Windsor Terrace Alliance :: Brooklyn, New York

Windsor Terrace Alliance: Minutes from general meeting (2/26/2009)

The meeting was held at Bishop Ford High School. Windsor Terrace residents were joined by representatives from the offices of Anne from Assemblyman Jim Brennan’s office, Tom Gray from City Councilmember Bill de Blasio’s office, and Randy Peers, Chairman of Community Board 7 attended.

And thanks to Phyllis Sears for once again providing excellent notes from the meeting, to Pete and Richard, of Bishop Ford, for setting up the auditorium for us, and to My Hero for providing an enormous amount of delicious sandwiches, wraps, salads and soda.

Lauren Collins - opened the meeting explaining that the WTA is 1 and 1/2 years old neighborhood association that works on issues of education, traffic and personal safety, monitoring development, and neighborhood beautification. She thanked Bishop Ford High School for providing the space and My Hero sandwich shop for providing food.

Det. Mike Cleary, beat cop of WT, handed out flyers about preventing scams "Do Not Open your door to Strangers"

Candidates for City Council: Mike Brown, Co-Founder of WTA, introduced all the candidates for City Council district 39: Stephen DiBrienza, Craig Hammerman, John Heyer, Brad Lander, Gary Reilly, Josh Skaller, and Bob Zuckerman. Each candidate was invited to speak for 3 minutes. See Brooklyn Daily Eagle and the Brooklyn Paper for details on the candidates’ presentations.

Tree for Mrs. Woo: Neighborhood residents got together to raise money for a memorial for Mrs. Kyung-Sook "Linda" Woo, the local dry cleaner who was murdered in her store, Eden Dry Cleaners, last May. Rickard Bello Landscaping donated a tree and the NYC Parks Department planted it last year in a tree pit in front of her store. Last month, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz agreed to fund a metal tree guard (which otherwise would have cost residents $2,000). Funds that were raised will be used for a plaque and the remainder will be given to the family. Thanks were extended to the Borough President and also to the 72nd precinct’s Det. Winchester who made the arrest in this case.

Rezoning of East Windsor Terrace: Randy Peers of CB7 and June Reich of the Stable Brooklyn Community Group reported on the rezoning which is in the final phase of approval. On March 4, 2009, at 9:30am, the Zoning and Franchises Subcommittee of the City Council will hold its public hearing on the rezoning. Assuming it is approved in committee, the rezoning will be go before the City Council for a final vote. The rezoning application (ULURP) has already passed Community Board 7 (by unanimous approval), the Brooklyn Borough President's Office, and the NYC Department of City Planning.

The rezoning affects eight blocks of East Windsor Terrace, bounded by Caton Ave, Ocean Parkway Service Rd, and Coney Island Ave. Interior blocks of Caton Ave, Kermit Place, East 7 and East 8 Sts, and a small portion of Ocean Parkway, will be downzoned to R5B, a contextual zone that preserves the single family homes that characterize these blocks. The empty lot of Caton Ave will be upzoned to R6A with a commercial overlay. The zoning plan was a cooperative effort between the Brooklyn office of the Department of City Planning and Stable Brooklyn Community Group.

CB7’s Transportation committee Park Circle meeting: Phyllis Sears reported on this meeting where NYC City Planning and NYC Dept. of Transportation (DOT) made presentations for solutions to traffic, bike, horse and pedestrian problems in Park Circle. City Planning had ideas about the Brooklyn Greenway - problems for bikes proceeding through the area. DOT opened up a discussion for participants’ ideas. They are asking the public for ideas. Please e-mail http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/about/park_circle.shtml, communityboard7@yahoo.com and contact@windsorterracealliance.org with any suggestions you may have DOT is looking for quick solutions and more long term capital solutions. Please try to submit any suggestions by March 6.

Randy from CB7 added he will make them come back before they make any changes. And if you call 311 on this matter or any other, make sure to get the complaint number and send it to CB7, Jim Brennan's office or Bill de Blasio's office so they can follow up.

Ft Hamilton Parkway F train station sidewalk: DOT/MTA and Parks are figuring out who will be responsible for the icing on this patch. Patti McDannell of the WTA got a commitment from Parks that they would install a salt drum there and would salt their section of that entranceway and we are following up with DOT and possibly MTA, if needed. Parks was well aware of the problem, having had all the recent 311 ice complaint calls forwarded to their office. City Parks only maintains the upper portion of the sloping walkway, until it reaches the end of playground property line. DOT has said it's almost certain that the lower portion of the ramp is not their jurisdiction, but is willing talk more about it. It was recommended that in addition to calling 311, residents should write down the complaint date and confirmation number on issues like these and get it to the WTA and Community Board 7 for follow up.

Landmarking Windsor Terrace: Resident Lee Solomon asked if anyone was interested in forming a committee to look into the Landmarking the neighborhood - please send her an e-mail through contact@windsorterracealliance.org and we will forward it to her.

A member of the community commented that developers seemed to be able to get variances no matter what the law. Randy Peers of CB7 commented on this specific problem and said it is true there are variances but the community board fights each one.

The meeting was adjourned so the public could ask questions of the candidates individually.

Meeting Photo Gallery

Cynthia King of Cynthia King Dance Studio and long-time resident Tommy Riviello

Six of the seven candidates for the 39th District City Council seat: (from left) Bob Zuckerman, Josh Skaller, Brad Lander, Craig Hammerman, John Heyer, and Gary Reilly (not pictured: Stephen Di Brienza)

June Reich of the Stable Brooklyn Community Group and Randy Peers, Chair of Community Board 7, update the group on the rezoning of East Windsor Terrace.

Candidate for the 39th District City Council seat Stephen Di Brienza

Krista Fogle, Patti McDannell, Phyllis Sears and Lauren Collins of the WTA

Mike Brown helps set up the food donated by My Hero

Special Thanks to My Hero for generously providing their unbelievable Six-foot heros, wraps, salads and more!

My Hero • 598 19th St • Brooklyn, NY 11218
(corner of 19th Street and 11th Ave.).

For more information, please join our Yahoo group.

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