Mott Haven resident Aazam Otero urged Community Board 1 to consider a garden rather than new buildings on 149th St. and Southern Boulevard.

Protesters blast development plan

A heated war of words erupted at Community Board 1′s February meeting as protesters shouted down a developer and a city housing official’s efforts to explain the city’s plans to construct Crossroads Plaza.

The board voted to approve the city’s request for a zoning change that would allow the three-building complex to be built at the corner of 149^th Street and Southern Boulevard, but had to do so over the catcalls, jeers and sometimes profane objections of some 30 protesters who had cleared the lot of debris and turned it into the Morning Glory Garden.

“It’s a great site at the intersection of three major streets,” said Ted Weinstein, director of planning for the Department of Housing Development and Preservation in the Bronx, adding “it will bring a lot of people to the area.”

As he spoke, protesters standing on the sidewalk outside the community board’s Third Avenue office banged on the window and held up a sign reading “People over Profit,” with drawings of vegetables.

John McGrath, an official for Easter Seals in New York, said that the proposed eight-story Easter Seals building slated for the site was needed if children with special needs were to be served.

But the protesters loudly countered that the gardens they had grown are the best use of the land, and charged that the city was working for the benefit of the plan’s high-profile developer while excluding poor residents.

“I am a gardener from that lot and I am frustrated that these people come into our community and take our land,” said Samuel J. Gompers HS student Sony Cabral. “Can anybody in a suit please define gentrification for me?” he asked Weinstein and Douglaston representative Matt Feldman.

“What programs are subsidizing the developments?” asked gardener Aazam Otero, who also questioned the financing of the project and the affordability of the rents in the planned 13- and 15-story apartment buildings.

A half-dozen homeowners and renters representing the group We Are Mott Haven attended the evening meeting to express their own grievances to the board over a development for the mentally ill slated for 144^th Street and Brook Avenue near their homes. The homeowners have argued at past board meetings that the development would further destabilize a neighborhood already saturated with social services, adding they were not advised of the project in time to effectively oppose it, and they believe elected officials who represent Mott Haven and Melrose have abandoned them.

The homeowners ceded their own public speaking time to allow Otero to continue addressing the garden group’s complaints, shouting “Let the young man speak” while others yelled, “This is what democracy looks like.”

“You’re all on the take,” yelled Louie Melendez of We Are Mott Haven, as the group angrily walked out, chanting, “We voted you in, we will vote you out,” along with the gardeners. The community board is appointed by elected officials, none of whom were present.

A rendering of the city's proposed Crossroads Plaza at E. 149th St. and Southern Boulevard.

Community Board set to vote on proposed zoning change

The city has decided to build a massive, three-building complex at the intersection of Southern Boulevard and Union Avenue and E. 149^th St., where the eviction of the Morning Glory community garden in November led to the arrest of four protesters and a journalist.

The construction of a complex with buildings ranging from eight to 15 stories high requires a zoning change to accommodate denser development than is permitted under the current land use rules.

The complex would include an Easter Seals school for special needs children, 37,000 square feet of retail space and 430 new apartments. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development has chosen Queens-based Douglaston Development. The developer and the city would co-own the building.

HPD spokesman Eric Bederman says the complex will provide “badly needed new affordable apartments for low-income and moderate-income New Yorkers.”

But some residents say the project, dubbed Crossroads Plaza, is being pushed through without enough public notice, and add that it will sacrifice the need for green space to development. They want officials to address concerns about financing, environmental remediation and whether rents will be realistic for Mott Havenites.

“There haven’t been funds secured prior to asking for our support,” said neighborhood activist Mychal Johnson, who heard the Department of Housing and Development’s presentation, and found it short on details. “Not having finances in place gives me uncertainty about the future of the project. We’ve seen sometimes where funding wasn’t secured and it didn’t turn out the way it had been planned.”

Johnson also questioned whether the rents would really be affordable to area residents. “The rates they’re using for what they say is affordable don’t apply to our area,” he said.

Officials say the eight-story Easter Seals building will be built first, to be followed by 13- and 15-story buildings where the stores and apartments will be located.

The city says apartments in the first building will go for between $808 and $1,135 for one-bedroom apartments and between $979 and $1,371 for two-bedrooms. Families with incomes ranging between $31,700 and $79,320 will be eligible, including a 50 percent preference for residents of Community Board 1.

