Queens politicians say ‘Put it in Hunts Point,’ while Bronx reps say ‘No’
By Janice Harrison
janice7074@gmail.com
and Joe Hirsch
NYCity News Service
The city is attempting to steamroll opposition to its plan to build a jail on the Hunt’s Point waterfront, opponents of the plan are charging.
The coalition that wants to keep a 2,000 –bed jail from being built on a corner of the abandoned Oak Point rail yard says the Department of Correction is trying to start the clock ticking on environmental land use reviews while stonewalling their requests for information, a charge the department denies.
Opponents succeeded in postponing a public hearing on the environmental assessment of the site that was scheduled for March 5, but continue to say city officials are rushing them.
The Department of Correction is now set to unveil a fuller version of its plans on April 16 at a hearing at the Police Athletic League, 991 Longwood Avenue, beginning at 6 p.m.
At a March 14 press conference sponsored by Community in Unity, a coalition of more than a dozen organizations including the Bronx Defenders, Critical Resistance, and Sustainable South Bronx, Maggie Williams, project director of the Voter Enfranchisement Project of the Bronx Defenders, told reporters that the correction department has been attempting to expedite the approval process since first announcing its plans for the Oak Point site last April.
Opponents of the plan said they don’t have all the information they need to rebut the city agency’s arguments, and charge that the correction department is deliberately going slow in responding to requests under the Freedom of Information Law asking for detailed information and documents.
Meanwhile, members of the City Council from the Bronx and Queens clashed over plans for the jail at hearings on next year’s city budget. Bronx elected officials are united in opposition to the jail, while in Queens residents are seeking relief from the traffic that goes through their neighborhood to the only bridge to Rikers Island.
At a hearing on the city budget on March 13, Bronx Councilman James Vacca pointed out that there was nothing in the capital budget for the new jail, to which Correction Commissioner Martin Horn replied that the funds to build the jail would be in next year’s budget, adding, “I’m hopeful we’ll be able to prove to communities that it’s the thing to do.”
Asked about residents’ concerns that the proposed site is contaminated with toxic waste, Horn replied that while it was unlikely a private developer would invest the funds to clean it up, he was confident that it made economic sense for the city to do so.
Vacca reiterated the contention of other Bronx politicians that Hunts Point is already overburdened with jails and marine transfer stations for garbage, but Queens Councilman Peter Vallone said it was his community that was suffering. Saying of the jail plan, “I have not heard one legitimate reason why it shouldn’t happen,” Vallone said traffic headed to the only bridge to Rikers Island turns Astoria into “Manhattan–like gridlock at 4 p.m.”
Horn told the Council the new jail would improve conditions for both inmates and their families. “A jail is not a noxious use,” he said. “It is a part of the community.”
But the president of the Corrections Officers Benevolent Association, Norman Seabrook, denounced the commissioner’s testimony as “smoke and mirrors that clouds reality.” He listed numerous complaints regarding conditions for the guards at Rikers, and said that money should be spent on improving conditions there before it was spent on new jails.
At their press conference, opponents of the jail also spoke about other ways to spend the money. Kellie Terry Sepulveda, executive managing director of The Point, argued that the city’s funds for a clean-up should be made available to any other organization with viable plans for the site.
The estimated price tag of $375 million for building the jail could be put to better use creating jobs and scholarships to prevent people from turning to crime, thus reducing the need for jail cells, said a group of high school students.
But there was no agreement on the best use for the site.
In his State of the Borough Speech, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, Jr. called for a new police academy, a long-cherished goal of Bronx politicians, to be built there, but critics say an academy will provide little or no benefit to Hunts Point.
Sustainable South Bronx wants the land for an industrial park devoted to recycling construction materials, a plan it says will create 300 jobs and reduce the number of trucks going to Hunts Point’s many waste transfer stations.
Terry-Sepulveda said more community discussion needs to occur. “The community identified the site as an asset years ago,” she said, adding that state funds were appropriated to conduct forums before the jail was ever proposed, but community organizations haven’t been given the opportunity to begin.
Residents need time, said Lisa Ortega of Rights for Imprisoned People with Psychiatric Disabilities. “Why should we have to come up with something quick because they tried to do this behind our backs?” she asked.