Gowanus Confidential! We Foiled Councilman Brad Lander's Correspondence About The Rezoning

Who, me?

Councilman Brad Lander of the 39th Council District

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

by New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) students

During the past few years, I have attended many of the public meetings pertaining to the proposed rezoning of the area around the Gowanus Canal. Those include the Bridging Gowanus community meetings hosted by our Council Member Brad Lander together with Council Member Stephen Levin and other elected representatives, which were a sham in my book.

The more Brad Lander tried to pretend that he would make sure that "plans for growth [for Gowanus] are grounded fully in the public interest, and will achieve our shared goals", the more it appeared to the community that the rezoning was a huge giveaway to developers and that certain organizations had a seat at Brad's table to influence the rezoning long before Bridging Gowanus started.

Increasingly, I was curious to see what was being discussed about the proposed Gowanus rezoning  between our elected officials and government figures...and a very specific developer: Jared Kushner

So, like any good citizen and community activist, I worked with some friends to request Brad Lander's email correspondence pertaining to the Gowanus rezoning under the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL).  And for good measure, we foiled some more of our elected officials and government figures.

The requests were sent in May 2019. In all, we foiled the email correspondence pertaining to the rezoning of:

Councilmember Brad Lander***
Catherine Zinnel , Brad Lander's former Deputy Chief of Staff 

Rachel Goodman, Brad Lander's Chief Of Staff
Councilmember Steve Levin
Benjamin Solotaire, Steve Levin's North Brooklyn Community Organizer
NYC Department of City Planning***(partial)
Winston von Engel, Director, NYC DCP Brooklyn Office***(partial)
Jonathan Keller, NYC DCP in charge of Gowanus rezoning
Community Board 6
Mike Racioppo CB6 manager

Here is the specific FOIL request that was sent out:

To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the New York State Freedom of Information Law (1977 N.Y. Laws ch. 933), I hereby request the following records:
1. Correspondence between ........... and each of the following individuals, officials, agencies, and companies regarding the proposed Gowanus rezoning and regarding the Gowanus Places Study:
Mayor DeBlasio
Alicia Glen, Former Deputy Mayor under deBlasio
Councilmember Brad Lander
Brad Lander (private citizen, private email)
Councilmember Steve Levin
Steve Levin (private citizen, private email)
Jonathan Butler NYC DCP
Winston Von Engel NYC DCP
Peter Fleming CB6 Chair
Mark Shames CB6 Land Use Chair
Mike Racioppo CB6 Manager
Salvatore "Buddy" Scotto, Long Time proponent of a Gowanus rezoning
Debra Scotto CB6 Member
Michelle de La Uz, City Planning Commissioner/ Executive Director, Fifth Avenue Committee
Andrea Parker, Executive Director, Gowanus Conservancy
Sabine Aronowsky, Fifth Avenue Committee

and

2. Any correspondence between Catherine Zinnel of Council Member Brad Lander's office and each of the following individuals a) regarding the proposed Gowanus rezoning, b) regarding the Gowanus Places Study, and c) regarding Brooklyn properties at 169 Third Street, 175-185 Third Street, and 201-225 Third Street.
Jared Kushner
SL Green
Kushner Companies
LIVWRK, Kushner's original partners for Gowanus project
Asher Abehsera, founder of  Livwrk
Aaron Lemma, co-founder of  Livwrk
Robert Schiffer, (Managing Director at SL Green)
Aby Rosen (developer, buyer of former Kushner site)
RFR Realty (Aby Rosen's development firm)

Why Jared Kushner and his associates? Because the developer and son-in-law of President Trump purchased one of the largest sites along the Gowanus in 2014. This prompted Councilman Brad Lander to declare on WNYC in 2017 that it would feel wrong to vote for the rezoning if it meant "enriching the White House senior adviser while he’s got authority over the canal. That feels ethically tainted in a way I don’t see how I could do and how I could ask my colleagues to do."

This seems like a strange statement from Lander,  since we kept on hearing that Lander was trying to convince other property owners on the same block as Kushner's property at 3rd Avenue and 3rd Street to join forces to spot-rezone the entire block to residential ahead of the larger rezoning.. Obviously, things were taking too long for Kushner Companies

In 2017, Kushner Companies and SL Green Realty sold their interest to Aby Rosen's development company RFR Realty. We found email correspondence between the Department of City Planning and a real estate law firm hired by RFR..  Surely it seems plausible that there may have been an exchange of emails between Kushner Companies, RFR and Brad Lander over the years..

After several delays and numerous requests for updates, just a few foil requests came back 7 months later. We did receive the emails of Lander and his former aid, Catherine Zinnel, as well as the emails of Levin staffer Ben Solotaire. We only received partial documents from City Planning.
Community Board 6 and its manager Mike Racioppo ignored our Foil request altogether. We have to see what to do about that with the state's Committee on Open Government.

