Celebrating Community
It is no surprise that, due to the financial crisis imposed by COVID-19 upon the municipal budget, Mayor Bill de Blasio is reconsidering advancing his $2.7 billion Brooklyn Queens Connector streetcar project known as BQX. There was never a guarantee that the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) would pay for 50 per cent of the cost. Dreams of Amazon doing the […]
At Community Board 6 on January 30, when representatives from the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and the Department of Transportation showed up in Red Hook to discuss the planned Brooklyn-Queens Connector (BQX), so many neighborhood residents stood up to register their objections that, after a while, it seemed easier to take a poll. How many people opposed […]
Gowanus cleanup The Brooklyn Eagle just published a great essay by Gowanus scholar Joseph Alexiou. He makes clear what many reporters never mention in their Gowanus Canal Superfund coverage: that New York City is doing its best to sabotage the cleanup. Titled “The Gowanus Canal will never be clean,” the article makes the case that it is local corruption and […]
Friends of the BQX, an advocacy group backed by developers Two Trees Management and the Durst Organization, continues to push for the $2.73-billion Brooklyn-Queens Connector light rail project favored by Mayor de Blasio and local real estate interests. Most recently, the Friends held an event for small business owners at the Brooklyn Brewery in Williamsburg on March 5. Called “BQX […]
Council Member Carlos Menchaca, who chairs the BQX Task Force in the City Council, issued the following statement on Feb. 7 in response to NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) executive committee’s unanimous decision (announced the day before) to hire an independent contractor to oversee the BQX project’s environmental review: “The City continues to spend millions of taxpayer dollars on a […]
Meeting in session. Photo by George Fiala. The Red Hook Civic Association met on September 26 in the teacher’s cafeteria of PS 15. There were plenty of new faces around the tables, as well as the 76th Precinct Neighborhood Coordination Officers (NCO). The following topics were discussed, under the aegis co-president John McGettrick. Roundtable discussion with 76th Precinct Officers: Illegal […]
The latest ploy by the real-estate lobbying group, Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector, took place in November at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The BQX plan is to have NYC pay for a sleek-looking modern streetcar service along the Brooklyn/Queens waterfront—a waterfront that is in danger of transforming from mixed use to luxury residential development. The BQX would serve this […]