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askthebkbpbblock10726CM__cb420839-2126-4959-96fb-28cfe6cbcf7b

Welcome back. If you're just joining us, we are here live on air right now with borough president Antonio Reynoso himself, having everybody call in and ask questions so he can answer them live here on air. So while we're waiting for a few more people to call in, we have another question to get to from social media. So we have Peter Salomanski from Prospect Lefferts Gardens asks why does DOB. Allow a new 10-story building, specifically citing one on 1935 Bedford Avenue in the neighborhood where no tall buildings exists. Now he goes on to say, why do they let them build without agreements with surrounding properties and why do they let them build during all hours of the night ending around 10 o'clock without an after hours variance? It's a pretty good question, BP. Yeah, yeah, that's a lot going on there. Uh, the first thing I would say is it's probably an as of right building. There is a way to address that is through zoning, but most of these communities don't like to go through zoning processes because they wanna keep communities the same. And when you keep communities the same, what ends up happening is that some developers have as of right developments, which means that so long as they abide by the guidelines set forth in the zoning, they're allowed to build as they wish, so. If you wanna have influence, if you wanna have a say in exactly what the future development looks like in your community, I would encourage you to talk to your local council member, uh, to start a process of a community planning session, and then you get to dictate the outcomes of your community. There's always an opportunity to add more housing as well, as you know, we're in a crisis. We have almost 100,000 people in shelters and we need homes for people, so the city is moving through a process to encourage more development. Uh, the late night, uh, permits that people get to do construction does happen sometimes. Uh, they go through DOB to ask for those, and those are trying to expedite these projects so that we can get more housing in line as soon as possible, so it does happen. But the only way to insert yourself in a process is to start a process of rezoning. Not the developers end up dictating the outcomes of these communities so I always encourage community based zoning opportunities. For sure and I think um getting your voice heard and maybe calling in and messaging in on shows like this and then reaching out to your local council member get those concerns heard and maybe there can be a compromise right? and we do have another caller on the line we have Elizabeth from Coney Island Elizabeth if you're there, what's your question for the BP? I wanted to know, OK, I have a handicapped son. I live in a 60 building and I spoke to Bengal win 2.5 years ago, and they're not helping me. And OK, were you able to hear her? I heard a lot of it except the problem. They have no gas. I believe she said that she was supposed to get a transfer from Section 8 housing about 3 years ago. They're giving her a hard time. She has a handicapped son, and she said she's doing all the right things, maybe wondering if there's any resources, anyone she can turn to for help. We could check the status of her application and her transfer with NHA or with HPD depending on exactly who she's getting the transfer from to see if we can solve for the problem. Uh, we have to and, and that's the only way to really determine what the status of her application. It is for that transfer. So if she stays on the line we can get her address. If it's taken 3 years, that's uh problematic, especially if it's an emergency transfer. If it's not an emergency transfer and it's just a request, um, then it does take a long time, especially if you're in NA. Um, Niter request for transfer sometimes, uh, takes almost 10 years even in some cases if it's not an emergency because any new available apartments they're giving to folks transitioning out of homeless shelters, so they prioritize those folks over, uh, general transfers. Now if she has an emergency transfer they do prioritize those. So what we'll do is we'll take down her address and her information and we'll call NIHA or HPD to see exactly what the delay is and why she hasn't been moved yet. I'm sure so many other families may be in the same situation or struggling to find resources and people to turn to, so hopefully this gives them hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel and maybe you can connect her with some resources that can help. Now we have another question. Yes, for sure, um, let's now get to a question, another question from social media. We have Mark Levitt also from Coney Island. He asks why Fort Greene Park has an administrator and Coney Island Beach does not. It's a tough one. Well, there, I don't know if it has an administrator. Some of the parks in the city of New York have programming in it, and Fort Greene Park does have programming, and they have an alliance, which means they have like a private public partnership that maintains the park. Uh, Coney Island, the I guess the beach is what we're talking about is a very expansive, uh, beach. Reach and the resources and how to program on it might be a little bit more difficult, but a lot of these are community-based groups that come together to form the alliance. Uh, so what happens is if, if Coney Island has enough people that are invested. Um, in, in caring for the park, uh, we can start an alliance. They've done it in North Brooklyn. Prospect Park has an alliance. Fort Greene has an alliance. Um, there's a lot of, uh, alliances, I guess, um, that take care of the park and get this public-private partnership. They also to just understand. That that means that half of the pay or half of the money that comes into the park comes from the city of New York, but the other half comes from private donations, so the alliances have staff that are paid mostly by fundraising and, and, and folks that are willing to commit to fundraising. For the park, so if you feel that that's something you can do and want more people invested in a Coney Island park or in the Coney Island boardwalk, that is possible. That is something that can happen. So I would just say if you're interested, reach out to our office. We'll talk to the parks department and start the process of starting an alliance. I hear you some great advice there, BP. Thank you. Now we have about a minute left, so I wanna ask a very quick question. Have you heard the song about the BQE? The song about the BQE I have not heard about the song about the BQE. is the 3rd worst place in New York City. Now I'm sure everyone watching can agree driving it is a major headache. I know I myself, I'm sure you do too, BP avoid it at all costs. It's, it's so bad that this guy literally made a song about it. It went viral. So you haven't heard it yet. All jokes aside, right after the break, I wanna talk a little bit about how the city is moving forward with construction to ease those frustrations. Um, the DOT says it is in the final design stage. There's possibly um uh a road that's gonna be built over the BQE while the repairs are being made. We'll dive into that in just a couple of minutes. This is a big talker BQE uh people that drive on it are passionate about their traffic and their and their backed up roads. So everybody watching right now, call in the numbers at the bottom of your screen. We'll get more into that topic and more right after the break. You're watching Ask the borough president. We'll be right back.