What emerged...amidst lots of redaction...was very interesting.

Heavily redacted email between Brad Lander and New York City Hall 5/25/2018

The Lander emails from his official Council account did not say much. In fact, there really were not many emails included in the 630 page file sent to us, as many of the pages contained unnecessary printed presentations by the Fifth Avenue Committee and the Gowanus Conservancy, sometimes twice or three times.  The lack of emails seemed strange given how long and intimately Lander has been pushing the Gowanus rezoning. How could there not be far more emails about this massive public project that he has been advancing for years?  

And another question arose as we compared the Lander emails to those of his former staff member Catherine Zinnel and  those of the Department of City Planning.

While we had FOILED the same topics for everyone, the email records returned for Zinnel and DCP were more extensive and contained many additional emails not contained in the Lander email returns.

As we perused these emails, we began to notice a pattern. Lander's staffer (and often Council Member Levin staffer Ben Solotaire) would be in regular communication with a number of local organizations discussing the proposed Gowanus rezoning. In particular, Michelle de La Uz of the Fifth Avenue Committee and Andrea Parker from the Gowanus Conservancy seemed to have quite a correspondence and many meetings with our elected officials.

The Gowanus Conservancy's mission is to facilitate "the development of a resilient, vibrant, open space network centered on the Gowanus Canal."  Though it appears to be an environmental grassroots organization, the Conservancy has accepted money from Gowanus developers and has positioned itself to become the steward of the public waterfront parkland that developers will have to create as part of the rezoning.

And of course, Brad Lander previously served as Executive Director of the Fifth Avenue Committee from 1993 to 2003. He has pushed for a Gowanus Rezoning since his time at FAC, so it is not surprising that he continues to have a close relationship with this not-for profit organization. In addition, FAC is one of the developers of Gowanus Green, the large development planned for Public Place that requires the rezoning to take place in order to proceed
Notice the word 'confidential' in the subject line of the email below.

The emails as a whole show that FAC, GCC and their joint Gowanus Neighborhood Coalition For Justice  are in lockstep with Lander, doing his bidding lest they lose their funding source. 
One noteworthy exception is highlighted below. It shows Brad Lander complaining to De La Uz about a quote by her staff in a City Limit article, which he  obviously disagreed with.

Emails, like the one below show that for years, the Fifth Avenue Committee had privileged seats at the table with Council Members Lander and Levin, as well as with City Planning to discuss Gowanus.

Another question is: Has Brad Lander evaded Public Records Laws to push the Gowanus Rezoning?

Most of the documents block out Brad Lander's email address.  This seems strange since his address surely is part of the public record. Even stranger is that some other correspondence only shows his address blocked out on a long list of email addresses. Given the context, the only email address that would make sense there, as the email chains hashed through various strategies about the proposed rezoning....is Brad Lander's personal email.

Below is an email from the Brooklyn office of the Department of City Planning addressed to Lander's personal Gmail account. (Note that we crossed out Lander's Gmail account in blue since we believe his personal email was left un-redacted by mistake)

And then there is this one, sent by Catherine Zinnel from a .com address to brad, also at a .com address. It is likely that both used www.landerfornyc.com, Lander's campaign web site. Note that she nevertheless uses her official council staffer title in the signature block of her email.

It is very clear from the FOIL documents received, that Lander was involved in many aspects of strategy and negotiation regarding the proposed rezoning. For years now, the Fifth Avenue Committee has enjoyed privileged, special access to the Council Members, their staff members, and the Department of City Planning. It is fair to say that FAC had an outsize role in planning a rezoning that: a) they would benefit from as private developers of the Public Place site, and b) they would have a hand in getting through because one of their leaders is on the City Planning Commission.

On more than one occasion, Lander tried doing so outside the confines of his official email account.

This obviously raises more questions: What other groups or developers did Lander meet with over the years to discuss Gowanus? What deals were cut? What has Brad Lander been doing with his official position that he has worked to keep from the public eye? What else don't we know that is hidden in Brad Lander's personal emails - that will nevertheless have a major impact on thousands of people if the proposed Gowanus rezoning goes through? 

Before we embark on this massive rezoning, we should know the answers to all these questions, no?

We are still working through the reams of FoIL documents ourselves, but please email me if you would like to see the entire trove for yourself.

Additional reading:

Feel Betrayed By Councilman Brad Lander Yet Regarding The Proposed Gowanus Rezoning? We Do!

