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COURIER L 6 IFE, JANUARY 24-30, 2020
TAKING A STAND: Protesters against the Industry City rezoning stood with their backs to
Industry City CEO Andrew Kimball during a Jan. 14 hearing on the scheme.
Photo by Rose Adams INDUSTRIAL
SABOTAGE
Borough President storms out of
hearing on Industry City rezoning
BY ROSE ADAMS
Borough President Eric Adams
abruptly shut down a public hearing
about the controversial Industry City
rezoning on Tuesday night after a group
of protesters started chanting in opposition
to the scheme.
The hearing — where Adams solicited
public testimony about the hotly
debated rezoning application — drew
hundreds of interested Brooklynites
to Borough Hall, where attendees took
turns speaking about the proposed rezoning
and redevelopment of the 32-acre,
Sunset Park complex. But just one hour
after the event kicked off, Adams ended
the meeting and stormed out of the room
after protesters began chanting.
“We’re closing the hearing,” Adams
said before leaving the hall, amid chants
directed at the Sunset Park Councilman
Carlos Menchaca, repeating, “What side
are you on, Carlos?”
The public meeting comes one
month before Adams is set to submit
his recommendations for the rezoning
plan as part of the city’s seven-month
land use review procedure. If approved,
the rezoning application would allow
Industry City’s CEO, Andrew Kimball,
to develop 1-million square-feet
of space at the complex, adding big-box
retail, offi ces, academic spaces, hotels,
and other amenities as part of a $1-billion
redevelopment of the manufacturing
hub.
Supporters claim that the plan would
bring needed jobs, while many community
groups have waged an enduring and
passionate opposition to the plan, arguing
that the redevelopment will drive up
rents and displace Sunset Park’s working
class, immigrant community.
Activists have shut down previous
meetings on the rezoning — including
a September town hall hosted by
Menchaca to discuss the scheme — by
waving signs and drowning out opposing
speakers with bellowing chants.
The Tuesday night meeting was tame
by comparison, with protestors standing
with their backs to Andrew Kimball
as he spoke, shouting “time,” when
an opposing speaker’s two minutes ran
out, and beginning several brief chants
against the rezoning.
Still, the protest tactics proved too
much for Adams, who rebuked the audience
for disrupting the hearing. When
protesters shouted, “time” at a supporter
of the complex who exceeded her
two-minute testimony, Adams told the
hecklers that he would enforce the time
limit, and later, when protesters began
an anti-Industry City chant, Adams repeated,
“I guess we don’t hear more testimony,”
until the crowd quieted down.
It was the protesters’ second chant
that pushed the beep over the edge,
prompting him to shut down the hearing
hours before it would have ended,
frustrating some attendees.
“I think he overreacted to that,” said
Sunset Parker Eric Fretz, who opposes
the rezoning. “They didn’t need to shut
down the hearing. They could’ve let
people chant for a little while and come
back.”
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