Community Board 11 Gets A Snow Job

CB11 Votes Against its Own Power!

As it is snowing outside, DCP is going around doing a snow job on local community boards, to the extent that boards are willing to disempower themselves.  For example, lets take Brooklyn Community Board 11, who just approved the Casino text amendments with conditions.

It appears that this board had no clue what they were doing, for two important reasons.

1st Reason

The Casino amendment is not an approval or disapproval of a particular project, it is a city wide text amendment that will take away the power of the community board to advocate for their community by removing the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure “ULURP” process and making all casino locations “as of right” as long as they have a license from the state.

No Local Control

This means it is the State that will now be in control of where a Casino and all its accompanying businesses will locate inside of NYC!

But what did CB11 do? They actually passed the Casino Text Amendment with conditions: requiring community engagement which makes no sense! Why? Because currently the law already ensures the participation of the community under a ULURP application! Whereas the new Casino amendment takes that away!!!!

2nd Reason 

According to the article, the reason CB11 voted this way is because the Casino applicants were inside the community engaging with them, making promises, spending money on turkey drives etc.

Community Benefits Will Vanish

However, all of that community support will simply vanish if the Casino Text Amendment passes, because the applicants will no longer have to seek approval from the local community board, the City Council and not even a city agency!!!

Did no one on Community Board 11 understand this?

In fact some board members may have been under the impression that they were actually voting on a specific Casino coming into their community when in fact they were not, because that would be done after the State hands out its license and a formal ULURP application is submitted.

By voting Yes to the Casino text Amendment, they have ensured that all community outreach will end, that there will be no more turkey give- aways or promises of employment to the local residents, or youth services or any other financial benefit they are currently receiving.

Talk about a Snow Job!!!! Now let’s see if Brooklyn Community Board 13 will be Snowed in as well.!!!  Giving away your power! And getting nothing in return!

And should we be congratulating the Department of City Planning for doing such a great job at snowing communities in! To the point that they don’t even know what they are voting on or how it will decrease their own limited power!!!

Developers Laughing All the Way to the Bank

Well we know the big Corporations are all laughing as they head to the banks to count how much money they are going to save by not having to provide any services to the community, as they anticipate 2 billion dollars in profit on an annual basis!