The State of Brooklyn

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Brian: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Tuesday was a big day for speeches around here. We talked about New York's and New Jersey's governors giving their big state of the state addresses, but for the first time in 10 years, Brooklyn got its own state of the borough speech courtesy of Brooklyn Borough President, Antonio Reynoso, who just wrapped up his first year in office. This morning, as he put it in his opening remarks, Brooklyn is in the house, in our house, at least virtually in the house in this case. Borough President Reynoso, welcome back to WNYC. Happy New Year.

Borough President Reynoso: Happy New Year. Thank you for having me, Brian.

Brian: In a nutshell, what is the state of Brooklyn these days as you see it?

Borough President Reynoso: Well, I'm very excited about the progress we've made since COVID. Well, since the worst part of COVID. We're seeing jobs coming back, the population continuing to increase, and we're starting to see more stabilizing factors in relation to what eventually will be a post-COVID Brooklyn. Crime has gone down, especially murders and shootings. Again, jobs. Just overall, a level of stabilization this last year that has been extremely meaningful.

Specifically in Brooklyn, more so than any other borough, we've seen the statistics either way, and positive things go up and negative things go down. I'm very excited about what last year brought to Brooklyn and what the future has to hold.

Brian: Listeners in Kings County, if you want to talk to the president of Brooklyn, Antonio Reynoso, we can take a few phone calls. What's the state of the borough according to you or any question you want to ask him, 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, or tweet @BrianLehrer. It's safe to say that one of your major goals for the borough last year, that a lot of listeners might not even know about, was to improve maternal health outcomes, especially for Black and Latino mothers. Why was maternal health your number one priority?

Borough President Reynoso: I had both my children in Woodhull Hospital, Brian, which is one of the public hospitals in Brooklyn. When I got there, I was a council member having my first child Alejandro, and Ms. Helena Grant, who's one of the lead midwife or the director of midwifery services in Woodhull Hospital decided to take me after every time I went monthly to take my wife and go get her checkup. She pulled me aside and gave me a crash course on the maternal health crisis that exists in this country, in this city, and worst of all, in this borough.

Through that, I became an advocate simply because I felt helpless to do anything to improve the odds of my wife's healthy outcome during labor. As a Black woman, she's 9.4 times more likely to die during childbirth than her white counterparts. I told myself if I ever got the opportunity to be influential or have the power to affect meaningful change that I would. One of the few campaign promises I made, Brian, was that I would invest all of my money in the capital budget to the three public hospitals in Brooklyn in an effort to build state-of-the-art birthing centers, so that infrastructurally to start. We would, again, bring down the inequities related to maternal mortality.

Brian: What's the state of that? That's so interesting. Are there now three new birthing centers at public hospitals in Brooklyn, or is it too soon to have seen that construction bear fruit? Are there any reductions in the numbers in terms of maternal mortality or other negative outcomes or is it too early?

Borough President Reynoso: It's too early, Brian. I would love to come on the show and talk about procurement another time, and how the city moves when it comes to building out infrastructure projects. Yes, we've allocated $45 million, on average $15 million for every one of those hospitals, and they're going to get state-of-the-art birthing centers. In one case, Kings County is getting about $19 million.

When we talk about the infrastructure that we're going to see, this is not paint jobs and new beds. This is new equipment. This is going to be internationally renowned, a sights and spaces with designs that we've never seen before. When I'm done in the next three years, Brooklyn will be the safest place for Black women to have babies, but more so than just Brooklyn, public hospitals in Brooklyn will be the most attractive places and the best places for Black women to have babies, and that was always the goal.

I'm on a four-year track here, Brian, to bring these numbers down. It's going to take a lot of work because the gross inequities that existed before I got there are not going to turn around overnight. I'm looking to make Brooklyn the safest place in New York City to have a baby in four years, and if I get the pleasure of returning as the borough president, the safest place in the nation in eight.

Brian: That's a fantastic goal. Speaking of-

Borough President Reynoso: Thank you.

Brian: - being a safe place, we had the Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez on the show yesterday. He said, in case people didn't know, that city-wide shootings and murders have gone down to their lowest level since before the pandemic. That 80% of the decline in shootings and murders have taken place in Brooklyn. Almost a whole city-wide improvement in the shootings and murders rate under the first year of Eric Adams and first year of you has taken place in Brooklyn. Are those your numbers too, and would you say why you think that is if it's true?

Borough President Reynoso: Yes, I think-- different reasons for it, but those are our numbers as well. We got a briefing from the DA's office on the mayor's office regarding the drop in major crimes, but specifically shootings and murders. I want to say that the DA in Brooklyn has been the most progressive, District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, in his time as the DA. Which means he's not prosecuting low-level crimes and is focusing more on doing real investigative work and prosecutorial work on the folks that are actually causing most of the harm in Brooklyn.

I want to make sure that I recognize the work that this DA did against the backdrop of a narrative that we needed to be tough on crime and go back to the broken window conversation. He just flew away from that, moved away from that, and kept his head down, and kept working, and we're seeing results. I think it also has to do with the pandemic. We can't be blind to the fact that nationally the trend was that during the COVID pandemic, we saw a rise in crime across this country, and that we were susceptible to it just like every other large city or city in America.

