Page 171 - Demo

T estim o n y a t P lan n in g C om m ission:r nMarch 7,1974 PHOENIX Page 3r o m m i in ii\\ /f i * 1 1 * > * %u00ab . ji/c mmerceGowanus RedevelopmentThoueh commercial interests nlace desicnation for which %u25a0 Though commercial interests contested community desires on the question of the use of six acres of land along the Gowanus, the community push for designation of the block between 4th and 7th Sts. as a %u201cpublic place for use compatible with the surrounding community,%u201d was in the forefront at last wekk%u2019s hearing of the City Planning Commission.The planning commission had postponed its vote for two week hoping that Community Planning Board No. 6 (which has not acted on the issue) would come forward with its recommendations. However, on Feb. 28, it heard testimony from members of the community and members of the Mayors Committee for Redevelopment of the Gowanus which includes State Legislators Carol Bellamy and Michael Pesce, City Councilman Tom Cuite and Democratic District Leader James Mangano) in favor of the new designation under the aegis of the Parks Department.The proponents of the publicB rooklynC o alitio nTo M e e tA call has gone out to Brooklyn civic leaders and workers bidding them to make certain their organizations are represented at the %u201cDialogue%u201d meeting of the Brooklyn Civic Leadership Coalition set for March 10, 24:30 p.m. at the Grand Army Plaza Main Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.John' LaCorte of Brooklyn Heights, organizer of the Coalition says %u201cTogether we can do better,%u201d and invites every established Brooklyn group to send a representative to this dialogue meeting between public officials and civic leaders. He says that the discussion will range over a host of crucial borough-wide issues affecting Brooklyn.To make arrangements for your group to be represented, write the Coalition at 11 Columbia Heights or call 852-2929.place designation for which $517,000 has been allocated for acquisition, emphasized the community%u2019s desire for a residential community along the waterway and pointed to the plans for overall development of the area %u2014 including arrangements for dredging the canal and for a sewer treatment plant.The designation which would curtail use of the site for industrial purposes and would remain a %u201c holding action%u201d until later determination of specific use by the community, was opposed by Louis L. Rosenberg, revealed as a present owner of part of the property. Rosenberg is promoting development of his two-thirds of the tract as a shopping center %u2014 complete with Pathmark Supermarket and satellite stores. He said that his firm has already invested well over a million dollars for acquisition and preliminary development of the center.The owner of the remaining portion of the property, the Ferrara Bros. Building Materials Corp., a cement factory, also testified against the %u201cpublic place%u201d saying that the firm also has a million dollar plus investment in the former gas works site.The latter group, which along with Rosenberg, purchased the property from the Antereni Iron Works (the original buyers from the Brooklyn Union Gas Co.) moved its machinery and trucks into the area last summer after some initial difficulty in obtaining a permit. The community%u2019s upset over the plant%u2019s arrival led to the public place proposal and to the unanimous vote in its favor by the members of the Gowanus Committee who a month or so earlier were split in their recommendations for rezoning of the same area.At press time the Commission had not announced a decision on the proposal.In a related announcement earlier this week, John Noonan, president of the Park Slope Civic Council blasted Mr. Rosenberg and urged South Brooklyn residents to resist his proposals, based on his mainenance of the areas surrounding property he owns on Ninth Street in Park Slope.Bossert H o te l A sks ToC o n v e rt to 'P ro p rie ta ryH o m e fo r A d u lts 'On March 12, the Bropklyn Heights Association%u2019s Board of Governors will meet to determine whether and under what conditions it will support a request to the City Planning Commission for a special permit by David Kupperman, general manager of Montague Street%u2019s Bossert Hotel.The permit is required under a recent amendment to the Zoning Resolution to convert about 150 of his rooms into a %u201cProprietary Home for Adults%u201d , says the Association.The Bossert manager says he is seeking the designation in order to provide safe, affordable and attractive housing for older personsi%u00ab v %u00bb* U * fV*rv U r t i r t h f c K u t t H o m n a n cAssociation says that serious questions may be raised about his ability to do so.A %u201c Proprietary Home for Adults%u201d must not be confused with a Senior Citizens Residence, said a BHH spokesman. The Planning Commission document defines it as %u201ca facility operated for the purpose of nrovidine suitable care, forThis abandoned car is one of the ornaments in the now-vacant part of the old Brooklyn UnionGas Co. site at Smith and Fifth St., which local community groups are seeking to make into a%u201cpublic place\Rosenberg, who bought the property in October, after local hearings and recommendations bycommunity organizations, hopes to develop site as a supermarket.Noonan, in a copy of a letter he sent on Feb. 27 to Rosenberg care of his Sherilu Construction Company, said that the parking lot behind his buildi g on Ninth St., leased to the A&P Company is improperly and illegally fenced, and has been poorly maintained for years. The %u201cpartially demolished%u201dfence, which backs on to Eighth St., has been cited as a violation by the Building Department, but has not been corrected. An adjacent lot, behind the Park Slope branch of the Y.M.C.A., has been used illegally for parking as well. Part of the eyesore condition described by Noonan includes an abandonedcar which has sat there for weeks.Noonan described Rosenberg as an %u201cirresponsible landlord\said that his performance in Park Slope should certainly be taken into consideration if any new official decisions are to be made that would enable him to conduct business in the local area.P icket for Staff Unionat Brooklyn M useumcompensation and profit, to five or more adults unrelated to the operator who require in addition to lodging and board, the services of attendants to assure their safety and comfort.