Community Activism Wins Rezoning Fight

MTOPP’s Statement
If the Community, MTOPP, and Flower Lovers Against Corruption had never gotten involved in this fight, we would have had those 480-foot Towers over the BBG! Our willingness to come together, fight, demonstrate, inform the community, file lawsuits, and challenge these rezonings has made it now possible to say that we saved BBG, even if we lost the Jackie Robinson playground.

This shows the might of a community! We want to thank all of you who stood by us, came to our demonstrations, handed out our flyers, went to the courthouse and packed it every time, gave us money, sent letters of encouragement, attended our fundraisers, sent out your prayers to the universe, told a friend, wore our t-shirts, put flowers in your hair or lapel, made a phone call, wrote our lawsuits, file our motions, did our investigations, thanked us for our efforts, did our proofreading, held our meetings, helped maintain our website and legal research, and stood by us day in and day out!

You are the true heroes in this long, drawn-out saga! We want to thank you and know that you are Blessed and Loved!
While City Council Crystal Hudson brags about the passing of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden “BBG” rezoning as being such a win-win for the real estate industry and the Unions, she forgot about her residents, seniors and the children in the community.

While it appears that some agreement has been reached that satisfies BBG in not causing too much harm to its collection (with some possible undisclosed kickback to this non-profit), there are two primary things that are missing that make this deal horrible for the community and a great loss are the Jackie Robinson playground and Housing that endangers the community.
It is a shame that in this affordability crisis, not the housing crisis, our city, and elected officials will give a developer the right to break and endanger our public green spaces for “affordable” housing that is not even needed and will, in fact, harm the existing affordable community.

The scam of “Affordable” housing needs to be stopped! This developer got an additional three stories for what exactly? To provide this community with studios that begin at $3,100, when in our current market the housing rate for a studio is $1,700- 2,400.

Our elected officials are constantly speaking about the need to create housing for the neediest population and that Black and Brown communities have already done their share of creating housing at the cost of displacement and gentrification. And yet City Council people like Crystal Hudson continue to accept and even push for rezonings that not only harm us but continue the crisis they claim they are trying to cure!

Secondly, the Jackie Robinson Playground will now be in the shadows for over five hours every day, as if the children in our community don’t need sunlight when they play. All so that a developer could save face and his ego and say he got his rezoning. He got an additional three stories than the “as of right.” He fought years to get this and lost millions of dollars in the process, as well as having to contend with several lawsuits that also cost him money.

In the meantime, the real estate industry seems to have promised Crystal Hudson support on her bid to be the next Speaker of the House of City Council, if she is re-elected. (As reported in the real estate newspaper, Crains)

This is our reality, when we have land that developers want: our elected officials uses the land to further their own personal goals and ambitions and the community is the one that loses.
This also shows that zoning does not protect a community, its political power and might that does! Without strong leaders we become powerless, unless we change the leadership.