Readers: Adams needs to chill!
COURIER LIFE, JANUARY 3-9, 2020 29
Borough President Eric Adams
went on a bizarre rant at the opening
of the city’s fi rst affordable
housing development for LGBTQ
seniors on Dec. 17, when he invoked
slavery, and predicted that incoming
residents would clash with locals
at a nearby public housing
complex.
“I think about Frederick Douglass
and the conversation about
fi ghting for the independence of
America,” Adams said. “He said
‘the arrogance of that those want
me to fi ght for independence when
I’m still a slave.’ I can’t celebrate a
building that is not inclusive.”
The beep’s tirade — which was
heard via an audio recording obtained
by this paper’s sister publication,
Gay City News — came during
a ribbon-cutting ceremony for
Stonewall House, a newly-erected
residential building at 112 St. Edwards
Street on land that also contains
NYCHA’s 75-year-old Ingersoll
Houses.
Readers had a lot to say online:
I‘m really confused with his statement.
Doesn’t sound like something
he would say and I’m honestly disappointed
(if he really did say that).
If he’s upset that the seniors will
have apartments that are in great condition
and NYCHA residents on that
same property Won’t, why be mad at
them? Shouldn’t he be holding NYCHA
accountable by making sure they do
the right thing by their tenants?
As a community activist/advocate
I know quite a few senior NYCHA tenants
from that same development who
have been selected and are moving in
to this new senior building. As a resident
of Fort Greene and a community
board member I’m really proud
of this development project . The only
one that is truly 100 percent affordable
housing and extremely diverse. I
love seniors and the fact that they get
to live their golden years in quality
housing with services including services
for LGBTQ seniors is fabulous!!
Most if not all the tenants are low-income
people of color.
What he and other elected offi cials
need to do is 1) hold NYCHA accountable
2) hold all the the luxury developers
saturating downtown Brooklyn
with these luxury towers accountable
by making sure they increase the affordable
percentage of apartments,
and making sure that they give opportunities
to those that fall under the
lower AMI.
Kudos to SAGE and all others who
were a part of creating Stonewall senior
housing and for their great work
!
Maisha Morales
I actually agree with him. It’s a
privatized building, built on public
land, by a developer that used low paid
non union labor to build it (the workers
who built this tower would be too
poor to live in it)
Gregory A. Butler
And he wants to be mayor!
Sobe Ben
Par for the course. Doesn’t surprise
me.
Peter Gaeta
NYCHA owned and operated housing
should be built on this land, with
the priority for housing going to the
poorest people - fi rst and foremost the
people sleeping on the F train.
Gregory A. Butler
Slow down Brooklyn!
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced
that the city will limit cars to 25
miles-per-hour along Third and
Hamilton avenues next month in an
effort to increase street safety amid
rising traffi c deaths along the roadways
— which are among the most
treacherous in the borough.
“We’re increasing our traffi c enforcement
efforts and lowering the
speed limit on two of Brooklyn’s
busiest streets to ensure that all
New Yorkers arrive home safely for
the holidays,” said de Blasio.
The Department of Transportation
will reduce the maximum legal
speeds from 30 to 25 miles-per-hour
along a 2.3 mile stretch of Third Avenue
between Prospect Avenue and
62nd Street — where cars fatally
struck six people this year, compared
with two people throughout
all of 2018.
Readers spoke up online:
There needs to be greater awareness
by cyclists and padestrians. I’ve
seen pedestrians crossing at intersections
without paying attention as
if they’re taking a leisurely stroll in
a park. Awareness and courtesy can
prevent injuries and casualties.
Ernesto Conte
I drive on those avenues frequently.
A major problem is the pedestrians
that ignore the Don’t Walk
signs. There isn’t even a peep on what
to do about jaywalkers.
Michael Drazner
You can’t mix all these people with
bicycles on the street and expect nothing
to happen... lowering the speed
limit is going to do nothing.
Enrico J Marini
Yeah but will the cops enforce it?
Susan Tang
If we could just drop the speed limit
to 5 MPH so we can create more traffi c
and generate more camera speed tickets
for the city that’d be great. Also
since we’re going that slow, mine as
well add a bike lane in both sides of
the block so we can create more traffi
c
Gene Fenech
Not another tower!
Manhattan-based developers
are angling to erect a massive glass
tower in Fort Greene, which will
house around 120 residential units
and a spacious new music school.
Builders with Gotham Organization
plan to construct the 285-
foot condo building on St. Felix
Street between Hanson Place and
Lafayette Avenue — on a vacant lot
adjoining the historic Williamsburg
Savings Bank Tower — senior
rep for the company Bryan Kelly
told Community Board 2’s Land
Use committee on Wednesday.
Readers made themselves heard
online:
Developers are ruining Brooklyn.
Nice, laid back neighborhoods with
their unique charms are plundered
and put under glass.
Fatimah Grill
Developers and politicians plot.
Neighborhoods suffer.
Sheva
What about people’s “air rights”?
Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene
is being saturated by immense highrises.
This is a very serious quality of
life issue.
Dilhan Kushan
Brooklyn is looking more and
more like Manhattan everyday.
Eddie Villegas
It’s a gardening disaster!
The city has spent millions installing
environmentally-friendly
sidewalk planters across Kings
County for years — only to let hundreds
of them fall into disrepair,
according to a recent report by City
Comptroller Scott Stringer.
The planters, known as rain
gardens, have been touted as innovative
tools to prevent sewerage
overfl ow and beautify the sidewalks.
Since 2016, the Department
of Environmental Protection has
spent $160 million installing the
miniature gardens across the city,
saying that the shrub-fi lled, green
oases help soak in rainwater that
would otherwise overburden the
sewage system.
But the Comptroller’s report —
while upholding rain waters’ environmental
benefi ts — claimed that
the planters have become hotbeds
for trash. Only about one-third of
Brooklyn’s 1,709 rain gardens receive
full maintenance by the city’s
Department of Environment Protection,
the report found, and of
the 102 rain gardens personally audited
by Stringer’s offi ce, 95 were
found fi lled with litter, weeds, and
sparsely-planted greenery.
Readers experssed themselves
online:
Community residents should be
engaged to plant, maintain the gardens.
I’m sure many would. Brooklynites
rock.
Haydée Vélez-Colón
Same with the street trees. Sad
waste of money and resources.
Kate Papacosma
We have one on Baltic Street that
wasn’t doing what it was meant to.
I don’t know who is responsible but
they came changed the soil , gravel
and plants now it works better. The
water sits and is absorbed. It periodically
maintained. We on the block try
to do some upkeep on our own. It’s all
about getting them maintained.
Peggy Herron
The ones on our block solved an
ongoing problem of fl oods down the
block.
Taty Sena
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