On Tuesday, City Council spent 11 hours debating the fate of Industry City, a privately owned complex of 16 warehouses in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. I forgive you if, in the midst of the world crumbling all around us, this zoning battle hadn’t caught your attention. But while it doesn’t involve a behemoth corporation that spent months hyping a search for its new headquarters, in many ways it’s round two of the battle over Amazon HQ2 in Queens, with its big, shiny promises (IC rezoning: 20,000 new jobs! Amazon rezoning: 25,000 new jobs!) and the skepticism that those promises will be kept, and truly benefit locals. The city’s current unemployment crisis has raised the stakes even higher, so here’s my summary of what’s happening.
What’s Industry City?
Industry City is part of a massive complex of warehouses, factories, and piers built on the Sunset Park waterfront in 1890 and formerly known as Bush Terminal. Bush Terminal was Navy base during World War I, then decayed along with manufacturing in the rest of the country in the aftermath of World War II. In the 1950s, the complex’s owners first began advertising a section of the warehouses as “Industry City.”
In the 1980s, Industry City became an office park and manufacturing center, home to the highest concentration of garment manufacturing outside of Manhattan’s Garment District. In the aughts, under Bloomberg, the city worked to attract tech companies and artists to the area, and in 2013, a consortium of developers including Jamestown Properties (creator of Chelsea Market) purchased the property, which covers more than 5 million square feet. It’s now home to 500 businesses including a Japanese food hall and a Brooklyn Nets training facility.
What’s the proposal?
The area would be rezoned from heavy manufacturing to mixed-use, and allow the addition of more than one million square feet of new space for film and photo studios, retail and office space, and classrooms. The developers estimate the rezoning would help create 20,000 new jobs and $100 million in annual tax revenue.
So who’s against it?
Earlier this summer, Carlos Menchaca, the city councilmember who represents Sunset Park, announced that he would vote no on the rezoning later this fall. Menchaca has sided with local activists who argue that the development will supercharge gentrification and displacement of the local population, many of whom are Chinese and Latino immigrants. One in five live in poverty, and there’s already a severe affordable housing shortage in the neighborhood. This faction is skeptical that the 20,000 promised jobs will materialize (after all, this estimate was made before the current recession, and, as WNYC’s Brian Lehrer recently pointed out, the developer admitted to fudging the number—8,000 of these jobs already exist) and that if they do, it’s unclear whether they’ll be the kind of entry-level, good-paying jobs that will most benefit locals.
There are also environmental concerns about building in a storm surge zone—the complex was flooded with 20 million gallons of water during Hurricane Sandy. Last year, Uprose, Brooklyn’s oldest Latino community-based organization, released its an alternative proposal for a “Green Resilient Industrial District,” which focused on green job creation and infrastructure.
Who’s for it?
Typically, City Council defers to the councilmember from a district when voting on land-use decisions in that district. But the council is bucking the tradition of “member deference” here. Councilmembers Ritchie Torres, of the Bronx, Donovan Richards of Queens, and Robert Cornegy of Brooklyn have all been vocal supporters of the project. They argue that in the midst of a devastating economic crisis, the city is in no position to turn down an opportunity for large-scale job creation, especially when the collapse of the Amazon deal is still fresh. The developers have agreed to many of the demands of Menchaca and other community advocates, including not building a hotel as originally planned, and ensuring that there are manufacturing jobs, and a new technical high school for the neighborhood. However, they’ve refused to make these agreements in writing, and even if they did, such Community Benefits Agreements are usually unenforceable.
Why does it matter?
As NY Times reporter Emma Fitzsimmons writes: “The showdown over Industry City is a fight for the future of development in New York City… The rezoning proposal has also exposed complex tensions among Democrats over gentrification, the power of the real estate industry and who will lead the city as it recovers from its worst crisis in half a century.” It seems like the conflict will play a large role in the Democratic mayoral primary next year. City Council speaker Corey Johnson, who will be running for mayor, hasn’t said whether he supports the rezoning. Neither has de Blasio.
The City Planning Commission approved the plan in August, and the City Council has to either approve the plan to send to the Mayor or vote it down by mid-November.
10,000
Number of additional teachers the principals union estimates NYC schools need to meet requirements for socially distanced smaller classes, and to provide a hybrid of in-person and virtual learning.
Around town…
-Brooklynites gathered at RBG’s Midwood high school (also attended by Bernie Sanders, Chuck Schumer, and Chris Rock) to pay their respects: “Students—until James Madison is knocked down--will walk into the lobby of James Madison High School, look up at her picture and say, 'I could be like Ruth.'"(Gothamist)
-A deep-dive into the divorce of our favorite billboard lawyers Cellino & Barnes: “‘Why the fuck would you want to fuck this up when we are making 10 million dollars a year?’ everyone remembers Barnes yelling. That was especially galling to the staffers, since for years the firm had refused to subsidize their health insurance.” (NYMag)
-Back in May, I wrote a story looking at how Coney Island’s seasonal businesses could be affected by a socially-distant summer. Almost five months later, the amusement district remains closed and seriously hurting: “We invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to already implement these safety measures to open safely … To be completely ignored adds a lot to the pain we are now experiencing.” (Brooklyn Paper)
Meme of the week
Like what you’re reading? Subscribe to Fun City: