About This Item

  • Call NumberGEHP_0038
  • Summary(1:00) Neighborhood fight against power plant (1:43) Greenpoint Williamsburg Waterfront Task Force -- (3:34) 197-A waterfront plan -- (4:14) Local industrial pollution -- (5:42) City and community united against power plant -- (6:00) Bloomberg administration pushing for waterfront luxury housing -- (7:07) Community threatened with power plant if not accepting of 2005 waterfront rezoning -- (8:40) Waterfront building boom -- (9:20) Neighborhood change of landscape and population -- (10:09) Poor open space/resident ratio -- (11:47) Bushwick Inlet Park -- (12:41) Using Eminent Domain for first parcel of Bushwick Inlet Park (BIP) -- (15:00) Citi Storage’s 7 alarm fire and trying to sell to city -- (15:47) Where’s Our Park? - (16:10) Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park (FoBIP) events and strategies -- (18:13) Local officials brokering deal with city and owner of CitiStorage -- (19:00) Bushwick Inlet Park (BIP) secured -- (19:43) Mayor Bill DeBlasio comes to rally for park -- (20:31) Different park parcels -- (21:56) 50 Kent Avenue park site -- (23:46) BIP as world class park -- (24:24) WNYC radio transmitter tower -- (25:53) Transmitter Park -- (26:32) Open Space Alliance building park Friends’ groups -- (27:07) Being protector’s of the Transmitter Park -- (27:42) Developer’s building next to park and Friend’s of Transmitter Park fighting text amendment -- (29:54) Fighting proposed vendor in Transmitter Park building -- (32:14) Community based solution for the building -- (33:46) Joining Community Board 1 -- (34:12) Strength of activism in Greenpoint -- (34:43) Turnover of businesses in neighborhood -- (35:34) Elected officials need guidance from community -- (37:41) Strength of Friend’s of Bushwick Inlet Park (FoBIP) -- (38:25) 2005 Waterfront rezoning deep wound in community -- (39:05) FoBIP breaking record for rally at City Hall -- (42:42) Open space as important city issue -- (44:10) Zoning resolution issues for BIP and getting local officials to help -- (45:44) “Funeral for a Deal” video to deliver resolution to Norm Brodsky -- (47:59) Taking rezoning off the table -- (51:25) Activism in Greenpoint -- (53:45) Activism requires litigation but work on the street is important as well
  • Date2018-08-03
  • Physical Description1 sound file (55 min.) : digital, MP3
  • CreatorChesler, Steve
  • Cite AsGreenpoint Environmental History Project, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
  • Digital Public Library of AmericaThis item is represented in the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA).
  • Formatsound recording-nonmusical
  • GenreinterviewsMP3
  • NoteAudio interview conducted on August 3, 2018, by Acacia Thompson on Box Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Collected through Our Streets, Our Stories, an oral history project of Brooklyn Public Library. This project is funded through the Greenpoint Community Environmental Fund.
  • SubjectNew York (N.Y.). Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn ; Greenpoint (New York, N.Y.) ; Pollution ; Waterfronts ; Incinerators ; Land use--New York (State)--New York ; Gentrification ; Eminent domain--United States ; Electric power plants ; Community Board 1 (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.) ; Real estate development ; Maloney, Carolyn
  • PlaceGreenpoint (New York, N.Y.)
  • RightsThis work is covered by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Users are free to share and adapt the work for non-commercial purposes as long as appropriate credit is given to the source and new material created with this work is shared under the same conditions.
  • TitleOral history interview conducted with Steve Chesler on 2018 August 3.