Brooklyn Bridge Park Advocate Foe Sen. Dan Squadron Resigns

March 22, 2010.  The Gang's All Here.  Officials including Dan Squadron (far left) at the ceremonial ribbon cutting on a drizzly morning.  "The City does not have the money to have new parks and fund them," Mayor Bloomberg famously said. (Photos: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates)    Click on images to enlarge.

Brooklyn/Manhattan

By Geoffrey Croft

One of the villains in the fight for control of Brooklyn Bridge Park is resigning from his State Senate seat. 

Good riddance say long time Brooklyn Bridge Park supporters. 

This morning controversial State Senator Sen. Dan Squadron sent out a message announcing his sudden resignation effective this Friday. 

Squadron incurred the wrath of Brooklyn Bridge Park advocates in 2011when he cut a behind closed door deal with the Bloomberg administration which gave up his veto power over allowing housing in Brooklyn Bridge Park. 

Staunch park advocate Judi Francis worked behind the scenes on the state level to achieve veto power over future housing development in the park.  

“He told no one,” Judi Francis said of the betrayal. “It was a body blow to the community,” she said.

“He was able to knock 30 feet off the top of one building, that’s what he got for giving up his veto (power) over three buildings that were on the books and any other future buildings in the park,”  Francis said.   

As part of the deal he also helped negotiate a pop-up pool for five years for the park, an RFP for a year-round recreational facility which never went anywhere and two tennis courts that were supposed to be built on top of a maintenance building but were not.  A Community Advisory Council (CAC)  was also established, an entity Ms. Francis calls, “totally dysfunctional.”

“In 2011 he gave up the most powerful thing a legislator can have which is complete veto power over a development project inside public lands,"  she said.

“After much reflection, I have decided to lend my hand to make a difference in states across the country, pushing policies and candidates that will create a fairer and more democratic future,” Squadron wrote today. 

“It’s not possible to take on this challenge and continue to be a full-time legislator, which is what I always promised I would be," he said. 

Squadron has represented the 26th District which covers parts of lower Manhattan and Brooklyn since 2008.   The vacant seat will be filled in this November’s election. 

While running for the Senate he ran on a platform promising to fight residential development housing in the park. 

Squadron defeated incumbent Senate Minority Leader Martin Connor who served for 30 years, receiving 54% of the vote, a victory many say was won in large part with the help of Brooklyn Bridge Park supporters on the housing issue.  (Bloomberg endorsed Squadron for Public Advocate)

He further infuriated park advocates in 2013 when it was revealed in the media that he accepted more than $ 65,000 from supporters of a residential development inside the park,  He took in contributions from members Brooklyn Bridge Conservancy and several Brooklyn Bridge Development Corp.  board members as well as the president of Brooklyn Bridge Park, Regina Myer. 

The betrayal sill resonates today.  

“Six years ago on August 1st, this man gave up his mighty veto over BBP housing,”  Judi Francis said in a statement.

"Just over two years after his election - an election won on the principle of no housing inside our public parks and won by our advocacy to protect BBP from further housing and using our advocacy to point out the many, many ways to pay for the park. He gave up the veto we had lobbied the state to give to him. Why? To further his own unbridled and unprincipled ambition for his own personal gains,"  she wrote. 

Squadron’s wife Elizabeth “Liz” Weinstein rose to head the Mayor Bloomberg's Office of Operations.

In 2013 Squadron also introduced legislation that would have forced non-profit park groups to allocate a percentage of their incomes to other parks. 

That idea was quickly dismissed. 

Squadron previous worked as a staffer on Congressman Anthony Weiner’s 2005 mayoral campaign. In 2013 he ran unsuccessfully for New York Public Advocate a position won by Letitia James who hammered his flip flop on housing in the park.

“We are happy to see him go,”  said Francis who has worked for more than thirty years to acheive a "real  park" when reached by phone.

The City and State's refusel to take responsibly to fund the park's annual maintiance has been at the forfront of the more than decade long fight.

"The City does not have the money to have new parks and fund them," Mayor Bloomberg famously said at the opening of Brooklyn Bridge Park on March 22, 2010.

In 2010 the Bloomberg administration negoiated a $ 55 million dollar deal to hand over control of the former City/State Brooklyn Bridge Park project to the city.  By insisting that the park be "self-sustaining"  as a condition for the city taking control, the administration successfully achieved one of its most sought after goals – to inherit NY State's funding scheme its employes for the maintenance and operation of its public parkland. 

Much of the funding for the operation of NY State's parks is paid from concession and fee revenue. One of the most contentious issues with Brooklyn Bridge Park is the inclusion of housing that the government insists is necessary to pay for the park's operation.

