Hurricane Harvey heads to Texas today, but last night, Coney Islanders railed over Hurricane Sandy.
City Councilmember Mark Treyger (D-Coney Island, Bensonhurst, Gravesend) hosted a four-hour town hall meeting with Mayor Bill de Blasio and several top city agency heads, yesterday at the Coney Island YMCA, 2980 West 29th Street, where officials responded to residents’ concerns on housing, transportation and storm recovery.
First, the mayor lauded a series of recent wins, from historic declines in traffic fatalities to lauding the city’s safest big city in the country badge. But none of the accomplishments prevented residents from confronting the mayor on issues impacting their community.
Annette Fisher, a Seagate resident told the mayor about her troubling experience with the often-criticized Build It Back program, a storm recovery program first created under the Bloomberg administration to assist residents impacted by Hurricane Sandy.
Fisher said the agency commissioned to add resiliency measures to two of her rental properties which would provide future flood damage –– a process that ultimately displaced the tenants, in her 3-family home, for up to three years.
“It’s a big problem Mr. Mayor and you have not managed this program,” said Fisher. “I’m sick of it!”
Another homeowner, Veronica Palmer, expressed her Build it Back woes, which she said cost her $81,000 dollars of her pension and 18 months outside of her home.
Luckily the mayor began the town hall announcing $2 billion in resilience funding for the coastal region as well as 900 additional school seats in Treyger’s 47th Council district all of which be in air-conditioned classrooms.
Though storm recovery dilemmas were hot topics during the town hall, the first question of the evening was about transportation. One constituent asked when the city will assess the possibility of a ferry stop in Coney Island.
“As we get into the spring or summer of 2018, we will start process of assessing how the first year of service has gone,” responded de Blasio. “If ridership is strong – so far that appears to be the case – we will then start formal assessment in 2018.”
Earlier this month, Treyger and Assemblymember Pam Harris (D-Coney Island, Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights) rallied in front of City Hall demanding the city provide ferry service to the transit starved area. The city’s new 20-route ferry plan has been criticized for not including Coney Island.
MTA policies were scrutinized also. Wayne Wilson called out MTA bus operators who force seniors off the bus at the last stop, only to drive past their designated stop 10 minutes later after swapping operators.
Both the mayor and Treyger reminded the crowd that New York City does not govern the MTA, but pledged to help.
Illegal home conversions, charter schools and odorous creeks were also tackled.
Derick Latif Scott, of the non-profit Operation Hood – a city funded Cure the Violence group announced that Coney island was experiencing its second 200-day shooting-free run. A welcoming treat to the audience, much like the pastries Treyger gifted the mayor in response to an ongoing war between Staten Island and Bensonhurst on the best tasting cannoli.
