Rezoning Threatens Longtime Brooklyn Residents

Brooklyn, NY —

Polish immigrants in Greenpoint and Latinos in Williamsburg have maintained a presence in those Brooklyn neighborhoods despite a steady influx of new, more affluent, apartment dwellers. But the city's plan to rezone the area is threatening to push residents who have managed to hang on out. WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez visited both neighborhoods

JIMENEZ: Mi nombre es Oraida Jimenez, tengo 63 anos y en Williamsburg he vivido casi 59 anos.

REPORTER: Oraida Jimenez is 63 years old and has lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for close to 59 years.

She is popular in her neighborhood. In the two blocks that it takes to get to a local social service agency she meets and greets a man in his thirties who she says was born on the same day as her second son, a neighbor who asks about her ailing mother and 59 year old Maria Vazquez:

JIMENEZ/VAZQUEZ: Hi mama como estas bien y tu [kiss] Pa donde vas? Hay donde Robin al oficina de Los Sures que nos estan ayudando mucho ha nosotros que nos estan sacando de los apartamentos.

REPORTER: Jimenez tells her friend she's on her way to see a social worker who is helping people getting pushed out of their apartments. Vazquez responds:

VAZQUEZ: Hay no ah nosotros no nos pueden sacar nadie porque hemos muchos que han vivido aqui muchos anos en este neighborhood. Yo si me sacan a mi yo no se ni pa donde ir porque yo no se ni caminar en este pais.

TRANSLATION: Oh no they are not going to take us out, too many of us have been here for too long. Me, if they take me out, I wouldn't even know where to go. I don't know even how to get around in any other place in the country.

REPORTER: Vazquez lives in a one bedroom apartment. Her rent is $536. Jimenez shares a one bedroom apartment with her 24 year old son. She pays $485 a month. Both women live off disability checks they say barely cover their expenses. And Jimenez's troubles recently have worsened. She says her rent stabilized building was recently purchased by a new owner who she says wants her out:

JIMENEZ: Me estan ofrecendo a mi 6,000 pesos. 6,000 pesos se va en dos o tres meses de renta pagando mil o dos mil pesos en otro lugar....entonce yo voy a llegar en un shelter

TRANSLATION: They are offering me $6,000 to go. $6,000 will be gone in two or three months if I have to pay 1000 or $1200 somewhere else and then I will just end up in a shelter.

REPORTER: Jimenez speaks inside her apartment that is small and dark. She shows me a hole in her bathtub that she says has been left unpatched by the building's owners for 4 days and the exposed floor boards that are warped. She believes her landlord is stalling repairs as a way of pressuring her to leave. Despite the apartment's poor condition Jimenez wants to stay. She says many of her neighbors are in the same predicament and are scared because they don't have valid leases:

JIMENEZ: Pero eso no me interesa. A mi lo que me interesa es nosotros los ancianos que tambien han vivido tantos anos en esta area que nos traten asi.

TRANSLATION: But that's not an issue for me. What is an issue is that elderly people like me, that have been here for so long, are getting treated so badly.

REPORTER: The city's rezoning plan would change 175 blocks of Greenpoint and Williamsburg. High rises are expected to line the waterfront and short squat factory buildings would legally be turned into residential buildings. The anticipated change means a rush for land.

Community activists say buyouts are common and while they encourage people not to take the money - the offers are not illegal. Driving around with them, the struggle between those trying to save affordable housing and those trying to turn a big profit is obvious. Signs posted by housing groups that say "Speculators Beware", sit next to real estate brokers promising top dollar for those wanting to sell.

ACTIVISTS: Quick cash selling your home, deals on hand. Call the right realty company.

REPORTER: In Greenpoint the scenario is much the same and Jack Bikowski, from the North Brooklyn Development Corporation says residents are leaving at a faster pace. Bikowski is a tenant advocate and says eviction rates are reaching epidemic proportions. He says a review of his files show 90 cases in 6 months:

BIKOWSKI: That's a pretty high number because as I said you don't know how many are in there that are not coming here.

REPORTER: Bikowski says rezoning will definitely improve the neighborhood, especially the waterfront:

BIKOWSKI: Everybody's looking out to have it nice - finally to go with the kids to have a nice look - so we're looking forward to that but not at any expense like uh we don't take any tradeoff.

REPORTER: Bikowski says the community needs at least 40 percent of all the housing built to be affordable. The city is familiar with this demand and while they've rejected it Housing Commissioner Sean Donovan says vulnerable tenants are not being ignored. He testified at a recent city council hearing.

DONOVAN: Because we have heard significant concerns about protecting existing residents from rent increases we are creating a new preservation program to be targeted at existing housing in the neighborhood by giving developers an incentive to buy, renovate and preserve affordable housing as permanently affordable.

REPORTER: This means that developers who build along the waterfront could meet their affordable housing commitment by buying a building inland like the one Jimenez lives in and keeping the rents cheap. Donovan says there's more:

DONOVAN: In all the developments where the city is contributing land or resources we will set aside 50 percent of the units for local community residents.

REPORTER: The city plans to create close to 1,000 apartments. About half of them would be for the poorest New Yorkers- a family of four would have to earn less than $32,000 a year to qualify. Developers are expected to either build or preserve another 1500 apartments for low, moderate and middle income New Yorkers. But there's skepticism over whether developers will really do it. As it stands in the plan, developers will be able to build 35 stories of market rate apartments along the waterfront with no obligation to provide for anybody who may be displaced. If they want to build 5 stories higher then they must generate some number of affordable housing units. Housing groups say that incentive is too weak.

Kent Barwick, President of the Municipal Arts Society agrees. The planning and preservation group says the city should only allow developers to build 12 stories high and only allow them to jump to 25 if they set aside some for affordable housing:

BARWICK: I think the community is willing to put up with gentrification. I think they are willing to put up with buildings that are of a change in scale because they understand the benefits of the positive change but I think this is over the top.

REPORTER: The Municipal Arts Society's main concern is that 40 story buildings will create an eyesore. Barwick says the well known glass buildings by famous architect Richard Meier that sit near the Greenwich Village waterfront are only 15 stories high. The city argues the Municipal Arts Society plan is unrealistic. Housing commissioner Sean Donovan says building on the waterfront is expensive because developers have to do environmental cleanups and pay for an esplanade.

DONOVAN: If we lower the base density and increase the requirements for developers...we get no development at all. And if we get no development we get no affordable housing no development of the esplanade and that is the balance we must strike.

REPORTER: Two city council committees will vote on the rezoning plan this morning and if it is approved the entire council will vote later this month. Rezoning Greenpoint and Williamsburg will create dramatic changes. Barwick says Manhattanites who can't picture its magnitude should imagine a transformation that runs from Tribeca to Penn Station.

REPORTER: The affordable housing that does come from the rezoning will likely be too late to help those like Jimenez who are feeling pressure to move now. The 2300 units the city is expecting will not be completed for 10 to 15 years. But Jimenez says she plans to stay in Williamsburg even if she has to live at the edge of the shore.

For WNYC: I'm Cindy Rodriguez