Gowanus Coalition Sends City Demands On Planned Rezoning

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — A sing-song chant captured the demands a diverse group of community advocates and organizations sent Wednesday to the planners of city-run Gowanus rezoning:

"We won't back down."

Karen Blondel, an organizer with the Gowanus Neighborhood Coalition for Justice, sang the classic Tom Petty song before she and coalition members unveiled what they — the people living in and around Gowanus — want from the city as it nears a public review process on a long-awaited rezoning plan that could literally change the face of the neighborhood.

They put three demands at the top of their list:

Upfront funding for the NYCHA Warren, Wykoff and Gowanus Houses; net zero combined sewage overflows; and the creation of an environmental justice district with local oversight.

Failure to fulfill any of those demands would be a "dealbreaker" for the coalition, members said again and again at the event held in the Fifth Avenue Committee building on Degraw Street.

GNCJ formed four years ago as murmurs of a city-run Gowanus rezoning grew, Blondel said. She said the coalition aimed to hear the voices of community members, public housing residents, scientists, elected officials and all others with a stake in the area.

Together, a diverse and inclusive coalition engaged in a long back-and-forth that resulted in a plan based on principles of equity, inclusion and economic and environmental justice, Blondel said.

"GNCJ strives to elevate the voices of the community that have not been heard in the city's planning process," she said.

City Councilman Brad Lander, who represents Park Slope and Gowanus, drew laughter from the audience when he said community organizing is hard work. But he said the plan will "get Gowanus right" if city officials listen to it.

"We have a chance to make the Gowanus rezoning a genuine model for how we build a truly inclusive, truly equitable, truly sustainable community that models the principles of social and racial and environmental justice as we move forward to embrace its future," he said.

Stephen Levin, a city councilman who represents the Gowanus, Wykoff and Warren Houses, noted a previous city-run rezoning in Williamsburg and Greenpoint produced billions of dollars of land value but failed to produce its promised thousands of affordable housing units.

"We need to reinvent the paradigm with how we do rezonings in this city," he said. "We cannot just let business as usual happen here."

Help for public housing is the coalition's first demand.

NYCHA residents endure excessive heat, bitter cold, leaking pipes and rats in their garbage chutes, Monica Underwood, chair of Families United for Racial and Economic Equality, told the crowd.

"Before we rezone, fix our homes," she said.

Cherry Shiver said she lived in Wykoff Gardens for the past 50 years. She's tried of the disrepair.

"We want to live like other people," she said.

Environmental concerns also featured heavily in the coalition's three demands and 17 priorities. The heavily-polluted Gowanus Canal snakes through the neighborhood.

Andrea Parker with the Gowanus Canal Conservancy said the plans should dovetail with larger cleanup efforts along the canal. Sewage shouldn't go into the water every time it rains, she said.

"New development doesn't have to mean new pollution," she said.

Representatives of state Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon, state Sen. Velmanette Montgomery and Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez also attended the event.

Blondel said the coalition will send the demands to Mayor Bill de Blasio and other city officials. She said they've heard nothing official from what the city proposes for the rezoning.

"We're waiting the mayor to release their framework," she said.

More information on the GNCJ plan and a petition can be found on the coalition's website.