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

Brooklyn Bridge Park Developers Want To Raise Building To Avoid Future Hurricane Flooding

Rendering of the Toll Brothers/Starwood Capital Group's controversial 159-apartment, 200-room hotel project  to be built in Brooklyn Bridge Park.  For years community and park advocates have fought to prevent housing developments from being built inside the park. 

The city's elected officials refuse to allocate the necessary funds required to maintain the park so the Bloomberg administration launched a funding scheme to allow this developement they say will raise $3.3 million towards the park's annual maintenance budget they claim is a massive $16 million. 

Brooklyn 

These guys want to put their Brooklyn Bridge Park plans on a pedestal.

The developers tapped to bring a hotel and residential complex to Pier 1 near Old Fulton St are planning for a future Hurricane Sandy by raising both buildings up at least three feet to avoid the massive flood damage that devastated the surrounding DUMBO neighborhood during last October’s super-storm, according to the New York Post. 

David Von Spreckelsen, a senior vice president at developer Toll Brothers, said the 159-apartment, 200-room hotel project — which would raise a $3.3 million chunk of the park’s $16 million annual maintenance budget — will now include additional steps and ramps leading to the main lobby and more masonry to ensure the building is above the site’s flood plain set by the feds.

Mechanical systems that normally are in basements will be moved to the roof. A basement will still be built but will be primarily used for parking.

“We want to make our building a structure that can survive any kind of storm,” said Von Spreckelsen, whose company is partnering with Starwood Capital Group in the development.

The development was supposed to break ground in February but is on hold until both Toll Brothers and Starwood complete the redesign.

Regina Myer, president of the city development corporation overseeing the 85-acre park’s construction, said she’s “comfortable” with the developers’ progress and confident that – despite the wrath of Sandy - the park would eventually be able to select a developer and move forward with other high-rise condo complexes planned for Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn Heights and John Street in DUMBO.

Myer said the park suffered about $1 million in damage from Sandy – mostly lighting and other electrical work – that is nearly fixed, adding “the park did very well” considering parks citywide suffered a total of $750 million in damage.

However, Cobble Hill activist Judi Francis said the storm proved just how bad a spot the waterfront park is to build more housing.

“The lesson of Sandy is it will happen again, and when it happens, it will be really bad for those residents who wind up buying condos there,” she said.

Read More:

Developers want to raise proposed Brooklyn Bridge Park 

complex three feet to avoid massive flood damage

New York Post - February 22, 2013 - By Rich Calder  

Not-For-Profit Offers To Donate $ 40 Mil. To Build Recreation Facility In Brooklyn Bridge Park

Proposed site for an indoor pay-to play recreation center field house along Furman Street and Montague streets. Today the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation announced that the New York City Fieldhouse Inc. a not-for-profit corporation, offered to underwrite the design and construction costs of a year-round, multi-use recreation facility near Pier 5. The facility is estimated to cost $40 million and represents one of the largest donations ever made to a New York City park, according to Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation. The building above, now used for storage, would be raised and replaced by another one story structure.

One of the major complaints about the Brooklyn Bridge Park plan has been the lack of indoor year-round recreation facilities for the community.

"We just got approval to go public," said Maureen Connelly, of Connelly McLaughlin & Woloz a PR firm who's been very involved with the project.

According to Ms. Connelly they looked at a number of different locations in and around the city including Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Mill Pond Park along the Bronx River, Williamsburg, and Liberty State Park in New Jersey. She said the process took three years to get to this point.

Ms. Connelly said one of the main reasons for choosing this location was because people in the community had been, "clamoring for indoor recreation."

"This is vindication for 7 long years of community activism to secure year round recreational facilities in Brooklyn Bridge Park," said Judi Francis, President of the coalition of community associations that organized 30 years ago to secure a public park along the shores of the east river under the Brooklyn Bridge.

"When private condos were introduced inside the park's borders, we thought a real park would never be realized. Today's generous gift is from heaven and we are so very grateful to Mr. Reshnicz for answering our call."

New York City Fieldhouse hopes to break ground in the Summer of 2014 with construction expected to take between 18-24 months.

Joshua Rechnitz's family including his late grandparents, Robert and Harriet Heilbrunn, have had a long philanthropic history of giving in the city. These gifts include to a number of museums, and the renovation of the East 72nd Street playground in Central Park.

According to the press release the Fieldhouse is envisioned to include a 115,000 sq. ft. indoor recreation center with a 200-meter inclined track for cycling and a 22,000 sq. ft. infield for high school, collegiate, club-level and professional sporting events, such as basketball, tennis, track cycling, volleyball, and gymnastics. It also includes key amenities for the park such as a public boathouse, public restrooms, and maintenance and operations space for BBPC.

