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| נשלח ב-8/6/2009 21:18 |
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די בייק לעין קומט קיין קענט עוועניו, 13-14 הופער...
ארי לייב גלאנץ וועט קענען נאכדעם שרייען אז ער האט עס אראפגענומען פון בעדפארד און געברענגט קיין קענט...
אוי האט ענק יו. זשעי. או. צוגעפיקסט...
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| נשלח ב-8/6/2009 21:29 |
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א דאנק נידערמאן איז דא און וויליאמסבורג יעצט 5-6 בייק לעינס
אזויפיל טוט מען יעצט אז מען גיט פארקינג און פלאץ פאר די באסעס צו אראפלייגן קינדער
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| נשלח ב-8/6/2009 21:33 |
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ווארענונג: פאר א פרואוו פון גילוי שמות/ניקס וועט מען אויסגעשפארט ווערן
תוקן על ידי - בשמחה_תמיד - 08/06/2009 23:11:55
_________________
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| נשלח ב-9/6/2009 20:52 |
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Coalition re−defines Triangle
Group's alternative plan touts affordability, jobs and open space
By Greg Hanlon
Friday, June 5, 2009 10:43 AM EDT
The Broadway Triangle Community Coalition (BTCC), comprising the
40−plus community groups protesting the city's rezoning plan for the
Broadway Triangle, presented its own vision for the Triangle at a
raucous meeting this past Monday at Williamsburg's P.S. 250 (108
Montrose Avenue).
The meeting took place nearly two weeks after
a plan from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development
(HPD) was certified by the Department of City Planning, allowing it to
come before public review in the ULURP (Uniform Land Use Review
Procedure) process before it is enacted. The BTCC has loudly opposed
this proposal, claiming it has been taken over by select political
interests and does not include enough affordable housing or other
benefits for the largely low−income population in the immediate area.
The
alternative plan the coalition presented last night – put together by
graduate city planning students from the Pratt Institute – was
unprecedented in its ambitiousness. Planners portrayed it as a
visionary plan that would best meet the goals of providing affordable
housing, jobs, and open space with a focus on environmental
sustainability.
It covers 42 areas, compared to the 18 covered
in the HPD plan, and creates 4,800 units of housing, 3,600 of which
would be affordable, compared to the 1,895 units in the HPD plan, 910
of which would be affordable.
The plan makes this possible by
calling for ''high−density housing,'' though planners did not specify
what this would entail. The HPD plan calls for a maximum building
height of eight stories, saying this height *s the right balance
between affordable housing and contextual development.
The BTCC
plan also calls for some truly revolutionary features, like the
institution of a neighborhood land trust and a community−owned energy
utility, along with an underground pneumatic tube system for the
neighborhood's garbage.
It would also include the land owned by
Pfizer, a portion of which would become a sustainable business
incubator. The plan's emphasis on sustainability also includes the
conversion of Gerry Street into a landscaped greenway, and the creation
of other parkland on the site.
While serious questions about the
plan's feasibility abound, Pratt Professor Ron Shiffman, who oversaw
the design, told the packed crowd that ''nothing you've seen here has
not been done around the world.''
Encouraging opponents of the
city plan to dream big, he said, ''We challenge the mayor of the city of
New York, who has proposed PlaNYC 2030, to back up the rhetoric
[regarding sustainability].''
To the delight of the audience, he
compared the HPD plan to the Bush administration and the BTCC plan to
the Obama administration. He vaguely mentioned funding streams from the
Federal, State, and City budgets said could be obtained to fund the
outsize goals of the project.
''The general gist of the vision is doable,'' Shiffman said. ''I've
been doing this for 45 years, and I'm telling you, if we can't do it
now, we'll never be able to do it.''
The meeting sets up a showdown at Community Board 1 on June 9, where the HPD plan begins the ULURP process.
The
rezoning has been a point of controversy in the neighborhood ever since
HPD hosted a community planning session in July 2007 but invited only
two community groups: the Ridgewood−Bushwick Senior Citizens Council
(RBSCC) and the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg (UJO).
Since
then, these two organizations have been given city contracts to develop
affordable housing on the site. Many people affiliated with the 40
community organizations that comprise the BTCC claim the process has
smacked of political favoritism. Some have pointed the finger at
Assemblymember Vito Lopez, the founder of RBSCC who maintains close
ties with the organization, and is a staunch supporter of the HPD plan.
HPD
and Lopez have denied such claims, dismissing them as
politically−motivated sour grapes. Lopez has pointed to the track
record of RBSCC and UJO at developing large−scale affordable housing,
saying these groups are best qualified for a project of this magnitude.