Now that COVID is weighing down a bit, we see that it's spiking up again, but given that it's not at the levels it was in the last six months ago or a year ago, we're starting to see the trends come back to three, four years ago pre-pandemic levels. There's a lot of factors that go into this. I don't think anybody should be patting themselves on the back as to the policy that has been placed or been pushed forward by this mayor, the previous mayor, this DA, or myself. It's many factors that took place that got us there.

Brian: Ian in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC with Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. Hi, Ian.

Ian: Hi, Brian, and hello, Mr. Borough President. I appreciate you taking my call.

Borough President Reynoso: Absolutely.

Ian: I had a question about the state of public transportation options in Brooklyn, particularly in East New York. First and foremost, I've been particularly dismayed, and I think I speak on behalf of a lot of people when it comes to the lack of bold options and improving and expanding public transportation options. I think East New York, especially the deepest areas where I reside, it's more or less a subway desert, for lack of a better term, and the bus options are incredibly limited as well.

The scheduling is also very, very difficult to work around. I was wondering if there was any comprehensive plan on improving those things going forward. I do recall that the governor had mentioned rehabilitating some old tracks to provide a new service throughout Brooklyn, but I was wondering if there was any potentially new ideas. Thank you.

Brian: Thank you, Ian. Borough President.

Borough President Reynoso: Thank you, Ian. First, I want to say the bus redesign that we're starting to take on with the MTA and the state is underway. I think what we want to focus on in the bus redesign is the areas that are the outer portions of the outer boroughs, but specifically the outer portions of Brooklyn. What we see in certain neighborhoods is that folks have to take two buses to get to a train, and those buses are not consistent and are not quick, so really focusing on doing more with exclusive bus lanes, and being able to enforce that in a meaningful way. That the redesign make it so that there's express service or quick service or very efficient service to get you to that first train stop. Building out new train systems or a new subway system within those areas is just not feasible, and it would take a large commitment from a very dedicated governor. I just don't know if that's where the focus is going to be given that this governor is proposing another lights rail along the outer portions of Brooklyn and Queens, which I do think is going to help some of the concerns that Ian had. When it comes to being bold, it's just about doing the things we know that work, which are express bus lanes, and making sure that people get service to the train stations, especially in those outer Boroughs.

We're trying to move away from our overreliance on vehicles, and we can't do that if folks like Ian are uncomfortable, or are having a hard time getting to Downtown Brooklyn or the areas where the economic development is happening and where the goods are being distributed. We're focused on the bus redesign right now, and we do have some bold things we're doing, not specifically related just to East New York, but we're thinking about looking at entire corridors like Bedford, like Atlantic Avenue to see if we can have a more comprehensive view on what exactly we can do in those corridors to allow for a connection from east to west in Brooklyn that is meaningful.

Brian: Donna in Crown Heights, you're on WNYC with the President of Brooklyn, Antonio Reynoso. Hi Donna?

Donna: Hi. Thank you, sir. Great, I'm so optimistic about Brooklyn. I moved there and I love everything about it. I do want to bring up the topic of rats. I know that there was rat [unintelligible 00:11:34] I know. I wondered if it's going to extend down to East New York and of course, the first thing that has to be addressed is getting that garbage off into some containers so that they'll go away.

Even if they were cut in half [inaudible 00:11:57] chewing through people, hearing stuff in their cars I know I shouldn't have a car in New York, but that's another story. Anyway, Brooklyn has it all over Queens, good luck to you, and take it from there I'll listen offline, guys. Okay.

Brian: Donna, you broke up for just a second. The rats are chewing their way into your car, did you say?

Borough President Reynoso: Yes.

Donna: Yes, he knows, they chewed into the steering something and it costs 600 bucks to fix it.

Brian: Wow, in the engine under the hood they chew up into there?

Donna: Yes. They climbed up the hood because it's [inaudible 00:12:35] in the winter so take it away.

Brian: I did not know that part about the rats, Borough President.

Borough President Reynoso: They tend to put nests inside vehicles that sit outdoors for a significant amount of time. They pack food within engine compartments as well so New York rats are very resourceful, but Donna did a great job at explaining the problem, which is the fact that we leave our trash outdoors for 12 hours, 13, 14, 15 hours at a time. Here in New York City, is one of the few developed cities that has no progressive or a real plan to handle trash.

We've been handling trash since the 1960s and 70s, the exact same way as we're handling trash now. I was the chair of the sanitation committee when I was in the city council, and this was a big problem. What I thought the solution was, and I think still is containerization. That is absolutely right. What we should be doing is putting all of our trash in containers and making sure that the containers are sealed.

That would take away the food access that these rats have and will start bringing down the population. It is the only solution that makes sense and that is doable or feasible in the City of New York. Unfortunately, to put those containers in our streets, we might need to take some parking spaces, and we all know how community boards in the City of New York thinks about their parking spaces, so it was something that didn't move in my time, but I'm hoping can move now.

