In case there are readers who have been away over the holiday and missed the news, we’ll catch you up here. The City Council hearing in front of the Zoning and Franchises sub-committee took place on May 21st, and there were plenty of early fireworks.
Vice President and Counsel of the School Construction Authority Ross Holden was grilled by several councilpersons about the contents of the internal emails that were revealed by a FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) request. Councilman Eric Gioia of Queens was particularly incensed by this passage between SCA Executive Director Lorraine Grillo and Kendrick Ou, Director, Real Estate Services: “Now I know that if we don’t do the Walentas project that we don’t really want to do anything else over there but I think we have to follow up on this just so we can say that the Walentas project is such a good deal.” Holden was also unable to answer questions about the cost of the proposed school, and how much the city would save by siting the school as part of this development project. At one point, Jed Walentas started to stand up to answer the question, and Two Trees attorney Ken Fisher practically shoved him back in his seat.
Ken Burns was in attendance, but due to the length of time spent with the preliminary speakers, was unable to stay long enough to read his testimony. A portion was read for him later on in the afternoon. You can view his interview on Morning Joe on MSNBC here. He talks about Dock Street and the Bridge starting around the 4:25 mark.
There is more coverage at the Brooklyn Paper, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the Brooklyn Heights Blog, and Dumbonyc. Additionally, Councilman Gioia will be hosting a press conference on Saturday May 30th, 11:30 AM, at Brooklyn Bridge Park (Main Street and Plymouth). Kristian Roebling, the great, great-grandson of Brooklyn Bridge builders Washington and Emily Roebling, will also be there. More on this in a later post.
The Land Use Committee is expected to vote on the project next week, followed by the full Council on June 10th.
