Residents Complain, Bridge Project Iced Them out of Plans

Residents of the Herking Alagantic Block Association in Bed-Stuy will hold a rally this Saturday, June 2, to protest a six-story housing development going up at the end of their block, after the developers iced them out of the planning process.

The development is called The Herkimer Street Project at 431-433 Herkimer Street at the corner of Albany, one of 4 projects in The Bridge pipeline headed by the organization’s CEO, Dr. Peter D. Beitchman.

The Bridge will open in fall 2012, and the plans are that it will be an integrated building for both low-income families and juvenile delinquents or the homeless or former drug abusers or adults with serious mental illness-- it’s all still uncertain it seems, as the plans have changed already three times since the developers first purchased the property last June.

“We’re not prejudice of that population,” said Nikita Bowen, vice president of Herking Alagantic Block Association, which includes the blocks encompassing Herkimer St., Kingston Ave., Albany Ave., Alice and Agate Crt., St. Andrews Pl. and Atlantic Ave.

“It’s just that, we already have too many social services programs on our blocks as it is. They keep going up, meanwhile no one has bothered to reach out to any of us before any plans are made.”

Bowen, who lives on the block in a home her family purchased seven years ago, says there’s a building right next door to her for people with HIV/AIDS and substance abuse problems, and it is the source of ongoing police raids, warrants and a slew of other problems.

“People are often hanging out around the building, high, arguing all the time, making noise all day, arguing over money, all kinds of things; it’s like really bad,” said Bowen. “The building that’s going up will be quadruple that size. Even worse, the block is right across the street from a playground and near a daycare center.”

Bowen says although plans for the building began last spring, they were not told about it until December of 2011, and since then, the block association has scheduled several meetings with Dr. Beitchman.

But his attitude to them was that they either get with the program or get out of the way: “He told us that he didn’t have to come to us, and that he was giving us a courtesy,” Bowen said.

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Along with the building’s development are plans to move the B15 bus stop to clear the street’s entrance for a parking lot. Aside from the construction, residents are concerned about the area’s elderly population who need the convenience of the bus stop’s location to get around.

The block association sent letters of petitions to Governor Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg. They were told to reach out to their elected officials. So they reached out to City Councilmember Al Vann, Assemblywoman Annette Robinson and State Senator Velmanette Montgomery. They wanted to voice their concerns and find out what they could do to help stop the project. After several tries, finally, representatives from Robinson’s office came out to a meeting and Montgomery herself showed up. Vann did not respond at all, according to Bowen.

“At the first meeting, they acted like they didn’t know anything about it,” said Bowen. “But it later turns out, they were the ones that had approved the project.

“Montgomery admitted that they asked for the money, they were given the money, and that they can’t give it back. Then in April of this year, when Beitchman and others from his office also attended the meeting, [the elected officials] just came out and said they supported the project.

Bed-Stuy Patch reached out to the offices of Montgomery, Vann and Robinson and did not get back a response or comment on the proposed Bridge project, specifically their take on why the residence would benefit the neighborhood and the protocol for alerting the community for these types of projects.

“My thing is, we voted them into office to represent us,” said Bowen. “This is our community, and if we have concerns like these, at least come and speak to us first and try to see our side.”

Bowen said the block association holds no delusions that Saturday’s rally will necessarily change anything about the project moving forward:

“The purpose of this rally is to state that if the project cannot be stopped, elected officials should at least know they cannot come into our community, not let us know about big projects that impact our quality of life and then respond like, ‘Oh, you’re either with us or not.’

“It shouldn’t work like this. Too many times this happens in our communities, and it’s not right. It’s time for us to stand up.”

The Herking Alagantic Block Association will hold its rally on Saturday, on Herkimer Street (between Kingston and Albany), from 11:00 a.m - 3:00 p.m.