Remember The Stunning Views - July 29, 2013. The panoramic views have been replaced by housing.


Read More:

Park Disparity Funding Solution According To Daniel Squadron - 
Have Central Park Foot the Bill

A Walk In The Park - March 29, 2014 

Squadron & Millman Sell Out In Deal With City To Bring More Housing To Brooklyn Bridge Park

A Walk In The Park - August 2, 2011 

Brooklyn Bridge “PID" Funding Scheme Dead In The Water

A Walk In The Park - February 22, 2011 

Bloomberg Rejects Proposal For The City To Pay To Maintain Brooklyn 

Bridge Park - Taxes Eyed 

A Walk In The Park - December 21, 2010

More Housing Likely For Brooklyn Bridge Park- Report

A Walk In The Park - June 10, 2011

Bloomberg Rejects Proposal For The City To Pay To Maintain Brooklyn 
Bridge Park - Taxes Eyed

A Walk In The Park - December 21, 2010

No Housing In Brooklyn Bridge Park Critics Assert Once Again

 A Walk In The Park - December 1, 2010 - By Geoffrey Croft 
 

Bloomy’s Takeover Does Not Ensure A Real Brooklyn Bridge Park - Editorial

 A Walk In The Park - March 11, 2010 
 

City Get Its Wish - State Park Funding Mechanism For Brooklyn Bridge Park

A Walk In The Park - March 9, 2010

Inside the Brooklyn Bridge Park Housing Deal

The Watchtower Society’s headquarters on Columbia Heights will be turned into a sweet residential building to help pay for Brooklyn Bridge Park’s maintenance. (Photo: Bess Adler/The Brooklyn Paper)

Brooklyn

It’s the billion-dollar boondoggle!

The Jehovah’s Witnesses are poised to make out like moneylenders in the temple under the just-signed deal that allows the city to fund Brooklyn Bridge Park’s annual upkeep with tax revenues from the group’s properties, a Brooklyn Paper analysis reveals.

The deal calls for the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society’s holdings in Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO to be rezoned for residential use — a change that real-estate experts believe will send the value of the Society’s properties well north of $1 billion.

“If they put them on the market now, they’ll be sold very quickly,” said Downtown real-estate broker Chris Havens.

The deal between Mayor Bloomberg and state officials will reduce the amount of luxury condos inside Brooklyn Bridge Park by using new property taxes created after the Watchtower properties are sold and return to the tax rolls.

That money will go into the normal general fund, which will then cover maintenance of the world-class park.

The deal has green advocates seeing red.

“Tax money is supposed to go into the city’s general fund and it’s being diverted to one park,” said Geoffrey Croft, founder of watchdog group New York City Park Advocates. “These types of deals create enormous disparities. Other neighborhoods can’t pay for parks in this way.”

Under the deal crafted by state Sen. Daniel Squadron (D–Brooklyn Heights) and Assemblywoman Joan Millman (D–Carroll Gardens), the greater the number of Watchtower buildings that go on the market, the less luxury housing needs to be built inside the park at Pier 6.

Those buildings were projected to bring in roughly $6 million a year in property taxes earmarked for the park. If the properties don’t start yielding sufficient property taxes by 2014, the city, under a new mayor, can move forward with the controversial condos.

Watchtower owns more than 30 properties, but doesn’t pay taxes on any of them under federal laws that exempt religious groups from normal levies.

The religious order will either apply to rezone its properties to residential before selling them, or sell them to developers based on the inflated post-rezoning price. Either way, it’ll mean big bucks for the group.

Havens estimates that one of Watchtower’s most valuable buildings — 25 Columbia Heights, which is part of the group’s administrative offices — could go for $91 million as right now as commercially zoned. It will likely go for at least twice that now that the city is behind the rezoning.

Indeed, One Brooklyn Bridge Park, the former Watchtower property at 360 Furman St., was bought by developer Robert A. Levine for $205 million in 2004.

The city’s deal is the latest funding scheme for Brooklyn Bridge Park — but the only one to gain the support of the wealthy in Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO, who won’t have to pay anything to maintain the park.

In 2009, Squadron proposed siphoning off some taxes from nearby landowners to pay for the controversial park project’s upkeep. But that went nowhere.

A year later, a committee designated to find alternatives to housing inside the park suggested creating a “park improvement district” that would charge nearby property owners an annual fee. But that went nowhere.

Again, wealthy Brooklyn Heights objected to having to pay.