After hearing the city present its plan in early February, Community Board 1′s Land Use committee agreed almost unanimously to send it to a Feb. 23 vote on the zoning change. City rules require the community board to hold a hearing and vote on zoning changes, then to send the proposal to the borough president. Final decisions on zoning are made by the City Planning Commission and the City Council.

City officials removed the plants—which had been planted without a permit–and fenced off the lot in November. Angry members of the garden group briefly occupied the community board office later that month. When they staged a demonstration in December, police broke it up, arresting five.

Mott Haven resident Aazam Otero who gardened at the site, charged the city used “overly heavy-handed treatment” to evict him and other gardeners, and said the community board is not doing enough to inform the public about the proposal, and may even be trying to avoid public scrutiny. He thinks residents would support the urban farm he and his group want to create, rather than supporting commercial development.

“The community board is not willing to be contested or to give us an opportunity,” he said. “From start to finish, there’s been no real community input.”

Not so, said Cedric Loftin, district manager of Community Board 1, adding all committee meetings are public, and that the area’s 22 Green Thumb-registered community gardens are more than in any other community district.

Loftin said the addition of more gardens is always open to consideration. “It’s not like that avenue is closed to anyone,” he said, but added, “that particular site has been earmarked for affordable housing.”

Speaking for HPD, Bederman offered assurances that any toxic material from the gas station would be cleaned up before construction begins and added that HPD is sensitive to the needs and demands of local gardeners.

“Unfortunately, the people who recently unlawfully entered this city-owned site did not seek permission to do so from HPD,” Bederman wrote in an email, and added they did not “consult the community board to determine the status of this property.”

Mott Haven residents let city officials know what they think about Fresh Direct moving to the neighborhood at a public hearing on Feb. 9th.

Area residents say moving grocer to Port Morris is a bad idea

A contingent of Mott Haven residents voiced loud opposition to a proposed move to the neighborhood by the food delivery company FreshDirect at a Feb. 9 public hearing in lower Manhattan, citing concerns over increased truck traffic and reduced access to Randall’s Island as reasons the city should nix the deal when its Industrial Development Agency reaches a decision next Tuesday.

While many of the 75 or so New Yorkers present at the city’s Economic Development Corporation offices expressed their support for the company’s proposed move to a 16-acre section of the Harlem Rail Yard, 10 Mott Havenites denounced the $130 million package of subsidies the city pledged on Feb. 7 to keep the online grocer from moving to New Jersey.

They told the nine-member panel that officials failed to consider existing health and environmental concerns, contending the added truck traffic will worsen an already critical asthma problem for South Bronx residents who breathe some of the city’s foulest air.

“I am concerned about 130 truck trips back and forth a day in my neighborhood,” Mott Haven resident Donald Dunn said. “I am concerned that this plan will disrupt the development of the waterfront that we have worked so long for.”

Larry Hickey, Fresh Direct’s senior vice president of business operations, tried to quiet concerns about pollution from increased truck traffic, saying the company’s trucks have a “kill switch” that automatically turns off engines that idle for 60 seconds. He added that 10 of the trucks will run on electricity, further cutting emissions.

Critics of the planned move also worried it would cut off residents’ access to recreational facilities on Randall’s Island and disrupt the creation of the South Bronx Greenway, a concern voiced by the Bronx Council on Environmental Quality, the Harlem River Working Group and Friends of Brook Park.

And they criticized the city for announcing the deal before asking the public to comment on it.

“If this was Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens, the deal would not have been announced without multiple hearings,” Melrose resident Ed Garcia said. “It seems like they’ve already decided.”

Mychal Johnson, a member of Community Board 1′s economic development and land use committees, said the vote to allow the move should be postponed so residents have time to learn more about it.

“Is this our only voice on something that directly affects our health, our employment, our children, our neighborhood?” Johnson said.

When a company representative claimed FreshDirect serves online shoppers across the city, the Mott Haven group hollered that no deliveries are made to the South Bronx.

“It’s obscene that with high rates of obesity and a paucity of fresh food that my community – our community – doesn’t have access,” Dunn said.

Hickey countered that the company determines its service area based on the zip codes customers enter on the website when they shop. He added that the company has urged state officials to change current laws to allow low-income shoppers to use their EBT cards to buy online.

Hickey added that his company’s presence will mean good jobs for locals. He said FreshDirect pays workers $12 per hour, and added that health care kicks in after six months on the job.