He characterized the HPD plan as the only practical way to ensure the
creation of affordable housing, which both camps say is their top
priority.
Lopez has opposed including the Pfizer property in the
rezoning, claiming it would only raise the value of the property and
make it more difficult for the city to acquire it.
The
controversy manifested itself at a May forum for candidates of the 33rd
Council. Six of the seven candidates said they did not support the
current proposal. The only one who did support it was Stephen Levin,
who is Lopez's chief of staff.
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| נשלח ב-9/6/2009 20:56 |
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Wrong turn on Kent
Controversy follows bike plan
By Greg Hanlon
Friday, June 5, 2009 10:43 AM EDT
Last Wednesday, the city's Department of Transportation unveiled
a plan it hoped would quell the unrest surrounding the controversial
Kent Avenue bike lanes, which the agency installed last October as a
prelude to the Brooklyn Greenway.
Though the new plan solved
some problems, it begat a few others, as many residents on nearby
inland streets complained the proposal would send truck traffic in
their direction. The continuing squabble about the lanes has shown the
inherent difficulty of determining how public space is used in New York
City, especially in an area as diverse – and with as many clashing
interests – as Williamsburg.
The plan itself, which DOT
officials said could be implemented as early as July, calls for Kent to
become a one−way, northbound street in Williamsburg starting at N. 14th
Street. Removing the southbound lane of traffic would allow for two
bike lanes on the west side of the street, as well as two dedicated
lanes for parking and loading zones, one on the far east side of the
street and one ''floating lane'' between the cars and the bike lanes on
the west side.
In essence, the floating lane would serve as a
buffer for cyclists. Teresa Toro, Chair of the Community Board 1
Transportation Committee, noted ''the delicious irony that we're using
cars as a protective barrier for cyclists and walkers.''
The plan
addresses the concerns of residents and businesses along Kent who have
protested the lanes since they were installed. Residents, concentrated
mostly on the southern portion of Kent Avenue, have said the lanes make
parking impossible and generally disrupt their lifestyle. Businesses on
the strip's northern portion say the lanes and the consequent loss of
loading zones make it impossible to do business.
DOT officials
said the new plan would restore 200 of the 240 parking spaces taken
away by the lanes. They also said the plan would solve the speeding
problems on Kent that have gotten worse since the lanes were installed.
The
new plan seemed to have the support of the majority of the Kent Avenue
residents and businesses, as well as Toro, an ardent supporter of bike
lanes.
''It's clearly better thought−through than what's on the
street now in terms of residents and business, and it's safer for
cyclists and pedestrians,'' she said.
But residents of nearby
streets loudly criticized the plan at the meeting, essentially
replacing the Kent residents and businesses as the aggrieved party.
Their complaints revolve around the truck traffic that would be diverted off Kent, a truck route, by making it one−way.
Under the plan, southbound truck traffic would be diverted onto
Wythe Avenue on N. 14th Street, where Kent becomes one−way. From there,
trucks would go three blocks south to N. 11th Street, whereupon they
would make a right onto an existing truck route on N. 11th Street. They
would then go east on N. 11th to another truck route on Union Avenue.
Residents
of nearby southbound streets were fearful that without the option of
going south on Kent Avenue, trucks would defy the law and use their
streets, which are not truck route.
''Even though the plan is to
divert [truck traffic] across N. 11th Street, by default, the [trucks]
will go down Wythe and Driggs,'' said Nancy Buivid, who lives on Wythe
between S. 1st and S. 2nd Streets. ''There's no way there's enough
enforcement to prevent it.''
A Driggs Avenue resident said:
''Truck routes should be kept on the outskirts of the neighborhood, on
Kent Avenue. The whole idea of the bike lanes was to be 'green,' but
they're encouraging these trucks to go through the neighborhood.''
Toro,
while supportive of the plan, said she sympathized with opponents of
the plan. She said the complaints point to the need for ''serious,
dedicated truck enforcement in our community, which we've been fighting
for for years. That would help a lot.''
DOT officials said that while imperfect, the plan represented the best option.
''Right now we have a situation on Kent Avenue that is not working,'' said Deputy Commissioner David Woloch.
