Back in my youth, which is not ALL that many decades ago, people starting talking about the environment. In those days, we were told that without doing things to limit fossil fuel use, the world would eventually get hotter, jeopardizing our normal way of life. Well, it was quite surprising, and depressing, to see in the news that we have just had the hottest day in Earth’s HISTORY!
What I remember thinking back in those early Earth Days was that it was the old guys who were vested in making huge amounts of money in the oil business who worked the Republican Party to create climate denial as a political strategy.
Just like I felt that not paying attention to science was wrong then, I have a feeling now that someday the Gowanus rezoning will also be seen as folly.
I may be wrong, but I have followed the course of the rezoning from the original Gowanus Green plan in 2007, the pushback to the Superfund at the same time with the city’s reason being it would hold back building in Gowanus, and Brad Lander’s “Bridging Gowanus” series of public events. I’ve seen the EPA have to fight the city at every turn to try and do the right thing for the environmental health of the neighborhood.
I’ve seen the Fifth Avenue Committee, with the public image of an organization promoting social and environmental justice, do everything in their power to push through their 1,000 unit low-income housing plan, which will offer them years of management fees It is to be built on the most polluted land in an area full of the legacy of industrial pollution. In other words, the poorest go on the poorest land, as usual.
However, by being against this, I am seen as racist and anti-progress, as a large group of people younger than me, including even people calling themselves socialists, have bought into the real estate industry’s dream scenario of equating high rise development with social justice. These are people now called Yimbys, recalling Yippies but in fact the polar opposite. Here in Red Hook, I find myself on the other side of the issue when it comes to the Amazon warehouses.
Many people around here feel that Amazon has brought lots of trucks to the neighborhood which impact the air quality, adding to asthma problems around here.
Earlier this year, this paper published a series of articles which I believe showed no direct correlation between the arrival of Amazon and asthma rates. The stress of poverty, mold, rodents and smoking are at least as culpable. I’ve been following the air quality tracking devices recently installed in the neighborhood, and to be honest, the readings are no different than the rest of the city, if not often better.
What I think about Amazon is that they do lessen truck miles, as delivery vans that in the past started out in Staten Island, now have lesser distances to travel. In addition, the company is working to get away from fossil fuel vans, planning to replace them with electric Rivians as soon as possible. That’s why a lot of the vans have the Fluid or U-Haul branding, as they are rented. In addition, I am starting to see more and more bicycle style vehicles packed with boxes making the deliveries.
While Amazon doesn’t talk to me or let me into their buildings, I’m assuming that a fair amount of humans do work in them, and jobs are something Red Hook has always been wanting for the many underemployed who live here.
Finally, one of the big reasons that I started this paper back in 2010 is that I like Red Hook. I like the diversity of people, the small town feel and the sense of community I find here.
“I’ve seen the Fifth Avenue Committee, with the public image of an organization promoting social and environmental justice, do everything in their power to push through their 1,000 unit low-income housing plan, which will offer them years of management fees It is to be built on the most polluted land in an area full of the legacy of industrial pollution. In other words, the poorest go on the poorest land, as usual.”
I did live for a while in Williamsburg, back in 1992, when it was just beginning to transform from a low-rise mixed use community to the imitation of Manhattan it is today. The big push of real estate developers like Tisch and Walentas is to edge Brooklyn with giant, high priced condo buildings.
Staying mixed-use with new warehouses keeps our growth manageable, at least to my crusty eyes. The next Williamsburg is Gowanus, and developer focus will be here next.
That’s why I fought so hard against Alex Washburn’s failed plan for a 15 story residential tower adjacent to the land that UPS bought. As far as I know, the eventual use of UPS’s giant vacant lot is still undecided. If it went residential, it could be worth a billion dollars to somebody.
Having a 15 story building right next door would have set a precedent that would surely have been tested.
Our new parks are beautiful!
I’ve been spending some good quality time walking around our newly reopened parks. While it was terrible to have them closed for so long, the Park’s Department has done an amazing job.
Everything about these new parks, and I’m talking about the ballfields on both sides of Bay Street, the yet unfinished soccer and track facility, and the giant soccer field along Columbia Street, have been beautifully landscaped, complete with first class benches and ornamental touches. The challenge is now on the Red Hook community. We need to give our youth every opportunity to fully utilize these fields. We need all the schools and non profits to work on developing league play and educational opportunities to give our youth a balanced upbringing, in both body and mind.
At a recent Civic Association meeting, Councilmember Alexa Aviles pointed out the injustice of having all the scheduling for the fields take place in a centralized Prospect Park office. She was talking both about our fields and those in Sunset Park.
We have the perfect place, that is fully staffed, to handle the scheduling of our local fields. That is our historic Rec Center, which is right in the middle of everything. There is probably some political reason that it’s not that way now, but politics are supposed to support the governed. We will be pushing for this in future issues.