“Maybe this is all just kind of scheme so Brooklyn’s wealthiest residents somehow don’t have to pay higher property taxes,” said Roy Sloane, president of the Cobble Hill Association and longtime opponent of housing in the park. “Why shouldn’t the immediate adjacent property owners pay more for the park?”

That’s a question that has come up in various forms ever since the the 2002 agreement requiring that the $350-million park raise its own maintenance budget so it wouldn’t become a drain on city and state coffers.

City and state officials decided that luxury housing — in the form of high-rises at John Street in DUMBO, Pier 1 and Pier 6 — was the easiest way to generate revenues for the park. But that scheme has long been under fire from Heights residents — and, indeed, helped propel Squadron into office.

Opponents of housing inside the park joined the anti-tax crowd and hailed Squadron’s call to capture tax revenue from the Watchtower properties as the way to stop future luxury condos within the park.

But former Squadron allies like Sloane say that the deal is fishy and that the senator sold out the park.

“This whole thing feels artificial to me and like it’s all driven by real estate,” Sloane said. “The Jehovah’s Witnesses have been the immense beneficiaries.”

State planners have put out new renderings for the proposed Brooklyn Bridge Park waterfront condo and open space development along the Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO coastline. The new building on the right of the rendering is a hotel. (Michael Van Valkenburg Associates)

Read More:

Inside the Brooklyn Bridge Park deal

The Brooklyn Paper - August 11, 2011 - By Kate Briqeulet

Editorial: At Brooklyn Bridge Park, the rich get richer

The Brooklyn Paper - August 11, 2011

Squadron & Millman Sell Out In Deal With City To Bring More Housing To Brooklyn Bridge Park - Critics

A Walk In The Park - August 2, 2011

Squadron & Millman Sell Out In Deal With City To Bring More Housing To Brooklyn Bridge Park

Brooklyn

Two state legislators are relinquishing their power to keep more controversial high-rise housing from being built at the new Brooklyn Bridge Park, under a deal with the city to be signed today, The Post has learned.

When the city last year took control of the project from the state, it agreed to give veto power over housing to the two local legislators, state Sen. Daniel Squadron and Assemblywoman Joan Millman, both Democrats.

Both pols have now agreed not to use it to keep hundreds of apartments planned within the park from being built, sources said.

In exchange, 40,000-square-feet will be shaved off one high rise set for John Street in DUMBO, and two other planned buildings within the park at Pier 6 in Brooklyn Heights could be shrunk or eliminated through a formula involving properties owned by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.

Watchtower, the Jehovah Witness’ publishing arm, owns dozens of nearby properties and is in the process of moving operations upstate. Under the new deal, tax revenues from Watchtower properties sold prior to Jan. 1, 2014 would be used to offset revenues that were expected to be generated by the Pier 6 apartments to help fund the park. In exchange, 40,000-square-feet will be shaved off one high rise set for John Street in DUMBO, and two other planned buildings within the park at Pier 6 in Brooklyn Heights could be shrunk or eliminated through a formula involving properties owned by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.

The deal helps ensure the stalled 85-acre waterfront project gets fully built, but news of it still left some community activist shocked and furious last night.

Both Squadron and Millman were carried into new terms, in part, after campaigning heavily against the city’s plans to add more housing.

“They said `no more housing,' especially Daniel, who won on that platform, and the first opportunity to use the veto, they are blinking,” said one irate local activist.

Brooklyn Bridge Park has been a political hot potato since project planners announced in December 2004 that more than 1,200 luxury condos would have to be included to raise enough money to offset the park's now-estimated $16.1 million annual maintenance costs.

Only one high-rise offering 440 luxury units at Pier 5 has been built; another 780 units have been on hold because of the slumping economy.

However, the city plans to soon gather proposals from developers interested in building 180 condos and a 225-room hotel at Pier 1 in Brooklyn Heights, one of the few finished portions of the waterfront park.

Under the 2010 agreement that allowed the city to take control of the park from the state, the city had to explore alternate revenue sources to the luxury condos planned at John Street and Pier 6.

Also, both Squadron and Assemblywoman Joan Millman were given veto power over the construction of housing at both sites, which they are now giving up.

Read More:

More high-rises coming to Brooklyn Bridge Park as state pols surrender veto power

New York Post - August 2, 2011 - By Rich Calder

The New York Times however writes a glowing account of the back-room deal that provides a soft landing for state Sen. Daniel Squadron and Assemblywoman Joan Millman. They write what basically amounts to a press release that fails to even mention that the state elected officials gave up veto power to strike this controversial deal with the Bloomberg administration, veto power that opponents of housing fought long and hard to help achieve.