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| נשלח ב-10/6/2009 01:07 |
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נידערמאן האט יעצט געשיקט א טעקסט מעסזעש אז דער עולם [זאליס] זאלן קומען צו די הירינג און די מאסן
א באס שטעלט ער צו פון די הייוועי, די זאליס זאלן זיך אננעמען פאר זיין ריזאנינג
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| נשלח ב-12/6/2009 01:49 |
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Bizarro Zoning Fight in Williamsburg: Housing Advocates Want City to Build Taller and Bigger
http://www.observer.com/2009/real-estate/bizarro-zoning-fight-williamsburg-housing-advocates-want-city-build-taller-and-bigg?page=all
Bizarro Zoning Fight in Williamsburg:
Housing Advocates Want
City to Build Taller and
Bigger
By Reid Pillifant
June 11, 2009 | 12:54 p.m
Opponents of a Brooklyn redevelopment project packed a
Community Board 1 meeting last night in Williamsburg,
drowning out a presentation by the city's Housing Preservation and Development
office, in a battle that could influence City Council primaries in the 33rd and
34th districts this September.
Roughly 50 protesters, armed with signs and a bullhorn, chanted
''Open Process'' and ''Shut It Down'' inside a community room at the Swingin' 60s
Senior Center.
After calling for order several times, board chairman
Vincent Abate—presiding over what would be his last meeting after nearly 30
years on the board—allowed the protest and presentation to continue
simultaneously.
The crowd seemed to feed on the disorder, growing even
louder as a series of HPD representatives tried to outline the proposed plan, which
would rezone approximately 20 acres of land near the border of Broadway and Flushing Avenue at
the borders of Williamsburg,
Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant.
The protesters think that the city plan doesn't maximize the
amount of affordable housing on one of the last, large open parcels in the area.
The city—whose plan enjoys the strong backing of Brooklyn Democratic boss Vito
Lopez, as well as local councilman and city comptroller candidate David
Yassky—is proposing to build eight-story buildings. The protesters want 25-story
buildings spread over 40 acres.
The protesters' vision is very different from the city's
plan in other ways, too, calling for—among other things—pneumatic tubes to
whisk away garbage, a community-owned power utility, and a neighborhood land
trust. A Pratt professor who helped design the plan said last week that "the
general gist of the plan is doable."
The organizers of the protest claim that influential
community groups were left out of the planning process for the site, and that
the process was dictated by Assemblyman Vito Lopez, the head of the Brooklyn Democratic organization.
The dispute has become a lightning rod in the contested race
for the 34th Council district. When CB1 district manager and Council candidate
Gerry Esposito briefly stepped out of the raucous meeting to consult with a
Community Affairs officer from NYPD, some in the crowd jeered.
''Where you going, Gerry?'' hollered Rob Solano, one of the
group's organizers, who later said he had left messages for Mr. Esposito trying
to relocate the meeting in anticipation of the large crowd. Mr. Esposito is
running against incumbent Councilwoman Diana Reyna, who arrived later and
denounced the city's plan.
Board members shifted uncomfortably in their seats during
the uproar, and at least one decamped for the hallway. The chants kept
going—''We Won't Listen'' and ''Transparency''—but HPD soldiered through the
presentation, whether board members could hear them or not.
After the last HPD representative spoke, community board
member Esteban Duran, who co-founded the Broadway Triangle Community Coalition,
which organized the protest, tried to ask a question, but Chairman Abate told
him he was out of order. Mr. Duran yelled questions at the HPD officials, as
the crowd chanted to ''let him speak,'' but because of the contentiousness, HPD
representatives said they were asked to leave before the public testimony.
HPD's presentation included a comparison to the density of
the alternative plan, which HPD determined could have additional negative
environmental effects. Supporters of the city's plan also say the taller
buildings would be out of context with the neighborhood.
After the presentation, the group gathered outside the
community center for an impromptu rally. BTCC supporters handed out copies of a
New York Times article from last week, which suggested that Assemblyman Lopez
and Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio may have tried to suppress opposition to
the plan. Messrs. Duran and Solano had previously belonged to a group called
Churches United, a Catholic housing organization that criticized the Broadway
Triangle plan. The two men were effectively fired from the group at the same
time that Mr. Lopez was trying to prevent passage of an Assembly bill that
would lift the statute of limitations on sex-abuse cases—a bill that could cost
the Catholic church millions of dollars, according to the Times report. Both Mr.
Lopez and the Catholic Church denied the allegations in the article.
Later in the meeting, after most of the protesters had
dispersed, the community board voted to approve the transfer of 640 Broadway to
the United Jewish Organization, one of two groups that was closely involved in
the city's plan for Broadway Triangle. The board approved the transfer over the
objection of Mr. Duran, who said the Broadway address is within the BTCC's
expanded plan.
Councilwoman Reyna arrived just after 10 p.m., to considerable
enthusiasm from the protesters who had remained behind to make public comments.
''I want to say for the record I'm not in favor of the city's plan,'' Ms. Reyna
said to rousing cheers. Ms. Reyna equated the Broadway Triangle proposal with
several undesirable city projects in the area, like a wastewater treatment
plant and a power plant. ''We will have no more uninvited guests to tell us what
we need,'' she said. ''I'm supporting my community over politics.''