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

Landersville: Councilman Brad Lander Is Still Promising A Gowanus Rezoning That He Can't Possibly Deliver

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Gowanus Politics: A Panel Discussion On Landersville You May Want To Attend

A reader just made me aware of a panel discussion held by School of Constructed Environments at Parsons School of Design this coming Thursday in Manhattan entitled Gowanus Politics; Community Approaches To Designing Sustainable and Equitable Cities .

We are posting it here to encourage Gowanus residents to attend. It behooves all  of us to make sure that such discussions on the proposed up-zoning do not get highjacked by Councilman Brad Lander and by organizations that claim to speak for the community, especially because some of them receive money from New York City and from developers. 

Here is a description of the event:
The pressure is on – massive population displacement is forcing cities to develop areas that are scarred by 19th and 20th century industry, have insufficient infrastructure, or are at risk with the rapid environmental changes wrought by global warming. If we want to create sustainable and equitable development amongst these conditions, Designers must get political. An Architect, a Lighting Designer, an Activist, an Environmental Steward, and a Politician, present ongoing work, both realized and theoretical, happening in Gowanus Brooklyn, showing the potential for community-based and cross-disciplinary approaches to design and planning.

Speakers: Andrea Parker (Executive Director of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy), Catherine Zinnel Deputy Chief of Staff, New York City Council Member Brad Lander,  David Briggs (Founder Gowanus By Design / Principal at Loci Architecture), Zac Martin (Founder of Trellis), Alexandra Pappas-Kalber (Part-time Faculty MFA Lighting Design / Principal at Sighte Studio)

Host: Francesca Bastianini (Part Time faculty, MFA Lighting Design / Principal at Sighte Studio)

Could Councilmember Lander and the organizations mentioned above still argue that the upzoning "offers a potential community-based approach to design and planning? "

Those in the community, who spent hours at Lander's Bridging Gowanus sessions, may beg to differ.

Bridging Gowanus was advertised as "a community planning process to shape a sustainable, livable, and inclusive future for the Gowanus neighborhood-in the face of ongoing change, the Superfund clean-up, and real estate pressure."

Instead, it has now become clear that New York City's Gowanus Draft Zoning Proposal, which claims to have incorporated the community's wishes into account, is a big fat lie and a give-away to developers.

Nothing in the proposed upzoning guarantees us new schools, better infrastructure,  studios for artists,  or, most importantly, environmental remediation that would adequately address the fact that the City has no plans to capture the additional Combined Sewer Overflow that will  continue to flow into the Gowanus Canal after the rezoning.

Neither does the plan address the ever worsening floods due to climate change  which have caused billion dollar disasters in coastal cities  like New York.

Gowanus Politics; Community Approaches To Designing Sustainable and Equitable Cities 

THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019 AT 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM 

2 West 13th Street, Sky Room, L12012 West 13th Street, 10011, 12th floor

Additional reading:

Feel Betrayed By Councilman Brad Lander Yet Regarding The Proposed Gowanus Rezoning? We Do!

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

Same As It Ever Was In Gowanus: It Is Clear That New York City Plans To Allow New Housing First, Deal With Extra Sewage Later. 

Read more

How Shameful! Without Public Announcement, Councilmember Lander 'Stepping Up' Gowanus Community Planning Process

Councilman Brad Lander at one of the Bridging Gowanus meetings, promising an 'inclusive and transparent process"

Bridging Gowanus Study Area

Unbeknown to most Gowanus residents and business owners, Councilman Brad Lander has recently
"stepped up a handful of meetings with local leaders in the Gowanus neighborhood to talk with them about next steps in the Bridging Gowanus community planning process," according to Catherine Zinnel, his Deputy Chief of Staff.

I found out about Bridging Gowanus' next steps by pure coincidence when someone whose organization had been invited by Lander's office mentioned a meeting on June 16th with the  representatives from the NYC Department of City Planning.  Obviously, the person thought he had committed a gaffe, since as soon as the words were spoken, he tried to back paddle and asked me repeatedly, in a strong tone, not to call Brad Lander's office to find out more.

Obviously, that person does not know me very well.

That same evening, I reached out to Ms. Zinnel to inquire about the meeting.  She acknowledged that Gowanus Canal Conservancy and Gowanus by Design 'among others' would be attending together with City Planning staff.  

The purpose for the gathering, according to Zinnel, was to discuss the next steps in the Bridging Gowanus community planning process and to talk about what progress "has been made over the past 18 months on some of the recommendations" made by the community during previous Bridging Gowanus meetings.
When asked to provide a complete list of attendees, Zinnel did not oblige, even after the meeting.***
( From another source, I learned that, along with NYC Department of City Planning, representatives of Gowanus Canal Conservancy, Gowanus Dredgers, Gowanus by Design, Build It Green, and the LES Ecology Center had received an invitation.)