“At a time of too-high unemployment, FreshDirect’s expansion in the Bronx will lead to the creation of nearly 1,000 jobs in what is currently one of the poorest congressional districts in the country,” Kyle Sklerov, New York City Economic Development Corporation spokesman said.

But opponents argued there are no guarantees those jobs will actually go to South Bronx residents, despite Hickey’s assurance that 400 of FreshDirect’s 2,000 workers live in the Bronx.

Residents are eager to know how their decisions will impact the spending of $1 million in tax revenue this winter in Mott Haven and Melrose.

Last fall, City Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito announced her constituents would be able to decide how the money should be spent, as part of a new initiative known as participatory budgeting. Residents of Mark-Viverito’s district, which includes Mott Haven and Harlem, have met several times since the fall to consider what local projects to finance. 

Proposals can call for capital funding for infrastructure-related projects only, not for expense requests, which would require the city to hire new workers.

About 70 budget delegates have started to sift through the projects residents proposed in October and November public meetings.

“Everybody who’s involved seems very enthusiastic about it and they’re happy to be part a process like this,” said John Johnson, a member of Community Board 1 who was elected by his peers to serve as a Mott Haven budget delegate.

Johnson said he would like to see the money go to an increase of closed circuit cameras in the Millbrook public housing projects to help reduce crime.

Carmen Aquino, a resident who attended the first meeting, said she would be disappointed if the more populous Harlem segment of Mark-Viverito’s district ends up overshadowing Mott Haven initiatives.

“This is a needy community.  We need a lot of services here,” she said.

Aquino said public lighting, increased security and housing for seniors are issues that should be addressed with the new funding.

In all, residents submitted more than 550 proposals, at the meetings and online.

Budget delegates were split into seven different committees at the fall meetings, including parks, education and housing. Since then, committee members have had to consult city agencies to learn which of the proposed projects are eligible for capital funding.

Budget delegates have until early February to finalize the wish list. More neighborhood assemblies will follow, at which the delegates will present their findings, before residents get to cast a final vote on the projects of their choice in early March.

Anyone who lives or works in the area can still apply to be a budget delegate by contacting Mark-Viverito’s office to arrange to attend an orientation session.

Mark-Viverito said her constituents’ proposals don’t differ greatly from projects she considered supporting during last year’s traditional budgeting process. Nevertheless, she said, direct community participation is what makes the new initiative special.

“Seeing people want to be more involved in their community is really rewarding and illustrates why this process is important,” she said.

She said her office is getting to hear from people who wouldn’t have otherwise gone to community board meetings, and that residents will be heard at a time when the public has little faith in government.

“This is a way of saying ‘What you have to say matters. This is your money. You should have a more direct say and involvement in that process,’” she said.

Residents say elected officials didn't do their job telling them about this planned development on 144th St. in Mott Haven.

Group battling home for mentally ill says residents were blindsided

The developer of a controversial housing development set to break ground in Mott Haven notified local politicians of the organization’s plans nearly a year ago, according to a document he released this week.

But neighborhood residents fighting the project say they didn’t find out about the plan until early autumn, when they saw action at the construction site on 144^th Street.

Daniel Johansson, CEO of the Association for Rehabilitative Case Management and Housing (ACMH), sent a letter detailing plans to build an affordable housing facility for low-income families and people with mental illness to several local politicians in December 2010, records show.

The letter was addressed to George Rodriguez, chair of Community Board 1, and was also sent to City Council member Melissa Mark-Viverito, State Senator Jose Serrano, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo. Copies of FedEx receipts were included, all signed by the officials’ respective offices and dated Dec. 21, 2010.

“We did all that in December of 2010 and we have all the documentation,” said Johansson.

The politicians did not spread the word to their constituents, according to residents, who said that when they contacted their representatives, these officials claimed that they had never heard of the project.

“I called Viverito. I called Ruben Diaz’s office. I called Arroyo’s office. I called Community Board 1,” said Marian Rivas, who lives near the proposed project. “None of them knew anything about it.”

Residents were concerned that time had run out to fight the development. The Padavan law gives residents 75 days from the time of notification to challenge certain types of housing facilities. By this point, more than six months had passed.

In fact, though, the Padavan law, which is intended to strike a balance between the rights of  people with mental illness or developmental disabities and homeowners, doesn’t apply in this case, according to Leesa Rademacher of the Office of Mental Health. But she said communication with local residents is still encouraged.

The law is “for community residences from four to 14 beds. This is a single- room occupancy and more than 14 beds,” she said. “We ask providers, like ACMH, to notify the community anyway.”