However, the Broadway Triangle rezoning—as proposed by
HPD—lies just within the border of the 33rd Council District, where it has
already become an election issue. At a candidate forum last month, the only
candidate to support the city's plan was Stephen Levin, who until recently
served as chief of staff to Assemblyman Lopez.
But the ULURP process is on track for a vote before any new
council member would take office, meaning the crucial opinion is that of the 33rd
District's current councilman, David Yassky, who supports the city's plan.
תוקן על ידי willimoni ב- 12/06/2009 1:46:40
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| נשלח ב-12/6/2009 21:45 |
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Triangle feud grows acute
Triangle feud grows acute
Locals call for more transparency
By Aaron Short
Friday, June 12, 2009 9:24 AM EDT
Department
of Housing Assistant Commissioner Champa Chanda barely finished the
first sentence of her Broadway Triangle rezoning presentation before
more than 100 community residents erupted in repeated chants of ''Open
process!'', commandeering Tuesday night's Community Board One meeting
for nearly an hour.
The episode was the latest in a long and
often contentious battle for control over affordable housing units
within the Broadway Triangle, a 31−acre brownfield site in South
Williamsburg, which began two and a half years ago when the Ridgewood
Bushwick Senior Citizens Organization and United Jewish Organizations
entered into an agreement with city agencies to redevelop the site,
angering a collection of community groups who believed they were
excluded from the negotiation process.
On May 18, the city's
planning board certified the ULURP process for the rezoning of the site
from industrial to residential use, giving the community board 60 days
to approve the proposed rezoning. The ULURP Committee will meet on June
21 and the full board will reconvene at a regularly scheduled meeting
on July 14 to issue their recommendation on the rezoning application.
At
a Broadway Triangle Community Coalition meeting one week ago, coalition
leaders Rob Solano, Juan Ramos, and Esteban Duran urged the 200 members
assembled to attend Tuesday's meeting and voice their opinions during
the public session. So many community members wound up demonstrating
during the meeting that HPD officials were unable to explain their
presentation over the raucous noise of the crowd and left before taking
questions from the audience.
''As a community board we expect to
hear answers to questions directed at business owners and people
applying for liquor licences, but HPD didn't even stay to take answers
from Board members, let alone the public,'' said Duran, a CB 1 member.
''They are blatantly trying to shove this plan down the community's
throat despite there being tremendous opposition.''
Community
activists who convened an impromptu press conference on the steps of
the Swinging Sixties Senior Center (211 Ainslie Street) afterward said
that they were disappointed with the response of community board
leaders and city officials who left the meeting without taking
questions.
''The number one goal was to shut it down. (District
Manager) Gerry Esposito could have had the power to shut it down. It's
up to him to reschedule the meeting,'' said Solano, who wanted CB 1 to
hold the meeting in a larger space to accommodate his activists.. ''As
you can see, no one heard the presentation. For them to walk away, it's
incredible.''
Following the meeting, one HPD official, who did
not identify himself, said, ''Opposition groups sometimes come to
community meetings to voice their displeasure but my understanding was
that this kind of response from the community was unusual.''
Williamsburg
resident Yessenia Alvarez said she attended the meeting because she has
seen many of her neighbors move to East New York due to rising rents
and a lack of affordable housing in South Williamsburg.
''The
ones who stayed live with multiple family members in one apartment,''
said Alvarez. ''My school, PS 19, used to have 1,000 students. Now we
only have 400.''
Other
residents, such as Larry Fernandez, a teacher at Automotive High
School, was more sympathetic to the rezoning action and supported the
city's plan.
''I thought it was unfortunate those who wanted to
hear the proposal couldn't hear it,'' said Fernandez. ''I'll keep
attending meetings to learn who has a better detailed plan.''
Councilmember Diana Reyna, who arrived several hours after the demonstrators stalled the meeting, already has her mind made up.
''I
want to state for the record, I am not for the city's plan,'' said
Reyna. ''Whoever does not want me here can vote me out but you will not
throw me out. I am supporting my community first before politics.''
http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2009/06/12/williamsburg_courier/news/williamsburg_courier_newsaatzeht06112009.txt
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| נשלח ב-17/6/2009 19:28 |
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שימעלע ווייזער זאגט פאר די גוים NO עס איז נישטא קיין געלט פאר ענקערע פלענער
http://greenpointstar.com/pages/full_story?page_label=home_top_stories_news&id=2730859-Lost+in+the+Broadway+Triangle+-&article-Lost%20in%20the%20Broadway%20Triangle%20-%20=&widget=push&instance=home_news_right&open=&
Lost in the Broadway Triangle
by Daniel Bush
06.16.09 - 07:39 am
City plans to rezone the Broadway Triangle area
were met with unusually fierce protests last week by community groups,
who allege the city has colluded with powerful private interests to
back a plan without enough affordable housing.
