
6
BROOKLYN WEEKLY, AUGUST 9, 2020
Pilferer steals from Park Slope church
St. Thomas Aquinas Church.
Photo by Todd Maisel
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BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Local Assemblywoman
Jo Anne Simon is calling
on city offi cials to pause the
planned Gowanus rezoning,
arguing that the COVID-19
pandemic has stripped locals’
ability to weigh in on
the hotly-contested proposal.
“To be able to coordinate,
cheer, clap and even boo
from time to time is an essential
part of the process –
and that can only happen at
a large, in-person meeting,
the kind where it’s possible
to hold signs or wear clothing
sporting advocacy messages,”
Simon wrote in an
August 3 op-ed in City Limits,
which was co-authored
by the captain of the Gowanus
Canal Dredgers Canoe
Club, Brad Vogel.
The pol and the paddler
argue that virtual hearings
on web-conferencing
platforms like Zoom give
government offi cials too
much power to stifl e public
input by cutting people’s
mics, unlike in person meetings,
which are notoriously
ruckus.
“City offi cials, as we’ve
seen, have total power to
mute an attendee in a virtual
meeting – cutting off
another one of the classic
avenues open to a citizen attending
a public meeting:
the ability to fi nish your
point after an offi cial has cut
you off,” they wrote.
Not long after the news
site published the op-ed, the
Department of City Planning
— which is tasked with
overseeing the rezoning —
announced that uniform
land use review procedures,
known as ULURP, would resume
citywide on September
14, six months after Mayor
Bill de Blasio suspended the
process due to the coronavirus
outbreak in March.
DCP still has to complete
a draft environmental impact
statement for the proposed
Gowanus rezoning,
which would formally trigger
the seven-month review
process. Agency spokesman
Joe Marvilli declined to disclose
when that will happen.
The rep said that the
social distancing requirements
make it impossible
to hold in-person hearings,
but that offi cials still want
to push ahead with the Gowanus
rezoning and allow
New Yorkers to give their
input online or by phone.
He pointed to the new city
portal NYC Engage offi cials
launched on July 15 to help
New Yorkers navigate and
participate in upcoming virtual
public meetings.
“Because the physical
distancing requirements
have made traditional forms
of public engagement impossible,
DCP created the NYC
Engage portal,” Marvilli
said in a statement. “This
easy-to-access-and-use system
means New Yorkers can
participate by phone or online,
including seniors, caregivers
and small business
owners who often are not
be able to attend in-person
meetings. DCP continues to
work to fi nd opportunities
for the public to participate
in planning for their communities.”
Simon and Vogel conceded
that virtual hearings
work for some civic meetings,
and can in fact widen
participation for people
who can better take part remotely
— like community
boards and the Landmarks
Preservation Committee,
which have held dozens of
hearings online since the
pandemic began.
But the third-term Assemblywoman
told Brooklyn
Paper that the Gowanus
rezoning will have many
more far-reaching impacts
than other smaller developments
— including on the
environment, housing, and
businesses — and contended
that holding hearings online
would diminish one of
the few meaningful public
input sessions available during
the process.
“This is a huge rezoning
effort, it’s not the ULURP of
a building or two blocks,”
she said. “We’re cutting off a
lot of the value of the actual
engagement. It makes it a
more hollow experience.”
The state doesn’t have a
formal role in the city’s review
process, and Simon
said she’s not against many
of the proposed sweeteners
— like an increase of affordable
housing in expensive
brownstone Brooklyn — but
that she wanted the public to
get their fair shake.
“I’m not opposed per se
to the rezoning, but I think
it needs to be very very carefully
managed, and that’s
enhanced by the public’s engagement,”
she said.
Her and Vogel’s op-ed
also calls on the city to study
the racial impacts of a potential
Gowanus rezoning
— which comes after Public
Advocate Jumaane Williams
introduced legislation
in May that would mandate
such a review. Local Councilman
Brad Lander signed
on as a sponsor for the bill,
but the Council has yet to
pass it.
Simon and Vogel’s push
to pause the Gowanus rezoning
echoes petitions by
longtime opponents of the
neighborhood revamp, collectively
known as Voice of
Gowanus, who asked to postpone
the rezoning in June
for similar reasons, and in
July demanded the city add
in a racial impact study.
Their initiative to stall
the process was met by a
counter-petition by pro-development
group Open New
York urging the city to forge
ahead with the rezoning as
soon as possible.
Mayor Bill de Blasio fi rst
pitched the Gowanus rezoning
back in 2016, and the
city has publicly presented
its schemes several times
ever since.
Lander, who has been
eager to see the rezoning
move ahead, previously
said in response to the battling
petitions that the community
has been highly involved
over the years and
will continue to be in the
future.
“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 said in June.
No-go in Gowanus?
Local pol joins calls to halt neighborhood rezoning
Jo Anne Simon Jason Speakman
A rendering of what the neighborhood coud look like after the proposed
rezoning. Department of City Planning
BY TODD MAISEL
Police are still looking
for the man they say pilfered
the charity collection
box at a Park Slope
church shortly after services
on July 31.
According to the
Brooklyn Diocese, the
suspect breached the collection
box at St. Thomas
Aquinas Church on Ninth
Street at 1:30 pm and removed
a handful of cash.
The theft comes after
months of services being
shut down because of the
COVID-19 pandemic, limiting
churches’ collections
both for their own operations
and for other charitable
causes.
“I understand in these
unprecedented times,
many people have lost
their jobs and need assistance,
but this not how
you turn to the church
for help,” said Father
Willy Kingsley Ndi of St.
Thomas Aquinas Church.
“My message to those in
need is to ring our doorbell,
don’t vandalize and
steal, and let us help you.”