The Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) will host an “Open Community Meeting” Wednesday (July 20), from 6:00 to 7:00 pm, at Six River Terrace (opposite the Irish Hunger Memorial and next to Le Pain Quotidien restaurant). Residents are urged to attend, hear a presentation from Authority staff on their vision for the community, and seek answers to questions that are crucial to the future of everybody who lives here, such as resiliency, affordability, and security. This meeting is expected to focus particularly on the BPCA’s plans for reconfiguring South End Avenue, including the controversial possibility that pedestrian arcades along that street might be filled in to create new retail space.
The most recent session of this kind took place on April 13, and was the second in a series of quarterly meetings through which the BPCA was seeking to repair its relationship with the community it governs, which was widely perceived to have been sundered by a serious of controversial decisions in recent years.
BPCA chairman Dennis Mehiel said of Open Community sessions earlier this year, “we’re wide open to suggestions, to ideas about how we can continue to execute our responsibilities to the best of our judgment and in conformance with our fiduciary responsibility to the tax payers of New York City and New York State.”
The Broadsheet asked more than a dozen elected officials, community leaders, and residents to frame such suggestions and pose questions for the Authority to answer at tomorrow’s meeting. Here are their responses:
State Senator Daniel Squadron asked “why did the Battery Park City Authority Board decide to disallow direct public comment at board meetings?” This was a reference to a recently announced policy under which residents (who are not permitted to speak at sessions of the Authority’s board of directors, where major decision affecting the community are made) would be allowed to submit statements in writing, which would then be included in the official record of these meetings. The same policy does permit elected officials representing the community to attend BPCA board meetings and speak on behalf of their constituents. Senator Squadron plans to attend the July 20 session of the BPCA’s board (which is scheduled for 9:45 am, at the BPCA offices in 200 Liberty Street, and is open to the public), where he intends to raise questions that residents and community leaders have told him they would ask, if they were permitted to speak.
U.S Congressman Jerry Nadler: “It is time for the Battery Park City Authority to recognize the groundswell of support for giving local residents the opportunity to play a role in decisions impacting Battery Park City.”
U.S. Congressman Jerry Nadler said, “it is time for the Battery Park City Authority to recognize the groundswell of support for giving local residents the opportunity to play a role in decisions impacting Battery Park City. Once again, I urge the BPCA to make the kind of substantial changes to the current BPCA process that Battery Park City residents deserve, creating channels for true public input and community inclusion.” This was a reference to an ongoing push by local residents and community leaders to gain greater representation on the BPCA’s seven-member board, where only one seat is currently held by a resident of Battery Park City.
Andrew Goldston, a spokesman for Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, identified two priorities: feedback from Battery Park City residents on whether the recent agreement between the City and the helicopter tourism industry (scaling back the number of flights) has resulted in any improvement, and the importance of continuing to host Open Community Meetings, to provide more opportunity for residents and stakeholders to communicate directly with the Authority.
Anthony Notaro, the new chairman of Community Board 1 (CB1), observed that, “the BPCA has taken some steps that are more community-focused than the past few years,” and asked, “what is motivating this and what other things are planned?”
Nina Segarra, chair of CB1’s Battery Park City Committee, reflected that, “the scheduled Town Hall meetings are a good start in an increased dialogue between the community and BPCA leadership. However, it is not a substitute for local board representation and public comments at board meetings.” Citing two issues that have raised concern among residents, she continued, “in the short term, the full participation of the community and its representatives on the community board in regards to the South End Avenue and Wagner Park proposals can serve as a barometer of BPCA responsiveness.” These were allusions to a pair of major projects that the BPCA is currently considering: a possible redesign of the South End Avenue streetscape, and a potential reconfiguration of Wagner Park.
Four candidates for a New York State Assembly seat (representing the 65th District, which includes southern Battery Park City) also raised questions they believe the BPCA should address at Wednesday’s Open Community Meeting.
Gateway Plaza resident Jenifer Rajkumar noted that, “community members have protested the BPCA’s decisions at least four times in the last 18 months. In light of this, what plans does the BPCA have to include community members in its decision making? Would the BPCA be willing to implement a public comment session at its meetings to facilitate open, direct dialogue with community members, as comparable governmental bodies do? Would the BPCA be willing to create a Community Advisory Council consisting of community stakeholders, to better engage the community in its decision making? What does the BPCA board envision as the ideal relationship between an Authority and the community it oversees, and how can we make the BPCA’s decision-making more responsive to the wishes of the more than 13,000 residents in Battery Park City?”