The
neighborhoods of Williamsburg, Bushwick, and Bedford-Stuyvesant all
converge on the 50-acre area site, known as the Broadway Triangle,
which is bounded roughly by Broadway and Union and Flushing avenues.
Redevelopment
of the site has proved especially tricky for the city because it sits
at the intersection of three diverse neighborhoods with large
low-income populations in need of more jobs and affordable housing.
The
years-long debate over how to best develop the site - a discussion that
has stoked racial and socioeconomic divisiveness between the city and
African-American, Latino, and Hasidic communities who contend their
voices have been ignored - came to a head at the June 10th Community
Board 1 meeting where the city presented its latest plans for the
Broadway Triangle.
In their presentation, city representatives
from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD)
outlined plans for a low-density rezoning of the area that would
accommodate approximately 1,900 apartments, 48 percent of which HPD
expects will be set aside as affordable housing.
Opponents of
the plan, led by members of the Broadway Triangle Community Coalition
(BTCC), a coalition of 40 organizations, consistently interrupted the
city's presentation with loud chants of protest that made the
presentation all but inaudible to community board members being briefed
on the matter.
Afterwards, protesters spilled out of the
Swinging Sixties Senior Center, where the meeting was held, onto
Ainslie Street, where they continued demonstrating for over an hour.
''We
refuse to go forward with [the city's] plan that really doesn't
understand what our people need,'' said Juan Ramos, BTCC's chairperson.
BTCC
is lobbying for an alternative rezone that would allow for up to 4,800
units, with a 75 percent affordable housing component that Ramos said
would best serve the residents in the Broadway Triangle area.
''Our plan can represent something that's truly for the people,'' Ramos said.
Daisey
Fermin, who lives in South Williamsburg, echoed many angry residents
when she said the city has ignored their input in the process of
planning a rezoning plan that will not reflect the area's affordable
housing shortage.
''We're being driven out by gentrification,''
said Fermin. ''The city's plan is not going to give fair housing for
low-income people.''
Residents like Fermin fear HPD's plan would
further speed the gentrification of North Brooklyn, and parts of
Central Brooklyn, that has resulted in higher rents forcing thousands
of longtime residents to move out of their neighborhoods.
Others,
including Marty Needleman, BTCC's attorney, argued that the city
brazenly excluded many community organizations in favor of working
closely with two groups - the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens
Council and United Jewish Organizations - that would control any new
affordable housing built in the area.
Supporters of the rezone
said despite obvious community opposition the city's plan still
represents the best redevelopment option for Broadway Triangle.
''Broadway
Triangle has been an eyesore as long as I can remember,'' said Richard
Mazur, an affordable housing advocate and executive director of the
North Brooklyn Development Corporation, which does not have a stake in
the project. ''I think something should get started now.''
Mazur
said over the years plenty of development projects in the area have
stalled or never materialized due to fighting between the city, private
organizations, and developers over crafting a perfect plan. In this
case he said the city's plan, not BTCC's, is more likely to be
realized.
''It's a smaller hill to climb,'' Mazur said.
CB1
members had mixed feelings, though many were more frustrated than
anything that the raucous protesting made it hard to concentrate on the
city's presentation. CB1 member Simon Weiser said the city's plan
seemed practical.
''There's no money for the other plan,'' Weiser said, referring to BTCC's alternative proposal. ''It doesn't make any sense.''
Yenfri
Gomez, another board member, said the community board's efforts to
better understand the city's proposal were stifled by the jeering
protesters, who brought the meeting to a standstill on several
occasions, and the fact that HPD representatives left before CB1
members could ask them any questions.
''If we couldn't ask
questions, what was the point of presenting?'' said Gomez. ''We're not
against development, we just want development that will be better [for
the community].''
The confusion notwithstanding, CB1 now has two
months to review the city presentation, which formally opened the
Uniformed Land Use Review Process (ULURP). CB1 must vote on the project
later this summer.
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| נשלח ב-17/6/2009 19:52 |
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א בקשה צו אלע שרייבער, ווען איר ברענגט א לאנגע ארטיקעל אין ענגליש ביטע שרייבט אין יודיש א תמצית וואס דארט שטייט
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| מנהל לחץ כאן לנעילת האשכול
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