ICE and Bike take center stage at CB6

Community Board 6’s January meeting continued conversations around humanity’s never-ceasing concern: safety.

“We need to make sure that we pass legislation that gives immigrant New Yorkers both legal counsel as well as stop any local or state actors participating in ICE’s actions,” said District 44 New York State Assemblymember Robert Carroll, calling those actions morally and legally “out of bounds.”

Carroll urged input from his constituents on how they’d like their tax dollars spent, given the upcoming state budget vote in April. Echoing Carroll, Council Member Shahana Hanif also acknowledged tensions with ICE in New York, highlighting the detainment of a City Council staffer during a routine immigration appointment.

“We’re going to continue to fight against what is an expansion of fear and draconian policy and violence,” said Hanif, who mentioned pushing forward policies that limit cooperation with ICE.

The councilwoman also broadcast a soon-to-launch “local bike safety public service announcement initiative.” Additionally, she pointed to her continued efforts on a bill requiring bikeshare operators such as Citi Bike to clearly display traffic safety rules and have riders review them at least once a year.

Wrapping up her remarks, Hanif provided an update on the long-awaited closure of the city’s Columbia Street concrete recycling facility, as materials were being removed with a full “exit” from the site expected on the week of Jan. 20.

“Of course, they are delayed; they’re past their own end-of-year deadline,” said Hanif regarding the city’s transportation department, the agency operating the site. “The community has waited long enough to see this environmental burden addressed.”

Council Member Alexa Aviles shared her availability to Red Hook residents via mobile office hours at the Red Hook Initiative on Feb. 3 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. She also threw her support behind the 46 Nelson Street rezoning, a proposed seven-story mixed-use development.

“I know as it [the rezoning] moves to the next step, we’ll be talking more about it,” said Aviles.

(The next step for the rezoning application is a review by the borough president’s office.)

The board aptly moved from Aviles’s remarks to a motion on the Nelson Street application, which is subject to the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP). The board made a motion to approve the application, on the condition that the development is constructed as presented by the developer, except for changes related to the building’s bulk and having fewer studios in favor of more two and three-bedroom apartments. It passed with one abstention from CB6 Land Use Chair David Briggs.

Lawsuit lost, but conversations continue
Out of work politician Brad Lander appeared live and in person, thanking the board for supporting the Court Street redesign and acknowledging the recent dismissal of a lawsuit against it.

“These are quite often contentious and it’s good to stay in dialogue with the neighbors,” said Lander, noting that although he’s had a few political differences with the Mazzone Ace Hardware store, his love for the business that rallied against the reconfiguration remains.

CB6 District Manager Mike Racioppo said that anyone who doubts the need for the redesign can view Court Street accident statistics on the Crash Count NYC website to see why the change was necessary.

“You could say, ‘Hey I hate this idea for a bike lane, I believe that nobody has ever been hit by a car there in history,’ you can go and see if that’s true,” said Racioppo. “These are the statistics, not from DOT, they are from the NYPD.”

At the Jan. 14 meeting, Racioppo said a link to the Crash Count site will be posted on CB6’s website.

As of press time, it’s not there.

In the meeting’s public comment session, local resident Alex Gregor said the Court Street redesign created a “cowboy mentality.”

“We need harmony, but instead we have an operational mess,” said Gregor, who identified himself as a former highway superintendent and a cyclist.

Gregor said he’s witnessed crossing guards on Court Street getting cursed out by cyclists, and employees at the Brooklyn International School creating their own safety measures in the bike lane.

“It’s harder for the crossing guard to have a bigger peripheral vision to see what’s going on,” said Gregor. “I’m not opposed to a bike lane but it’s chaos.”

Regarding schoolchildren’s safety, praise was also given towards the redesign.

“We help kids to navigate Court Street with our adult marshals and the bike lane there makes a huge difference,” said Dustin Goldman of the Bergen Bike Bus, a cycling group for pupils on Bergen Street which ends at Court Street.