Opinion: EDC’s Plan for Red Hook is a Boon for Developers

The obstacle with EDC s plan is that largest part Red Hook residents were never given an opportunity to have in-depth discussions backed by independent technical research and assistance about the future of the society City and state bureaucrats announcing plans to redevelop Red Hook s Brooklyn Marine Terminal last year Caroline Rubinstein-Willis Mayoral Photography Office The City s Economic Growth Corporation an agency under Mayor Eric Adams office in the last few days issued a plan to redevelop Brooklyn s Red Hook waterfront with majority market-rate housing while purportedly stabilizing the limited port facilities that are left there That plan has met with a good deal of skepticism and outright opposition from Red Hook residents and chosen key elected authorities The complication with EDC s plan is that the bulk Red Hook residents were never given an opportunity to have in-depth discussions backed by independent technical research and assistance about the future of the public As a consequence the mayor s plan if implemented may very well inflate economic and racial inequalities stimulate more upscale rise and displace more people than it is able to provide housing for I know this because in over two decades ago I was a senior planner with the Brooklyn Office of the City Planning Department and main advisor to Locality Board as it completed the neighborhood s first district plan Red Hook A Plan for Region Regeneration one of the first group plans that went on to be approved by the City Planning Commission I worked closely for almost two years with Region Board and its appointed subcommittee that included residents nonprofits and business representatives Among the various neighborhood conditions that residents then saw as problematic were lack of inhabitants access to the waterfront and the racial and class divisions partially corresponding to the divides between masses housing and other renters and homeowners It is clear that these divides still exist It is also clear to me that EDC s plan would only exacerbate these historic divisions First of all it would create a new segregated enclave of mostly upscale private housing on the waterfront Secondly it would spur additional speculative land value increases that will spark demand for even more private housing displace tenants and further isolate other commercial waterfront uses and general housing Third it proposes to encourage limited waterfront commercial advance without solid solutions to the growing problems of last-mile deliveries traffic congestion waste management and access to general transit I strongly urge residents business owners Region Board and all elected personnel including those who will soon take office to stop EDC s rush towards approval of the plan The next city administration should make a fresh start in the spirit of the ground-breaking group plan That plan took time two years and it was worth it I am convinced that genuine neighborhood engagement is capable of yielding creative new ideas and plans across generations that lead to transformative changes Tom Angotti Ph D us an urban planning and framework advance professor emeritus at CUNY s Hunter College and The Graduate Center and an adjunct professor at Parsons The New School The post Opinion EDC s Plan for Red Hook is a Boon for Developers appeared first on City Limits