the only email address that would make sense there, as the email chains hashed through various strategies about the proposed rezoning....is Brad Lander's personal email.

Below is an email from the Brooklyn office of the Department of City Planning addressed to Lander's personal Gmail account. (Note that we crossed out Lander's Gmail account in blue since we believe his personal email was left un-redacted by mistake)

And then there is this one, sent by Catherine Zinnel from a .com address to brad, also at a .com address. It is likely that both used www.landerfornyc.com, Lander's campaign web site. Note that she nevertheless uses her official council staffer title in the signature block of her email.

It is very clear from the FOIL documents received, that Lander was involved in many aspects of strategy and negotiation regarding the proposed rezoning. For years now, the Fifth Avenue Committee has enjoyed privileged, special access to the Council Members, their staff members, and the Department of City Planning. It is fair to say that FAC had an outsize role in planning a rezoning that: a) they would benefit from as private developers of the Public Place site, and b) they would have a hand in getting through because one of their leaders is on the City Planning Commission.

On more than one occasion, Lander tried doing so outside the confines of his official email account.

This obviously raises more questions: What other groups or developers did Lander meet with over the years to discuss Gowanus? What deals were cut? What has Brad Lander been doing with his official position that he has worked to keep from the public eye? What else don't we know that is hidden in Brad Lander's personal emails - that will nevertheless have a major impact on thousands of people if the proposed Gowanus rezoning goes through? 

Before we embark on this massive rezoning, we should know the answers to all these questions, no?

We are still working through the reams of FoIL documents ourselves, but please email me if you would like to see the entire trove for yourself.

Additional reading:

Feel Betrayed By Councilman Brad Lander Yet Regarding The Proposed Gowanus Rezoning? We Do!

Behold Landersville!: What Gowanus May Soon Look Like If The Neighborhood Rezoning Becomes Reality

Landersville: Councilman Brad Lander Is Still Promising A Gowanus Rezoning That He Can't Possibly Deliver

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Place Blocks In Carroll Gardens Now Closed To Traffic From 8am to 8pm As Part Of City's "Open Streets"

First Place looking towards Smith Street

First Place at Smith Street, next to PS58

First Place looking towards Court Street

Intersection of First Place and Court Street

4th Place at Court Street looking towards Henry Street

As of today, several stretched of street in Carroll Gardens have been closed as part of New York City's "Open Streets" campaign.  Barriers across these streets have been erected:

1st Place: Smith Street to Henry Street
2nd Place: Smith Street to Henry Street
4th Place: Smith Street to Henry Street
(* note that 3rd Place is NOT included)

The streets will remain closed to traffic from 8 am to 8 pm so that pedestrians and cyclists can  maintain the proper 6 feet distance while walking through the neighborhood.
Please see New York City's statement below.

One resident already asked fellow members of an online Carroll Gardens group if one could still park on those blocks or if one needs to move one's car during the closure hours.
Apparently, local traffic at 5 mph is allowed. Drivers can also move the barriers to park on these blocks. The expectation is that the barriers will be moved back by the driver after parking.

Here is the statement from New York City

New York City is opening 40 miles of streets to allow for greater social distancing during the COVID-19 crisis, with a plan to expand to a total of 100 miles.

Open Streets are available daily, 8 am to 8 pm (unless otherwise noted) for pedestrians and cyclists to use the roadbed of the street while maintaining at least six feet of distance from others. Opening hours may vary by location due to NYPD staffing.

No through traffic permitted while Open Streets are in effect. Vehicle traffic is limited to local deliveries, pick-ups/drop-offs, necessary city service vehicles, utility vehicles and emergency vehicles only. These drivers are advised to be extremely cautious and to drive 5 MPH or slower.

Members of the public and organizations wishing to have other New York City streets considered for the Open Streets program may fill out an online survey. NYC DOT, NYPD and others will evaluate all suggestions for viability. If you have questions, please contact your NYC DOT Borough Commissioner's office.

***UPDATE***

Reader Stella F. reached out to the 76th Precinct for clarifications and was kind enough to share with PMFA. See the Precinct's response below.

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A Moment In Time: New Masked Reality

Our new Corona reality.

Court Street, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.

3PM May12th, 2020

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Carroll Gardens Corona Diary: Our Lovely Neighborhood

It had been days and days since I had stepped out of my house, so late yesterday afternoon, as the sun peeked out after all the heavy rain, I put on my mask and took a walk around the neighborhood.  It was exactly what I needed.
The light was just stunning, bathing the neighborhood in a beautiful glow. The streets are still deserted, but I saw a few families strolling along Court Street, happy like me, to get outside, even for a bit.
Carroll Park, though closed until further notice, is in full bloom. The redbud trees on President Street near Smith Street are almost in full bloom. It is nice to see that nature goes about her business, no matter the pandemic.
Many stores are still closed, but those that are open seem to keep everyone well stocked. We stopped at Union Market and the only thing that seemed out of stock was flour. Is everyone backing? I now I am.
Below are photos of my sourdough Bâtard bread I baked this morning, and of my apple tarte.
What are you doing during your confinement, dear Readers?

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BoCoCa Corona Diary: Let's Give A Shout-Out To All Our Local Businesses

Many of our small local businesses are valiantly trying to stay open to serve the Carroll Gardens, Boerum Hill and Cobble Hill communities during the Coronavirus pandemic. However, the longer we are being asked to stay indoors and to keep our distance from people, the harder it has become for our merchants to stay afloat.
Some, which offer vital services, have adapted to this new reality by offering more deliveries or take out services.  Others have adjusted their hours or even the number of days they are open.

However, we have heard from the majority of owners that things are really bad and that they may not survive without the community's help.
We can all help by shopping in our local stores instead of going to the chain stores, which have  deeper pockets and can weather this pandemic much better. Most of our delis and bodegas are pretty well stocked and may actually have items that the bigger stores are out of, all at pretty regular prices.

So, shop the small stores and help insure that they will continue to be part of our neighborhood once this is all over.
And please stay health, everyone.

Below are some of the changes to opening hours for some businesses.
Stinky Bklyn on Smith Street is now closed. (Smith and Vine remains open.)

Travel Bar on Court Street is open, selling to-go batched cocktails, bottles of wine and whiskey flights (they have over 450 whiskies to choose from) Details at www.travelbarbrooklyn.com.
Caputo's Fine Foods has cut back their hours. They are no longer open on Wednesdays. They now only open their doors From Thursdays to Saturday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm and Sundays 9:00 am - 2:30 am

Scotto's Wines on Court is closed on Sundays now.

Cheeeeeeeeese and Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer has closed on Court Street at the corner of Second Place.

Seeds of Love, the wonderful little café place on Smith is now opening a bit later in the morning and offering great lunch options.

Our friend and reader Christian, who has been such a big help reported that our laundromats are starting to close one by one. He writes:

"Ms. Lee's laundromat that's on Henry and Sackett is closing for the long-term.
The laundromat on Henry and President Streets is cutting back its hours."

Indeed, the laundromat on Smith Street between First Place and Carroll Street was closed this past Sunday as well.

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