If community members didn’t know, Johansson said it wasn’t for lack of effort on his part. In addition to the other documents, he also released a personal log of attempted contact with local politicians.

“It’s important that they be informed of what’s going on in the district so they can inform their constituents,” he said.

Of all the attempted contacts Johansson made, he said only Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz accepted his request to meet. He never heard back from Serrano, Arroyo or Viverito, he said.

At last month’s community board meeting, Serrano Jr. told board members that until they brought the issue to him, he hadn’t heard about it either. He, Viverito, Arroyo and Diaz did not return calls seeking comment.

Many residents and members of Voices of the People, the activist group working to stop the development, blame both Johansson’s group and the local politicians. Asked who was responsible for failing to inform the community, resident Marilyn Ramos didn’t hesitate.

“If anything the developer, because he didn’t let us know anything. And also the politicians in the area- they are doing nothing to stop it. It’s just going through,” she said, “like our opinions don’t matter.”

Photo by Gwen McClure Local residents have united to oppose development of this site on E. 144th St. into a mental health and social service facility.

A group of Mott Haven residents has organized to protest a proposed housing development for the mentally ill, saying the neighborhood already has far more than its fair share of social service agencies.

The group, called Voices of the People, is frustrated with the influx of social service programs, and adds they were given no advance notice that plans for still another were underway.

“We have so many shelters and programs and they are all crowded. We are hyper-saturated,”said resident Marcelino Sanchez. “I think it is a crime.”

The publicly funded 60-unit doorman facility on E. 144^th Street between Brook and Willis Ave. will include 18 units dedicated to general low-income housing. Another 42 will be for adults and young adults with mental illness. The low-income housing will include studios and one- and two-bedrooms for tenants and will have a minimum income requirement. For those living with mental illness, there will be on-site support including case management and mental-health counselors.

At a community board meeting in October, residents expressed concern that the development would bring back problems their community faced in previous decades.

Dr. Marian Rivas, whose family has owned a home on 144^th St. since 1949, recalled neighborhood safety problems of the 1960s and ’70s. Since then she has seen the area steadily improve, until several years ago when she started to notice increased drug use and loitering, some of which she and other frustrated residents say stems from unsupervised clients from the area’s many social service facilities.

“It looked like Berlin after the war,” Rivas recalled. “We are survivors through the worst. Why should we have to go through it again?”

According to Carlos Garcia, director of residential programs for The Association for Rehabilitative Case Management and Housing, the non-profit that plans to open the site, this isn’t the first time his organization has received resistance from a community based on concerns about the impact.

He said applicants are screened thoroughly for histories of violence and sex offenses and that only graduates of ACMH programs will be housed.

“Typically we are faced with the ‘not-in-my-backyard’ kind of thing,” Garcia said.

He said that stories of people defecating in the streets and exposing themselves were not based in reality. “It’s just like in any neighborhood,” Garcia said. “If you see that kind of stuff, you call the police.”

But homeowners argue that rather than provide housing for deserving low-income residents from the neighborhood, the developments draw people from elsewhere looking for better access to services. Some residents expressed concerns about the safety of their children, fearing the development will draw a dangerous clientele to a neighborhood filled with schools. Others were concerned about decreasing property values.

“Much of their wealth is tied up in their homes,” Rivas said of her neighbors, adding they will urge elected officials to help stymy the project by cutting off the developers’ funding.

State Senator Jose M. Serrano attended the meeting to discuss other matters, but soon found himself fending off criticism from the group directed towards him and other elected officials for not defending residents’ rights.

“When you have an over-concentration of social services in one community, you have to ask why,” Serrano responded, admitting he knew nothing of the project before hearing the group complain at the October meeting.

“So why don’t we have these facilities on 72^nd and Park Avenue?” he said, adding, “these services can be spread out.”

Community Board 1 district manager Cedric Loftin said the number of units for low-income residents is too small to offset changes he believes will occur in the neighborhood such as an increased police presence and an increased feeling of insecurity. He said the community board will work with the governor’s office and other elected officials to try to get funding reallocated to a project elsewhere.

“The location is bad and it needs to be looked at from the perspective of the community that’s going to be impacted,” said Loftin.

The citizens group has met with elected officials who have vowed to help them fight the project, including Assemblywoman Carmen E. Arroyo.

Daniel Johansson, CEO of the site developer, cited a study done by the Furman Center at NYU in 2008, which found that property values actually increased when supportive housing was developed in the area. He said the area was chosen because of a partnership with Lincoln Hospital and a need for supportive and low-income housing in the area.

