BROOKLYN, N.Y. (PIX11) -- The New York City Economic Development Corporation is promising a new Brooklyn Marine Terminal that will be more modern, and cleaner, and that it would reduce less truck traffic and create more jobs.
But residents are saying their voices are not being heard.
“The majority of the people know this is bad!” shouted a Red Hook resident, in a fiery meeting with the New York City Economic Development Corporation over the re-development of the Brooklyn Marine Terminal. One of the major disagreements, building new housing units. Most of them are at regular market prices.
“We are having an affordable housing crisis, so we don’t need more luxury condos,” said Carolina Salguero, President of Portside New York.
According to the EDC one of the reasons the 122 acres of land was transferred from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to them in the spring of 2024 was to tackle the deteriorating conditions of the site. And that the housing proposal is to pay for the estimated 1.5 billion-dollar- investment needed to upgrade the terminal.
“Roughly 8600 units of housing but it includes 25% affordable housing, so that is a significant amount of affordable housing that will be delivered from this neighborhood,” said Nathan Gray, Vice President of Development at New York City Economic Development Corporation.
Karen Blandon currently benefits from affordable housing; she has lived in Red Hook since she was 19 years old. She worries about the future changes impacting low-income families.
“It breaks my heart to see young people who want to live in New York, born and raised in New York, that end up in the streets because there is no place for them to go that they can afford,” said Blandon.
But for Will Rivera, who at the moment is working on the upgrades of an affordable housing complex here in this neighborhood, the re-development project is something he is in favor of, only if union workers like him would benefit from it.
“What a lot of owners like to do, they want to build nonunion so that they can save money, so we want to know because, with a job of this size, it can give employment to a lot of people in the union,” stated Rivera.
On the other hand, residents of these communities also argue that the planning process is moving too fast and that their ideas and what concerns them are not being taken into consideration.
“Other concerns putting housing in a flood zone. Putting housing in a place where the land is subsiding already,” said Salguero.
“Traffic that is going to be brought to a community that doesn’t have service to support it,” added Anastasia Schepers.
The EDC says however, “We have engaged 2700 people to be able to reflect back what we have heard on the engagement, so I think people are passionate about it because they love their neighborhood,” concluded Gray.
The task force is expected to vote on a final plan on April 11.
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