Brooklyn Bridge Park: the case against the berm

The Cobble Hill Association has been one of the strongest advocates for a Brooklyn Bridge Park for more than two decades. For the past five years, we have carefully critiqued the financial model and proposed design of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation. We have recently focussed attention on the park's housing-based financial model. Today, let's turn some attention back to the park's unfortunate design.

A key element of our critique is the proposed berm. Merriam-Webster's online dictionary defines a 'berm' as:

1: a narrow shelf, path, or ledge typically at the top or bottom of a slope; also: a mound or wall of earth or sand.

2: the shoulder of a road.

The berm proposed for the park would be a long, thirty-foot-high mound that would run along the upland portion of the park parallel to the BQE. It will take up a lot of land and be off-limits to park users. What is its purpose then? The park's designers claim that it will act as a sound attenuator for the noise from the BQE. We don't believe it.

We object to the berm for the following reasons:

1. No one has convincingly demonstrated that it will achieve the proposed level of sound attenuation or that that level, even if possible, would be worth the costs.

2. The land that it will occupy and render off-limits could be put to better use.

3. It will turn Furman Street into a dark cavern.

4. The coming renovation of the BQE could result in a covered roadway anyway, thus obviating the need for the berm.

The state Department of Transportation has begun a study to decide how to renovate the BQE's triple-cantilever structure. The triple-cantilever includes the Promenade and the two levels of highway beneath it. The study is scheduled to conclude in 2017. (Yes, that's a long time.) Covering the roadway is one of the options that the DOT study group will consider.

We can make a covered roadway a more likely outcome if we begin working now to generate Brooklyn-wide consensus on its desirability. The CHA is beginning that work now, eight years ahead of time. We believe that the park's success depends in part on the quiet that a covered BQE would make possible. And if we can create that consensus, convince our elected officials to join us, and get the roadways covered, then for sure we will not need a berm that wastes valuable parkland. Let's use that land for recreation instead.

And we are not the only ones with this idea. The Brooklyn Paper recently reported that Donald Rattner of the Studio for Civil Architecture has proposed

'a solar-panel-covered envelope to encase the highway. The proposal calls for wrapping the BQE’s triple cantilever in translucent acrylic shells to suppress roadways sounds, allowing the builders of the open space component of the ailing waterfront development to eliminate the planned sound-stifling hills.'

We look forward to seeing their proposal and any other ideas for eliminating the wasteful berm from the park, with or without a covered BQE. But if we start working now to convince the DOT to cover the BQE, we can potentially have the best of both options.

props to Mike McLaughlin

Congratulations to journalist Mike McLaughlin. The Brooklyn Paper reported last weekend that Mike has been honored by the New York Press Association as the best young journalist in the state of New York. Our community has certainly benefitted from Mike's work. His reporting on Brooklyn Bridge Park in particular has been indispensable. Keep up the good work, Mike. Democracy depends on good journalism.

new: Cobble Hill Neighborhood Happy Hour

The CHA is not just about politics. We are also trying to build community and draw young people and new arrivlas into the mix. With those goals in mind, we are launching a new monthly series of bar nights called the Cobble Hill Neighborhood Happy Hour. Jennifer Wiese has taken the lead in organizing these events. We hope you will come out and help us launch this new initiative by having a drink with your neighbors. Who are they? Now you can find out.

WHAT: The first-ever CH Neighborhood Happy Hour
WHEN: Wednesday, April 22, 2009, 6 to 9 p.m.
WHERE: Last Exit, 136 Atlantic Avenue

Jennifer says,

'Come on over and meet your neighbors! Cobble Hill residents get $4 pints and well drinks, and buckets of Miller High Life for $15.'

High life, indeed.

candidates' forum, 33rd District

Besides the 39th City Council District debate on April 25 that we already told you about, there is also a debate scheduled this month for the 33rd District, currently represented by David Yassky.

WHAT: 33rd District candidates' debate
WHEN: April 20, 2009, 7 to 9 p.m.
WHERE: St. Francis College, 180 Remsen Street

The event is sponsored by the Independent Neighborhood Democrats and the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats.

write a letter for Brooklyn Bridge Park

Senator Squadron has devised a visionary yet viable plan for Brooklyn Bridge Park. The plan calls for more amenities, better governance, and, most importantly, a revenue-generating model that would allow the proposed high-rise apartments to be permanently eliminated from the park. You can see his presentation at his website.

The Cobble Hill Association is asking everyone to join us in writing to Mayor Bloomberg and others to support Senator Squadron's plan. Every public meeting that we have held for the past several years has reiterated that removing the proposed new apartments from the park is a very high priority for our community. Now, with a new proposal on the table and the old plan in greatest doubt, is the time for all of us to act.

