Friday, June 4, 2021

Yesterday we held a public hearing on the Gowanus rezoning. It was 6 hours long, and over 150 people testified over Zoom and from Washington Park.

Yesterday we held a public hearing on the Gowanus rezoning. It was 6 hours long, and over 150 people testified over Zoom and from Washington Park. They expressed a wide variety of views on the current plan. Those views ran the gamut from unequivocal support to total opposition and everything in between. In contrast, reviews for Land Use Chair Alec Schierenbeck were overwhelmingly positive. His calmness throughout the 6 hours even led to one CB6 member's tweet that sainthood may be in his future. It certainly showed why he’s already Deputy Solicitor General of a state, a Clerk to United States Supreme Court Justice Breyer, and published in the New York Times. 

Regardless of a resume or canonization, this is about the community, and you can watch all the testimony here on YouTube as well as coverage in The Brooklyn Paper, City Limits, and Crain’s.  

Many of those that testified at the hearing also emailed a written statement. So if you’d like to submit testimony, please do so ASAP and certain before Monday by emailing me. I ask for it ASAP as I’m compiling what I receive to share with our Land Use Committee, so when we make a recommendation on Thursday, June 17th, and vote at the full board on June 23rd, it can be done with as much information as possible. 

We, and the community writ large, have been busy, and things show no signs of slowing down, so read on below for more information on such happenings. Lastly, if you haven’t already, get vaccinated against Covid-19 ASAP; enjoy the weekend! 

This is the web archive of a newsletter originally sent by email to Brooklyn Community Board 6 subscribers on Friday, June 4, 2021. The email edition may contain additional event listings and links.