Faithful readers of this newspaper will notice that we have not mentioned Chris Ward’s AECOM proposal for the development of Southwest Brooklyn.
This has been a purposeful omission. We did not want to publicize what we consider a pie-in-the sky, self-serving proposal that is not in the interest of any current residents of the existing Red Hook community.
One example of the results of the media giving free publicity to an outlandish idea is the recent election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States.
However, Chris Ward recently appeared before the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce to present the plan. One of our faithful readers provided us with the booklet that was given out. It is so dangerous that I feel obliged to comment.
Chris Ward, recently turned 62, has been both a public and private servant. His first city job was with the Department of Consumer Affairs. In 1988 he became an Assistant Commissioner for the NYC Department of Telecommunications and Energy. From 1992 to 1996 he was a Senior VP for Transportation and Commerce with the NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC). He then spent two years as Director of Business Development for American Stevedoring at the Red Hook Container Terminal, after which he became Chief of Planning and External Affairs and Director of Port Development for the Port Authority. In 2005 he became the NYC Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner.
After three years heading an agency, he went back to Sal Catucci’s American Stevedoring, where he was CEO for two years. He then became Managing Director of the General Contractors Association, a trade group for building contractors specializing in government work.
He was appointed Executive Director of the Port Authority by Governor David Patterson in 2008 – a job he held for three years. His signal achievement there was getting the redevelopment of the World Trade Center, which had been over budget and behind schedule, back on track.
Unfortunately, most executives like to have their own team of loyalists in place, and incoming governor Andrew Cuomo was more interested to have his own crony in place at the Port Authority than a competent one. Ward realized this, and resigned before Cuomo had a chance to fire him.
He took a position at Dragados, an international construction company specializing in infrastructure, and in May 2015 was hired by another global engineering and construction firm, AECOM.
AECOM is a huge company, with annual revenues exceeding $20 billion. Ward is a senior vice president tasked with business development, especially in the NY area.
Ward’s resume gives him an impressive knowledge of how government works, as well as access to many of its players. Undoubtedly, he has used these experiences to climb the career ladder. He has seen firsthand the operations of our local port, and then went to work for its landlord, the Port Authority. One of his duties there was the eviction of his former boss, Sal Catucci. He has long advocated for the relocation of the container terminal itself, to Sunset Park, so the Port Authority can turn what has become prime real estate over to private development.
Back in 2011, I wrote about Ward in the Star-Revue. He had already turned in his resignation to Governor Cuomo and made a well-publicized (and what I called absurd) speech at the Municipal Art Society where he “complained that the container operation here is preventing Governors Island from reaching its full potential.” I continued: “He proposed moving all shipping operations to Sunset Park and perhaps building a hotel or school on the pier, and possibly a bridge going to Governors Island from Red Hook.”
It was around this time that rumors were floated about Ward considering a mayoral run, but I guess he thought better of it and took his well-paid positions in the construction industry.
This has all culminated in what I will again call absurd – his plan for Southwest Brooklyn, which he calls “Growing From the Waterfront Again.”
The pretty little booklet begins with an over-elegant paean to NYC’s development.
“Today, the City faces a moment in time that will define its future for decades to come. Worldwide economic forces, questions of equity, the whole idea of what is a neighborhood, and dramatic climate change will drive and transform New York City regardless. Each is a given. The question becomes, can each one of these questions be answered in a way that creates an equitable, sustainable and resilient city.”
Having creating the straw man – those givens – Ward proposes his new ideas: subway stops in Red Hook and lots of giant new residential towers in our part of Brooklyn – the part of Brooklyn that Ward worked in for a total of four years.
One can imagine that Ward slowly refined his idea for an alternative use of the container terminal (just like mostly every other real estate developer, including Alicia Glen of the de Blasio administration and Mayor Bloomberg) for years, slowly refining it using the new knowledge and contacts he gathered in his many stepping stone positions to this final job of his.
He no doubt approached AECOM with this Robert Moses type vision and sold them this bill of goods. AECOM has the development money to gamble with, and the credibility to be taken seriously by the media. Hence an idea to inundate our area with 45 million square feet of mostly luxury apartments is taken seriously by those who believe everything they read.
A close look at a rendering that appears in the booklet reveals the desire of the real estate industry to continue the Manhattanization of Brooklyn that began with the downtown rezoning of 2004. Anyone who hasn’t been to Fulton Street since 1995 would be shocked with the high-rise towers that dwarf the formerly neighborly shopping and commercial area. Downtown Brooklyn used to the be place where regular people worked at places like the phone company, government offices, and bargain stores. Most of that is now gone – replaced by things like Target and Marshalls and luxury condos.
The rendering for our corner of Southwest Brooklyn features the sprouting of these high rises starting at the container terminal and spreading southward to the Atlantic Basin, the current Thor Equities property next to IKEA, parking lots owned by the O’Connells and Quadrozzi, as well as city and Port Authority land, including the police property ringing the Erie Basin.
Of course, Ward is not the only so called visionary whose vision imposes on the places we live. The Mayor has called this plan “DOA,” probably because he has his own plan to satisfy both his real estate backers and the public desire for perceived affordable housing.
Our local councilman Carlos Menchaca considers this form of top-down development disingenuous. I agree.
