BHB Interview: NYC Council Member Steve Levin Discusses Brooklyn Bridge White Flags, the Brooklyn Heights Library Branch and more

In this instance, they’re going on an EIS [Environmental Impact Statement] that’s 10 years old. It [BBP] was a very different picture 10 years ago than it is today in terms of PS 8.

BHB: Should there be a new Environmental Impact Statement?

CM Levin: At the very least. I’m against housing in the park. I voted against John Street, I’ll vote against Pier 6. When I first ran for City Council I was against housing in the park and my position has not changed.

BHB: What more can concerned citizens do to fight housing in BBP?

CM Levin: I think they’re [People for Green Space Foundation who enticed Justice Lawrence Knipel’s to issue a Temporary Restraining Order related to housing at Pier 6] doing a good job making clear what their position is. They’ve been very effective, and there are times when concerned citizens go to court to prevent an action from moving forward…. I can’t predict where that court case will go—but concerned citizens in our republic always have recourse in the courts.

BHB: The fate of the Brooklyn Heights Library. How do you react to the Library’s request for capital funds?

CM Levin: This has been a long, ongoing issue. We should first take the long-term perspective, which is that going back as long as I’ve been in the council, and maybe even longer, predating Linda Johnson [BPL president] and her staff, the Brooklyn Public Library just did not do a good job petitioning the council—and other elected officials that direct capital funds—to get significant resources from the city for major capital issues throughout the [BPL] system.

Brooklyn Public Library is aging, it’s buildings itself are old, and there’s a lot of deferred maintenance. And what happens with deferred maintenance is if you don’t take care of it, then it gets worse and, if it gets worse then it gets expensive. Because it’s a publicly owned entity—they’re on public land—the cost of capital repairs are significantly higher than if you were to fix your house, for example. You have union requirements, it’s potentially city procurement; this costs significantly more. And I say that as a member of the council who has allocated capital funds to dozens and dozens of projects. They’re almost always more expensive than you think they might be, and they always take a lot longer to [complete].

That’s the long-term perspective….

[T]he numbers that I’ve seen seem really high…if you were just to replace the air conditioning, but the city procurement process, and having to pay prevailing wage, and because the New York City Office of Management and Budget and DDC [Department of Design and Construction]—they oversee the project—they’re not interested in seeing repair…. They’re going to want a full upgrade that’s basically re-installing a new air conditioning system. That’s why $3.5 – 4 million may seem like a lot, but it’s probably accurate. You’re not talking about a component or two, you’re talking about a brand new system. It’s not really the Library’s decision as to whether it’s going to be a component or two of the whole system, it’s DDC and OMB, and it’s public dollars.

BHB: The Library as a private entity supported by public funds?

CM Levin: The library system is a public institution and it has its own board, but it is in fact a leveraged public institution. Yes, the city needs to support it, but this is a question where this is expensive. That is not in and of itself a reason to tear it [the Brooklyn Heights branch] down and build a condominium in its place. But I believe it has to be taken into account. Unlike Pier 6, this does have to go to ULURP.…

But you can be certain that this is going to be debated in the proscribed format that we in the city have. The community board is going to have a say, the Borough President is going to have a say and the administration is going to have a say and at each of those steps—and then the city council has a say in terms of a vote—and in each of those steps the public has a public format to comment…. I’m not going to in any way prejudge the matter; it still has to go through a long process before it gets to the city council. And I will have a vote on this, and as the local member representing the area, I expect to have a certain amount of influence with my colleagues….

BHB: Decision on the BH Branch developer by October?

CM Levin: I don’t even know which decision, the decision to select a respondent [to the Request For Proposals]? And then the Department of City Planning has to certify it, and then it has to go to the Community Board. This is going to be a hotly debated issue for a long time. The air rights belong to the public, and so if they’re proposing to sell the air rights for a significant return, the public is giving up something significant—public space. And I’m sensitive to that because public resources and public assets, that’s an important part of what I was elected to do—to be a proper steward of public resources. These are very serious issues—and not just about air conditioning.

The opponents have compellingly pointed to the sale of the Donnell Library in Manhattan as a precedent where such a proposal has gone awry. That is certainly part of the discussion—what happened there—what are they proposing as guarantees?

BHB: Comments on BAM South [and its impact on the Library’s Pacific branch]?

CM Levin: I am 100% opposed to a sale of the Pacific branch. The Pacific branch is a Carnegie Library and it should be landmarked but [it’s] not. That gorgeous, historic building wouldn’t yield significant value. And there’s a functional HVAC [there]; it’s a very different circumstance [from Brooklyn Heights Branch].

BHB: The Pacific branch does need significant renovation.

CM Levin: I think to get it fully ADA-compliant, but at the same time it’s not in crisis. The Brooklyn Heights branch has to close when the heat index is over 82 degrees.

BHB: Thank you.

CM Levin: Yes, I am hands-free driving!

Come on, we had to run this photo.

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  • marshasrimler

    Councilman Levins’s comments about the Brooklyn Heights Library are weak at best..He totally ignores the basic issue which is the sale of public assests and basically says nothing. What a disappointment, He is absent on this important issue which has now been before the public for over a year..There is no leadership here

  • A Neighbor

    Impressive guy. Especially for a pol — lol. Thoughtful, candid. No matter what anyone says, these are difficult issues.