“There are so many folks that end up being re-hospitalized in the Bronx who have a mental health issue,” he said. “Once you have a roof over your head it’s so much easier to get your life together.”

]]> http://motthavenherald.com/2011/11/03/residents-rail-against-new-social-service-development/feed/ 2 http://motthavenherald.com/2010/12/16/two-who-work-to-make-a-difference/ http://motthavenherald.com/2010/12/16/two-who-work-to-make-a-difference/#comments Thu, 16 Dec 2010 05:57:53 +0000 Stephanie Rabins http://motthavenherald.com/?p=2852 Mott Haven community leaders follow different paths

Community Leaders: A. Mychal Johnson from stephanie rabins on Vimeo.

Community leaders: Lou Torres from stephanie rabins on Vimeo.

Neighborhood leadership takes many forms. From organizing farmers’ markets to advocating tenants’ rights, Mott Haven has many residents who work hard to make the their neighborhood a better place to live.

The Mott Haven Herald caught up with two local leaders–one who lives in a row house and holds a seat on the community board and one who lives in a housing project and is the voice of its tenants–to find out how they came to dedicate their time and effort to working for their community.

Mychal Johnson knows what gentrification looks like. He grew up in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago, whose struggles in the 1970s with depopulation, arson and crime invite easy comparison with the South Bronx of the same period.

Like Mott Haven and Melrose, Wicker Park has seen remarkable growth over the past decade, but its appeal to white-collar, college-educated residents has raised rents and prices, forcing many longtime residents to leave. “I didn’t want that to happen to this neighborhood” says Johnson, who moved to New York City with his family in 2003 and has lived in Mott Haven ever since.

Hoping to improving his neighborhood while keeping it affordable, Johnson became involved in community organizing as soon as he moved to the Bronx. And while he was working on the house he was finally able to buy, a friend stopped by with an idea.

“He said, ‘Why don’t you apply for a spot on the community board?’” Johnson recalled.

“My daughter went to school here,” Johnson says of his decision to join the board, “and I had become very close with people in the neighborhood.”

That was four and a half years ago. Since then, more families have been fixing up houses like Johnson’s in Mott Haven’s historic district. New restaurants have opened, and artists have found studio space in the neighborhood’s lofts and warehouses.

As a member of Board 1, in recent years Johnson has been focused on trying to guide development, particularly on the waterfront. Last year, the board won a fight against the New York State Department of Transportation’s plan to widen the Major Deegan Expressway. Johnson was a vocal opponent of the state plan, and he says the win was “crucial to the rebirth of the lower Grand Concourse and creating green space along the Harlem River.”

He continues to press for more community input into the city’s Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, and is now looking at ways to address the presence of so many waste transfer stations in Mott Haven.

More challenges lie ahead, he says, noting the rapid gentrification of other neighborhoods in New York City and the way it has pushed out long-time residents.

In addition to his service on Board 1, Johnson continues to do other organizing work. Last spring he traveled to Bolivia for the World People’s Conference on Climate Change. There he acted as co-president of one of the summit’s committees; when he got home, he participated in a panel about the conference.

Almost a mile away from the handsome block near Alexander Avenue where Johnson lives, Lou Torres is hard at work in his own corner of Mott Haven. In a brightly-lit first floor office of the Moore Houses, near St. Mary’s playground, Torres serves as president of the tenants association.

Like Johnson, Torres has also traveled the world, though for different reasons. He spent many years working as a musician and an actor, director and producer of films. But he always knew he would come back to his home base in Mott Haven.

In his capacity as president of the New York City Housing Authority complex, Mr. Torres leads art workshops for children as well as health, legal and educational programming for the residents in his buildings.

Keeping track of two 20-story buildings and representing over 1,000 residents is not an easy job. Torres is often the first to hear about problems in the building, but as a rule he can’t fix them alone.

But Torres is as upbeat about his work as Mychal Johnson is about his. Even after suffering a stroke last year that left him unable to speak for four months, Torres, who has regained his ability to communicate with words, although he still speaks slowly and sometimes haltingly, remains positive. He is in his office almost every day, working to improve quality of life in the Moore houses.

When asked about his accomplishments, Torres seems proudest of the work he’s done with Mott Haven’s young people. He has organized teen anti-violence events and rewarded participants with group trips and prizes. He holds educational workshops right in his office in the Moore Houses, teaching kids animation and other computer programs.

