Editor’s Note: This editorial was originally posted on Medium.
Mayor Bill de Blasio kicked off his Sheepshead Bay town hall meeting last night with a 10-minute rundown of promises to the community, including a few that beg for follow-up from reporters. Since I no longer cover the neighborhood, I’m putting my notes, comments, and questions out there in the hopes my old friends in local media will see fit to pursue any angles.
A word of caution: this is not a reported piece. It’s my rough notes, and my thoughts on what he said given what I know of the area from my years running the local community news outlet Sheepshead Bites (now Bklyner), and even more years living here.
Here’s what de Blasio promised, presented in the order that I chose to present them:
Residential Sandy repairs will be completed by spring
In regards to Superstorm Sandy recovery work in the area, including constructions, elevations, etc: hizzoner said, “All of them will be completed by the spring. And once and for all things will be back the way they should be.” This is the one quote I wrote down, because, man, what a thing to say.
For starters, it’s vague. It wasn’t clear if he was talking about all work in Southern Brooklyn, all work in the councilmanic district, all work in the low-lying waterfront bungalow colonies known as the Sheepshead Bay courts, or just one court — Stanton — about which he made a related commitment (below). It’s also not clear if he’s just talking about Build it Back work, or if we will finally close the book altogether on residential recovery.
The answers to those questions are telling in themselves, and any answer will demand qualifiers to the “Once and for all things will be back the way they should be.”
De Blasio deserves credit for kickstarting the stalled Build it Back when he got to Gracie Mansion. But the agency has blown past deadlines before, and is coming up on the one-year anniversary of his last once-and-for-all promise. Fortunately, no one living in a Sandy-impacted home believes a damn thing the government says about when and what will be done, so there’ll be no broken hearts.
Assuming, though, he’s just talking about Build it Back, and homes in the Sheepshead courts, and assuming he keeps that promise, there’s still another question he needs to answer. It’s the one Missy Haggerty, a courts resident, came to ask last night, and never got the chance to: what will the city do about the 30-or-so homes in her bungalow colony that have not been touched since Sandy? What will they do about the owners (including some banks) that have been utterly delinquent? You might have a nice, new, elevated home — but it abuts a dilapidated mold farm. That will not be “the way they should be.”
$20 million for water and sewer infrastructure at Stanton Courts
Great news for the dozens of residents who live in the Stanton Courts. All of Sheepshead Bay’s bungalow colonies share aging sewer pipes that are not considered city property. They’re not maintained and there’s no cooperative agreement among homeowners to take care of them. It’s similar to alleys and easements running behind homes all over Southern Brooklyn — and when it rains, they clog and flood, and places like Lake Avenue become regular lakes. So, again, great news for Stanton Courts, but this is case of the squeaky wheel getting $20 million, and it sure opens the door to “What about me?”-ism. It’s neither scalable or sustainable — since it still won’t be city property, who maintains the courts’ sewers after the upgrades? Any pesky reporter can get some great mileage out of this issue.
Some really expensive road work on Kings Highway
He announced $20 million for improvements to the medians on Kings Highway from East 23rd Street to East 27th Street, starting shortly. It is part of a new SBS route along the corridor launching next summer. Work along East 27th Street is to be done by end of November.
So… first of all — $20 million dollars for “median improvements” on four blocks? What’s so special about this stretch anyway? It’s a wide, four-lane avenue with two service roads, and pretty much all residential. No doubt that the curbs need to be redesigned for SBS (presumably stopping at Bedford Avenue, smack in the middle of that stretch) and adding a center median to such a broad corridor is consistent with Vision Zero initiatives. But again: $20 million, four blocks, part of SBS upgrades. The entire 9.3 mile SBS route on Nostrand Avenue cost $28 million.
Bye-bye booze cruises? Probably not.
De Blasio said that late night cruise boats (“booze cruises”), a staple of the Emmons Avenue waterfront, don’t belong in residential neighborhoods. So he’s allegedly giving them the boot. “This current party boat season is about to end; we will over the winter find a new location for the late night party boats away from residential areas.” Okay, but where will they go? And how will you make up for the lost revenue at the Parks Department-owned marinas? The boats leave after dinner time during the summer; is anybody checking to see how this impacts restaurants across the street from the piers? This will definitely get him a few votes in November, but I’m skeptical he’ll keep this promise after election day.
The other stuff
- To stop litter floating around in Sheepshead Bay, there is now Department of Environmental Protection funding to provide skimmer vessels— boats that scoop up surface trash in the water — twice a year(!). Which is hilarious. Trash comes in and out with the tides. Sheepshead Bay needs a dedicated skimmer vessels that’s deployed daily during good weather months. Full stop.
- A $10 million initiative to provide homeowners who need them with check valves. The valves prevent sewers from backing up and flooding homes. This is cool, but I’m curious just how much credit the city or mayor deserves, since this idea came out of the NY Rising Community Reconstruction Committee — a federally-funded, state-led initiative. But whatever — I live in a home that flooded and I’m glad these valves will be made available (… awaiting criteria…).
- The NYPD will deploy Neighborhood Coordination Officers in the 61st Precinct, which includes Sheepshead Bay, Gravesend, Homecrest, and Manhattan Beach. These officers “ attend community meetings with neighborhood leaders and clergy, visit schools, follow up on previous incidents, and use creative techniques and adaptive skills to fight crime and contend with other problems in their particular sectors.” Since these were always the responsibilities of the Community Affairs Unit in the 61st Precinct, I guess my question is what will the Community Affairs Unit be doing?
- Funds for sidewalk repairs for damage caused by trees. In this community (presumably the 48th Councilmanic District), they will have repaired 100 by November, and then another 100 in the “following months.” This is anold program for which the last time I checked in, during the Bloomberg administration, was backlogged by several years. If de Blasio has cut that backlog, then he deserves credit. I’d love to see data on this.
- There will be an enrollment push through Councilman Chaim Deutsch’s office for a property tax exemption for seniors that could save $1,500 a year. He didn’t name the program and kind of bungled the whole thing in also mentioning rent freezes, but I think he’s talking about this. No comment. I’m just always happy to get the word out about tax exemptions.
- Coming soon: a graffiti-removal blitz along Sheepshead Bay Road, Coney Island Avenue, and Avenue Z. No problems here. Except there’s no notable graffiti here.
- We are New York, which provides free English language lessons for adults, is going to expand into the district. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Ned Berke is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence @ Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism. He is the founder of the Sheepshead Bites, one of the first community news digital websites in Brooklyn and is a founding boardmember, LION Publishers. Follow him on Twitter @nberke.
Editor’s Note: This editorial was originally posted on Medium.
