We're on the Radio

In case you missed it on WNYC this morning, I took a walk with Matthew Scheurman around Williamsburg to show the consequences of the 2005 rezoning. Crowded L-trains, new developments, and missing parks are prominently featured in the story.

Tenants Rights Funds Cut By City

Unfortunately, the money that the City promised the community to pay for tenant anti-displacement programs after the 2005 rezoning is being cut. NAG is one of seven groups in an affordable housing collaborative serving Greenpoint and Williamsburg that stand to lose a significant chunk of funds. We use that money to pay for staff that work to help people stay in their homes. Without it, we will have to let staff go.

These cuts are an outrageous reneging on promises that the City made during the rezoning. We don't have our waterfront parks that were promised and now we're about to lose the tenant services that are supposed to be mitigating displacement that the City's own studies said had to be mitigated.

More information:
Brooklyn Paper
NY Daily News

Reminder: Contextual Rezoning of Greenpoint & Williamsburg Info Meeting Tonight and Tomorrow

The proposal covers approximately 175 blocks in Greenpoint and central Williamsburg. The Rezoning is meant to prevent new out-of-scale development by establishing height limits and to create opportunities for affordable housing through the inclusionary housing program.

There will be two meetings where Department of City Planning staff will present the zoning proposal and answer questions from the public.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008, 6:30 pm, held at Swinging 60's Senior Center--211 Ainslie Street, Brooklyn, New York 11211 (corner of Manhattan Avenue, Williamsburg).

Wednesday, October 29, 2008, 6:30pm, held at the Capital One Bank's downstairs meeting room (Greenpoint-Savings Bank Building)-- 807 Manhattan Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11222 (please use the Calyer Street side entrance, between Manhattan Avenue & Lorimer Street, Greenpoint).

Saving Industrial Jobs in North Brooklyn

Ever since the 197-a plan was first formed in the early-1990s, NAG has been an advocate for keeping our blue-collar industrial base in North Brooklyn. Manufacturing jobs, such as wood shops, metal working, and furniture, pay far better than restaurant or retail jobs and are twice as likely to offer health coverage. There are still about 30,000 industrial jobs in Community Board 1.

As part of the 2005 rezoning, the City agreed to protect 20-some blocks around the Bushwick Inlet and keep them zoned for manufacturing. The problem is that the current zoning allows hotels, certain kinds of superstores, and large entertainment uses without any approval beyond a construction permit. All of these uses can pay higher rent, but typically pay lower wages than an industrial operation would.

Now we are seeing these uses encroach into the Industrial Business Zones (nightclubs, multiple bowling alleys, hotels, office condos) and taking space that otherwise would have been used for manufacturing jobs (In fact, the space the newest bowling alley is moving into could have helped solve the expansion problem that Brooklyn Brewery is having).

None of this is meant to hate on those who like to bowl, dance, go to concerts, stay in hotels, or possibly find a home for their non-industrial business. But there are appropriate places to put such uses, and the industrial zones of the neighborhood have been shrinking rapidly. As the neighborhood continues to develop, we'll need places for lower rent uses that have important local economic benefits.

Picture: Aurora Lampworks on North 11th Street

Related Links:
Gowanus Lounge summarizes neatly what the 197-a plan is about
The East Williamsburg Valley Industrial Development Corp. (EWVIDCO) manages the two local Industrial Business Zones
Get your citywide industrial retention on with NYIRN