Tonight’s Community Board 3 meeting is underway. We don’t normally provide “live updates” from these sometimes mind numbing/sometimes interesting sessions. But with the holiday approaching, there’s no time like the present. So here you go:
- State Senator Daniel Squadron just finished addressing board members, highlighting last week’s big announcement concerning Pier 42. Last Friday, he and U.S. Senator Charles Schumer announced they’d secured $14 million in initial funding for a park at the abandoned pier. Squadron said he’d always believed the East Side deserved more recreational facilities. He praised CB3 for making Pier 42 funding a top priority.
- Zach Bommer, representing Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, said his office has sent a letter to the Department of Education urging the chancellor to keep P.S. 137 open. The elementary school on East Broadway was recently placed on a list of schools in danger of closing due to poor performance. Parents and education advocates have argued P.S. 137 is a good school — and that the DOE’s evaluation procedures are badly flawed.
- Word came from the community board that the State has denied Nippon Sushi’s liquor license. Earlier this month we reported the restaurant, at 121 Ludlow, lacked a Health Department permit. Nippon Sushi also has a BYOB policy, which the Liquor Authority prohibits.
- CB3 Chair Dominic Pisciotta urged members of the liquor licensing committee to adhere to streamlined policies recently approved by the full board. The point, he said, is to make CB3’s decisions regarding liquor licenses more consistent. Pisciotta also addressed a diatribe against committee chair Alex Militano by board member David McWater at the October meeting. He said every member must remember to treat everyone else with respect.
- District Manager Susan Stetzer said it’s been difficult to address “quality of life” issues in recent weeks because neighborhood police officers have been reassigned to Occupy Wall Street duty.
- Elected officials announced that gas service has now been restored to a couple of dozen apartments in the Alfred E. Smith public housing development. Earlier this week, the officials sent a sharply worded letter to the city’s housing authority, saying the long-term interruption in service was unacceptable.
- Board members are debating whether to sign off on developer Michael Goldberg’s bid to complete 179 Ludlow, a residential/commercial project that has been stalled for several years. The land use committee decided to support his application for a variance before the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals. Some CB3 members are saying tonight the building owner should not be rewarded for “overreaching,” and saddling the community with a blighted construction site. The discussion is continuing…
- The board narrowly decided to affirm the committee’s decision on 179 Ludlow. The vote was 17-16 in favor of supporting the BSA application.
- It’s a wrap at 8:38 p.m.! Happy Thanksgiving!