Below is the text of our letter to Mayor Bloomberg. We ask that you copy it, add your name and address to it, print it, and mail it. You may modify it as you see fit.

If you would like to go a step further, please see the list of addresses of other officials, at the bottom, to whom we are sending our letter.

Finally, if you don't mind, we would appreciate an e-mail message letting us know that you have sent the letter. This is just because we would like to have an approximate head count of how many letters we generate.

Thanks very much for your participation. It means a lot right now.


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April 12, 2009

The Honorable Michael Bloomberg
City Hall
New York, New York 10007

Re: Senator Daniel Squadron’s proposal for Brooklyn Bridge Park

Dear Mayor Bloomberg,

The Cobble Hill Association has been one of the strongest advocates for a Brooklyn Bridge Park for more than two decades. Continuing our historic role as park advocates, we are writing to encourage you to support Senator Daniel Squadron’s plan for the Park’s amenities, governance, and revenue. The Squadron plan is a viable way forward that we believe will lead to a world-class park on the site and will heal the divisions sown in our community when new housing was added to the Park as a revenue-generating element.

We wholeheartedly endorse the Squadron plan in nearly all its particulars. In the amenities portion of the plan, we support the Senator’s call for:

• active, affordable, year-round athletic recreation, housed within a bubble if necessary;
• a floating pool dedicated to the Park;
• a seasonal ice-skating rink;
• a ferry landing at Pier 6 that will link Atlantic Avenue to Governors Island; and
• a facility for community recreation and the arts.

We are intrigued by Senator Squadron’s call for a public school at 360 Furman Street, or elsewhere in the Park, and we urge the City and State to consider it seriously. A school in the Park would have the added benefits of insuring year-round use of the Park and would obviate the need for a school at 10 Dock Street in Dumbo, a project that threatens to obscure the historic views of Brooklyn’s great bridges.

In the governance portion of the plan, we agree with Senator Squadron on all of the following points:

• designating Brooklyn Bridge Park as parkland, as defined by law and regulation;
• creating a Harbor Park Task Force to coordinate governance of all the parks in the harbor; and
• creating a Marine Infrastructure Task Force to coordinate efforts to attract federal and state revenues for the maintenance of the harbor parks’ marine infrastructure.

We are especially excited by Senator Squadron’s proposal for a new revenue model, the Park Increment Recapture (PIRC). The PIRC will not raise anyone’s property taxes, nor will it take any revenue from the City’s financial plan since it is based only on future rezonings. It is a simple and elegant solution to a problem that has vexed Park supporters for half a decade: how to maintain the Park without the proposed new housing. The argument all along has been that housing is necessary to pay for the park’s operations budget. No one wants the housing per se. The housing plan has only sown division and distrust since it was first foisted on the neighborhood. Nor does housing belong in a park as a matter of principle. What an awful precedent the City would be setting by building apartments inside a park. Senator Squadron’s PIRC proposal may be the way to prevent that dreadful precedent from ever happening. It deserves your support.

We disagree with the Squadron plan on only one substantive point: we believe that the PIRC’s cap ought to be raised so that the proposed hotel at Pier 1 can also be removed from the Park.

Our community in Cobble Hill has been known for its keen criticism, these past five years, of nearly all aspects of the Park: its revenue model, its design, its governance, and so on. We have made these criticisms because we care deeply about the Park. We believe that the Squadron plan is the best way forward. It eliminates the need for new housing inside the park by replacing the revenue from the development parcels with revenue from future rezonings that, by definition, are no part of the City’s financial plan. If the Park increases property values, as it undoubtedly will, we think it’s a fine idea for the Park itself to benefit from that outcome.

We urge you to adopt the Squadron plan so that the Park can be built housing-free and without the re-direction of a single budgeted dollar from the City’s coffers.

Thanks.


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The Honorable David Paterson
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224

The Honorable Christine Quinn
224 West 30 Street, Suite 1206
New York, New York 10001

The Honorable Marty Markowitz
Brooklyn Borough Hall
209 Joralemon Street
Brooklyn, New York 11201

The Honorable Sheldon Silver
250 Broadway
Suite 2307
New York, NY 10007

The Honorable Joan Millman
341 Smith Street
Brooklyn, New York 11231

The Honorable Bill de Blasio
2907 Fort Hamilton Parkway
Brooklyn, New York 11218

The Honorable David Yassky
114 Court Street
Brooklyn, New York 11201

Ms. Regina Myer
President, Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation
633 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10017

The Honorable Malcolm A. Smith
205-19 Linden Boulevard
St. Albans, NY 11412

candidates' forum: April 25

Because Bill de Blasio has decided to step down as the member of the City Council for the 39th District, there is a wide open campaign to succeed him this year. We decided not to host a candidates' forum ourselves because we thought it would be redundant, given how many other forums were already scheduled. We encourage everyone in Cobble Hill to attend the upcoming forum in Carroll Gardens on April 25. The event is sponsored by the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association.