Don Lee, a resident of Rector Place, who is also running for the 65th District Assembly seat, said, “some of the issues that must be addressed are safety, community input on South End Avenue streetscape redesign, qualify of life, managing bicycle traffic, and transparency in land-lease renewals.” This was a reference to the exotic nature of property ownership in Battery Park City, where homeowners, landlords, and developers do not own outright the land they occupy, but instead lease the space (through the year 2069), in exchange for yearly payments of ground rent, as well as so-called “payments in lieu of taxes.” Concerns about this arrangement have grown acute in recent years, as more residents have come to realize that, under the current terms of the ground lease, their homes will disappear in 53 years, as ownership of all the real estate in Battery Park City reverts to the Authority. For condominium owners, this will mean that their property is effectively confiscated, while renters will face the prospect of eviction. Both owners and tenants will be rendered homeless under this scenario. “There must be transparency for the ground lease renewal process, where the community is informed and involved,” Mr. Lee said.
He continued, “I believe in local involvement in order to create safer, stronger communities. The BPCA decided, contrary to the wishes of many residents of Battery Park City, to contract out security to AlliedBarton. Security guards don’t have the authority to make arrests or issues summonses, unlike the Parks Enforcement Patrol officers who had patrolled Battery Park City since 1992.”
Paul Newell, a resident of the Lower East Side who is another contender for the 65th District Assembly seat (which represents a patchwork of communities stretching from the Battery to Vesey Street on the West Side and jigsaws just above Houston Street on the East Side), asked, “what is the BPCA’s continued value to our community, given their lack of clear mission or community representation?” He also queried, “what can the Authority do to give both owners and renters some sense of stability in regards to ground rents long term?”
State Assembly candidate Yuh-Line Niou: “We all know there are persistent issues with the BPCA. Residents need and deserve real accountability.”[/caption
Financial District resident Yuh-Line Niou is also a candidate for the State Assembly seat representing southern Battery Park City. She said, “we all know there are persistent issues with the BPCA. Residents need and deserve real accountability. There are clear ways to increase representation at the Authority of those who live here and there are issues that impact our day-to-day lives that we need to be talking about. For instance, in light of a recent pedestrian fatality, signaling changes can make our streets safer for pedestrians overnight. But the necessary action hasn’t been taken to make this a reality. Why not?”
This theme was echoed by Dodge Landesman, a candidate for a seat on the Democratic State Committee. “The death of New York City resident Olga Cook, while biking at Chambers street and the West Side Highway, could have been prevented.” He asked whether the BPCA would, “join CB1’s call to install right hand turn signals for southbound traffic along the lower part of the West Side Highway? How come this hasn’t been an issue of priority before?”
Tom Goodkind, a longtime resident of Gateway Plaza who serves on CB1’s Battery Park City Committee, said, “the BPCA should acknowledge their constituent’s needs for fair housing that would allow their constituents to remain in place, instead of housing that simply favors outside owner and operators.” A step in this direction, Mr. Goodkind said, “would be listing all available rent-stabilized and affordable apartments on the BPCA website.”
He continued, “the BPCA should also reinstate the tennis courts that were formerly located on the site of the baseball fields, possibly replacing one of area’s many basketball courts.”
Returning to a controversy from 2011, Mr. Goodkind also said, “the BPCA should acknowledge the work of Tom Otterness,” sculptor of the bronze Real World playground in Rockefeller Park, “and allow him to donate his library lions to the community, instead of banning him.” (The artist offered to create bronze lions to adorn the front door of the Battery Park City branch of the New York Public Library, but this plan was vetoed amid concerns about a controversial video he had produced decades earlier.)
Maria Smith, who also serves on the Battery Park City Committee of CB1, said, “I think the BPCA needs to start looking at quality of life issues in Battery Park City. With more people coming to our neighborhood, there has been an increase in traffic, noise and garbage. The park rules and regulations need to be better enforced. The entire signage system needs to be upgraded so that residents and visitors know park rules and regulations. It may be small stuff compared to developing Brookfield, but it’s the stuff that makes a neighborhood livable or unlivable.”