Facility Revenue

The facility must generate sufficient revenue to be self-sustaining long term.

The funds generated from activities and events will be used to cover the anticipated maintenance and operating expenses of the facility. Also, a nominal fee will be charged for floor use and event admissions that will be comparable to other New York City athletic facilities, such as the 168th Street Armory and the Park Slope Armory.

The donor has also agreed to underwrite any shortfalls in operating revenue incurred by the facility for the first 10 years. However, should excess revenue exist, the funds will be used to establish an Operating Reserve Fund equal to one year’s operating and maintenance expenses. The donor will provide funding for capital repair work that may be needed for the facility in the future by establishing a multi-million dollar Capital Reserve Fund.

— Geoffrey Croft

Brooklyn

New York City Philanthropist Offers to Underwrite Year-Round Indoor Community Recreation Facility for Brooklyn Bridge Park

“Fieldhouse” Would Represent One of the Largest Donations Ever Made To a NYC Park

Today, at the board of directors meeting of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, Regina Myer, president of the park, announced that Joshua Rechnitz, founder and Chairman of the New York City Fieldhouse Inc. (Fieldhouse), a not-for-profit corporation, offered to underwrite the design and construction costs of a year-round, multi-use recreation facility near Pier 5. The facility is estimated to cost $40 million and represents one of the largest donations ever made to a New York City park.

Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Brooklyn Bridge Park Chairman Robert K. Steel said "This generous offer represents an exciting and dynamic opportunity for Brooklyn Bridge Park and for all of the New Yorkers who have quickly come to love this community resource."

"Brooklyn Bridge Park is rapidly taking shape as one of the great new parks of New York City,” said NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe. “This new field house will complement the romantic landscape and stunning vistas of the city's harbor and skyline with striking new facility for indoor sports and fitness, including track cycling and court sports, thanks to a remarkable private gift."

“This is a very exciting project and presenting our vision to the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation is an important milestone,” said New York City Fieldhouse founder and chairman, Joshua Rechnitz. “We want this to truly be a community endeavor that will add amenities for park users and provide a much needed all-weather sports facility.”

Regina Myer said “I am thrilled at the magnitude and generosity of this gift, which could invigorate the park in the winter months and provide much needed active recreation space for youth all over the borough on a year round basis. I look forward to working with community and recreation stakeholders to examine this proposal in full and evaluate how it can enhance Brooklyn Bridge Park’s legacy as an extraordinary civic destination.”

The proposed facility would be located primarily on Furman Street on a site now partially occupied by a cinderblock building used for storage and construction by BBPC and currently programmed for future operations and maintenance needs. The state-of-the-art indoor recreation, cycling, and community facility will be open for public use.

The Fieldhouse is envisioned to include a 115,000 sq. ft. indoor recreation center with a 200-meter inclined track for cycling and a 22,000 sq. ft. infield for high school, collegiate, club-level and professional sporting events, such as basketball, tennis, track cycling, volleyball, and gymnastics. It also includes key amenities for the park such as a public boathouse, public restrooms, and maintenance and operations space for BBPC.

NYC Fieldhouse, Inc. has selected Thomas Phifer and Partners to design the Fieldhouse. This established and highly regarded New York City-based firm has a portfolio of work that includes civic institutions, museums, academic campuses, private residences and corporate offices. Their work is distinguished by its clean lines, rich textures and responsiveness to site conditions.

Thomas Phifer, the founding principal, has received the AIA NY’s 2004 Medal of Honor and is a member of the National Academy of Design, among other honors.

The proposal will undergo extensive community consultation by staff and representatives of the not-for-profit starting with a briefing to the Brooklyn Bridge Park Community Advisory Council. Additionally, the proposal will be presented to neighborhood, educational, and athletic organizations for their input, as well as upcoming meetings of Brooklyn Community Boards 2 and 6.

Four public meetings in Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens, Sunset Park, Brooklyn Heights/Dumbo, and Red Hook, will be scheduled in order to further gather feedback and better assess community programming needs. Once concluded, the Fieldhouse will refine its proposal and the Board of the BBPC will determine whether to accept the offer and commence requisite land use and environmental reviews that will include public comment periods.

The New York City Fieldhouse, Inc. is a new not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting healthy and sustainable living in our communities through recreational and competitive sports with an emphasis on competitive track cycling. The New York City Fieldhouse, Inc. believes that New York City deserves both to benefit from the rapidly growing sport of competitive track cycling and to become a new world hub for the sport.

The New York City Fieldhouse, Inc. founder and chairman, Joshua P. Rechnitz, is a competitive amateur cyclist, track cycling enthusiast and philanthropist who is committed to establishing a world-class sports, cycling and recreation center in New York City. Mr. Rechnitz is following in the great philanthropic tradition of his late grandparents, Robert and Harriet Heilbrunn, who made significant contributions to cultural institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Natural History, medical and academic endeavors at institutions like Rockefeller University and Columbia University and Johns Hopkins University and civic pursuits like the renovation of the East 72nd Street playground in Central Park.

