OPINION: Don’t relocate Rikers inmates to Williamsburg
Opposition to a plan to relocate Rikers Island inmates to a corner of Williamsburg was swift. Even rumors of such a proposal stirred long-felt emotions in Greenpoint and Williamsburg. When city officials explored the former Brooklyn Union Gas Company location, the calls flooded in.
Mayor Bill de Blasio denied the rumors at a news conference last month, stating that there wasn’t a “concerted effort” to find “alternatives” to Rikers Island. However, a five-agency city report, Alternatives to Rikers Island, suggests otherwise. It also puts North Brooklyn in the crosshairs.
Like my constituents, I’m 100 percent against the building of a jail in Williamsburg. Williamsburg, and the surrounding Greenpoint community, prides itself on being a safe, tight-knit community. That pride is rooted in tireless advocacy and efforts to wrest a community from decades of industrial negligence and economic hardship. And a community is no place for a prison.
Furthermore, the industrial zone in which this prison could sit is no place for a prison — it’s a place for opportunities. It’s a place for reinvesting in Greenpoint, Williamsburg and North Brooklyn. As the original builders of Rikers Island rightfully decided back in the ’30s, the perfect place for a prison is an island. The perfect place to live and work is North Brooklyn, as the original settlers rightfully decided in the 17th century.