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Since 1978 • (718) 260–2500 • Brooklyn, NY • ©2020 12 pages • Vol.Serving Brownstone Brooklyn, Sunset Park, Williamsburg & Greenpoint 43, No. 8 • February 21–27, 2020
BROOKLYN PIPES UP
Locked out repairs, but business owners doubt
ning on Dec. 20.
Cuff’s memorandum featured his critiques
of an environmental impact statement
concerning the rezoning application
that Continuum Company needs
approved to build its 39-story mixeduse
development, with a special focus
on the “Natural Resources Chapter”
and “Arborist Report” contained
within the study.
Basing his report on information contained
within that report, Cuff found
ample evidence to suggest the development
would result in “significant adverse
impacts” to Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s
greenhouse facilities, which are
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
Environmentalists rallied
against National Grid’s ongoing
construction of a seven-mile natural
gas pipeline under the streets of
Williamsburg and Bushwick Saturday,
with one local activist saying
that the community will step
up to battle the project if elected
officials fail to do so.
“If Mayor de Blasio and Governor
Cuomo won’t be real climate
leaders and stop this pipeline, the
community will,” said Bushwick
resident and director of the environmentalist
advocacy group Sane
Energy Project Kim Fraczek.
The protesters braved the bitter
cold to voice their opposition
of the utility firm’s current project
to install the stretch of natural
gas pipeline connecting its system
in Brownsville to its Maspeth
Avenue depot at Newtown Creek,
which company officials claim is
designed to relieve pressure on
its network and support economic
growth in the area.
They gathered at one of the current
construction sites at Manhattan
Avenue and Moore Street,
chanting “We say no.”
The new pipes would allow for
gas to flow in from Texas, Tennessee,
and Canada to Brooklyn
at a reduced pressure of about 15
pounds — or about half the pressure
in a car tire — beneath the
borough’s street.
But one Williamsburg mom at
the weekend gathering said the
company and the government
By Ben Verde
Brooklyn Paper
Transit honchos are planning
to fast track repairs at Clark
Street subway station in Brooklyn
Heights, but business owners
in the station say they’re being
left in the dark.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority
plans to shutter the station
for eight months while conducting
desperately needed repairs on the
station’s three elevators, which are
the only methods of reaching the
deep-underground station.
While agency officials sent out
a press release on the decision on
Feb. 14, shop owners in the station
say they were never informed of
the decision — which they fear
will be catastrophic to their bottom
line, and force some of them
to close.
“They didn’t tell us nothing
now,” said Chan Han, owner of
Han’s Market, a convenience
store housed in the station. Every
business owner interviewed
by the Brooklyn Paper on Monday
afternoon said they were similarly
unaware.
Salahuddin Aziz, the owner of
a newspaper stand inside the station,
said the station’s closure would
likely kill his business.
“Right now business is bad, if
they close for eight months, I’ll be
out of business,” he said.
The eight-month closure was
one of three options transit bigwigs
presented to the community,
and the one favored by outgoing
city transit czar Andy Byford
— who cited the low costs and
quicker timeframe compared to
other options.
“We strongly feel our approach
minimizes the impact that this disruption
will cause,” Byford said
in a statement.
The alternate proposals, which
multiple business owners said they
preferred, would have kept the stations
open while repairs were conducted.
One option called for repair
work on one elevator at a time,
leaving one in service at all times —
although that scheme would have
extended the project’s timeline to
two years. A third plan would have
kept the station open during peak
hours only, which would have taken
a year to complete, according to
the MTA.
Transit officials presented the
proposals at a community meeting
at St. Francis College in September,
and ultimately decided on
the full-closure, which will begin
after a contract is awarded, transit
bigwigs said.
The plan calls for the mezzanine
doors to be left open during
Quite a lot
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
Two Trees is looking for your
two cents.
Real estate developer Two
Trees is soliciting proposals on
how to utilize a vacant industrial
lot along the Williamsburg
waterfront as a community asset
— at least, until it reclaims
the land to construct a massive
housing complex.
The builders purchased the
waterfront lot between Metropolitan
Avenue and N. Third
Street last year, where they
plan to erect a pair of massive
skyscrapers — planned at 600-
and 650-feet-tall each — along
with a riverside park and two
man-made beaches on the East
River.
But to obtain the development
rights needed to construct the
towering residential complex,
Two Trees will have to endure the
city’s lengthy land-use review
process, and CEO Jed Walentas
told members of Community
Board 1 that he hopes to have
all the permissions needed to
kick off the project before the
end of 2021.
And with no interim plans for
the waterfront property, Two
Trees put out a call to businesses,
community groups, and anyone
else who’s interested in a yearlong,
rent-free lease at the former
industrial site to pitch ideas for
how they’d use it, according to
a request for proposal the group
released on Feb. 14.
The document states that applicants
should put an “emphasis
on sustainability, community
engagement and ecology…
that not only appeals to a wide
cross-section of the Williamsburg
community, but one that
is in harmony with the environmental
assets of this unique
waterfront.”
Two Trees will give preference
to projects that can finance
themselves — although the letter
indicates they are ready to pay
a “nominal” amount to get the
scheme up and running.
