A new transportation plan for the Brooklyn Marine Terminal  proposes what would be the borough’s first “parking maximum.”

BY JACK DELANEY | jdelaney@queensledger.com

RED HOOK — City planners are aiming to eventually reduce car usage in Red Hook to only 16% of total trips through measures like a “parking maximum” and better bus service, according to a new proposal unveiled last week.

Since the redevelopment of a 122-acre chunk of Brooklyn’s waterfront was first floated in 2024, one of the surrounding community’s most vocal concerns has been transportation: In a neighborhood serviced by no subway lines and a single, notoriously-unreliable bus, how will the residents of thousands of new homes get around?

Two years later, the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) — the city entity in charge of the Brooklyn Marine Terminal (BMT) — finally has answers. But several prominent local leaders argue that they’re not the right ones, claiming that they’re unrealistic.

On Friday, July 31, the Brooklyn Marine Terminal Advisory Task Force convened online for its fifth meeting since a “vision plan” for the site was narrowly approved last fall, hearing updates from the Department of Transportation and transit consultants.

The session started off on rocky footing, with Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon criticizing the EDC’s decision to hold the meeting, which was open to the public, during the early afternoon in the summer — a time many constituents complained meant they could not attend. (The event was also recorded.)

“You may be doing work, that’s great. But for engagement, you need people to be around,” said Simon. “The level of frustration with this process is part and parcel with the fact that people feel like they’re being dismissed. That is not a good position from which to engage with the community going forward.”

Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes agreed with Simon’s assessment, adding that it seemed as though the EDC was also discouraging feedback from the 32-member task force itself.

“You guys are reading off your whatever-it-is, and you’re barely giving us any time to follow along,” said Mitaynes.

The transit proposal looks to create a “car-lite, multimodal neighborhood” through several interventions: forced turns that discourage traffic on Columbia St to speed up buses, a biker-oriented greenway on Van Brundt St, and a cap — the first of its kind in Brooklyn — on the number of off-street parking spaces developers can build.

The lead planners behind the presentation, Jeff Smithline of TYLin and Sam Frommer of Buro Happold, explained that the system of forced turns would make Google Maps reroute cars heading for the nearby BQE elsewhere. Downplaying concerns about the impact on businesses along the strip, they stressed that drivers would still technically have full access to Columbia St and one-way southbound access to Van Brundt St.

Hank Gutman, a former commissioner of the DOT under Mayor Bill de Blasio and a current member of the task force, expressed skepticism about the scheme, which does restrict car traffic completely on Columbia St between Hamilton Ave and Woodhull St.

“I worked on a lot of bus priority projects — I’m not aware of any that had this Rube Goldberg aspect to it,” said Gutman, highlighting the potential burden placed on Congress St. “I don’t see this doing anything other than making an existing problem worse.”

Smithline was unfazed. “It is a unique street network, because of the limited crossings [over the BQE],” he replied. “But we were surprised at how few forced turns we needed in order to get traffic off of these streets.”

If completed, the $3.5 billion BMT redevelopment plan would add up to 6,000 housing units and rehabilitate the crumbling piers that sit largely underused along Red Hook’s rim. Unsurprisingly, this volume of apartments will generate “a lot of rides,” with a projected daily peak of 2,200 cars in circulation.

Yet the planners were explicit about their goal of ultimately phasing out cars. Mimicking an existing initiative in Manhattan, the proposed “parking maximum” draws from research suggesting that when spots are scarce, commuters are less likely to own cars. (The presentation did not specify what the cap will be, numerically.)

Additionally, the duo noted that they were in conversation with the DOT over upcoming changes to the BQE ditch — which divides the Columbia Street Waterfront portion of Red Hook from the inland brownstones of Carroll Gardens, rendering it an “island” — and promised to update their designs as that project moves forward.

But while Gutman and fellow task force member Carly Baker-Rice, who helms the Red Hook Business Alliance, blasted the proposal as impractical, others pushed the EDC to take action sooner rather than waiting until the apartment complexes are built.

