It’s district leader against district leader, city council member against city council member and state lawmaker against state lawmaker.
That’s how things are shaping up as a who’s who of officials and civic leaders from the eastern side of South Brooklyn plan to rally this weekend to stop the de Blasio Administration’s plan to move three party boats from Sheepshead Bay to Mill Basin.
Meanwhile elected officials representing Sheepshead Bay are acting like the proverbial cat that ate the canary in ridding the problematic party boats from Emmons Avenue and getting them moved to Mill Basin and the Brooklyn Army Terminal on the Bay Ridge/Sunset Park border.
The party boats have long been a source of anguish in Sheepshead Bay. The main quality-of-life issues involved the party boats arriving back on Emmons Avenue in the wee hours of the morning, whereupon often drunken party-goers disembark, exhibiting rowdy behavior including getting into fights and urinating on public property.
Between lobbying efforts of both City Council Member Chaim Deutsch (D-Sheepshead Bay, Manhattan Beach, Brighton Beach, Midwood) and Assemblymember Steve Cymbrowitz (D-Sheepshead Bay, Manhattan Beach, Brighton Beach), the city has tried several things to alleviate the quality-of-life problems including stagnating when the party boats go off to sea and come back to dock, and an increased police presence – all to no avail.
Deutsch and Cymbrowitz finally were successful in lobbying the de Blasio Administartion into moving the party boats, but the problem was nobody told anybody where and when the vessels would be moved.
Particularly vexed were Mill Basin electeds and civic leaders, which was told they can expect the boats next week, even though it is still unclear if they have the infrastructure to dock the boats.
Mill Basin City Council Member Alan Maisel (D) told KCP he will do everything in his power to thwart the plan. Now Mill Basin Assembly Member Jaime Williams (D) has taken the torch in organizing the rally.
“The initiation of this surprise attack on the residents and the elected officials of the Mill Basin, Marine Park, and the Rockaway area is unexplainable; and the inability to consider the safety and well-being of the residents and the businesses within these areas is inexcusable. As elected officials we are not in a position to hold one community ahead of another. It is incumbent upon all elected officials to work together to protect all New Yorkers as a whole,” said Williams.
Williams, Maisel, State Senators Roxanne Persaud and Marty Golden along with Kings County Party Democratic Chair and District Leader Frank Seddio and his female Democratic District Leader counterpart Sue Ann Partnow are all expected to attend the rally.
Also expected are Marine Park Civic Association-President Bob Tracy, Mill Basin Civic Association-President Paul Curiale, Bergen Beach Civic Association Michael Benjamin, Community Board 18 Chair Dorothy Turano, Mill Island Civic Association President Sol Needle, 63rd Precinct Community Council President Jim Buchanan and representatives from the Kings Plaza Shopping Center.
The rally is slated for 11 a.m. this Sunday, April 29 in the Nicks Lobster House parking lot, 2777 Flatbush Avenue, a stone’s throw from where the party boats are slated to come.
