BQE and Mega-Jail Dominate BHA Annual Meeting

By on March 1, 2019 9:33 am in 11201, BQE rehab, Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, Environment, Government, Health, Neighborhoods, Real Estate

It was standing room only at the Founders Hall Auditorium of St. Francis College for Tuesday’s Annual Meeting of the Brooklyn Heights Association. As the Eagle’s Mary Frost reports, BHA President Martha Bakos Dietz said the BHA had submitted to the City’s Department of Transportation an alternative plan that would avoid putting a temporary six lane highway in the present location of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, and that the DOT has said it is considering this alternative, as well as “three to five others.” Ms. Dietz also announced that the BHA will hold a town hall meeting on the BQE a 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 12 at Plymouth Church.

The Eagle story also reports that the City’s proposal to increase the size of the Brooklyn House of Detention, located on Atlantic Avenue a few blocks from Brooklyn Heights, to forty stories, is opposed by the BHA for its lack of context and environmental effects, as well as for the City’s failure to have, in Ms. Dietz’s words, any “meaningful engagement with the affected community.” She noted that the City wants to start its land use review process (“ULURP”) for the jail expansion next month. The BHA has urged the City to delay starting ULURP, “identify a second jail site within Brooklyn,” and consider “alternatives to incarceration” for certain inmates.

Photo: Andrew Porter

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  • Andrew Porter

    Here are more of my photos. This is the slide showing the proposed size of the new jail:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c4f2acdbdf116bf9ea3b1db8ebdde4d8ad4b503c3a85684644d859bba47c0fc0.jpg

  • Andrew Porter

    Here, from the BHA Financial Report, are the stats for Operating Results:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5b1ee6041a3042111a402741d61ff835f67df84b0ba328a0cc23d0e2ecbd841d.jpg

  • Andrew Porter
  • Andrew Porter
  • Andrew Porter
  • StoptheChop

    Elected officials in Manhattan and the Bronx have fought against the mega-jails planned there. Why aren’t our elected officials pushing back against a 40-story highrise here? And if they won’t, what can the community do to work around them? Why aren’t all of them advocating for bail reform first, anyway?

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    The courts are there, it only makes sense to put the jail there.
    “Bail reform” do you really want more criminals free on the street, coming to the neighborhood for their court date, really?

  • http://www.yotamzohar.com StudioBrooklyn

    Arch do you really mean to use a NIMBY argument to oppose reforming a very flawed and unfair attribute of the justice system? There must be other angles worth pursuing.

  • BG

    There’s a common sense solution sitting right in front of the city and it’s surprising to me it’s not being considered.

    NYC should take the parking lot property on Smith between Livingston and Schermerhorn and build new 20-story facility. Connect the new building to the central court building with a bridge over the intersection of Smith and Schermerhorn.

    That leaves the demolition/reconstruction of a new 20-story facility on Atlantic much more palatable to all concerned.

  • http://members.brownstoner.com/gwc gwc

    Sounds like a pretty good solution to me ….
    Unfortunately de Blasio’s real estate handlers will never allow it. God forbid that every available square inch of space isn’t turned into a residential tower complete with lots of tax incentives and giveaways.

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    No NIMBY here, I don’t have a problem with the expanded jail facility. I do have a problem with letting potentially violent criminals roam the streets in lieu of building a jail.

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    That would require eminent domain, not as easy as you might think. Also, I believe there already is a tunnel connection between the jail and criminal court.

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    Yeah that too…

  • BG

    Yes, the tunnel is under State and connects the Atlantic facility with the Central Court Building. A new building at Smith and Schermerhorn would be a full block away. Moreover, there is a subway tunnel underneath Smith street at the intersection of Smith and Schermerhorn so a bridge would be needed

  • http://www.yotamzohar.com StudioBrooklyn

    If a person is considered a serious violence risk they would probably be jailed rather than released. I’m guessing the kind of people a slightly reformed system would release are kids who got caught with a can of spray paint or an arbitrarily scheduled substance, white collar criminals who will be given a quintessentially American chance to move their accounts offshore, drunks who peed on the wrong subway platform at the wrong time, etc., and that’s before we talk about the very broken system of policing we enjoy in this incredible city.

    More importantly, if anything, science points to incarceration as having a causal relationship to recidivism. I fear much more for the state of crime on our streets—or any streets—when our jails are big and full.

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    Oh Studio, do you really think people are being held in detention for spray paint or public urination? And who are these white-collar criminals that cannot afford bail? The courts already release most of the non threat accused on their own recognizance. Perhaps there are a few cases that aren’t handled as fairly as possible (I’m sure NPR did a couple of good sob-stories on them) but no system is perfect. Yes some improvements might be made but that’s not going to significantly reduce the required size of the jail. After all its a big city, even a small percentage of no-good-nicks adds up.
    I gotta say, the NIMBYism here in the Heights is kind of special; “we don’t want a 40 story jail so we must rethink the entire criminal justice system” or “we don’t want a temporary highway so now its time to redesign transportation as we know it”…

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    Ok so more good reasons not to build your “common sense solution”

  • http://www.yotamzohar.com StudioBrooklyn

    Arch, do you really think they want to build a 40-story jail because they are arresting that many more bona fide violent criminals than they can lock up in the existing facility? Have you been paying any attention to the way real estate deals, and policing, work in this town? You’re smarter than this.

    My position would be NIMBYism if I believed that not locking people up posed an existential threat to me or my community, but between the two of us, you’re the one who made that argument!

  • BG

    The subway tunnel under Smith is not a real problem. The Hilton/condo and the NuHotel/condo are both recent new construction on Smith between Schermerhorn and Atlantic.