“You guys need to make us feel comfortable by doing something now,” said Karen Blondel, a task force member and the tenant association president of Red Hook Houses West. “Don’t wait till the GPP. We want small wins out here, not just a big win. I shouldn’t have to be scared to sit down as a sixty-seven-year-old because nobody’s cleaning the bus stops.”

The task force held a public workshop on the transportation plan on August 5, and will be hosting open office hours on August 11 and August 20,  from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. An EDC representative projected that the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), the next stage of the land use process, will be completed by early next year.

BY COLE SINANIAN | cole@queensledger.com

Apartments atop a Bensonhurst library. A vacant lot along the LIC waterfront, developed into a soaring, mix-income condo tower.

These are just some of the affordable housing developments likely to come to City-owned parking lots, waterfronts, vacant land and public facilities in Brooklyn and Queens over the coming years, thanks to the newest initiative of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s ambitious housing program.

Through an initiative dubbed LIFT — shorthand for the Land Inventory Fast Track Tracker — the Mamdani Administration hopes to utilize New York’s un- and underused public sites to build fast-tracked affordable housing, employing the expedited land-use review process that voters approved in the November election.

At a press conference Thursday, Mamdani and his cabinet announced the rollout of an interactive mapping tool that identifies more than 100 sites around the city that, if developed, could yield some 50,000 new apartments. The tracker — which includes already-approved projects — comes after the Mayor announced his LIFT task force upon taking office in January, which was directed to identify properties well-suited to affordable housing development.

“We have a responsibility to use every tool we have to build the affordable housing our city needs,” Mamdani said. “The LIFT tracker brings transparency to that work and makes clear that City-owned land is not sitting idle—it is becoming homes, libraries and community space across the five boroughs.”

The Administration has maintained it will keep an “aggressive pace” of Request For Proposals (RFPs) on City-owned land, vowing to issue RFPs for at least five new sites each year. This speed will help Mamdani reach his goal of building 200,000 affordable homes over the next ten years, as outlined in his ambitious Block by Block housing plan released earlier this year.

“We have already taken tangible steps forward on more than a dozen projects on public land that will create more than 5,000 new homes, and we are bringing unprecedented public transparency and engagement into this project with the release of the new LIFT tracker,” added Leila Bozorg, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning.

Already, the effects of LIFT are beginning to take shape.

In Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, the New Utrecht Library at 1743 86th St could soon see a new, 100% affordable apartment building built over its roof. The City released its RFP for the project in June, and developers have until September 4th to submit proposals. Officials have maintained that library service will not be interrupted during construction.

In Long Island City, meanwhile, a three-building, mixed-income development called The Orion will yield 980 apartments in the Hunter’s Point South area, 66% of which will be affordable at low-to-moderate income levels. Announced Wednesday, The Orion is set to include community facility space, a daycare and a workforce development center, an indoor community pool, and new commercial retail.

BY LINDA CHAN | news@queensledger.com

For New York City public schoolers who need to replace their lost or malfunctioning student transit cards — and there are many — the process can feel like a throw of the dice.

“One of my friends was able to get a replacement the day right after they requested it, because the school happened to have OMNY cards in stock,” said Julia, a rising junior at the Bronx High School of Science. “But when I requested mine, I waited about a month for my replacement to come.”

The current student OMNY system offers eligible students four rides a day, seven days a week, and at any time. The cards are valid from the beginning of the school year in September until the last day of August in the next year.

While this is a major upgrade from the previous student MetroCards, which only allowed three rides per school day from Monday through Friday between 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., many students and advocates argue that it is still far from enough.

Advocates at Riders Alliance, a non-profit who self proclaims they are “fighting for better transit for all New Yorkers,” have commented that while the “student OMNY as a policy is a big improvement over the previous system,” it does not work for all students the same way flawlessly, so a “more durable option would be a big help.”

The old MetroCards, made from thin plastic, were equally prone to being misplaced. But the MTA’s shift in September 2024 to the new system, OMNY, has brought its own unique headaches: Across dozens of interviews, students complained of paper cards disintegrating in the rain, or ceasing to work abruptly.

