Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Brooklyn councilman accuses critics of Broadway Triangle development of anti-Semitism
Opponents of a controversial, racially charged Brooklyn development plan are pushing the chair of the City Council's powerful land use committee to recuse himself – prompting accusations of anti-Semitism from the pol and developer.
Some neighborhood groups have been fiercely fighting the plan to build more than 1,100 apartments on a Williamsburg site formerly occupied by drug giant Pfizer – charging it will favor Hasidic Jewish residents over blacks and Latinos in the area.
The groups, known as the Broadway Triangle Community Coalition, wrote to land use chair David Greenfield demanding that he recuse himself from considering the project because he's set to leave office and take over the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty.
But Greenfield (D-Brooklyn) says the Met Council has nothing to do with the plan, and opponents are just targeting him because he's Jewish.
"Your behavior thus far is both professionally irresponsible and reckless, and has compromised your participation as an elected representative in this legislative process. The conflicts of interest raised by your involvement in the present Council action are numerous and unwaivable," coalition chair Juan Ramos wrote to Greenfield.
The dispute stems from a years-old neighborhood feud over politics, real estate and race in the sliver of Brooklyn known as the Broadway Triangle.
The city passed a plan to rezone the area, pushed by then-Brooklyn Democratic boss Vito Lopez, but it has been blocked since a 2009 court ruling in a still-pending lawsuit charging it was discriminatory against Latinos and blacks.
The same complaints have faced the latest plan by developer Rabsky Group to build 1,146 apartments, as well as retail space, on the Pfizer site within the triangle area.
Opponents say the apartments, 25% of which would be considered affordable housing, are more likely to go to Hasidic Jews because its large apartments will favor their big families, as well as the way it will be marketed.
"The letter is part of a clear and calculated campaign of intimidation and continued misinformation by the opponents of this private application," Greenfield said, saying group leaders have a history of "anti-Semitic remarks" that "calls into question the true motivation of this group."
Councilman Steve Levin, who represents the district, supports the project. But Councilman Antonio Reynoso, who represents an adjacent district and is allied with the opposing groups, has jumped into the fight against it, which has included shutting down public hearings on the proposal.
"It's telling that this group did not ask Council Member Antonio Reynoso, a member of both the subcommittee and committee, to recuse himself and instead focused on the obviously Jewish council member. This kind of race-baiting politics is disgusting and shameful and has no place in New York City's land use decisions," Greenfield said, adding he had cleared the issue with the city Conflicts of Interest Board.
But Marty Needelman, head of Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A, which is part of the Broadway Triangle coalition, said the Met Council job poses a conflict because the group's then-leader helped broker a deal for Lopez to support the Broadway Triangle proposal. The group also has close ties to United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, which has pushed developments in the area, he said.
The letter complains Greenfield answered legitimate concerns about potential discrimination, which opponents say will exacerbate a long history of racial segregation in the neighborhood, with "ridicule, racebaiting and derision."
Needelman, like Greenfield, is an Orthodox Jew, and said the allegation of anti-Semitism is absurd.
"It's all politics," he said.
Rabsky's project is set for a series of committee votes in the Council this week and is likely to pass with Levin's support.
Rabsky spokesman Tom Corsillo said there's "no rational case to make against a project that will create hundreds of affordable apartments in a neighborhood that desperately needs them."
"Opponents instead have waged an increasingly shameful campaign of anti-Semitic personal attacks, suggesting a Jewish developer can only be trusted to build affordable housing for Jewish people even though affordable units are awarded through a city-run lottery," he said.
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