Read More:

B'klyn Bridge Park project gets $40M from philanthropist

New York Post - April 19, 2012 - By Rich Calder

Cyclist donates $40M to Brooklyn Bridge Park for indoor bike track

The Brooklyn Paper - April 20, 2012 - By Daniel Bush

Brooklyn Bridge Park Gets $40 Million Gift to Build Field House

New York Times - April 19, 2012 - By Lisa W. Foderaro

Brooklyn Bridge Park Design Criticized Again

A Walk In The Park - April 17, 2012

What's new and what's planned at Brooklyn Bridge Park

Parts of plans for the park are still in flux

New York Daily News - March 15, 2012 - By Erin Durkin

Development Of Pier 5 Indoor Soccer Field Fails To Attract Bidders

Proposed Pay-To-Play indoor soccer field. Pier 5 in Brooklyn Bridge Park is supposed to have an enclosed, winter-proof soccer field. Yesterday park officials announced they had no offers to build it. The facility would have been open from December to March. The city allocated spending up to $750,000 on construction, but the developer would have been responsible for a host of additional items for five years including maintenance, operation, insurance, and off-season storage.

Brooklyn

Brooklyn Bridge Park won’t get its much-touted indoor soccer field because the city failed to attract developers for it — prompting locals to slam the city for deliberately bursting the recreational bubble, according to the Brooklyn Paper.

On Thursday, park officials quietly announced that they received no offers to develop the site — and wouldn’t continue seeking offers to construct and operate a seasonal facility on Pier 5, despite assurances from local pols that the winter-proof field would be up and running by the end of 2012.

“This was designed to fail,” said Roy Sloane, president of the Cobble Hill Association. “[Under city rules], developers would have to put in a lot of money, have it open only four months a year, and charge very reasonable prices. Did that sound like something the city was serious about?”

The facility — which would have been open from December to March — had no rest rooms or locker rooms, and the operator would pay for maintenance, operations and off-season storage.

The city vowed to spend up to $750,000 on construction, but the developer would be responsible for everything beyond that.

Regina Myer, president of Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, said she was “tremendously disappointed” that no developers signed on, but would not elaborate on the bubble’s future.

The Pier 5 development was one of the less-controversial elements of the $350-million greenspace, which is required by a 2002 agreement between the city and the state to generate its own maintenance budget instead of draining taxpayer dollars.

Pier 5 in Brooklyn Bridge Park - proposed soccer field site. In August park officials announced that the enclosed recreational bubble with one soccer field would be open by the end of 2012. (Photo by Stefano Giovannini)

Funding for the bubble was secured in August, after state lawmakers reached a deal with Mayor Bloomberg to allow some luxury housing to fund the massive park’s $16-million annual upkeep.

State Sen. Daniel Squadron (D–Brooklyn Heights) — who signed the agreement — said that the bubble is still viable.

“This is only the first round,” he said. “The park has an obligation to build this bubble, and I believe that commitment will be kept.”

But critics disagreed, calling the Pier 5 loss another example of how public facilities are taking a backseat to private development.

Indeed, much of the focus for the past year has been on how to fund the park, with city officials pushing for luxury high-rises as the main funding source — along with a 10-story hotel slated for Pier 1, just south of the park’s primary entrance at the foot of Old Fulton Street.

“This exposes the great lie of this deal — that this serves the residents of Brooklyn,” said Judi Francis, president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund. “This park has been constructed as a development project for condos. Anything else has been an afterthought.”

Park officials began seeking a developer for the bubble at the end of August and set a Sept. 27 deadline for proposals.

On that day, Brooklyn Bridge Park staffers told the park’s community advisory council at a public meeting that they would open the proposals the next morning.

That was a lie; as it turned out, there weren’t any.

“This is a shame because we need a year-round facility — this is another hit for the park,” said Adam Meshberg, a member of the council. “We should reevaluate the size and design and make it more attractive.”

Park officials said they would move forward with Pier 5’s other attractions, including three multi-use artificial turf fields, a playground and a snack concession during warmer months.

The park is currently seeking developers to construct the picnic peninsula. Proposals are due by Oct. 28. For info, e-mail brooklynbridgepark@bbpnyc.org or visit www.brooklynbridgeparknyc.org.

Read More:

The bubble bursts! Brooklyn Bridge Park won’t get promised indoor field

The Brooklyn Paper - By Kate Briquelet - October

Inside the Brooklyn Bridge Park Housing Deal

A Walk In The Park - August 12, 2011

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

A Walk In The Park - August 2, 2011