Here are the details.

WHAT: Candidates' forum, 39th City Council District.
WHEN: Saturday, April 25, 10.30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
WHERE: Carroll Gardens Library, Auditorium B, 396 Clinton Street (at Union Street).

One way that you can participate in the event is by submitting questions by e-mail to cgcord [at] gmail [dot] com. The deadline for questions is April 17. There will also be questions taken from the audience.

Squadron hosts Bk Bridge Park meeting: Sunday

State Senator Daniel Squadron will present his proposal for Brooklyn Bridge Park at a public meeting on Sunday at LICH. Yes, this is the event that was postponed earlier.

I have seen the presentation already, and I think it is a very promising idea that everyone in the community should consider. Squadron may have found a way to eliminate the proposed housing from the park once and for all.

From Squadron's office:

'Senator Squadron will outline his plan for how to build a real, world-class Brooklyn Bridge Park. The meeting will consist of a presentation, followed by a Q&A session.'

It is very important that the Cobble Hill community come out for this event.

WHAT: Senator Squadron's public meeting about BBPark
WHEN: Sunday, April 5, 2009 at 3 p.m.
WHERE: LICH, conference room A

The CHA's goals for the park remain what they have always been. We want:

-A world-class park with year-round recreation;
-No new housing or hotels in the park;
-The proposed berm elements replaced by usable land;
-More neighborhood diversity on the board of the BBPark Development Corporation;
-Ferry service at Pier 6; and
-Full financial disclosure by the BBPDC.

Please come out on Sunday and join us in supporting these priorities.

next precinct council meeting: April 7

The 76th Precinct Council continues to meet on the first Tuesday of the month at 7.30 p.m. at the 76th Precinct. The Precinct Council is a great opportunity for everyone to contribute to public safety by discussing matters of local concern with the officers of the precinct. Whenever I have met with anyone from the 76th, I have always come away feeling like they listened very attentively to my concerns and I learned something valuable from the encounter.

We encourage everyone in the community to attend a precinct council meeting and to get to know the men and women who keep our neighborhood safe. We are all partners in public saftey.

WHAT: 76th Precinct Council meeting
WHERE: 76th Precinct, 191 Union Street
WHEN: Tuesday, April 7 at 7.30 (and every first Tuesday)

watch more television: tonight

CHA Green Czar Dave 'Paco' Abraham has story-produced another episode of 'Man v. Food' on the Travel Channel. Paco says:

'Just in time for March madness, the host visits the North Carolina college basketball triangle and chows down on some southern staples. Don't watch it on an empty stomach.

The episode airs tonight at 10 p.m. Don't miss it.

House of Detention Rally: March 20

There will be a rally and press conference this Friday at City Hall hosted by Stop BHOD, the lead activist group in the fight against the City's proposed expansion of the Brooklyn House of Detention. From the BHOD statement:

On March 20th, the Department of Corrections will hold a budget hearing which will cover their plans to spend $1.2 billion on building new jails in the Bronx and Brooklyn. In response, Stop BHOD and Communities in Unity will join forces with community groups and elected officials in front of City Hall to send a unified message to the City that New Yorkers will not support wasteful spending on unnecessary jails at a moment of serious financial crisis. We hope you will join us Friday, March 20th at 11:30 AM for this important rally to stop the City from wasting $1.2B of our taxpayer money on jails we don't need.

We expect to hear from Council Members David Yassky and Letitia James, and are also hopeful that Comptroller Thompson will speak as well. We are also very excited to have speakers from our Bronx partner Communities in Unity, who we have partnered with in solidarity against the City’s plans for a new Bronx jail in Hunts Point.

Come out on Friday March 20th and join us in telling the City that more jails are not the answer. Fight for Rehabilitation, not incarceration!

WHAT: Stop BHOD rally
WHEN: Friday, March 20, 2009 at 11.30 a.m.
WHERE: City Hall

110 Amity Street: back on the market

As reported by Brownstoner and our many of our members, 110 Amity Street is back on the market. And yes, the Corcoran broker overseeing the offerings, which include adjacent properties, has the same last name as the developer who went before the Landmarks Preservation Commission last year. That is all we know at this point. If you know more than that, let us know.

props to Linda Blyer and Judy Willig

As reported in the Brooklyn Heights Press & Cobble Hill News, the CHA's own Linda Blyer has been honored by Brookyln District Attorney Charles Hynes. She and Judy Willig of the Heights & Hill Community Council will be saluted at the DA's annual Brooklyn's Extraordinary Women celebration. Congratulations, Linda and Judy.