Brooklyn Inside & Out

The NY Post article about violence near Prospect Park claims that both addresses cited are in PLG; neither of them actually is in the neighborhood.

The Brooklyn infrastructure is not equipped to support more housing. The streets and subways are overcrowded, and the situation is far worse than in Manhattan. If you're seeking housing, the best course of action is to move upstate or to New Jersey, where there’s ample open land ready for development.

I attended the meeting with Councilmember Hanif in which her rep states in the article "in December the group was invited to work with the council member on community benefits but rejected the offer." That is blatantly false. At no point did the Councilmember invite anyone to work on the community benefits agreement.

I'm a member of Housing Not High-Rises, and I'm quoted in the article. For Council Member Hanif to claim that she invited Housing Not High-Rises to participate in negotiating the Community Benefit Agreement is beyond disingenuous, it's plain untrue. As concerned members of the community, we repeatedly asked Council Member Hanif for a seat at the table negotiating the CBA, and were stonewalled every time. Even after she informed us that the CBA was already signed, we made repeated requests to get a copy of the text, and she only sent us the memorandum that outlines what would be in the agreement. To this day, she has not sent us a copy. We received a copy from a journalist to whom Council Member Hanif's office sent it. Having finally gotten access to what should have been a public document, we have concerns about its content, its enforceability, and the potential conflict of interest of the Fifth Avenue Committee being the only signatory to the agreement. Windsor Terrace and South Slope deserve better than to be stonewalled by our most local representative. The council member has let down the very people who elected her to represent them. She has eliminated "community" from the Community Benefit Agreement that she negotiated behind closed doors, as she has done since Arrow Linen's lobbyists have been meeting with her since early 2022, the very first quarter she took office. Council Member Hanif did not come to the community with this project. We had to find out about it late in 2023 and come to her - only to be rebuffed. Shame on you, Council Member Hanif; you could have earned the respect of your constituents and been a hero, and you chose instead to ignore us, even to the end. Your constituents deserve better.