It's Petition Delivery Time!

Let's deliver our message to Mayor de Blasio together. 

Date:  Wednesday morning, December 16th
Time:  9:15 am
Where: In front of the gates of City Hall Park, Broadway at Murray Street.
How:   4/5/6 to Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall, R to City Hall, A/C to Chambers, or 2/3 to Park Place

Bring ID.

Can you make it?  Your presence will have an impact.  If you can be there, an email confirmation would be appreciated. Send your RSVPs to CobbleHillAssociation@gmail.com.

On Wednesday morning, City Councilman Brad Lander and State Senator Daniel Squadron will stand with Cobble Hill residents (and neighbors!) to deliver over 2017 signed petitions to City Hall.   (We actually have more than that but the number should have special significance for the Mayor.)  Our request is simple:  we want a better plan for the Long Island College Hospital site.
Bring one of the Save Cobble Hill posters or make your own, Just keep it family friendly!

THANK YOU for your efforts!  Every voice counts and is vital in our efforts to convince the de Blasio administration to listen and respond to our concerns.  We hope to see you Wednesday morning!

Say It Ain't So, Mayor de Blasio!

“We are not embarking on a mission to build towering skyscrapers where they don't belong. We have a duty to protect and preserve the culture and character of our neighborhoods.”


Guess who said that last February?! Mayor de Blasio!

But somehow the Mayor has lost his way and now he is supporting building high-rise towers right next to our historic low-rise brownstone community.

At Wednesday's community meeting, hundreds of our Cobble Hill neighbors and friends made their feelings loud and clear: No towers in Cobble Hill! Our representatives heard our message and they are behind us 100 percent in this truly momentous effort to stop Fortis Property Group from building their high-rises on the site of the former Long Island College Hospital.

Now we need to make sure Mayor de Blasio hears us, too! Toward that end, we are petitioning Mayor de Blasio to work with us— not against us— in our efforts to significantly downscale the current redevelopment plans. We've already collected hundreds of signatures, but we needs several times that to make an impact.

Please read our petition and-- if you agree— add your vitally needed voice to our campaign. There are two ways you can participate.

1. Please print out a copy of our petition, sign, and mail to: Cobble Hill Association, 123 Congress Street 11201 (or you can drop through the mail slot).

2. Access and sign our petition online. (Your email will be your signature.)

All the community's signed petitions will be delivered directly to the Mayor's office.

Please sign today! The sooner these petitions reach the Mayor the better!

And THANK YOU! for being a part of our community.

Muyassar Moustapha, Owner of Oriental Pastry & Grocery, was Killed in a Crash on Atlantic

Late Sunday night Muyassar Moustapha was killed in a car crash at Atlantic Avenue and Clinton Street while returning to his store from Key Foods. The driver of the vehicle stayed at the scene while the NYPD Collision Investigation Squad conducted conducted its survey. Moustapha was the owner of Oriental Pastry & Grocery, a family owned staple of the Arab-American community on Atlantic Avenue for over 60 years. The tragedy shocked those who knew him well as Al Shaia told the Gothamist, "he always crossed at the light and he was always careful."

Unfortunately, this comes as no surprise to those of us who know this street's dangerous conditions well. Less than two years ago another fatal crash at Atlantic and Clinton shook the neighborhood.  Last year, as part of Mayor de Blasio's Vision Zero initiative aimed at reducing traffic deaths, the speed limit on Atlantic Avenue was reduced from 35 mph to 25 mph. Although traffic engineers assert that crashes at this slower speed have a far lower fatality rate, the new regulation has seen little enforcement and is often ignored. At night drivers will often exceed speeds of 35mph.

Year to date there have been 66 NYPD recorded traffic collisions along Cobble Hill's Atlantic Avenue border, 18 of which have occurred on, or near Clinton Street. Since the beginning of 2013 there have been a total 343 traffic crashes on Atlantic from Hicks to Court Street, resulting in 58 injuries and now, 2 deaths. Data source: NYPD motor vehicle collisions.

