One Reader’s View: Reject the EDC’s Brooklyn Marine Terminal “Sophie’s Choice”, James Morgan, Columbia Waterfront

“Sophie’s Choice” — a term from William Styron’s 1979 novel of the same name — describes an impossible decision between two equally terrible outcomes.

That’s exactly the false “choice” New York City’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and Mayor Eric Adams have presented us with in their Brooklyn Marine Terminal Vision Plan: either let them seize half of our public port land for private luxury development — or “do nothing.”

According to the EDC, the plan’s supposed “trade-off” is simple: allow 30- and 40-story towers to rise along the working waterfront, tripling it’s population along a mere 7 block transit starved stretch, and in return, the community will receive a handful of long-overdue “benefits” — some traffic lights, playground upgrades, and long-needed repairs and the oft promised, seldom delivered “affordable” housing. But this is not a “choice.” It’s a shakedown disguised as urban planning.

When EDC President Andrew Kimball unveiled his so-called “new neighborhood,” (think Williamsburg, with even less infrastructure and even more millionaires…now with an “affordable” component!) this was never what the city promised when it took control of the port. It was originally and publicly stated that the land was secured to revitalize maritime industry, not hand it over for private profit. Instead, the EDC quietly cut the port area in half and repurposed the choicest waterfront remainder for speculative real estate, while the actual port revitalization details, timeline and financing remain “TBD”.

When faced with fierce opposition from residents, and local elected officials, the EDC delayed one “final vote” after another — five in total — until they finally coerced a slim majority by dangling a laundry list of local perks before Councilmembers Shahana Hanif and BP Antonio Reynoso. These included long-overdue NYCHA repairs, basic traffic safety improvements, and incredibly, a future RFEI — a promise to study alternative plans for the site…but only after this flawed one is approved!

That’s not a choice. That’s a trap.

Our neighborhoods — Columbia Street Waterfront, Red Hook, Carroll Gardens, and Cobble Hill — have never said “do nothing.” Although “nothing” is ironically what our city and state agencies sometimes do best, and what got us an underutilized port at the foot of a collapsing BQE Cantilever. For nearly a year residents have been begging the EDC, Congressman Dan Goldman, and State Senator Andrew Gounardes to pause this unprecedentedly rushed process and collaborate on a genuine, community-based, equitable and sustainable plan for our shared waterfront. Instead, we’re being told to accept a luxury real estate scheme cloaked in the language of progress.

We cannot let the EDC define the terms of the debate. Framing this as “let them have their way and get some needed community benefits” versus “do nothing” accepts their manufactured premise and ensures the same playbook will be used against other neighborhoods. It’s also profoundly undemocratic and immoral (and their tactics quite possibly illegal) to treat basic city services as bargaining chips for public land giveaways.

Brooklyn’s working families should not have to bargain for safe streets, public housing repairs, playground upgrades, or job opportunities (yes, also TBD) — things we already pay for and are entitled to — while surrendering public assets, open space, and infrastructure capacity so that a few well-connected developers can make their big score then move on to their next mark…I mean neighborhood.

If this becomes the new normal, what will the public be asked to sacrifice next for basic needs and services? And what happens when we run out of irreplaceable assets like public land and a vital port operations to trade away?

The Brooklyn Marine Terminal Vision Plan is not revitalization — it’s privatization disguised as “vision”. It will lock our neighborhoods into a no-win scenario: more congestion, more strain on sewers and power systems, and a skyline of towers that permanently erase the maritime identity of the port and the scale of our communities.

This isn’t a “choice”. It’s an ultimatum. It’s a form of blackmail that the residents of Brooklyn can not afford to pay.

The EDC’s mandate is to serve the public, not hold it hostage. If Andrew Kimball, Daniel Goldman, Andrew Gounardes and the mayoral administration (both outgoing and incoming) truly want to create a “vision” for the waterfront, they can start by listening to the people who live here — not by offering us a “Sophie’s Choice” between exploitation and neglect.