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askthebkbpcblock10726CM__8048d895-a736-4826-bbdb-2d8e341f92b0

Welcome back. Thanks for joining us on Ask the Borough President here on News 12. If you were just with us before the break, we heard the viral BQE song about Exit 31 being the worst thing in the city. Um, BP, what's your opinion on this and talk a little bit about the construction that could or could not happen for the BQE. Yeah, Exit 31 is a disaster. We need to fix it. Uh, the actual singer knows exactly what the solution is. We all know it. It just takes so long to do everything in the city and the state. And then when we talk about the BQE, the cantilever, uh, in Brooklyn Heights, uh, and the need to repair that so it doesn't fall apart, it's been, uh, a lot of drama. I think it's gone through 4 or 5 mayors and trying to fix it and never solves for the problem. Uh, we're hoping this is, uh, the time when we can do that, but there are a lot of unanswered questions, a lot of assumptions, and a $2 billion temporary highway structure that is gonna be built. That's a lot of money. That's more money than needed to do the BQ Green, for example, in Williamsburg that the community has been asking for for over. 15 years so we have a lot of questions to answer before uh folks can check off the box that the BQE is finally gonna get fixed. It's a relief for a lot of people if it gets done. I'll say if it gets done, and there's a lot of steps for that, uh, to actually come to fruition and a lot of years ahead of construction for that to happen. Now I want to jump over to one program that absolutely warms my heart from your office who just renewed for the 3rd year in a row the annual community baby shower fund, raising money for Brooklyn parents in need. So talk to me about this program, how the money is raised, and why this is so important for parents here in Brooklyn. Yeah, so we have a lot of maternal health initiatives in Borough Hall. We wanna make Brooklyn the safest place for all women to have babies, and not only did we give $45 million for infrastructure in our 3 public hospitals, we've done baby boxes. We've done mental health work. We've done so much. And one of the biggest and most important things we do are these community baby showers. We found out that, uh. Communities were coming together for mothers that might not have their aunties and grandma or their family close by, and they were throwing them baby showers and you would see 15 women that are pregnant receiving uh gifts from the community and it really wasn't empowering and it takes a village type of moment and I decided that what I would do is match those those baby showers so. If you are throwing a community baby shower, Borough Hall will match up to $5000 for that baby shower so you can buy more gifts for these, uh, mothers to be to make sure that they have their community and the village behind them, the Brooklyn way, the Brooklyn way, that's the key word. All right, BP, thank you so much. What an amazing program, but thank you for coming on tonight. Sadly our program is wrapping up again. You're watching Ask the borough president. Tune in next month for our next segment. Everyone have a great night.

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News 12’s Marissa Santorelli sat down with Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso to answer YOUR pressing questions in this edition of Ask the Borough President.

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