Changing ‘Industry’ sparks debate
Sunset Park’s councilman will
vote down Industry City bigwigs’
requested rezoning of the commercial
site if the complex’s owners
do not delay the scheme’s publicreview
process by six months, he
said (“Sunset Park pol: Delay Industry
City rezoning by six months
or I’ll vote it down,” by Julianne
McShane, online March 15).
Councilman Carlos Menchaca
— who holds an outsize infl uence
on the rezoning because the waterfront
campus sits in his district
— said Industry City bigwigs still
need to prove the proposed upzoning
would actually benefi t the community,
before their request can
begin its lengthy journey through
the city’s Uniform Land Use Review
Procedure.
Readers shared their thoughts
on the matter:
I went to a couple of the community
board meetings already held on
this topic:
1. Why do they need more time?
This has been in discussions for over
a year already.
2. These hearings are a complete
sham, more like show trials. The
“anti” camp just yells over everyone
and all their studies are completely
unscientifi c — they all must reach
the same conclusion that Industry
City is bad.
One of their “experts” was comparing
Industry City to Atlantic Yards
(even though the former has no stadium,
absolutely zero housing in its
proposal, and is entirely built on already
privately owned land, no eminent
domain) and somehow trying to
tie its leaders to the Trump administration.
The expert went on to blame
them for closure of sweatshops (as if
that’s a bad thing) a few miles away.
Someone please save us in Sunset
Park from Menchaca and his puppets
on the community board! Sonia
from Sunset Park
Please to our local politicians: don’t
let this opportunity go to waste! We
live in this district, we vote, and we’re
depending on you to support these jobs
and the rebirth of Industry City!
How can we become a sustainable,
SOUND OFF TO THE EDITOR
LETTERS AND COMMENTS FROM OUR READERS
affordable community when our
neighbors can’t fi nd jobs in their own
neighborhood? Jordan
from Greenwood Heights
I am a wheelchair user and I fi nd it
diffi cult to get into and to get around
in the buildings in Industry City.
That is something to be improved.
More ramps are needed, as well as
better signage, better indoor lighting,
and low tables in all food establishments
for wheelchair users.
Jean from Bay Ridge
So, have they already agreed to
wait six more months? Let’s upgrade
the whole Industry City area to become
a real locals’ destination, like
the mix of “industry” and recreation
available at Brooklyn Bridge Park:
“Industry City Narrows Park.”
Want to keep traffi c down (or at
least slowed down)? Just renew the
cobblestone streets, keeping the
tracks on the street as well.
Ro from Park Slope
I know a few CB7 members — they
support this Industry City proposal,
but are intimidated by these protesters
who shut everything down.
Very undemocratic and sad for
the neighborhood. Hopefully the
brave ones start speaking up for Sunset
Park. Sam from Sunset Park
It’s mob rule in Sunset Park on
the issue, and the mob in question is
composed of Uprose and their allies.
They are determined to prevent improvements
in the neighborhood unless
they control the process, chose
the “winners,” and presumably get
their cut. John
from Bay Ridge
“Menchaca’s own fi ndings,” ha!
He caters to, and is controlled by, the
Nimby’s Uprose, Neighbors Helping
Neighbors, etc. They will tell him to
show how terrible this plan is, and he
will fall in line.
The man never stepped foot in
Sunset Park until he was elected,
and now he is going to destroy one of
the best projects that has ever come
along for its residents. Shameful.
FCB from Sunset
Gone to ‘EL’
To the Editor,
Larry Penner, myself, and many
other writers — and insiders, for
that matter — have been foretelling,
for years, the harrowing problems
COURIER L 40 IFE, MARCH 22–28, 2019 PS
the subway and elevated systems
are facing. While politicians and
other offi cials unveil multi-billion
dollar schemes for futuristic signal
and control systems, the rest of the
supporting structures have been allowed
to deteriorate. It is no wonder
that pieces are falling off the elevated
structures. They, being in excess of a
century old, are in dire need of rehabilitation.
While politicians bicker over
funding and fi nger point in the never
ending blame game, the Council
Speaker, Johnson, comes up with yet
another “batty” scheme. Let the city
take over NYC Transit Authority operations.
He’s calling it “Big Apple
Transit – BAT,” but maybe it should
be “Rotten Apple Transit,” due to the
way most other city-run facilities are
failing. It’s yet another sad attempt to
fi x with politics a broken system.
Johnson seemingly does not understand
the intricate history of the
city’s transportation systems. That
novel idea of a city takeover, from
the turn of the 1900s through the formation
of the MTA in the late ’60s,
proved to be an utter failure. Lack of
funding, system deterioration, and
bankruptcies forced an umbrella
agency, or MTA, to take things over
and turn things around. And now,
city offi cials want to repeat history
by inaugurating the same old problems
once again.
New York needs a strong regional
transportation organization, able
to arrange adequate “politics-free”
funding to maintain systems and
subsystems. Remove the political
hacks on the MTA board and replace
them with the rail and bus professionals
that can achieve positive results
by making things work again.
Failing this, I guess the grumbling
of passengers will continue as they
wait for their trains and buses, hoping
nothing new falls off the Els.
Robert W. Lobenstein
Sheepshead Bay
Transit transition
To the Editor,
Council Speaker and 2021 mayoral
candidate Corey Johnson is correct
that City Hall can actually regain
control of the both the NYC Transit
subway and bus systems and create
his proposed “Big Apple Transit.”
All have long forgotten that buried
within the 1953 master agreement between
the city and NYC Transit is an
escape clause. New York City has the
legal right to take back at any time
control of its assets. This includes the
subway and bus systems.
In 1953, the old NYC Board of
Transportation passed on control
of the municipal subway system, including
all its assets, under a master
lease and operating agreement to the
newly created NYC Transit Authority.
Regaining total control comes
with a number of fi nancial liabilities.
City Hall will have to negotiate with
both the governor and state Legislature
over how much of the MTA’s $40
billion long-term debt and billions
more in employee pension, health
insurance, other benefi ts and liabilities
come with the package. The city
would also inherit a series of union
contracts and work rule agreements.
You also have to develop a plan for
turning over management for billions
in hundreds of ongoing capital
improvement projects that are already
under way. Don’t forget current
purchases for several thousand
new subway cars and buses.
NYC Transit bus and subway are
the largest transit operators in the
nation with a fl eet of 6,400 subway
and 4,400 buses. MTA bus, with a
fl eet of 1,300 buses, is one of the top 10
bus operators in the nation. It is the
equivalent of attempting to manage
a Fortune 500 corporation. Does the
city have the technical capacity to
take on such an undertaking to support
creation of the new “Big Apple
Transit”?
Neither the city’s Department
of Transportation or any other city
agency has any experience in management
of either subways or buses.
Larry Penner
Great Neck
Kings changing
To the Editor,
This is in answer to the letter from
Sunny Lowe, of Boerum Hill, in which
she laments the changes of her neighborhood
(“Changing Brooklyn,” Sound
Off to the Editor, online Feb. 17).
I know exactly how she feels. In
this area, the main shopping street
is Kings Highways. At one time, it
was the epitome of fi ne shopping. The
street was clean, there were no bikes
ridden on the sidewalk, and there
were no empty stores.
Now, all that has gone by the wayside.
We have a lot of empty stores,
and when Payless goes, there will be
another one, a large one.
Rowena Lachant
Madison
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