Residents got a chance to weigh in on a controversial rezoning plan for East New York at a community board meeting Monday night. NY1's Lindsey Christ filed the following report.
It was standing-room only as local residents, elected officials and activists packed a community board meeting in East New York to hear city officials present the latest draft of their rezoning proposal for the neighborhood.
"We know we need to invest in infrastructure to ensure that this is a livable, vibrant community," said one speaker at the meeting.
It's one piece of Mayor Bill de Blasio's citywide affordable housing plan, which aims to build or preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing in the next decade.
In East New York, city officials say they will build 6,300 new housing units and set aside half at rates local residents can afford.
Some, though, question the city's calculations.
"The area median income in our community is about $34,000, and if you look at this plan, it's designed for a community of people who are at $84,000. So we're at 40 percent of what the city is looking at in terms of saying its affordable," said City Councilwoman Inez Barron of Brooklyn. "So at the outset, we have a big problem."
City officials say the plan also includes space for new businesses and support for existing businesses that want to stay and grow, as well as a job training center and a new school.
Labor leaders want the city to hire local workers for all the construction.
"They need real jobs so they can find, get an opportunity in the very housing that they will be building, that they can eventually live there and not be displaced," said Anthony Williamson of Local 79 Construction and Building Union.
Residents and advocates say that's their biggest fear, that improvements to the neighborhood will spark a gentrification process and squeeze out current residents.
"We tend to think a neighborhood gets better because we change who lives there, as opposed to changing the neighborhood for the people who live there now," said the Rev. Edward Mason of Our Lady of Presentation and Our Lady Mercy.
This meeting is just the start of a seven-month formal review process, which will include future hearings by another community board, the Brooklyn borough president, the city planning commission and the City Council. Then, the City Council is expected to vote on the final proposal later this spring.