Local Pol Comments on EDC’S Latest Decision Regarding the BQX Project

Council Member Carlos Menchaca, who chairs the BQX Task Force in the City Council, issued the following statement on Feb. 7 in response to NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) executive committee’s unanimous decision (announced the day before) to hire an independent contractor to oversee the BQX project’s environmental review:

“The City continues to spend millions of taxpayer dollars on a project with hardly any public input, and blithely insists that we should fork it over despite there being no clear plan for how to finance it and outstanding doubts about its transportation benefits.”

The BQX Task Force – which is comprised of members whose districts sit along the proposed BQX route – sent a letter in December that outlined more than 20 outstanding questions they have about the project, including explicit requests for the transportation, economic, and environmental assumptions that were not evident in the Aug. 2018 BQX Conceptual Design Report.

Menchaca also added the EDC hasn’t answered those questions, despite being given a deadline and multiple follow-ups.

“If this is how the EDC will treat questions from City Council Members whose districts sit along the route, imagine how they will respond to public inquiries during a ULURP,” he said in his statement. “If [EDC] wants the City to pay for its economic development projects, it must be absolutely transparent about its assumptions, models, and vision. It still has a chance with the BQX project.”

The Aug. 2018 BQX Completion of Conceptual Design Report shows – via a map – that the Red Hook and Columbia Street Waterfront District stops would be along Columbia Street, Bay Street, and certain portions of Smith and Court Streets. Construction could begin in 2024 and finish in 2029, according to the report.

Top photo of the Red Hook Rendering. From the Aug. ’18 BQX Completion of Conceptual Design Report.