BHB: BBP CAC requested a full Environmental Impact Statement [EIS]. They made recommendations that the BBPC board ignored. As an Assembly Member how would you work with the CACs and—more importantly—the community?
JS: It would be an SEIS [Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement] at BBP. You would not get a full EIS.
If we did not have a self-sustaining park we would not have a park; we would have Walmart there. I can tell you that’s what Mayor Giuliani wanted.
I think you always engage with the community. I think the community contributes a great deal. We’ve seen better projects when the community is able to contribute effectively. I think that in the Pier 6 issue, the fundamental thing that people are at odds with is: should you have housing in a park. I have never been in favor of housing in a park. [But] I do not believe we need to reopen [Brooklyn Bridge Park’s] 13 guiding principles. If we did not have a self-sustaining park we would not have a park; we would have Walmart there. I can tell you that’s what Mayor Giuliani wanted. Before that there was a proposal for public housing. This would have been [an] entirely unsustainable usage, and as far as I’m concerned, bedlam. A difficult place to have transportation to, it’s always been a difficult site. I advocated for a ferry terminal at Pier 6, which I still think would have been an economically viable use and it would have improved our transportation network in a way that is much more environmentally sustainable.
I think we need to look a bit differently about what we’re doing there and maybe look to Pier 7 [for a] ferry terminal. I think that could make an enormous difference. In the meantime given the other development pressures and the number of units that are online and anticipated—although we don’t really know what’s going to happen with LICH—we need to take a look at the density there. It there’s housing there it should definitely be affordable. That’s not an issue for me. But, I think we need to look at the use of that space for housing. The success of the park has shown us that we need more park space, not less.
BHB: What about the accusations by People for Green Space that BBP already has enough funding to operate without the additional revenue generated by Pier 6 housing?
JS: First of all, it’s not park land. One issue would be whether or not it would be designated as park land. From a legal point of view, that’s been a hurdle in the past. From a practical reality we need to take a look at what we’re doing there, whether or not it’s needed, and if it’s needed what is the size and the density [of additional housing]. There’s principle and then there’s reality. I certainly don’t subscribe to the notion that we need housing in a park. That particular area is small. There’s not a lot of park space there. But it’s also a place that would be horribly dense if you put housing there.
BHB: The Brooklyn Public Library is clearly an institution that is seriously underfunded. What’s your position about how Albany might help solve the Library’s capital funding problems?
JS: Couple of things. Number one, the Brooklyn Public Library’s probably felt that pinch differently than Queens [Public Library]. Mayor [Bloomberg] cut back a huge amount of city funding for libraries. So they are faced with a sharp dip in City funds that they are reliant on. They are in a position similar to the landed estates in England, selling off property to keep the farm going. The problem with that is the sustainability of that approach. In the smaller picture there is the use of [the library’s] space. It’s not a terrific building, it’s not a historic resource, it’s not building that is particularly conducive for the use that is there. On the other hand, we need our public library, and we need our public library in that location. The [Business and Career Library] needs to stay near the commercial core. From a planning point of view it doesn’t make sense.
What we need to do is take a very hard look at how our public libraries are funded. Queens Public Library, for example, for years got a lot of money from their borough president and Brooklyn did not. One thing I know, Assemblywoman Millman has brought to the attention of [Eric Adams] is the need for capital funding from the Borough President’s office. He’s been very responsive to that.
So that makes a very big difference. Looking city-wide and looking at some of the proposals about whether or not our library system—three separate, independent systems—should be functioning as three separate systems. If you’re going to change that, it’s a very long process just to get those systems to work together, just to do the paperwork alone. So that’s something that should be looked at.
The other thing is I know that there hasn’t been much outreach to the [Albany] delegation for funding for the libraries…. I would look to engage with my colleagues; we don’t have member items [like the New York City Council]; the member items are small in the state assembly. But if you work with both houses of the legislature and their delegations, [coordinated] capital funding [would be] a very different picture than little bits of money here and there from one assembly member or another. I would like to work with [BPL] to better improve that public funding because libraries are part of our history. [They] have been a place where immigrants have come and learned how to be Americans, this is where we have great architecture
