Dead Man Walking – EDC’s zombie BMT plan postponed again, by George Fiala

At 9:15 pm on Wednesday, July 16,  the evening before the  Brooklyn Marine Terminal Task Force was to vote on the future of the EDC Vision Plan for the Red Hook and CWD waterfront, members received the following e-mail from Congressman Dan Goldman’s office. Goldman is the leader of the Task Force.

Hi everyone,

Senate Republicans are currently working to pass their rescissions package that would cut $9 billion from public broadcasting and foreign aid, among other things. They will likely send the bill to the House for a vote tomorrow afternoon so Congressman Goldman will unfortunately have to remain in DC tomorrow to vote.

Because Congressman Goldman will not be able to be present tomorrow afternoon to preside over the vote, Task Force leadership has agreed to postpone the vote for one week – to Thursday, July 24, at 3:30 PM.

We are very sorry for the inconvenience but appreciate everyone’s understanding about these unforeseen circumstances.

Thank you,

Simone 

This is the third or fourth postponement, each with a different excuse. The last one was announced by Goldman’s tag team partner, State Senator Andrew Gounardes. That  vote was delayed because Gounardes supposedly received some late-breaking news about possible NY State funding. Whether or not there has been additional funding has never been publicly announced, and hasn’t been brought up again by Gounardes, who instead was now busily signing his name to an op-ed supporting the Vision Plan which ran in a chain of local papers the day before this supposed vote. That chain, by the way, has been a big booster of the Mayor’s, as well as a recipient of millions of dollars of advertising from NYC agencies.

The actual fact is that the EDC has lost the trust of enough Task Force members to prevent their plan from passing and moving to the next step, which would strip most community oversight as they look to double or triple the population of Red Hook and the Columbia Waterfront District with luxury and slightly less luxurious but cheaper apartments. These would be in the form of skyscrapers similar to the one recently built on Atlantic and Furman Streets, slightly north of this project area.

If this was a good faith postponement, it could be rescheduled for the next day, Friday, when Congress is not in session, and which originally talked about as a possible date for this meeting. Or they could have Goldman cast a proxy vote, or have him vote online, as another Task Force member who is vacationing in Greece was planning to do.

But no doubt they are hoping for another week of arm-twisting recalcitrant Task Force members in order to pass their Vision, which locals overwhelmingly dislike. There have been threats, side deals and sweeteners trying to bring members in line with the EDC. These efforts have so far been in vain, as there are still enough politicians and local stakeholders left with integrity.

The three EDC head honchos, led by Andrew Kimball, have been personally lobbying for votes, as have Community Board 6 District Manager Michael Raccoppo and Michelle De la Uz, Executive Director of the Fifth Avenue Committee. Their pitch is “what can I do to make you a yes?”

Many Task Force members are frustrated, depressed and disillusioned by this process, which more resembles the vote on Trump’s Big Bad Beautiful bill  than a thoughtful, community-based plan meant to give NYC a better future. In other words, the beneficiaries in their plan are basically millionaires and billionaires rather than the middle class working people who are in desperate need of dignified amenities, jobs and homes.

But the major beneficiary is meant to be Mayor Adams, who has rushed through this process in order to have more affordable housing numbers he can use for his mayoral campaign. What is normally a decades long affair of planning has been condensed into less than a year in order to align with his campaign schedule.

Another way of looking at this is that Adams would sacrifice NYC’s future for another corrupt term. And his loyal minions, led by Andrew Kimball, Dan Goldman and Andrew Gounardes are hard at work to push this cynical plan down the throats of the people they are meant to serve.