In the first three months of the 2025–26 school year, for example, Stuyvesant High School received 528 replacement forms, per a City Council hearing earlier this spring. Over half of them, 284, were due to malfunctions.

Now the DOE and MTA are experimenting with a possible solution: going digital.

Seven schools have been identified to participate in the initial rollout of digital cards as part of a pilot program. The DOE has remained tight-lipped about the initiative, but a spokesperson said more details would be released once testing is completed.

Many students reacted positively to the potential shift.

“Since I constantly use my phone throughout the day, a digital OMNY card will make it less of a hassle in case I forget the physical card,” said Sylvia, a rising senior from Bronx Science.

“I’d choose digital for convenience to prevent the risk of losing the physical card,” agreed Jamisha, a rising senior at the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics. “Paper is not durable at all — it’s very flimsy, and that’s not good.”

Some students have taken efforts to laminate their cards, despite being highly discouraged by school administrators. While the lamination can cause heat damage, which interferes with the OMNY card readers, this has become the only way for some students to protect their fragile cards.

Cubic Transportation Systems Corp., the manufacturer of OMNY cards, did not respond to a request for comment regarding the reason behind making student the cards paper instead of a more durable material.

Yet other students say that even though the paper cards’ quality is unreliable, they would still prefer them over the digital option.

“I think I would still want the physical card because it will be easier for me, and I don’t have to worry about my phone dying or having problems,” said Angela, a rising junior at Flushing High School.

“My phone would usually be dead before I get home, so having a digital one would be kind of hard to manage in that case,” added Quin-Niya, a rising junior at the Young Women’s Leadership School of the Bronx. “I would stick to the physical card.”

To some transit advocates, including Riders Alliance, the answer to the debate seems simple: Why not offer both physical and digital cards?

“It’s no secret that the transition has been long and windy, but most people are using OMNY and complaints have lessened,” a spokesperson for the group said. “Students and their families should have both options available.”

BY JACK DELANEY | jdelaney@queensledger.com

A swanky restaurant and expanded marina may be coming to one of Greenpoint’s most high-traffic parks — but not if residents have any say in the matter.

Last week, the local group Friends of Transmitter Park revealed that the waterfront green space — which was opened in 2012 as WNYC Transmitter Park, after a previous life as a radio transmission station — was being considered for an “activation” that would offer seasonal boat tours, marine-themed programming, and a new dining destination.

A preliminary document suggests that the Parks Department is poised to give a 25-year lease to restaurant veterans Josh Cohen and David Schmitt. Cohen is a longtime resident active with local organizations like North Brooklyn Angels, per reporting by the blog Greenpointers; Schmitt operates two locations elsewhere in the city, DJ’s at Bayside and Dakota’s on the Cove, that both sit next to marinas.

“While our community widely supports the addition of a public restroom and a small, contextual place to grab food or coffee, we are working to ensure the project doesn’t overwhelm the park,” the Friends said in a statement. “We want to reinforce a strong need to protect the historic Art Deco building structure, scale down the restaurant, and rethink the large commercial marina footprint to protect the park’s quiet, passive character and natural estuary and research station, along with expansive views, that allows our small green park to reach out into the blue water.

Greenpointers echoed those sentiments, pointing to the extensive options for shopping and meals along the nearby strips of West St and Greenpoint Ave.

“This peaceful park is a special refuge for so many residents and visitors,” said Danielle Harris on Instagram. “We don’t want a marina, we don’t want water sports, we don’t even want a restaurant here (there are several to choose from just a few feet from the entrance!). We just wanted a functional public bathroom! This is one of the ONLY places in the neighborhood where you can enjoy something at no cost.”

Local rep Emily Gallagher said that she “felt much better” about the activation after she and Councilmember Lincoln Restler met with parks officials, noting that their plans differed from what was in the circulated documents.

The Parks Department will be hosting a virtual community meeting on the proposed changes to Transmitter Park on Thursday, August 6 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. A full hearing will be taking place on August 10 at 2:30 p.m. at 255 Greenwich Street.