The article fails to question the $16.1 million annual revenue the city has repeatedly claimed it needs to operate the park annually. Funding the city uses to justify housing in the park. And in the interest of providing fair and balanced reporting the article also fails to quote any opponents of this deal.

All In The Family. The piece also fails to mention that Daniel Squadron's wife Elizabeth Weinstein is the director of the Mayor's Office of Operations making a $170,000 a year.

The vote is at 1:45 today in the governor's room at City Hall. – Geoffrey Croft

Housing Deal Ensures Park in Brooklyn Will Expand

New York Times - August 1, 2011 - By Lisa W. Foderaro

August 2, 2011

Press Release - The Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund

No Back Room Deals: Use Veto Over Housing Park Advocates Urge

The deal to approve housing on the John Street lot in Brooklyn Bridge Park, in return for a possibility that less housing would be needed on Pier 6, is a deal made without community involvement or support.

“In today’s secret, back-room deal, Mayor Bloomberg exacted a high ransom from Brooklynites,” said Judi Francis, President of the coalition of local associations that have fought private housing in this park for over 6 years. “The Mayor has also pitted one community against another in his quest to place housing inside a public park. That portends badly for all going forward. We urge Senator Squadron to use his veto over housing. Period.”

“Senator Squadron, Councilman Steve Levin and Councilman Brad Lander all campaigned on a ‘no more housing inside Brooklyn Bridge Park’ platform,” said DUMBO Neighborhood Alliance President Doreen Gallo. “Did they misspeak or did they simply lack courage at the eleventh hour to go through with their pledge to their constituents?”

“We deeply regret this inevitable result of the Mayor and the Brooklyn Heights Association's preferred ‘housing only’ alternative to financing the park,” said Cobble Hill Association President Roy Sloane. “It is especially sad given how hard community activists and former Borough President Howard Golden fought to secure this Con Ed brownfield for a park to serve the residents of DUMBO, Vinegar Hill and the Farragut Houses. Seeing park land given up to development especially when so many viable funding mechanisms were identified in the recent "Committee for Alternative to Housing " conducted by Bay Area Consultants, is especially disturbing.”

The city's previous actions reducing income for the park laid the groundwork for this new housing development Mayor Bloomberg has supported.

"After the NYC Department of Finance reduced the fist condo building's annual commitments by $1 million, and a Federal Judge removed the Empire Stores from park funding, it was a foregone conclusion that alternate means to fund this park had to be explored," said Bob Stone, Treasurer of the BBP Defense Fund. “The Mayor’s earlier mis-dealings meant that even more funds would be needed."

The latest decision for the park is considered another example of Mayoral missteps that could have been avoided with an open community process and a relook at the entire General Project Plan for the park. The Mayor has been unwilling to engage on even the simplest aspects of this park – the dangerous playground equipment, the ill-placed carousel, a bike path that is unusable by bikers as well as those in wheelchairs, the inability to get to the park safely at key entrances. “Why do our elected officials think the Mayor will be willing to work with them for either fewer condos or recreation when he has never shown any interest in doing it before?” said Adam Meshberg President of the Vinegar Hill Association. “Remember, this Mayor spent all the money on landscaping for condos and ran out of dollars for the basketball courts and playing fields long ago.”

“Did our elected officials have any alternatives? Yes!” said Francis. “The community developed many ways to fund the park without housing. The Jehovah Witness buildings were one idea. The Real Estate Transaction fee is used by many communities throughout the nation to preserve open space, and a Park Improvement District were options that could have been worked on today for the next Mayor’s endorsement, if not ownership.”

“ The park is not the only loser in this decision,” said Maria Pagano, President of the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association. “The Mayor has now asked South Brooklyn to prioritize our end of the park over the needs of residents in DUMBO and Vinegar Hill. Is this fair? No. Did we advocate for this? No. We simply do not gore the ox of a neighbor in order to improve our own lot. This is not how communities behave. Apparently our elected officials missed this important point.”

The Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund is a 501C3 volunteer community organization comprised of local community associations with the support of the Atlantic Chapter of the Sierra Club. Their mission has been to advocate for the recreational and open space needs of Brooklynites, promoting publicly accessible means to fund parks without privatization with luxury housing inside park borders. Supporting organizations include Campaign for BBP, Friends of BBP, The Cobble Hill Association, Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association, DUMBO Neighborhood Alliance, Park Slope Neighbors, and Willowtown Association in addition to the Sierra Club.

# # #

Brooklyn Bridge Park Applies For Permit To Build Floating Pool

"Critics have long complained that the well-manicured waterfront park lacks enough recreation - and a floating pool could add a new dimension."

