BY AIDAN GRAHAM
Local leaders fi red off a
strongly worded letter to city
offi cials demanding answers
after a massive construction
project resulted in rampant
fl ooding throughout dozens of
Park Slope brownstones.
The project — which calls
for construction crews to dig up
large swaths of Sixth Avenue
— has caused row houses located
on, or near the thoroughfare
between Union Street and
Park Place to fl ood each time it
rains.
On Sept. 12 — two weeks
following Brooklyn Paper’s exclusive
report on the fl ooding
— Councilman Brad Lander,
Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon,
and State Sen. Zellnor Myrie
fi red off a letter to city construction
honchos to demand
transparency and an investigation
into the fl ooding.
COURIER L 10 IFE, SEPT. 20-26, 2019
“Our offi ces request that
Department of Design and
Construction look further into
this matter and provide any additional
support they can for
the residents,” reads the letter.
“We also request...an update
about the project to the North
Slope neighborhood.”
The project — which is designed
to replace underground
water mains and install sewers,
catch basins, and manholes —
is not slated for completion until
sometime in 2021.
When this paper fi rst reported
the fl ooding issue, a
spokesman with the Department
of Design and Construction
— which oversees the
project — said that they were
“investigating the fl ooding
reports,” but seemed to deny
the connection between the
construction effort and the
fl ooding.
Construction work along Sixth Avenue has caused rampant fl ooding in Park Slope. Photo by Derrick Watterson
“This is an area that historically
has drainage issues,” said
Ian Michaels.
However, multiple area
residents claim that their
homes were nice and dry until
the construction project
began — a point which the
three elected leaders alluded
to in their letter.
“The vast majority of the
neighbors who reached out
reported that they had never
experienced basement fl ooding,
even during Super Storm
Sandy,” read the letter.
Park Slope resident Michael
Saunders, who lives near Sixth
Avenue and St. John’s Place,
claimed that the issue had cost
him “thousands of dollars to
deal with the damage.”
Michaels declined to comment
regarding the overlap
between construction and the
fl ood — both at the end of August,
and again this week.
As of deadline, the department
had not responded to the
elected offi cials’ request for
information.
The St. John’s Place Community
Association has organized
a meeting to discuss the
fl ooding issue on Wednesday,
Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. at St. John’s
Church, located at 139 St.
Johns Pl. between Sixth and
Seventh avenues.
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