The lease would start on
April 1 and run for one year,
but Two Trees may consider extending
it for longer, according
to the RFP.
The charitable lease is scheduled
to end if and when the developer
begins construction at
the former fuel oil storage site,
which Con Edison sold to Two
Trees in December for $150
million.
The redevelopment proposal
would add an additional 1,000
residential units, 250 of which
would have to be offered at socalled
“affordable” rates, and
includes a YMCA, a park, and
a looping boardwalk.
Two Trees CEO Jed Walentas
addressed locals at a heated
community meeting in January,
when he described his plans to
obtain all the necessary development
rights required to begin
constructing the massive towers
within the next two years, before
Mayor Bill de Blasio leaves
office and elections shake up
City Council.
Preparations of the site seem
to already be underway, with
bulldozers leveling the land and
removing weeds and shrubs,
New York YIMBY reported
Monday.
Protesters rally against pipeline being dug under Williamsburg streets
should be moving away from fracking
fossil fuels to stem the disastrous
effects of climate change.
“We as a state, we really worked
on and we banned fracking, but it’s
not really banning if you’re supporting
it in other states by getting
it in here,” said Tamara Gayer.
“As a parent in an age where climate
change is becoming more
important, there was just no way
to ignore this.”
Another environmentalist
echoed Gayer’s sentiments, advocating
for the powers that be to
transition to a greener economy.
“We know that a different future
is possible, one rooted in renewable
energy, a just transition and
green jobs, and this is the future
we deserve,” said Maggie Berke,
of the activist organization Sunrise
Movement’s New York City
chapter.
Opponents previously crowded
into a local Community Board 1
meeting to vent at National Grid
officials last month.
A spokeswoman for the project
noted that the project does not
bring any additional gas into the
system and said that it was necessary
to provide Brooklynites with
safe and reliable service.
“This project improves safety,
reliability and resiliency for our
existing customers,” said Karen
Young in a statement. “The gas
main design, engineering controls
and safety features we have
in place meet or exceed NYC construction
standards.”
The state’s Public Service Commission
signed off on the project’s
route in 2017, and split the
tube into five phases — starting in
Brownsville and snaking its way
north to Bedford-Stuyvesant, before
heading west through Bushwick
in 2019.
The fourth phase started last October
and the company is currently
working along Bushwick, Montrose,
and Manhattan avenues, along with
Moore Street, according to its latest
construction update.
Protesters gathered in opposition to National Grid gas pipeline in Williamsburg on Feb. 15.
Photo by Derrick Watterson
Two Trees seek proposal for
‘interim user’ on Con Ed site
Courtesy of Two Trees Management
What will preceed these towers on the waterfront?
Clark Street biz owners claim
MTA left them in the dark
that will be sufficient to maintain
enough business because the vast
majority of their business comes
from commuters coming and going
from the train.
“Everybody goes to work, they
bring their stuff with them, they
don’t have time to come this way,
they’ll go to a business over there,”
said Fernando Costano, an employee
at Brooklyn Heights Shoe
Master, a shoe repair shop in the
station.
Costano and Kim, who pay rent
to the Hotel St. George above the
station, not the MTA, remembered
10 years ago when the station
was closed for repairs for three
months.
“This whole neighborhood was
dead,” Kim said.
During that closure, landlords
offered businesses a rent freeze for
the three-month period, with the
understanding that they pay back
the difference once the station reopened,
according to Costano.
Costano, who says he was only
making between $30 to $40 a day
during the first closure, questioned
how such a deal would be possible
during a much longer project.
“How can I pay $25,000 for
8 months when there’s no business?”
he said.
A spokesman for the MTA
claimed the process had been as
transparent as possible, and pointed
to the meetings held with community
stakeholders in the months
leading to the decision.
“This has been a very public
and collaborative process and we’re
committed to keeping all of our
neighbors informed as the project
is planned this year,” said Aaron
Donovan.
(Top) Chan Han, owner of Han’s Market, was unaware that
the MTA will be closing the Clark Street subway station for
eight months. (Above) Salahuddin Aziz, owner of a newspaper
stand in the station.
Photos by Ben Verde
Mayor’s shady claim in doubt
Internal memo shows city knew of dangers to garden
By Ben Verde
Brooklyn Paper
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s claim that shadows
cast by a massive 39-story development
would not harm plant life at the
Brooklyn Botanic Garden are bogus —
according to his own administration!
Internal memos reviewed by the
Brooklyn Paper show that experts at
the NYC Parks Department believe that
the proposed 960 Franklin Ave. megadevelopment
poses a serious threat to
the borough’s world-class horticultural
museum located just a block away, with
experts stating that shadows cast by the
towering residential complex could very
easily starve the garden’s most sensitive
areas of needed sunlight.
“The proposed project would potentially
lead to a significant adverse impact
to natural resources, specifically
to natural resources found in the Brooklyn
Botanic Garden, due to project-generated
shadows,” wrote David Cuff, director
of environmental review at the
Parks Department, in a memo sent to
officials at the Department of City Plan-
Photo by Continuum Company
The mayor has thrown his hat into the “Fight for Sunlight” controversy. See GARDEN o n page 9
Two Trees is looking to offer the marked space at River
and N. Third Streets to a local community group.
Photo by Two Trees
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