But getting money allocated for the things he wants to get done can be tricky. And as president, Torres also has to worry about serious security matters—about crimes committed on the property, police response time and even police harassment of Moore House residents.

All the while, Lou Torres continues his own filmmaking projects. Quick to hand out a head-shot, he is in the process of trying to fund and produce at least one film, and looking forward to acting in more. His resume ranges from a co-producer credit on the award-winning independent movie “Manito” to playing small parts in “Law and Order” and the big-screen blockbuster “Fantastic Four.”

But even with so much in store, Torres never talks about leaving the Moore Houses, just as Mychal Johnson’s travels continue to bring him back to Mott Haven. Though the men followed different paths to leadership in Mott Haven, both are taking their cues from those who built their neighborhood back up after the hard times of the 1970s. They’re staying.

Vendors sold food for picnic lunches in Hunts Point Riverside Park. Will Mott Haven residents have the same opportunity?

Mott Haven leaders fear they’re being left behind

By Sarah Trefethen
sarah.trefethen@motthavenherald.com

A number of Mott Haven community leaders are complaining that they have been left out of planning the South Bronx Greenway’s future.

At stake, they argue, is not only recreation but jobs.

“There’s a whole spectrum of economic development opportunities here, and we want to make sure this is as inclusive as it needs to be,” Arline Parks, the chair of Community Board 1’s economic development committee, said at a recent committee meeting.

A team of consultants is working with Hunts Point community groups to plan how businesses and residents can get the most out of the proposed greenway. They are developing a business plan for a new, home-grown non-profit organization that would manage the greenway, putting more effort into upkeep than city agencies would be expected to.

“It’s a difference of do you want it kept clean, or kept clean and also planted every year,” said Frank Randazzo, director of the Bronx Empowerment Zone, an arm of the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation that provided $150,000 to pay the consultants.

According to Daniel Hernandez, one of those consultants, the new non-profit will most likely resemble Solar 1, the environmental education group that manages Stuyvesant Cove Park on the East River in Manhattan.

The management organization would hire other groups to run programs, organize commerce and maintain the greenway. Local residents would have priority in filling these contracts.

“There’s a lot of momentum and investment in the greenway, and implementation of this is critical,” Hernandez said. “People will see that.”

The completed plan will be presented to a steering committee assembled by Paul Lipson, Rep. Jose Serrano’s chief of staff. The committee, which includes representatives of the New York and Bronx Overall economic development corporations and several non-profits, will be in charge of turning the plan into a reality.

“It seemed to me it was more Hunts Point than Mott Haven centered,” said Parks, after a presentation at Board 1’s office.

“They talked about vendors, concerts and other activities. You’d want to make sure our community members could be vendors, and host activities, and participate in the economic development opportunities. You’d want to make sure it’s going to represent Mott Haven and Hunts Point,” she said.

Mott Haven has almost twice as many residents as Hunts Point, but Parks said Hunts Point has gained an advantage because of its activist organizations. “Mott Haven doesn’t have the kinds of organizations that Hunts Point has,” she said. “Hunts Point has been ahead of the curve in that regard.”

Harry Bubbins, the director of Friends of Brook Park, said he was glad work was being done on the greenway.

“We were leading bike tours to promote the idea 10 years ago, so we’re very pleased to see some progress on this project,” he said.

But Bubbins was disappointed that he hadn’t heard anything about plans for a new organization to run the greenway. And he was worried that a planning process that doesn’t involve the whole community might seem efficient in the short-term, but ultimately fall short of its goals. “There’s a consolidation within Hunts Point groups at the expense of larger community building,” he said.

The Port Morris Industrial Business Zone promotes economic development in the area immediately surrounding a portion of the proposed greenway. Stephane Hyacinthe, who runs the program, said he thinks the greenway sounds like a wonderful idea, but no one has contacted him about the plan.

“It’s an initiative I’d be more than willing to work on and give my expertise and knowledge,” he said, “but I don’t know who’s spearheading the project.”

Maryann Hedaa, who heads the Hunts Point Alliance for Children and is a member of the steering committee, said the perception that Mott Haven and Port Morris groups were being left out of the planning for the management of the greenway was probably correct.

But, she added, “I don’t think the right people from Hunts Point are on the committee either.”

She is less worried about the geographic makeup of the committee than she is about its collective expertise.

