BY KEVIN DUGGAN
A new and improved revamp of
the beleaguered multi-million-dollar
Squibb Bridge reopened to the public
on May 4.
The reconstructed span fi nally connects
its namesake park on Middagh
Street in Brooklyn Heights to Pier 1 in
Brooklyn Bridge Park below, offering
locals a swift path to the waterfront
green space and a respite from quarantining
at home during the COVID-19
crisis, according to the head of the
semi-private stewards of the park.
“Right now, social distancing is
so important and having more access
points to the park can only help that,”
said Eric Landau, president of Brooklyn
Bridge Park Corporation.
Squibb Bridge II wrapped about
two months ahead of schedule, with
the original opening planned for summer,
and the costs came in at just
north of $7 million, according to Landau.
Engineers with Arup Group designed
the new pedestrian overpass to
look very similar to the former troubled
bridge near the water, but with
a structure of pre-fabricated steel instead
of black locust wood, which rotted
and made the original walkway
above Furman Street unsafe.
Builders with the company Turner
Construction tore down the old bridge
He said, she said, they said
Judge tosses gender non-binary candidates’ lawsuit against Brooklyn Dems
4 COURIER LIFE, MAY 8-14, 2020
in October but left the in-ground support
columns to hold up the metal
structure with the new elevated path
with 9-foot wide timber ash decking.
The original wooden bridge opened
in 2013 at a construction cost of roughly
$4.1 million and designed by engineering
fi rm HNTB. But the connector
closed in 2014 for what were supposed
to be short-term repairs at a price tag
of $700,000, but stayed shuttered until
2017 with fi xing costs ballooning to
$3.4 million.
During that closure, Brooklyn
Bridge Park sued HNTB for the shoddy
build, but the parties eventually
agreed to a $1.95 million settlement
payment to the park and no admission
of liability by either side, according to
the New York Times.
All told, more than $14 million went
into building the 450-foot bridge, tearing
it back down, and rebuilding it
again during the better part of a decade,
which comes in at about $2,600
per inch!
The new structure will no longer
be bouncy like the old one, and Landau
said the Corporation was more focused
on getting a stable construction
this time around.
“What’s most important to us is to
have a bridge that is fully functional
for longevity and we believe that we
have that now,” he said.
Squib Bridge reopened to the public on May
4 after a multi-million-dollar rennovation of
the span. Photos by Susan De Vries
Metal makeover
Long-troubled Squibb Bridge reopens
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
A Brooklyn Supreme Court
judge dismissed a lawsuit
against the Brooklyn Democratic
Party by six gender nonbinary
candidates for local
offi ces on April 29, citing procedural
issues and arguing
that the aspiring politicians
fi led their case too late in the
current election cycle.
Justice Edgar Walker declined
to rule on whether the
gender parity rules by the
party and state election law
infl icted on the Constitutional
and human rights of the candidates
— who identify across
a spectrum of gender non-conforming
identities, including
non-binary, genderfl uid, genderqueer,
or transgender.
The six political hopefuls
fi led ballot applications to run
for County Committee membership,
the lowest rung of
elected offi ce representing a
handful of blocks known as
election districts, in the June
23 election.
The rules of the Kings
County Democratic County
Committee (the offi cial name
of the Brooklyn Democratic
Party) require that candidates
fi le to run as either “Male
Member” or “Female Member,”
in order to adhere with
the state election law’s gender
parity rules originally intended
to bring more women
into the political sphere.
The candidates refused to
choose either male or female
positions, because it did not
align with their gender identity,
which caused the city’s
Board of Elections to invalidate
their ballot petitions.
Judge Walker said that the
April 3 lawsuit, organized by
the reform-oriented club New
Kings Democrats, effectively
asks the court to create a third
position without a gender designation,
but said there’s “no
express statutory authority
that allows a court to modify
and/or create a new public offi
ce or party position” in state
election law.
However, the judge was
sympathetic toward issue and
said that the party could adopt
a rule change itself at its next
meeting in September. If it
adopts the existing framework
without change, he encouraged
plaintiffs to bring forth
their case again with more
time ahead of the 2022 races.
“In the event that KCDCC
adopts the same party rule
at its next organizational
meeting, this court would indeed
encourage petitioners
to promptly bring a declaratory
judgment action after
the adoption of said rule and,
more importantly, before the
fi ling of the Party Call, to allow
for a full adjudication on
the merits,” he wrote in his
statement.
The six candidates sued
the party alleging that the
political group was violating
their Constitutional and human
rights by only allowing
them to run for county committee
if they declared themselves
either a male or female
candidate.
During court proceedings,
the party’s lawyers asked for
the court to dismiss the case,
saying that the party acted in
accordance with the state election
law. The Brooklyn Dems
also argued that they had a legal
right to exclude whomever
they wanted from the party,
without infringing on the candidates’
rights.
Derek Gaskill, who identifi es as
trans masculine, was one of six
plaintiffs to sue. Derek Gaskill