June 21, 2020 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
Month xx–xx, 2019
LOCAL
CLASSIFIEDS
PAGE 7
Open
Season
Floyd Bennett Field
reopens to fi shermen
A sketch of development along the Gowanus with the neighborhood’s rezoning. Department of City Planning
PETITION DUEL
Advocates spar over future of Gowanus rezoning
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
A group of pro-development
advocates have launched an initiative
pushing city regulators to
go ahead with the planned Gowanus
rezoning, countering a recent
effort by locals to halt the
plans due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The organization Open New
York started the new petition supporting
the neighborhood-wide rezoning
because new zoning laws
would encourage developers to
build below-market-rate housing
— which has become even more
important during the pandemic,
according to one member.
“The rezoning gives us a
chance to get back to the neighborhood
we were, and we want to be —
a place where working New Yorkers
can afford to live,” said Alec
Schierenbeck, a member of Open
New York.
The advocate called out the
authors of the anti-rezoning petition,
accusing them of exploiting
a health crisis, and arguing that
they opposed the upzoning long
before the coronavirus.
“The people calling for a moratorium
now, have been calling for a
moratorium last year and in some
cases since 2008,” he said. “I think
it’s cravenly opportunistic to suggest
that COVID is somehow now
the reason they oppose the rezoning
— it’s ghoulish to me.”
The rezoning would allow for
both more total development and
taller building projects of up to
30 stories in the neighborhood,
which city planners have estimated
would bring around 8,200
new housing units to the area by
2035, including some 3,000 belowmarket
rate homes.
The opponents of the rezoning
last week launched their online
petition and fi red off a letter to local
Councilman Brad Lander and
other city, state, and federal offi -
cials asking them halt the plans
because of the virus.
The request claimed that the
scheme was too developer-friendly
and that government offi cials
should not be giving away benefi ts
like tax incentives and public land
as city coffers face a substantial
budget shortfall due to the health
crisis which has ravaged the city.
Lander said in an interview
that the rezoning at its core was
about creating more affordable
housing — and the virus only spotlighted
the need to build more.
“There are millions of New
Yorkers who can’t pay their rent
right now,” said Lander. “The
units won’t arrive on time to meet
the need, but it exposes how many
New Yorkers are housing-insecure.”
“The Gowanus process, love it
or hate it, has been one of the most
participatory processes, maybe in
the history of planet earth,” the
legislator added.
The city has yet to announce
when it will start the seven-tonine
month land use review procedure,
which has been shelved due
the pandemic — which limits an
already-slim timeframe, as both
Hizzoner and Lander will be termlimited
out of their current posts
by the end of 2021.
“The deadline is real,” Lander
said. “We’re in offi ce for another
18 months, that is enough time for
a real process. It’s not a lot of time
for that and if we’re going to move
forward a decision needs to be
made to do so soon.”
BY ROSE ADAMS
Southern Brooklyn’s sprawling
Floyd Bennett Field partially reopened
on June 13, more than one
month after federal offi cials closed
the park to store out-of-commission
MTA buses.
“We all feel good,” said Leondre
Descartes, a retired Mill Basin resident
who fi shes from the park in
Jamaica Bay.
Hikers, bikers, and fi shermen
may once again use the greenspace,
according to park offi cials,
who noted that the site’s campground,
archery and sports fi elds,
and visitor center will remain
closed until further notice.
The reopening comes weeks after
national park offi cials closed
the 1,000-plus-acre fi eld to allow
transit authorities to store idle
MTA buses at the park, which resulted
from a reduction of bus service
during the pandemic.
Offi cials stored only about 100
buses at the park, but park offi cials
sealed off the entire greenspace,
citing security concerns.
The park’s closure infuriated
a group of local fi shermen who
blasted park offi cials for not allowing
them access to the site —
claiming they used the space both
to catch some fresh food, and to unwind
from tensions.
“I think of it not only as a place
to catch, but also as a place to destress,”
said fi sher Adrian Morris.
Park offi cials eventually caved
and allowed the fi shermen to return,
delighting the hobbyists.
“I went back Sunday,” said Decartes,
who was fi shing at Floyd
Bennett Field when reached for
comment. “All my buddies were
happy.”
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