Bill de Blasio has promised to address the dangerous arterial roadway in his Great Streets initiative announced in March. The program sets aside $276 million dollars to install engineering improvements on four of the city's most deadly arterial roadways. Construction has already begun on Queens Boulevard with improvements to Atlantic Ave slated to begin in Community Board Five in spring of 2017. Advocates at Transportation Alternatives, which runs the People First on Atlantic campaign, laud mayor's efforts but say that the DOT should study the entire Avenue, from the bay to Queens, to propose comprehensive safety improvements. Those of us who cross Atlantic daily know safety improvements can't come too soon. While not everyone agrees with the implementation of New York's Vision Zero initiative, Charlie Sahadi states the salient point,

"I don't agree with some of the things Mayor de Blasio came up with, but if that car was driving at 25 miles per hour, this gentleman would not be dead today"
-Charlie Sahadi 

New Year, New Laws for Electronic Waste

If you unwrapped new TVs and iPhones this holiday season, be careful before just discarding your old ones in the trash. Effective January 1st, 2015 it will be illegal to dispose of electronics in with household trash. This is not meant to be a burden, but rather a simple way to avoid toxic materials from entering our waste streams. This change is actually the handiwork of our area's former City Councilman and current Mayor Bill de Blasio. He worked on this issue way back in 2008 and helped get the Lower East Side Ecology Center to do more recycling events in our area as a way to increase education on the topic before enacting policy changes.

If you cannot make it to one of the LESEC's many e-waste events this month, take advantage of their drop off center nearby in the Gowanus area. Laziness is no excuse for adding more pollutants and toxins to the trash.

For more on the sanitation change, check out WNYC.

Brooklyn "Skyscraper" Park?

For years, the Cobble Hill Association has advocated for the creation of Brooklyn Bridge Park to serve the growing borough's needs for active recreation and green space. We are glad to see tens of thousands now come to the waterfront each day to enjoy the developing park, but have long felt private housing should not be in the mix. We need a park, not a large scale project with private high rises. Unfortunately, that has been the path towards the creation of Brooklyn Bridge "Park" and it shows no signs of stopping. 340 Furman is already in place, but recently revealed plans suggest two new towers will soon be dominating the Atlantic Avenue gateway as well.

Rendering of the development sizes slated for Pier 6 at the foot of Cobble Hill. Site A will be a max 315 feet (with 290 units) while site Site B will reach up to 155 feet (with max of 140 units of affordable housing & retail)

The press has begin taking note of this potentially massive change to our neighborhoods landscape with articles in both Brownstoner and the Wall Street Journal. Concerned residents have begun this change.org petition to oppose the pending monoliths and the Cobble Hill Association has signed on to the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund letter below which was sent to Mayor DeBlasio asking for his leadership to eliminate new housing in the park.

Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund Letter to Mayor Deblasio

LICH settlement: Electeds' Statements today, CHA statement tomorrow

Big updates on the Long Island College Hospital (LICH) settlement have been floating around news desks today. Below are statement excerpts from elected officials. The official Cobble Hill Association will come tomorrow, Friday, February 21st.

Our most steadfast supporters, local electeds Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, State Senator Daniel Squadron, Assemblywoman Joan Millman, and City Councilmembers Brad Lander, Steve Levin, and Carlos Menchaca jointly released the following statement:

We've long urged SUNY and the State to agree to a new, more open RFP process for LICH, to make sure our community and all of Brooklyn have the best possible healthcare outcome.  And, finally, SUNY has come to agreement with the community and healthcare providers on a process that achieves this basic goal, while offering added transparency and community input. Now, it's critical that the process moves forward in good faith and in a timely way, with meaningful community participation from the many neighborhoods that LICH serves. We will continue to work with SUNY, the community, and our colleagues to ensure that LICH continues to provide care, and play the role that Brooklyn needs.

An excerpt of Mayor Bill DeBlasio's statement is as follows. 

For months, we were told the free-fall closure of Long Island College Hospital was inevitable. We fought back. We went to court to keep the padlocks off the doors. We fought shoulder to shoulder with this community and used all the tools of city government to press for a better outcome. And now, we have a resolution that finally puts people's health first.

His full statement is available here. 

An excerpt of Governor Cuomo's follows below.

Today’s agreement is a victory for all parties involved and paves the way for putting a long-term, sustainable health care facility in place for the residents of Brooklyn,” Governor Cuomo said. “We are in the midst of a health care transformation here in New York State, and the reality is that yesterday’s costly, inefficient models of delivering service are no longer viable options for tomorrow. Under the terms of today’s agreement, SUNY is reopening the solicitation process to find a new operator for LICH that will guide the facility as it modernizes and continues its important mission of serving New Yorkers.

His full statement is available here. 

Tomorrow, we will post the official Cobble Hill Association response to the close of litigation and the start of improved health care for our community.