Adi Talwar
The Barclays Center in downtown Brooklyn.
One big problem with Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs), experts say, is that they’re not laws, but rather private contracts between a developer and community groups. And if those groups aren’t around to hold a developer accountable—or the developer isn’t around and there’s no successor clause—there’s little anyone else can do to enforce an agreement.
Once a seemingly promising structure to ensure that real estate groups don’t run roughshod over local neighborhoods in development deals—and still a common practice in other cities—CBAs are now disdained by many New York City community groups and developers alike. The mechanism’s demise is a lesson, development experts say, in both the strength and limitations of demanding concessions in exchange for neighborhood-changing construction projects.
The meal hubs have drawn praise, but there are still gaps. And other measures are being held up by the slow pace of the approval process in Washington.
The legislature passed a law allowing workers to place a lien on owners’ personal property to prevent them from absconding with cash and starting fresh without making court-mandated payments to workers. It awaits Gov. Cuomo’s signature.
What’s in store for the nearly mile-long stretch between Brooklyn Bridge and Battery Park remains up in the air in terms of planning, timeline, and funding, with a master plan only first set to be released in 2021.
New York is taking expensive, multifaceted steps to protect residents from the impacts of sea-level rise. But do those measures stack up to the scale of threat the city faces?
While Gov. Cuomo’s progressive shift in rhetoric — whether spurred by Cynthia Nixon or not — is obvious, what happens next is less certain.
The city needs to come up with a plan to deal with the looming shutdown of the L train. One idea gaining steam would be a transit no-brainer and a political power-lift.
The city’s land-use and environmental review processes are normally obscure parts of the city’s bureaucratic machinery. But in two communities where big rezonings are on the table, they are a key focus of efforts to put community desires in the driver’s seat.
If Industry City’s new owners are hoping to paint themselves as the saviors of Sunset Park, it’s a message that has backfired with some of its neighbors.
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