“The trouble is there’s no real business leadership involved,” she said. “It could be a whole lot of money going down the drain if you don’t get the right people managing it. I’m worried the people on that committee will maintain the status quo, and the status quo in the South Bronx isn’t sustainable.”

In addition to the Hunts Point Alliance for Children, the steering committee includes representatives from The Point CDC, Rocking the Boat and Sustainable South Bronx.

Randazzo also said Mott Haven and Port Morris may have been overlooked. While much of the work is already done, he said there is still time for additional input on how the greenway should be managed.

“Is there room for another opinion? I would say sure. Is it going to have the same effect as if you’d been there since day one? Probably not,” he said. “Sometimes it’s tough to remember everybody.”

The photograph shows the Randall’s Island Connector under construction at the Amtrak viaduct in Port Morris. A rendering, below, shows what the site will look like when work is completed.

But a controversial proposal could keep playing fields off-limits

By Lindsay Lazarski
lindsay.lazarski@motthavenherald.com

Elected officials and the Parks Department describe Randall’s Island as an invaluable resource, and boast that its waterfront pathways provide scenic views and “increased access” to recreation “for the neighboring communities of East Harlem and the South Bronx.”

But the island, only a stone’s throw from the Bronx, has been reachable only from Manhattan or by driving over the Triborough Bridge–until now.

In two years the South Bronx Connector; a 1.5 mile pathway for pedestrians and bicyclists, will open under the historic Amtrak trestle on Randall’s Island making newly- renovated fields, a new tennis center and Icahn Stadium easier for South Bronx residents to reach.

But a controversial decision to restrict use of the fields to private schools on school-day afternoons will keep the facilities off-limits then, despite the new route from Port Morris to the island.

And boaters have complained that the footbridge and Con Edison utility cables underneath the bridge will make navigation at high tide difficult.

Nevertheless construction of the connector nearly a decade after its conception wins applause from local advocates.

“The South Bronx Connector is long overdue,” said Arline Parks, chair of the Land Use Committee of Community Board 1. “For the first time, we are seeing the kind of development that reshapes our area of the Bronx and gives us an opportunity to have a better hold on the community.”

The connector is part of the South Bronx Greenway project, a network of green streets and waterfront trails and parks in Hunts Point and Port Morris, which has gotten a boost from $22 million in federal stimulus funds and is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2012.

Phase 1 of the connector, a footbridge over the Bronx Kill, located just south of 132^nd street in Port Morris, is nearly done.

Construction of the bridge is expected to be completed by the end of the summer, but the pathway will not be open to pedestrians and bikers until the full project is completed in the fall of 2011, said Janel Patterson a spokeswoman for the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

Con Ed will incorporate new electrical equipment on the underside of the connector to upgrade power for Icahn Stadium, the Fire Department training center, and a water treatment plant on the island, said Con Ed spokesman Chris Olert.

“Con Ed hijacked the bridge project,” charges Harry Bubbins, director of Friends of Brook Park, which is threatening a lawsuit over the obstacle to boaters.

The cables on the South Bronx Connector are not the only source of controversy.

The Randall’s Island Sports Foundation, a public-private partnership, and the parks department are building new sports fields and renovating existing ones. They will almost double the number of fields on the island, to 66.

But local residents may be barred from using those fields some of the time.

To pay for the maintenance and upkeep of the new fields, the parks department has proposed a concession agreement with 20 independent private schools in Manhattan.

In exchange for $2.2 million, the private schools would receive guaranteed permits for half the fields from 3-6 p.m. during the spring and fall.

Public schools and community-based organization would receive 40 percent of the permits and the remaining 10 percent would be left for other applicants.

The proposal is a second effort to fund the ball fields project through concessions to the private schools.

In 2008, State Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich ruled the plan had not followed the proper public review process and overturned the agreement.

Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito, whose district includes part of Mott Haven and Randall’s Island, said the new proposal has made some progress, but added she still has philosophical concerns over the privatization of public parkland.

“It is an issue of access and equity in my eyes,” said Mark-Viverito at a public hearing. “We believe in public-private partnerships, and that is important in this city, but we have to ensure that those public-private partnerships don’t create inequities within our communities.”

Hear Geoffrey Croft's take on the process and environmental impact of the plan

 Geoffrey Croft, the president of New York City Park Advocates, said he did not see much of a difference between the initial proposal and the latest one.  