  • Ruth Eiss

    Bottom line, Steve Levin has repeatedly procrastinated about stating his position on the Broojklyn Heights branch library (except he HAS undermined support for it in the interview, unlike the Pacific Street branch.) He hasn’t been responsive to constituents despite a visit to his enervated Brooklyn office and promises by his staff to respond to it. Does he simply lack a spine,
    or have the powers that be gotten to him?

    Ruth Eiss

  • Solovely

    CM Levin always shows up to meetings informed and prepared, and that empowers his office. I appreciated his comments at the city council budget hearings this past spring. Also, I find he looks for new policy solutions to meet the community’s needs, neat guy.
    Agree with other commentators here. It is a tough job.

  • marshasrimler

    not really.. he needs to take a position against the sale of public assests and for a refurbished library

  • marshasrimler

    is talking our of both sides of your mouth a policy solution.. He should be ashamed of himself.

  • ujh

    Marsha, do you know, or have you heard of, any politician who answers a question clearly and unequivocably, who doesn’t speak in generalities, and who doesn’t talk you into the ground?

  • ujh

    Solving school overcrowding is the responsibility of the city administration, the City Council and the Department of Education, not of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation. Two Trees Management’s agreement to include raw space for a middle school (immediately declared as too little under already existing conditions) in its Dock Street building was undoubtedly extracted through pressure from the politicians who represent the residents of Brooklyn Heights, Dumbo and Downtown Brooklyn. These politicians have known for many years that upland Pier 6 contains two development parcels for housing. Besides casting “no” votes, have they discussed potential solutions to the existing and future school needs? Does anybody know how many children will live in the Pier 6 buildings; does anybody know how many children currently live at One BB? Many more dwelling units will be created on the LICH site than on Pier 6; therefore, one or more additional schools will be needed even without Pier 6.

  • marshasrimler

    so.. his flip flopping on this issue is sending a message to his . collegues that it is not really important to him.. perhaps thats why Brad Lander has announced that he finds the destruction plan “creative.” Stephen has given him a green light. Its the Levin two step

  • johnny cakes

    Stop the Condos. Save Brooklyn services for Brooklyn tax payers. Don’t give the real estate developers a free-pass. If you can’t provide civil services to the public, you shouldn’t build more housing. Period.

  • marshasrimler

    you need to call Councilman Levin’s office at tell him that. He has been aware of the Brooklyn Heights Library problem for over a year and has not come up with one creative solution to solve it.. We need leadership not silence from our representatives

  • Quinn Raymond

    I appreciate that the Councilmember seems to at least understand the details of the library issue. I guess he’s hedging his bets– perhaps to extract the best possible deal?

    I’m mostly curious as to what kind of funding he will allocate to the BPL this year.

    Regardless of where each of us stands on building a new library, we should all be pushing him to secure an increase in funding for the BPL, yes?

    Would anyone disagree with that?

    Can we at least form a consensus around that?

  • gatornyc

    Neither has your organization. Often times the best solutions come from outside of government and it is government’s role to implement those solutions.

  • gatornyc

    Because anyone who’s position is inconsistent with your group’s is just plain wrong. Makes sense.

  • johnny cakes

    gatornyc = Real Estate Shill.

  • johnny cakes

    The solution to the “overbuilding” problem is to stop developers from building condos, until government services can catch up. Duh!

  • Mike from Brooklyn

    I did ask CM Levin about support for BPL capital needs but did not press him on this [i.e. ask him to quantify his support].

    My thought is that the reaction of Brooklyn politicians to BPL’s plight is the key element in examining the Library’s past / present situation.

    However you might feel about Johnson / BPL’s decision to sell property to fund capital needs, IMO the stark reality is that there is simply not enough support from politicians to maintain BPL’s aging infrastructure.

    I also thought it telling that CM Levin mentioned that before Johnson BPL was not able to make a compelling argument about capital funds; perhaps the reality is that local politicians simply do not prioritize funding BPL as highly as other needs OR the Library’s leadership has yet to articulate why these funds are so important.

  • marshasrimler

    This is a complicated problem that needs out of the box thinking and leadership and to my disappointment
    Stephen Levin seems incapable of that on this issue.. One must wonder why.

  • gatornyc

    Can you imagine what that would do for rents in the City? The City has plenty of time to catch up to the developments (plans, permits, etc. are filed well before the buildings ever approach completion), it just doesn’t do it.

  • gatornyc

    Thanks for proving my point. I am a shill for nothing and no one least of all real estate developers.

  • Doug Biviano

    We are fighting the privatization and sell off our our libraries. Like LICH condo development, this is a symptom of our elected officials listening to big money interests like real estate developers who contribute and keep them re-elected for life. Our whole plan is to return the power of governing back to you the voter and the neighborhoods. Join our fight and spread the word. We need to do this together.
    http://dougbiviano.com

  • Doug Biviano

    PS8 long ago announced it’s cutting it’s Prek. That’s a blow to parents and children in our neighborhood. When will local politicians bow to the community instead of the developers and at least keep pace with needed infrastructure before blowing out every cubic inch of develop while giving special lobbied for tax breaks like the $35 million at One57 — Rich Door Poor Door that the so called ‘progressives’ approved?

    Join our fight for you the voter and our children at http://dougbiviano.com