Dear Brad Lander: Give Us A Democratic Vote On the Gowanus Rezoning

Councilman Brad Lander at the first 39th Council District Participatory Budget Assembly in 2011.

Councilman Brad Lander at a Gowanus Planning meeting in 2014

3D model of a fully built-out Gowanus after rezoning

by New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) students

This week in the 39th Council District, thousands of area residents as young as 11 years old cast their votes to fund neighborhood projects as part of Participatory Budgeting, a "democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget."

In all, local citizens can have a choice in how $50,000 of expense projects and $1.5 million in capital projects gets spent in our neighborhoods.

Whether one votes for diaper changing stations for nine parks and playgrounds, bilingual mental health First Aid training in Kensington, a down payment for an elevator at 7th Ave F/G Station, a Prospect Park sidewalk at Lichfield Villa for pedestrian safety, or a new all-gender bathrooms and water fountains, the projects are certainly all worthwhile.

Councilmember Brad Lander was one of the first New York City Council members to embrace Participatory Budgeting, Our 39th Council District was one of four to introduce it in New York in 2011.

Back then, Lander told the community:
"This is real grass-roots democracy. We are trying something new. This is a way to work together, identify what your community needs and turn the ideas into real projects."
Lander should be applauded for supporting this democratic process, giving residents an opportunity to shape their community.

However, he is not allowing the community to vote on a much more important issue that will reshape a big swath of his district, one that will have a huge impact on Gowanus, Boerum Hill, Park Slope, Carroll Gardens and even Cobble Hill: the massive up-zoning of Gowanus by the Department of City Planning.

Councilman Lander kicked off Bridging Gowanus, his "community planning process to shape a sustainable, livable, and inclusive future for the Gowanus neighborhood" with stakeholders in August 2013. Hundreds of people took part in the process in subsequent years,

Right from the start, there was skepticism that the Bridging Gowanus process could truly impact the resulting rezoning by the City. How could we, as a community, make sure that our wishes and suggestions would be reflected in the finished product?

Several stakeholders asked Lander directly at that first meeting in 2013 (and subsequently) for a community vote at the end of the process. Making sure that we got the rezoning right by allowing residents a final vote seemed 'democratic.'
Lander's answer was a categorical "NO".

As many suspected, New York City's upzoning of Gowanus, the densest rezoning currently proposed in the City, guarantees none of the things the community had asked for.
-a sustainable , resilient, healthy community 

-a clean Gowanus Canal
-investments in new parks, new schools, and public transit
-sustain and strengthen Gowanus' manufacturing community
-keep Gowanus creative and support the existing artist community.
-keep Gowanus affordable for current, as well as future residents.

That is, sadly, not how planning happens in New York. Brad Lander knew that right from the start. He was also aware that the Department of City Planning did not have the tools in its toolbox to create a unique rezoning, respectful of Gowanus' unique character and sensible to the area's plethora of environmental challenges.

That's what made Lander's Bridging Gowanus such a sham right from the beginning. This is the same technique which is being used all over the city to convince citizens that they have a say in the future shape of our city and is then used to claim that the community supports the resulting proposal which merely pays lip service to the citizen's concerns.

So, let us ask Lander for a DEMOCRATIC COMMUNITY VOTE ON THE GOWANUS REZONING before the official Uniform Land Use Review (ULURP) begins.

Lander claims that his track record shows that "we can strengthen our democracy, make government work better, and build a city that reflects our values."

Let's take him by his word. After all, the Gowanus upzoning is one of the most consequential issue to ever face the 39th Council District.

Please leave a comment and add your voice, email Brad Lander at lander@council.nyc.gov and while you are at it, demand the same of Brooklyn Borough President at askeric@brooklynbp.nyc.gov.
And if you plan on voting at one of the Participatory Budget poling places this week-end, ask his staff directly.

"DEAR BRAD, I AM ONE OF YOUR CONSTITUENTS AND 

I DEMAND A DEMOCRATIC COMMUNITY VOTE ON THE GOWANUS REZONING."

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Behold Landersville!: What Gowanus May Soon Look Like If The Neighborhood Rezoning Becomes Reality

3D image of Gowanus, 2019

photo creditL googlemaps

3D model of a fully built-out Gowanus after rezoning

by New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) students

Councilman Brad Lander at a Gowanus Planning meeting in 2014

The New York City Department of City Planning (DCP) returned to Community Board 6's Land Use Committee last night to respond to a list of questions that had been sent to the agency by the committee in regards to the Gowanus Draft Zoning Proposal.

We will let you watch the video of the meeting for yourself, since DCP threw a lot of figures around in regards to affordable housing, the area's median income and how many units and new residents the Gowanus upzoning will generate.
(Around 18,000 new residents, 8,200 new units 3,000 (or 37%) of which would be permanently affordable to low- and moderate-income families when it is all built out.)

At the meeting a 3D model of what the Gowanus Corridor could look like in just a few years if the rezoning goes through was distributed.  The model was developed by New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) students and though it may not be entirely accurate because it assumes that developers and land owners will take advantage of every allowable buildable square footage, it is a sobering look at what we may be facing.

We should suppose that the neighborhood will be fully built out in just a few years.  Pretending otherwise and not planning for that eventuality would just be delusional.

Councilman Brad Lander seems to fully back the plan, though he admits that much work still needs to be done. In a letter sent to his constituents just yesterday, he asks local residents to 'keep an open mind",  despite the fact that  "not too many people are excited about new buildings at heights taller than the surrounding brownstones." 

Lander does acknowledge the unique environmental issues in Gowanus. "We’ve got a special obligation to pay attention to environmental issues, around a Superfund site that flooded during Hurricane Sandy. That means buildings and a waterfront designed with long-term sea-level rise in mind, and that also reduce energy use, auto-dependence, and combined sewer overflows (CSO) into the canal."

However, the fact remains that our Councilman is pushing to:

- up-zone a FEMA Mandatory Evacuation Flood Zone A

-is willing to bring 18,000 more residents to Gowanus AHEAD of the EPA Superfund Clean-up of the toxic Gowanus Canal 

-and ahead of the City building ADEQUATE retention tanks to keep raw sewage of thousands of additional toilets out of the canal. 

For Lander, the creation of affordable housing seems to trump some of these issues:

"Gowanus would be the first “mandatory inclusionary housing” (MIH) neighborhood re-zoning proposed for a whiter, wealthier neighborhood, where there’s relatively little risk of displacement. So we have the opportunity to create a real model for an integrated neighborhood, with diverse schools, and a vibrant community life, right here in the middle of Brownstone Brooklyn."

Call us idealistic, but regardless of one's income and ability to pay rent, shouldn't the first concern be for the health of current and future residents? Neither Lander, nor NYC DCP, or even NYC DEP can currently assure us that living next to an open sewer or next to a Superfund site like the Goawnus Canal is currently safe.

Let's call this new vision for Gowanus "Landersville", since we should hold him ultimately responsible for what happens here next.

Below is a video of last night's CB6 Land Use Committee meeting.  The NYC DCP's portion begins at  1:07.   (Yours truly asks a question starts at 1:54:15)

Last night's CB6 Land Use Committee meeting.

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