“The whole definition and purpose of public parkland is that they’re supposed to be public, and not be able to be bought by any group, rich or poor,” said Croft.  “Everyone is into making deals and concessions, but that is not what the purpose of a public park is. They are supposed to be open to everybody.”

But Lou Schlanger, athletic director at the South Bronx Campus high schools and director of the Randall’s Island Kids Summer Camp, defended the arrangement.

“Everybody is not satisfied and wished they had more time, but nobody would have anything without the foundations initiatives.  The island still would have been a sand box with broken glass and everything.”

“Whatever the deal is,” he added, “It is a win for everybody.”

An artist's rendering of the development the city imagines along the Bronx Harlem River waterfront

But this may change.

The city has a plan that could bring new life – and new investment – to the lower Concourse and Harlem River waterfront.  The Department of City Planning has envisioned a new future for this 30-block area.

In the next few years the neighborhood’s first large supermarket may replace factories. The stately apartment buildings that line the Grand Concourse to the north could be mirrored in the south.

And the Harlem River Waterfront could be transformed within a decade to a Battery Park City of the North, with towering apartment buildings as high as 40 stories overlooking a waterfront promenade laced with open-air cafes and patches of green.

The government is not going to build any of this itself.  But, through a process called rezoning, it can change the rules that govern how people who own property in the area develop and use their land.

“We want to create a place where people can live, work, shop and play,” said Carol Samol, head of the city planning department’s Bronx office.

Current zoning rules keep buildings small in this area–just blocks away from Mott Haven’s towering housing projects–and prohibit their use as homes.  By changing these rules, the city hopes to encourage property owners either to convert vacant manufacturing lofts to housing, sell their land to developers or build something new themselves.

Community Board 1 unanimously approved the plan at its February meeting, though some board members voiced misgivings.

Board member Mychal Johnson said he’s worried that rising rents could eventually drive out the area’s long-time residents. The proposed new rules would encourage developers to build affordable housing in the district along with higher-rent housing.  But Johnson is concerned that that might not be enough, because the definition of “affordable” is pegged to the average income of people living in New York City as well as Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties.

“Sometimes that doesn’t help people here,” Johnson said, “because this community is on the lower end.”

Based on the most recent income calculations, a family earning as much as $55,000 would be eligible for a subsidized two-bedroom apartment, and the rent could be as high as $1,237.

“Of course we don’t want our sky blocked with skyscrapers,” Johnson said. “One of the reasons I love the Bronx is that we’re not boxed in.” But he voted to support the plan because he thinks community will benefit from a better mix of incomes.

The warehouses and parking lots of the Harlem River waterfront may be replaced within a decade by modern development

Commercial investment would also bring needed jobs, he believes, along with real estate tax payments that might help improve local schools.  In addition, he hopes that economic incentives will pressure local polluters like the waste transfer station in the Oak Point Yards to clean up their acts.

Other concerns arise because more apartment buildings would mean more riders on the subway, more cars on the road, more kids in the classrooms and more patients in the hospital.  In its environmental study of the project, the city planning department estimated the plan could bring over 10,000 new residents within 10 years.

Board member Alice Simmons said development should be an ongoing dialogue. “We’re talking about a 10-year goal,” she said.  “It’s not going to happen overnight.”

Community Board 1 Chairman George Rodriguez said residents had reason to worry about such a big change, and acknowledged that he himself is worried about protecting local small businesses.  But rezoning is an important part of revitalizing the South Bronx, he said, and worries should not be an excuse to do nothing.

“You might open a Pandora’s box, but then, you might not,” Rodriguez said.

The small conference room at the community board office was overflowing with people on the evening of the vote.  The planning department showed PowerPoint slides with maps, photos of buildings in the areas that would be rezoned and renderings of potential new development.

Board members and members of the audience expressed their concerns during a question and answer period.

One board member said that Mott Haven needs a state-of-the-art public library.

Pamela Smith, the president of the Mitchel Houses tenants’ association, worried that increased traffic and taller buildings would create and trap air pollution in an area where asthma is already epidemic.
Two representatives of the community group Nos Quedamos asked about churches in the plan, and how the plan would address the influence of Sin City, a strip club on Park Avenue.

Samol said the new zoning rules would not prevent the construction of churches or libraries. She also said that car technology is becoming cleaner, and developers would plant street trees to help clean the air.

Business that are currently operating will not be forced to move, she said, but once the area has a residential zoning new adult establishments will not be allowed.

The City Planning Commission is currently reviewing the proposal.  The City Council is expected to vote on the plan sometime this summer.