Opinion- Words by George: The new age of local government’s benign neglect

On July 27, I got an email from Catherine McBride of the Red Hook Initiative which was pretty different than any I have received at this paper since I started it ten years ago.

RHI press releases are generally quite vanilla. They are generally about their Red Hook Hub or else something having to do with their fund raising.

This one announced a rally. “Red Hook Houses Local Leaders, Residents and Allies Rally Against Ongoing Hazardous Construction” was the headline.

Finally, I thought. I’d been walking through the Houses over the past few months wondering how they could be proceeding with their major construction project without bothering to inform the tenants (or at least, the local paper). And why nobody was letting people know what’s going on.

I had noticed occasional Facebook postings by persons wondering why hundreds of trees were being chopped down in the housing development, and why all the playgrounds were closed. More recently I heard about water shutdowns (as written about elsewhere in this issue).

What is actually going on is a good thing – the FEMA resiliency project that is going to turn the Red Hook Houses campus into a model housing development. I couldn’t figure out why such a well-intentioned project with a well publicized beginning (check out Miracle on Mill Street, by Noah Phillips, archived online from 2016), would seemingly go off the rails, antagonizing the community by lack of communication.

The release included the following: “The reason this is happening to us is because we are a minority and low-income community and had it been a different community this would not have happened.”

Actually, I don’t find that completely true. The fact is that there are giant construction projects happening all over the neighborhood, the majority and high-income areas as well as the minority and low-income community. And nobody has come into any part of the neighborhood to let us know exactly what’s going on. At least not as far as I’ve noticed.

The BASIS school is surrounded by two huge projects. Fences have gone up on a large lot on Beard Street. The Revere Sugar lot is still a mystery. What’s going on the defunct 99 cent store location.

And of course there’s UPS which we write about in this edition.

I remember the old days when community meetings seemed to happen all the time, held by Councilman Menchaca, Assemblyman Ortiz, CB 6, the 76th Precinct, the Parks Department, NYCHA, and other city agencies. I was always going to one meeting or another covering things for this paper.

Sandy recovery was the subject of many of these meetings, but other issues included the Oxford Nursing Home, the drug rehab that eventually opened on Van Brunt; the threatened giant bathroom that was going to swallow up Valentino Park; the ball field renovations; the ball field renovations (lots of meetings about that but they are still dithering – while nothing seems to happen there, a giant monstrosity is quickly rising on the lot next door.)

A quick check in our own archives using the keyword Carlos Menchaca offers more: the renovation of the Senior Center following its post Sandy shutdown; the Thor Equities giant clump of dirt on their Beard Street property; asbestos remediation in the Houses; local pollution problems coming from a roofing business on Van Dyke Street; Coffey Park closure; a renovation of Ickes Park across from the former Chase bank; the possibility of the Red Hook Library being cut up and used for a dance studio; the location problems of the new Ferry Terminal (settled to our satisfaction as a result of community action.)

Things are still happening in the neighborhood. There’s no bank to serve us. Pathmark and Fine Faire supermarkets are gone, with no replacements. The giant construction projects with the potential for murderous and polluting truck traffic. The ballfield and other park renovations are seemingly way behind schedule.

Not to mention all the suffering connected with Covid, which may get worse as the local economy is threatened with depression.

So Where’s Carlos?
He was so actively involved in so many threats to the community, bringing residents together with the appropriate city agencies at public meetings he would arrange. His doings were in almost every issue we published. People thought that we were on his payroll with all the publicity we gave him, but the fact is that we write about what’s happening, and in those days he was happening.

But in his second term we’ve hardly mentioned him, mostly because there’s been nothing to write about.

I’m not the only one who thinks this, I’ve spoken to other community leaders. It’s not just because of COVID. You could have a meeting outdoors in Coffey Park with a megaphone. RHI was able to have their meeting in the street right outside their office.

I’m thinking that instead of ensuring good government, term limits are a hindrance. Without the incentive for reelection, lame duck politicians spend their second term looking for their next job, instead of trying to keep doing the job they already have and hopefully keep getting better at.

Carlos still thinks he’s doing a great job. He showed up at the RHI meeting in shorts walking his dog, and given the microphone at an event protesting the seeming abandonment of the neighborhood by NYCHA and other city agencies, he rambled on about the need for communication from city agencies.

I kind of thought that as our elected advocate, he should be the one leading the way to transparency and communication from the city agencies – as he often did during his first term.

But now it seems we have to rely on local volunteers, such as Jim Tampakis, a local businessman who is lobbying city agencies and UPS to prevent huge amounts of truck fumes covering our neighborhood, not Carlos or any other elected official.

We just had local elections for our NYS representatives. Velmanette Montgomery, a kindly woman who was based in Fort Greene has retired. Her seat, which she held forever (no term limits in State government) was won by a Democratic Socialist, Jabari Brisport. I’m looking forward to interviewing him for our January issue, as he begins his term.

Felix Ortiz, another longtime representative, was defeated by a tenant activist from Sunset Park, Marcella Mitaynes. I look forward to introducing her to you as well.

In the meantime, here’s hoping that Carlos will start taking Red Hook seriously again in this, his last year representing us in the City Council.

Goodness knows there’s plenty of things that could fill his plate.

George Fiala is the publisher and founder of the Star-Revue. You can yell at him by emailing george@redhookstar.com