Blocking Development in South Brooklyn (Updated)
The de Blasio administration was handed an unusual defeat last week when New York City Councilman Carlos Menchaca nixed a proposed master lease that would have granted the city’s Economic Development Corporation control over the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal (SBMT) for the next half century.
A social media sandbox fight erupted after negotiations were terminated. Menchaca posted a lengthy explanation of the broken process on his Facebook page, laying explicit blame on EDC intransigence. According to Menchaca, the city refused to address neighborhood concerns regarding playground space and job training, or “to begin a conversation about our vision (similar to the Brooklyn Navy Yard) to create a local entity that would govern over publicly-owned sites like SBMT.”
Kyle Kimball, the EDC president, took the odd step of responding to Menchaca on Facebook, accusing the councilman of seeking to establish a local development corporation that would be controlled by Menchaca, “to the specific exclusion” of the local community board. Kimball appears to have since deleted his Facebook comments, though he reiterated his frustration with Menchaca to Crain’s, saying that he was “confounded” by the councilman’s demands.
Mayor Bill de Blasio was also reportedly furious about the failure of the project, which would have allowed the city flexibility in assigning the kind of short-term maritime leases the industry requires as a proof-of-concept to attract longer-term lessees. In retaliation, the mayor appears to have forbidden Menchaca from attending last week’s roll-out of the city’s municipal ID card program, which was implemented after patient work by Menchaca’s Immigration Committee. Instead of soaking up the good vibes and attention at the Mayor’s press conference in Queens, Menchaca stayed behind at a Transportation Committee hearing, and got to listen to colleagues David Greenfield and Antonio Reynoso squabble about surge pricing.
It is hard to tell exactly what Menchaca was looking for regarding a “local entity that would govern” the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, but his claim that it would resemble the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation is hard to take at face value. The BNYDC was designated in 1981 as the successor to an earlier non-profit corporation that managed the Navy Yard. Since its formation in 1991, the EDC has been in charge of development of city-owned property. It would be highly unusual now for a major development project to be assigned to an unspecified third party, despite its supposed responsiveness to the local community.
Indeed, one suspects what Menchaca wanted to establish is the kind of independent development corporation that sometimes comes about when a private entity wants to build a project in a poor neighborhood. These community-based nonprofits are funded through community benefits agreements that are negotiated between private developers and the local Council member, who consents to development so long as money is steered to favored local groups.
The textbook negative example of such a “local entity” is the East New York Restoration Local Development Corporation. This group was formed as the result of negotiations between then-Councilman Charles Barron and the Related Companies, which needed Barron’s approval to build the Gateway II mall in East New York. According to the CBA that Barron hashed out, the ENYRLDC administers the millions of dollars that Related contributes to “the community,” including the kind of job training and placement programs that Menchaca wants implemented in his district.
The problem is that the East New York Restoration LDC is staffed from top to bottom with close political allies of now-Assemblyman Charles Barron and his wife, Councilwoman Inez Barron. A community-based group called Man Up! that has received hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars from the Barrons to run a variety of local programs is run by a convicted felon named Andre Mitchell. Mitchell also runs a political consulting firm from the same office, which works only on the Barrons’ campaigns.
Man Up! also has the exclusive contract from the East New York Restoration LDC to run job placement programs, and Andre Mitchell is chair of the ENYRLDC’s board. The executive director of the corporation is a former staffer for Charles Barron, and the other board members are close associates or supporters of, or donors to, the Barrons.
The problem with local development corporations is that they are open to exactly the kind of patronage and self-dealing that we see in East New York. The Barrons have leveraged a community benefits agreement with a private entity to provide jobs and other goodies to political allies, and thus solidify their small but steady political machine. The Related Companies doesn’t really care: to them the money is just a cost of doing business. As long as the land use application goes through on schedule and the Barrons don’t call any protests, it is unlikely it matters much to the Related executives who gets to run the job training program.
Maybe Menchaca has a more noble vision for Sunset Park, but in any case it appears that he has misjudged his opposition. The city Economic Development Corporation is not a private entity that can throw a few million dollars at “the community” to present a veneer of good corporate neighborliness: as a public agency, the EDC actually has fiduciary responsibility for the properties in its portfolio. It is outside of the remit of the corporation to assign a major port- to-rail facility to the local control of a Council member, who could appoint his cronies to negotiate leases that would benefit community-based organizations which are essentially private, though technically not-for- profit, entities.
A number of Menchaca’s progressive colleagues have, somewhat perversely, congratulated him for wrecking a development that was favored by the Mayor as a job-creating neighborhood revitalization program. Council Members Brad Lander and Ben Kallos each saluted Menchaca for standing up “for the good of the community,” as Kallos put it. Menchaca himself says that he wants to see “progressive juice shared all the way to the ground.”
Is Menchaca aware how much he sounds like a classic machine pol, looking to squeeze as much money and influence (“juice”) as possible out of every deal, so he can share it with his political base, or in his own words, “all the way to the ground?” Maybe he acknowledges the double meaning, but prefers to focus only on the one that sounds clean and “progressive.” Nevertheless, it is impossible to escape the implications of his demand: that his friends on the ground must get a chance to quench themselves at the well, and that he would sooner have no development than one where he lacks control of the dipper.
UPDATE: Sources in both the Mayor's office and the City Council tell City & State that Carlos Menchaca was invited to the Municipal ID press conference, though he did not attend. On the day of the presser, several reporters speculated that he may not have been invited.
NEXT STORY: Combating Voter Apathy