Opinion: The Brooklyn Marine Terminal Can Help Solve NYC’s Housing Shortage

New York City necessities to show it can build housing that isn t prohibitively expensive and comes in without years of delay EDC can help get it done at the Brooklyn Marine Terminal City and state representatives announcing plans to redevelop Red Hook s Brooklyn Marine Terminal last year Caroline Rubinstein-Willis Mayoral Photography Office New York City has a crushing housing shortage With federal housing subsidies on the chopping block the city necessities competent organizations like the Economic Advancement Corporation EDC to step in and briskly scale up affordable housing at residents sites like the Brooklyn Marine Terminal In latest years EDC has helped deliver affordable units to the Lower East Side as part of the Essex Navigating redevelopment affordable units to the South Bronx at the former Spofford Juvenile Detention Center and an impressive affordable units are underway at Willets Point in Queens Now EDC is attempting to revitalize the Brooklyn Marine Terminal a decaying -acre waterfront site in Red Hook Last year the city agreed to take operating control of the terminal The redevelopment vision calls for modernizing the container port and piers half out of amenity or nearing the end of their useful lives as part of a Blue Highway supply chain that moves freight around the city by water instead of trucks One scenario under consideration includes around housing units roughly percent permanently affordable new constituents parks around the waterfront retail and commercial options and expanded bus and ferry provision to transit-starved Red Hook There is an opportunity to advance the Brooklyn Marine Terminal project at a pace New Yorkers wouldn t have been able to fathom a insufficient years ago That s in part thanks to the leadership of a Task Force chaired by U S Rep Dan Goldman that has guided the enhancement of the plan EDC has held numerous meetings with region groups reaching over neighborhood residents Red Hook West Tenant Association President Karen Blondel a longtime advocate for NYCHA residents has endorsed the project saying We have an opportunity to create a more equitable Red Hook and I hope we seize the moment Nevertheless the Brooklyn Marine Terminal project has generated vital opposition from several group residents lawmakers and others concerned about the reduced port area waterfront job losses gentrification and other impacts of dense housing A local coalition Voices of the Waterfront has called for a pause to the general project plan process and for it to undergo the city s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure ULURP to allow for more locality engagement This risks making it more expensive to build and could derail the affordable housing component Separating housing from the broader redevelopment project would be a missed opportunity as a port built a century ago can more efficiently handle this day s cargo on a much smaller land area Delaying the project for ULURP would also raise costs just as Donald Trump s tariffs kick in and push construction prices even higher and is not guaranteed to produce better projects just look at Hudson Yards Scuttling the project would be another blow to addressing the city s housing situation District leaders should continue negotiating directly with EDC for a limited defined period and push for specific population benefits such as more frequent bus and ferry operation to Red Hook and protections against flooding and rising sea levels However keeping EDC at the helm is worth the squeeze EDC answers to city control builds fast and well and has earned trust through projects like Willets Point and Spofford EDC-led projects have relied on private sector capital and efficiencies to create projects with general benefits including permanent affordable housing parks job training ferry arrangement and region centers EDC s mixed-use approach is distinct from a large number of affordable housing projects of the past which often isolated residents in large towers New York City necessities to show it can build housing that isn t prohibitively expensive and comes in without years of delay EDC can help get it done at the Brooklyn Marine Terminal Nicholas Bloom is a professor of urban guidelines and planning at Hunter College He is the author of Masses Housing That Worked New York in the Twentieth Century and co-editor of Affordable Housing in New York The post Opinion The Brooklyn Marine Terminal Can Help Solve NYC s Housing Shortage appeared first on City Limits