%u201d Older persons may, of course, be housed there, but the facility will not be restricted to their use, the BHH said.Possible uses for a facility so designated, according to one official of the City%u2019s Housing and Development Administration include absorption of peOple out of long-term hospitals or other %u2018 institutional care.The Association questions the possible use of the new Supplemental Security Income as am o a n c t n f i n a n o i n o t h e n l H o rperson%u2019s stay in a proprietary home. %u201cIt is difficult to determine how many of the elderly population in Brooklyn Heights could qualify to live in the Bossert Hotel,%u201d the BHA said, also raising a question of over-supply if the Pierrepont Hotel and the Bossert both are awarded such a designation for a total of 680 rooms.BY JOHN BLACKMORELast Sunday a couple exited from the subway and approached the entrance of the Brooklyn Museum. %u201cIt%u2019s a hassle, we%u2019ve come all this way and now this,%u201d the man said. %u201cWe could always say...,%u201d the woman started to respond as the two paused to inspect the barrier that stood between them and the museum%u2019s door, but she didn%u2019t finish.The couple was confronted with a picket line organized by the museum%u2019s Professional, Administrative and Technical Employees (PATE), who were demonstrating against the management%u2019s reluctance to allow such %u201cwhite-collar%u201d workers to join the municipal employees union, District Council No. 37, which is presently the collective bargaining agent for nearly 75 percent of the museum%u2019s employees. After scanning a leaflet handed them, the couple discovered they would not be forced into a show-down in order to enjoy an afternoon at the museum, but asked to consider the right of these employees to join the union.Two years ago such a demonstration woulf have been indeed unusual at the Eastern Parkway institution. But particularly in this present season, patrons of the city%u2019s museums and musical establishments have become used to worker actions. The walkout by the musicians at the New York Philharmonic and the lengthy 4--41 U --- 4u v u u i v v i v w c v n c v i i o i u a c%u00bb%u00bbi umanagement at the Museum of Modern Art this past fall attest to the fact that traditional union categories are in a state of flux; and that staff employees, be they secretaries or technicians, curators or concert masters, can no longer be depended on to accede meekly to any or all directives that come their way.The action at the Brooklyn Museum was precipitated by the management%u2019s referral of the question of union membership for staff workers to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). According to PATE%u2019S official s ta te m e n t, m a n a g e m e n t%u2019s petitioning of the NLRB is %u201can apparent effort to delay recognition (of the new staff union) for as long as practicable and to deny it wherever possible.%u201dSusan Martin, one of the newly elected interim representatives of the group, remarked that the precedent has already been set by the staff employees of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (which, like the museum, is under the aegis of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences), who were allowed to determine their own union membership. Ms. Martin said that this was the sole purpose of the demonstration, %u201cto make it clear to management that we will not stand for any exclusion of title. They want basically a clerical union,%u201d she added, %u201cYou see it%u2019s a bit frightening for them because District Council NO. 37 would be the same bargaining agent for all employees.%u201dThe demonstration, which ran from a to 2 p.m., went off without a hitch. About 60 were in the picket line, including representatives from such other museums as the Whitney, the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim, the Music of Contemporary Crafts and the Museum of Natural History.The current staff-management confrontation comes on the heels ofthe long and divisive strulgle that led to the resignation of Duncan Cameron as director two months ago. %u201cThat this is being forced on us by management at a time when we%u2019re trying to get back together is reprehensible,\%u201cBut we%u2019re together now. Of the 80 to 85 employees not now represented by the union, about 75 have signed cards to join.\Linda Ferber, another of the interim group representatives, added that- she thought the Cameron affair did much to firm up the staff%u2019s resolve. %u201cThere are people in this picket line who wouldn%u2019t have been here two months ago,%u201d she said.According to a statement by Robert A. Levinson, Chairman of the Governing Committee of the Brooklyn Museum, the museum %u201chas not elected to Velindle the confrontation%u2019 but to avert such confrontation by submitting (the issue) to the National Labor Relations Board, the agei.ev whose expertise in such matters will assure a just and proper resolution of the issues involved in the determination to be made by the State Labor Relations Board, pointing out that management has chosen the NLRB, the administrative arm of the TaftHartley Act, because of the explicit exclusion of supervisory personnel from the right to collective bargaining under that bill. %u201cIf management manages to swing the NLRB I%u2019.iing, there's going to be a lot of trouble,\O c e n r t ' - . / I A c I k I I / o Opossib.e; it%u2019s their one.%u201c Amove,%u201d saidH ie ffm v tH iiiv m iiM H n iiiiiiiiiM M iiis iiim w ifiiiiH M iM M n ir -itu fiiiH ittim v iiiiim H ifm m m m M tM155 Atlantic Avenue B ro o k ly n . N ew Y o r k U ? l T e l 643 1037A w e e k ly c o m m u n it y n e w s p a p e r p u b lish e d SO tim e s a y e a r b v A d v o ca te P r e s s in c s e rv in g the n eig h bo rho o ds**' i ro u n d in q D o vk'ito w n B ro o k ly n n C ljd m g B o e ru m H .H B ro o k ly n H r q h ts . C a r ro ll G a rd e n s C o b b 'e H it f o r t G re e n e and P a r k S lo p e Subse t pt on s*> per ye a rA p p lic a tio n to P o sta q e P a %u2019 es N ew Y o rkMa i S P e rA%u00bb Second f ass :j V B 'O O k iyn