It appears that the Dubai Ports deal is coming back to the forefront again, as described in Kangro X's front page story. This whole thing shook me up last year as I had just moved into an apartment literally across the street from the ports in New York that were up for sale, namely the Brooklyn Shipping Dock along the Red Hook/Cobble Hill/Brooklyn Heights waterfront. I live approximately here for those of you who are super curious.
This year, I'm not so worried. Why? Because something has happened since then that has pretty much guaranteed that this deal will not affect Brooklyn over the long period - within one to two years this deal will be moot.
Let me explain.
The area we're talking about is approximately 12 ports that are all that's left in Brooklyn in terms of shipping. New York City has only two working docks in terms of shipping - one in Brooklyn and one on the far side of Staten Island. The majority of shipping goes into New Jersey now as it's considerably cheaper and right next to the railroad. This makes it ideal for moving the shipments, whereas in Brooklyn you have to load the product on trucks and move it through local streets to get anywhere. In fact, transportation by road is such an issue in Brooklyn that the containers are mostly shipped to New Jersey by barge after being unloaded.
Enough about the area. Why doesn't Brooklyn care about this deal? Because the ports are about to be razed! The whole shipping operation is most likely going away in the next year or two. I'm going to spend the rest of the diary talking about it because it's a major local issue here which has involved everyone from Mayor Bloomberg to everyone's favorite junior Senator, Hillary Clinton.
Unfortunately for brevity, the ports are actually being split into two projects as they really encompass several areas described above. Piers 1-6 are being committed to Brooklyn Bridge Park, which is the area most people are familiar with. Every time you see a shot of downtown Manhattan from the ground, it's most likely from either one of these docks or the park between the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge. I could do an entire diary on different shows and movies that have been shot here, but I won't.
The first project is being organized by a whole slew of organizations, but the best description I can find anywhere is on the site for One Brooklyn Bridge Park, which is a condo conversion owned by Jehovah's Witnesses. Their site with a funny preface here, has an interactive map (navigate through the annoying flash) that describes exactly what they'd like to build. There are several problems, least of which is the elimination of many union jobs. I'll cover that in the next project. The other problems is the fact that construction is completely privately funded via luxury condo construction inside the park. So who came out for this plan? Every Democrat in Brooklyn. Who came out against it? Hillary Clinton. Sort of.
The Senator's original comments were reported in last week's Brooklyn Papers. Clinton had called the plan "disingenuous," saying, "It’s not luxury housing we need. We absolutely need affordable housing."
::snip::
Under fire from Brooklyn Democrats, Sen. Hillary Clinton has backed off her criticism of plans to build 1,200 luxury condos in the controversial Brooklyn Bridge Park.
::snip::
"Although I believe public revenues should support public assets ... like parks and their maintenance, I understand that cities across the nation, including New York, have had to struggle to find dedicated revenue sources to fund park maintenance," wrote Clinton.
So she's against the Park in her heart, but Brooklyn Dems threatened to revolt and Clinton reversed her position quicker than you can say flip-flop. It was actually pretty funny to watch via the real estate blogs.
I should also mention that the neighborhoods Community Boards are also at odds over this park. Brooklyn Heights, which borders the piers, favors the plan versus Cobble Hill, which borders piers 7-12 but shares parts of 6, isn't a huge cheerleader for it. There's some legacy discussion on the project here with a really interesting commentary below.
Just my two cents, but it's interesting to note that some of the most vocal opponents of this project include The Cobble Hill Association, and its head Roy Sloane. Technically the park is designed to end at Atlantic Avenue, but Sloane and his cohorts are, I assume, terribly concerned about what will become of piers between 5-6 (which run only as far as Atlantic Ave) and Piers 10-12 (which begin at Hamilton Ave and Columbia St and run south through Red Hook.) With the cruise ship terminals being built on 10-12, and the "park" going in on 1- 5 or 6, I think many in Cobble Hill, who face piers 6 or 7 through 10, feel they are being set up to have them developed commercially, with highrises. It's a reasonable fear I think. There is more upland area on those piers than there is on 1-5, and the Brooklyn Heights Association backs the park plan, which immediately puts the Cobble Hill Association in a suspicious mood...
As for the current status of this project, the Port Authority has handed over Piers 1, 2, 3, and parts of 5 to the organization that will build the park, Brooklyn Bridge Park Observancy or something or other. Basically, this is a done deal.
The second part of the ports, Piers 7-12, are part of the Red Hook Docks. Technically, it's all owned by the Port Authority which also operates the bridges and tunnels in New York as well as the former World Trade Center site. It's a public corporation jointly held by New York and New Jersey states. Piers 7-12 currently also houses a cruise ship terminal, which is pretty funny for everyone who lives in the area as there's nothing touristy about Red Hook at all.
However, there's also the shipping dock which is currently operated via contract by American Stevedoring. This dockworkers are all members of a union, whose name totally escapes me at this moment and I can't find it referenced anywhere. This means that closing the shipping dock will eliminate union jobs, which you know means they won't go quietly. There have been small protests so far but the union is small enough that they probably will not be able to put up much of a fight.
The New York Observer had a great article last month on the whole debacle, with the focus around the current situation and future plans for the cruise lines. The current plans for the remaining docks are documented starting in this thread along with all linking articles there. Basically, everything from a college campus to condos to a beach has been proposed. This last suggestion is laughable for several reasons - Red Hook is where Al Capone grew up and borders the East River, which most of us will either know from Kramer's swimming lessons to its infamy as a graveyard for accident prone Italians.
So in short, before you go and pull Brooklyn into this whole security mess, let's remember that the whole deal is going to be moot in a few years anyways.