Talking to Alexa Aviles about land use, by Brian Abate

Between last-mile warehouses moving into Red Hook and the possibility of rezoning, which is currently transforming the formerly industrial Gowanus, land use has always been an important topic in Red Hook. I interviewed District 38 Council Member Alexa Aviles on land use and some of the other important issues for the community.

I started off by asking her about member deference. This refers to the power of the local council member when it comes to zoning changes in their district. In most cases, the entire City Council, which takes the final vote on a rezoning proposal, will follow the wishes of the local member. A couple years ago, the Council approved a rezoning in Manhattan involving the NY Blood Bank, despite the opposition of the Council Member Ben Kallos.

“I think from my own perspective in District 38, member deference is important because I know our community the best. We know what we need and what we want or don’t want in our community. I also recognize we have to balance those needs for our community with city-wide needs and mandates.

“I recognize the pros and cons of member deference but I would bristle at a council member from another district telling me what’s best for our community without knowing how our community operates or what it values. I’m in support of member deference but I do acknowledge that it has its limitations. As far as I know, I don’t think member deference is going away any time soon.”

“We haven’t had any requests for rezoning in Red Hook except for one proposal at 41 Richards St. which is a building that is going to be used for industrial purposes. I feel like most people think about residential rezoning when they hear rezoning but we haven’t had any of those requests here in Red Hook at all.

Housing is of course a much talked about issue throughout the country. Aviles spoke about Good Cause Eviction, not yet passed in the State Legislature that would protect tenants from unreasonable rent hikes and retaliatory or discriminatory evictions.

“Our housing policy is unfortunately determined totally by the state and Good Cause is important because it protects residents who are not protected by, let’s say, rent stabilization laws. We’ve been talking to a lot of tenants about it at a grassroots level and working with Assembly Member Marcela Mitaynes who has really been pushing for this at the state level.

“In addition to protection for tenants, Aviles said, “I would be a supporter of some kind of commercial rent stabilization to help businesses and nonprofits stay in commercial spaces. It is not a regulated area, so often when we see affordable commercial spaces it is either where the landlord is just a nice person or when they come to an agreement around development for a period of time.

“This is not the case most of the time though, and rent for commercial spaces is too high. There are very few if any protections for commercial tenants. We refer them to a city program that does help with lease renewals so the city does provide support but there are very few protections. It’s really hard when rent doubles and just like a resident, your salary isn’t doubling and it’s tough to make it work.”

“We’ve had a few events that were really to educate tenants on what all of their rights are but because this is not a legislation at the city level, it’s not the full bulk of what we’re focused on. We have seen a lot of constituents with housing issues and we’ve been working with them on how they can advocate for themselves.”

Many of the concerns Red Hook residents have are pollution-related, including dealing with last-mile warehouses which have opened up in Red Hook. Aviles explained what she is doing to address those concerns.
“One part of it is working on legislation that will mandate cruise ships using shore power. Shore power uses electricity to power the ships while in port. Red Hook’s Cruise Terminal is equipped with it but ships are not currently required to use it.

“It has been very hard to get legislation around the last-mile facilities so one of the things we’ve been doing is working on getting truck route legislation passed. We’ve had the truck and traffic study in Red Hook going on and one of the big things we’re pushing for is the DOT [Department of Transportation] to engage community voices and work together to determine what will work best for the people who live in the neighborhood when it comes to the truck routes these last-mile facilities are relying on.

“For the last-mile warehouses, we want to have a special permitting process so that can slow the process down and we can have an opportunity to see environmental impacts rather than what we have now. Right now, they just go up and we have to deal with the issues afterward.”

Last year Aviles sponsored two bills related to these issues. Intro 923 requires the city to study the impact that truck and delivery traffic generated by last-mile facilities have on local communities and infrastructure. Intro 924 requires the Department of Transportation to study street design as a means to limit or reduce the use of commercial vehicles on streets in residential neighborhoods. As of yet, the bills have not yet been taken up.
“Community engagement happens in a lot of different ways,” Aviles said. “It is certainly not just social media and it can always be better. I wish I could double my staff and do more because it is so important. With our staff resources, I think it looks like community conversations like what we’re having with the EDC [Economic Development Corporation] on Jan. 16, or it could be smaller group conversations. It could mean meeting with the teachers association or the PTA [Parent-Teacher Association] or one-on-one conversations or talking to local or citywide media like this.

“I think we haven’t done enough of it. We have 177,000 residents across multiple neighborhoods with unique needs and values and we have a staff of eight. We do a lot of outreach but I feel like we can do better, and it’s so important.

“There are a lot of different people who bring unique perspectives and different flavors to this community and I’m very proud to represent District 38.”