Brooklyn Bridge Park officials have applied for a permit from the State DEC to built a barge pool in the park.

Brooklyn

Brooklyn Bridge Park could finally get its own floating pool, according to the New York Daily News.

Park officials want to build a new floating pool, like the wildly popular barge-borne one that docked in the Brooklyn Heights harbor four summers ago, and last week took the first step by applying for a permit with the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

"It was popular. It drew visitors from all over Brooklyn, the city, and 12 foreign countries," said state Sen. Daniel Squadron (D-Brooklyn Heights).

"Having recreation that makes this park the citywide star that it can be is very important, and having a floating pool in the harbor would help the park reach its potential."

The city's only floating pool - called the Floating Pool Lady - has been stationed in the Bronx after its Brooklyn debut at Pier 2 near the Fulton Ferry Landing during the summer of 2007.

Park officials are hoping to construct a permanent pool atop the East River on the north side of Pier 5 near Atlantic Ave., but haven't yet raised the $5-10 million it would cost.

"It is a lot of money, but [for] a $350 million park to have a pool is an important amenity for a small fraction of the cost," Squadron said.

Critics have long complained that the well-manicured waterfront park lacks enough recreation - and a floating pool could add a new dimension.

Read More:

Brooklyn Bridge Park applies for permit to open up its own floating pool a la Floating Pool Lady New York Daily News - January 4, 2010 - By Erin Durkin and Jake Pearson

Bloomberg Rejects Proposal For The City To Pay To Maintain Brooklyn Bridge Park - Taxes Eyed

A Walk In The Park - December 21, 2010

Bloomberg Rejects Proposal For The City To Pay To Maintain Brooklyn Bridge Park - Taxes Eyed

"The City does not have the money to have new parks and fund them," Mayor Bloomberg famously said at the opening of Brooklyn Bridge Park on March 22, 2010. (Photo: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates)

Brooklyn

As expected, the Bloomberg administration has rejected a series of proposals meant to avoid building additional luxury housing to pay for maintaining Brooklyn Bridge Park, including requiring the city to pay to maintain their own park themselves, according to the New York Post.

In complying with the Bloomberg administration's mandate that parks need to pay for themselves, the consulting group hired by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation is not even allowed to consider options that involve using city funds.

The Committee on Alternatives to Housing is exploring ways to generate the more than $16-million dollars park officials say is needed annually to maintain the 61 acre park - plus water acres. The administration has also refused to consider trimming the park's bloated operating budget which many believe is a justification the city is using to build housing in the park.

The Bloomberg administration has also rejected State Senator Dan Squadron's plan to use a portion of the tax revenue from newly valuable property to fund the maintenance of Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Not surprisingly, these ideas were rejected by the committee after the public had advocated for them, some for years, including at two recently held public meetings held to discuss funding alternatives.

Last week, Deputy Mayor for economic development Robert Steel said the Bloomberg administration hopes to build "spectacular waterfront parks" that are able to pay for themselves.

"We will do our best to continue to insist that these parks be built with a self-sustaining source of revenue," Steel said, "so that today's ribbon-cuttings don't create tomorrow's fiscal challenges."

One idea being considered is establishing a Park Improvement District (PID) similar to BID's where nearby businesses and tenants would be charged an annual fee to be used for a dedicated park fund. The PID proposal was quickly rejected by Chelsea area businesses and residents last year in Manhattan when the City and the Friends of The High Line floated that idea.

One idea is capturing revenue from nearby Jehovah Witnesses buildings which are expected to be sold and converted to residential use.

Proposals being studied include fee based recreation services in the park, sponsorships or advertising, additional concessions, commercial real estate development, donations, and increased parking revenues.

Read More:

Bridge Park taxes eyed

New York Post - December 21, 2010 - By Rich Calder

Brooklyn Bridge ‘Park’ Squadron’s Brooklyn Bridge Park finance plan rejected

The Brooklyn Paper - December 21, 2010 - By Andy Campbell

Watchtower Building Revenue Could Save Park From Condos

Curbed - December 21, 2010 - by Sara Polsky

No Housing In Brooklyn Bridge Park Critics Assert Once Again

A Walk In The Park - December 1, 2010 - By Geoffrey Croft

Bloomy’s Takeover Does Not Ensure A Real Brooklyn Bridge Park - Editorial

A Walk In The Park - March 11, 2010

City Get Its Wish - State Park Funding Mechanism For Brooklyn Bridge Park

A Walk In The Park - March 9, 2010