Yassky Received $16.2K in Campaign Contributions
From American Stevedoring Employees
By Sarah Ryley
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
RED HOOK — There is a reprieve for American Stevedoring, the containerport operator that continues to occupy Red Hook Piers 7-10, despite the Bloomberg Administration’s plans to turn the piers into a mixed-use maritime and entertainment center.
The city’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) has decided to delay efforts to turn Pier 10 into another cruise terminal, and is considering making Pier 11 a temporary home for Phoenix Beverages until Pier 7 is vacated, according to testimony the agency made to City Council last week, and first reported in the New York Sun.
As for the beer garden that was also poised to move into Pier 7, “We have nothing with Brooklyn Brewery,” said Steve Coleman, spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The Port Authority, the current owner of the piers, has been in a legal battle with American Stevedoring for years in an effort to evict the company from Pier 7, and a resolution may not be on the horizon anytime soon. The Port Authority, as reported by the Eagle in March, has also agreed to let the company stay on the other piers until the City Council votes on EDC’s proposal, which is likewise shaping up to be a bitter, drawn out battle.
Ultimately, the City Council has to approve any zoning changes, and Councilman David Yassky, D-Brooklyn Heights/Greenpoint, one of American Stevedoring’s staunchest advocates, would likely cast a “no” vote on any proposal that would force the containerport off the piers.
He received at least $16,200 in individual contributions from American Stevedoring employees and their spouses last year for his long-shot bid for Congress in a predominantly black district.
Yassky did not respond to requests for comment.
Longshoremen, whose union gave at least $1,500 to Yassky that year, crowded the steps of City Hall before a December hearing — in work garb and clutching bigger paychecks than many with a college education will ever see — to protest the closing of their workplace.
The reception inside wasn’t much better. Allies overflowed the hearing room, and Council members spent hours grilling former EDC Executive Vice President Kate Ascher. Following was a long queue of angry speakers that started out with heated testimony from Congressman Jerrold Nadler, D-Manhattan/Brooklyn, on the foolishness of messing with the region’s transportation infrastructure without having an immediate, and larger, replacement containerport.
According to an EDC spokeswoman, the agency will ultimately stick to its sweeping makeover of the 105-acre Red Hook piers, which it maintains would more than double the existing jobs, although Ascher admitted that many of them would not be full-time, or at union wages.
The EDC is also still conducting regular interviews with finalists for its contract for Pier 11 and the Atlantic Basin — one of which is a partnership between the New York Water Taxi and The Durst Organization, as reported last month by the Eagle.
According to an inside source, the hotel component of the plan that was “killed” last year could find new life on a portion of Pier 11 that was taken out of the agency’s Request for Proposals.
In the meantime, the Port Authority is not prepared to leave the piers vacant while everything gets worked out. After a final plan meets City Council approval, the Port Authority has agreed to transfer the piers to the agency “free and clear of tenants,” according to a memorandum of understanding signed last year.
The Port Authority “has maintained the piers for 50 years without realizing a return on its investment,” and an engineering firm estimated that it would cost $130 million during the next 25 years just to maintain the structural integrity of the piers, according to the memorandum.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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