Community Groups Sue City over Broadway Triangle
Opponents of the controversial plan to develop the 31-acre area of East Williamsburg called the Broadway Triangle sued the city yesterday in Supreme Court, charging racial and religious discrimination as well as failure to comply with due process. The coalition of 40 North Brooklyn community groups alleges that the plan for 1,895 new units of…
Opponents of the controversial plan to develop the 31-acre area of East Williamsburg called the Broadway Triangle sued the city yesterday in Supreme Court, charging racial and religious discrimination as well as failure to comply with due process. The coalition of 40 North Brooklyn community groups alleges that the plan for 1,895 new units of housing favor the Hasidic community by including a disproportionate number of three- and four-bedroom apartments to house larger Jewish families and by capping building height at eight stories, since Jews can’t take the elevator on the Sabbath. The suit points out that nearly half of the public housing in the area is currently occupied by Hasidic Jews, despite federal court orders requiring the end of discriminatory practices and despite the fact that the waiting list for such housing has remained at over 90 percent Latino and African American for more than 30 years. It also claims that the Ridgewood-Bushwick Senior Citizens Council and the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg received exclusive development rights in a no-bid process through their connections to Assemblyman Vito Lopez (D-Williamsburg), and that the city failed to submit its plans for review by Bedford-Stuyvesant’s Community Board 3, as required by land use regulations. Addressing some of these claims back in July, Councilman David Yassky (D-Williamsburg) said, “I want more housing, but I don’t want skyscrapers in the middle of Brooklyn … I can’t imagine that there are real grounds for a lawsuit.” GMAP
Racial and Religious Discrimination Alleged in Triangle [NY Daily News]
City Sued over Triangle Rezoning [Brooklyn Paper]
Triangle Debate Goes On over Eminent Domain [Brownstoner]
The Voice Calls Out Lopez [Brownstoner]
Markowitz Endorses Lopez’s Triangle Plan [Brownstoner]
DH- mwah ha ha ha ha ha J/Kg 🙂
“is there one single person in New York city with any kind of morals????”
me.
I think its a sad commentary on the state of most of our politics today that no matter what group you are, if we don’t get our way we call the other side anti-semitic or racist. Even sadder- our politicians have become so spineless they forget they have a diversity of constituents and will sell out anyone for anything.
it’s all sh*t. These politicians should be strung up. The people getting the hand outs are THIEVES AND CRIMINALS!!!! Cannot afford kids, don’t have ’em!
is there one single person in New York city with any kind of morals????
The issue as I understand it is that the area in question is mixed in terms of its residents. A large number of Hispanic families live in close proximity to a large number of Hasidic families. When public housing is built in the area one would think that the occupancy would reflect the mix in the area but apparantly it does not. The Satmar Hasidic constituents get the lion’s share of housing. They are very insular and conservative and view everyone outside their tight circle with suspicion, it is not merely an anti-Hispanic thing. They have a great deal of political and financial clout (which begs the question of why they should have public housing built for them in the first place), but in Brooklyn, no politicain will raise the question and risk alianating the Orthodox vote, or worse, be called an anti-semite in the press. That’s the reality here.
Bxgrl — Thanks. I didn’t realize there were any major sects that objected to Shabbas elevators, but you are right, the beauty of religious freedom is the right to disagree.
Boerum the entire suit is stupid and outrageous. They are going to get laughed at hard for even bringing it
Boerumresident, it may not and it also depends on how orthodox or what sect. Among my people we agree to disagree 🙂
BBB – I didn’t read the suit, just brownstoner’s summary which states that it is occupied by hasidics.