Why is any of this important?
Of course, our Councilman can have meetings with whomever he chooses but it should be part of the public record so there is no suspicion about motives.  We are talking here about the overall rezoning of the Gowanus neighborhood and the meetings associated with this re-zoning should be made public.

When Councilman Lander, together with several other local elected officials, launched Bridging Gowanus, a conversation "about a shared, sustainable vision for the Gowanus" in August 2013, he promised the community a "broad-based, inclusive, transparent and robust process," and vowed "to make sure that the communities around the Canal could take the lead in identifying the values that will shape future actions."

That first Gowanus Planning kick-off meeting held on August 5, 2013, didn't seem so inclusive to some. Though various stakeholders and representatives from local organizations had been invited, the meeting was not announced to the public, not posted in any way on the internet, not open to the general public and was closed to the press.

Councilman Brad Lander, when faced with the criticism in the press, wrote a letter to the editor of the Brooklyn Paper stating that the meeting 'was not secret' and promised that Bridging Gowanus would
"be an effort to open up the planning process so that community residents, business people, and community groups can work together to shape a vision for the area around the Gowanus Canal rather than have decisions made by developers, the city, or by elected officials."

Subsequent Bridging Gowanus meetings held throughout 2014 were indeed publicized and well attended.  However,  the meetings were eerily controlled and orchestrated by Pratt Center for Community Development, which had been hired by Lander as consultant in charge of running the planning process.

Participants were divided amongst several tables where Pratt Center moderators seemed to lead the conversation according to a carefully scripted plan that led to a pre-determined outcome,  It all seemed designed to give the appearance of community input rather than to actually achieve it.

In November 2014, Pratt Center for Community Development presented the findings of the "Bridging Gowanus." These findings, the community was told, would help develop a neighborhood framework for "the infrastructure and land use plan needed for a safe, vibrant and sustainable Gowanus." The 'shared values' reflected in the framework are "going to hopefully guide New York City Planning and the De Blasio Administration when a re-zoning plan for Gowanus will be put forth."

Though groups and organizations like the Fifth Avenue Committee, Gowanus Alliance, Gowanus Dredgers, and Wyckoff Gardens Tenants Association expressed their approval of the framework, quite a few local residents objected to the assertion by Pratt and Councilman Lander that many in Gowanus were open to high rises from 8 to 18 stories to achieve the goals set forth by Bridging Gowanus.
The density had been determined by a rather misleading exercise given to residents at the public meeting in June which asked residents to add two stories to a four story building for every amenity, like school, park or art space, that would be added to the neighborhood. Those who checked off every amenity ended up with residential buildings up to 18 stories high.

To Lander, it was all a trade off for providing more parkland, more schools, more affordable housing and protection of manufacturing zones in Gowanus.

"We did ask people to think hard of the tradeoffs that are necessary," Brad Lander commented. "These kinds of investments and achieving the level of preservation we just talked about costs a lot of money."

It is interesting to note that 'Bridging Gowanus' is not the first time the community was asked to envision the future of the neighborhood. Back in 2007, Pratt Center helped convene Gowanus Summit, "a coalition of civic, housing and community development, manufacturing, and labor groups to establish ground rules for development around the Gowanus Canal."
The summit "aimed to ensure that new development meets the needs of area residents and sets high standards for local quality of life."
Even more interesting, Brad Lander was the director for Pratt Center for Community Development in 2007.

Shortly afterwards, in May 2008, while Bill de Blasio was our councilman, the New York City Department of City Planning released its Gowanus Canal Corridor Draft Zoning Proposal The agency was ready to push a major re-zoning through, though there was much opposition from the community.
That re-zoning effort was eventually put on hold after the Environmental Protection Agency declared the Gowanus Canal a Superfund in 2009.

The prospect of a re-zoning has caused developers to circle around the neighborhood like sharks in a feeding frenzy. Since 2008, most of the land around the Gowanus Canal has been snapped up in a veritable gold rush.  But before that land is re-zoned from manufacturing to residential, they can't start building their luxury condos.
Developers are probably calling our elected officials on a regular basis to apply pressure (or, perhaps to host fundraisers and contribute to campaigns).

Which brings me back to last Thursday's meeting.
After all his promises and assurances that the Bridging Gowanus process and subsequent re-zoning will be transparent and inclusive, Councilman Brad Lander should know better than to 'step up' the process without announcing it to the community.
Shame on him.


***As of this morning, Catheribe Zinnel of Lander's office had not provided the requested attendance list for last Thursday's meeting.  Nor did she provide a list of attendees of another 'Bridging Gowanus Part 2' meeting that took place earlier on Thursday.

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