There are some containerization pilots that have been put forth in certain parts of Manhattan by this mayor, but it concerns me when we're putting pilot programs in place for things that we know absolutely work. It's like, what are we going to figure out is that grants are not going to be in the places where we have these containers. Why not just start that program and start phasing it in citywide?

Brian: I see that at the top of your list for goals for this year. You have funding for permanent homes, for nonprofits. Explain what that means and who would benefit if it works.

Borough President Reynoso: Yes. What we're going to do is ask for applications from not-for-profits in Brooklyn that want to acquire the spaces that they're in. What we saw happening, or a trend that was happening in my last years as a council member or not-for-profits they had to renegotiate leases and were being pushed out of the communities they serve for 10, 20, 30, 40 years, and we don't want that to happen. We also know that not-for-profits use, on average 30% to 60% of their funding goes to rent or space, and we want to be able to eliminate that so they can use that money for services.

We want to make sure that we can do everything in our power one, to keep them in the neighborhood in which the services are being provided, and two, move them away from having to spend so much of their money on rent instead of services. We are going to be asking for applications, and we're going to start an acquisition project, so if they apply, we'll give a certain amount of money dedicated to making sure that they purchase the buildings in which they're in. It's not only tenants that are suffering through this process it's also not-for-profits and small businesses so this is our effort to stabilize some of these not-for-profits in Brooklyn.

Brian: Here's a somewhat related question coming in on Twitter. Twitter is tweeting as under the name Jacqueline Kennedy. Maybe we're being trolled, I don't know, but then again, multiple people could be named Jacqueline Kennedy. This says, "I haven't heard anything about the incredible demographic shift in Brooklyn, the massive exodus of Black and brown Brooklynites who simply cannot afford to live equality life. What does President Reynoso doing to support affordable housing and businesses of color?" First, do you accept the premise about an incredible demographic shift of black and brown people, Brooklynites moving out, and if so, solutions?

Borough President Reynoso: Somewhat accept the premise. We know that displacement is happening. We know that gentrification is running its course through Brooklyn. There's some of that, but why it's happening and how to figure out the solutions to that is a little trickier. I do want to say the problem that we have, and part of my state of the Borough talked about a comprehensive planning Brian, what we don't have in this city is a comprehensive plan.

The Department of City Planning should be named the Department of City Zoning. They just zone, and they do it in spot zoning so every neighborhood fence for themselves, every borough fence for themselves, there's no comprehensive look as to how we're going to solve for comprehensive problems or problems that need comprehensive addressing. Whether that's seats for schools, transportation issues, housing issues. It is just no comprehensive plan. It's every neighborhood for themselves.

What I think we should be doing is building, and building everywhere. Right now, the City of New York focuses on what they consider opportunity areas, which are almost exclusively Black and brown poor neighborhoods.

What we should be doing is asking neighborhoods like Bay Ridge, like Brooklyn Heights, like Sheepshead Bay, and Canarsie to build just as much as Brownsville, East New York, [unintelligible 00:17:48], and Williamsburg, and right now that doesn't happen.

People start fighting against development in the City of New York because they believe that the burden to get us out of this hose is falling solely on them. If they see other people contributing, other neighborhoods that haven't seen a rezoning since the 1960s, I think they would be more open to understanding that they have to develop in their neighborhoods for part of the greater good. My comprehensive plan is going to start asking these neighborhoods that are mostly south in Brooklyn to contribute to the greater good of housing development, and in doing so, we'll start stabilizing the markets to some degree and solving for the problem of homelessness and how expensive it is to live in New York City.

Brian: That's really interesting. In fact, our next segment is going to be about how Governor Hochul called for something similar in the suburbs of New York City to do their share. We're going to take calls from people in the suburbs about the governor demanding more housing development in some of their towns and we're going to talk to the Nassau County Executive. Last question for you for today, Mayor Adams, people may have forgotten, was your predecessor, he went from Brooklyn Borough President to Mayor. Did he give you any helpful advice about the job or did you decide you had to be Brooklyn Borough President in a very different way than Eric Adams? Anything on that scale?

Borough President Reynoso: Yes, so I did make a decision that I'm going to be very different than Marty Markowitz, or than Eric Adams, I am going to be different, but Eric has been very helpful. There's nothing I don't call him for related to Borough that he doesn't respond to or his team doesn't respond to. He is been extremely helpful. We might disagree on how to get to the same place but he seems to have been very helpful to me, and the one thing he told me, he said, "This is the best job in the world." He said, "Brooklyn is amazing," and also something that's important that I think I took in is remember that I am the Borough President and that's important.

I am interpreting what he meant about the fact that I'm Borough President. I think as apply your vision and do it unapologetically. He's been very helpful and I'm grateful to him in the time and the transition in this last year.

Brian: Well, he is certainly taking his own advice as Mayor, and good luck to you in year two as Brooklyn Borough President. We look forward to talking to you obviously again as the year goes on. Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. Thank you.

Borough President Reynoso: Thank you, Brian, and don't forget to spread love it's the Brooklyn way.

Brian: Yes. It's Queens way too, where I come from just saying.

 

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