Can't “Fugghettabout” The Broadway Triangle

On Wednesday afternoon, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz held a public hearing to discuss the wildly contentious Broadway Triangle rezoning plan. The plan includes a broad rezoning of the predominantly industrial 31-acre plot of land that borders the Williamsburg, Bed-Stuy and Bushwick neighborhoods. The plan provides an outline for the establishment of approximately 900 new units of affordable housing—though throughout each step of the public review process the plan itself has been the least of the community’s concerns. The plan—which gives majority site control to Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council and United Jewish Organizations—has been criticized by a coalition of organizations calling themselves the Broadway Triangle Community Coalition, who claim that the planning process by which the proposal was developed was exclusionary and opaque. The BTCC has come up with an alternative to HPD’s plan, which would provide 1,800 units of affordable housing in high-density towers. Regardless of the competing plans, in the public arena the debate remains almost purely about process.
Though in the past several months hearings on the topic of the Broadway Triangle have often spiraled out of control, Wednesday’s public session was respectful and orderly, providing ample opportunity for both those in favor and those opposed to the plan to voice their opinions.
“Indeed, we need a comprehensive plan as opposed to the political deal that led to this proposal,” said Marty Needelman of Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A, who is counsel to the BTCC and implored Markowitz to insist that the process be scrapped and redrawn, this time to proceed with transparency. “Even as it approved the City’s proposal, CB1 openly acknowledged that the process that led to it was terribly flawed.”
CB1 member Estaban Duran also testified, explaining that because there are only nine Hispanic members on the community board, a body representing 30 per cent of Williamsburg, it cannot be considered as accurate representation of the community in question.
“The city is trying to push through this rezoning process without getting full community input,” Duran said. “I love affordable housing. But you have before you a community divided. We want the right plan, a plan that is just. If your nephew came up to you and told you that he got a 100 on his test, but you found out that he cheated, what would you do?”
On the other side of the spectrum, Executive Director of United Jewish Organizations (UJO) Rabbi David Niederman pleaded the case that, regardless of process, it is the plan itself that should be the focus of the discussion and establishing new units of affordable housing immediately should take precedence over all else.
“For four years we have been working and successfully developing a plan that nobody can dispute—we all want affordable housing and this is what we did. The process: I was there from the beginning,” Niederman said. “What will be the answer to hundreds of families who are losing their home? We aren’t just sitting idle, this community trying to block a solution. A child doesn’t have a room to do his homework: If we prevent that, what should be our legacy?”
Community member Abraham Retik voiced a very different opinion. Retik explained that the plan should indeed be scrapped—but not because of process; Because of the potential job loss that will occur if functioning businesses in the Broadway Triangle are seized under eminent domain.
“To take away somebody’s space where they are working, I don’t think it’s right,” Retik said. “I think this has to be reorganized, and rewritten. Let’s take the time to rethink it.”
Markowitz has 30 days to vote on the plan, after which it will go before the City Planning Commission then onto the City Council, who will have the final word.