{"id":402,"date":"2019-12-05T22:23:50","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T22:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/develop.mtopp.org\/?p=402"},"modified":"2020-06-20T22:28:34","modified_gmt":"2020-06-20T22:28:34","slug":"we-almost-lost-our-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mtopp.org\/index.php\/2019\/12\/05\/we-almost-lost-our-case\/","title":{"rendered":"We Almost Lost Our Case!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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While the Cat Was Away the Mice Were\u00a0Playing
\nThe City and Developers Planned to Violate
\nOur\u00a0Temporary Restraining Order<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Alicia Boyd our main organizer, was <\/span>away for five weeks <\/strong>out of the country and during that time the Community was advised of a V<\/a><\/span>oluntary Environmental Cleanup Program <\/strong><\/a>(VCP)<\/a> sponsored and<\/span> paid for by the City, <\/strong>(our tax dollars), that <\/span>CP VI,<\/strong> the new owner of one of the\u00a0<\/span>development sites\u00a0<\/strong>being challenged in our lawsuit.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nThe<\/span> developers <\/strong>had made the argument that they needed to <\/span>excavate the soil<\/strong> and to <\/span><\/a>lay down a concrete foundation,<\/a> as part of a voluntary<\/em> environmental cleanup,<\/span><\/strong> in order to <\/span>prevent toxins\u00a0<\/strong>from contaminating the air. The developers and the City were <\/span>aware of the Temporary Restraining Order<\/strong> (TRO), which <\/span>prevented all concrete pouring<\/strong> from being laid, but which <\/span>did not<\/strong> <\/u>specifically state that the <\/span>soil could not be disturbed<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n
Images of the Concrete Slabs Being Poured<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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The above picture is exact image of the concrete that was suppose to be poured as a part of the environmental cleanup proposal. \u00a0It covered almost 90% of the land mass and is clearly the foundation for development.<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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This is image is of the two buildings that were to be built on the concrete slabs. This image was taken from CP VI’s application.\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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It was the intention of the City and CP VI<\/strong> to begin the excavation of the soil,<\/strong> expose the toxic chemicals<\/strong> in the air, and then to lay the concrete to protect the public,<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0in violation of the TRO.\u00a0\u00a0Once the foundation was laid,<\/strong> the buildings\u00a0would be built <\/strong>despite our challenge in the court!<\/p>\n

The TRO prevented the Department of Buildings (DOB) <\/strong>from issuing a building permit,<\/strong> but it did\u00a0not\u00a0<\/u><\/strong>prevent DOB from issuing an environmental cleanup permit<\/strong> as a result of a Notice to Proceed<\/strong>, issued from the Office of Environmental Remediation.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Notification Given To the Community!<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Not only was the notification not done on time, the information about the concrete pouring of cement, was hidden by the stamp at the Community Board 9 level.<\/p>\n

If it was not for LaShaun Ellis<\/u>, a petitioner on our lawsuit and one of our environmental activists, we would never have\u00a0known what the City and Developers were truly up to.<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

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\nOur Immediate Actions To Protect Our Lawsuit<\/strong><\/span><\/u>\n<\/div>\n
Once Alicia Boyd got back<\/strong>, we scrambled to write a whole new lawsuit<\/strong> to prevent this from happening, as the City was just a few days away <\/strong>from approving this plan<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0Ms. Boyd also set up a phone conference with Judge Boddie<\/strong>\u00a0(the Judge who is reviewing our current lawsuit)\u00a0and the City to intervene in protecting the TRO<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Judge Boddie, immediately <\/strong>saw through the scam,<\/strong> and the City\u2019s attempt<\/strong> to violate the TRO and extended our TRO <\/strong>to include the City from\u00a0disturbing\u00a0the soil along with no pouring of cement!<\/strong>\n<\/div>\n

We Almost Lost This Fight!<\/span><\/strong><\/u><\/div>\n
This is why your help and support is essential<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0We used up a lot of resources, time and energy<\/strong> to fight this newest danger <\/strong>and we still have months ahead of further litigation!<\/strong><\/p>\n

The City is using their unlimited resources, (our tax payers dollars)<\/strong> along with a wealthy developer<\/strong> to try to\u00a0undermine\u00a0and stop<\/strong> us from protecting our community and its green spaces<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This Voluntary Environmental Cleanup<\/strong> program is paid for with our tax dollars! <\/strong>\u00a0Not only did the developer not have to pay for this scam, but it was done simply to undermine and violate a TRO<\/strong>, put in place to protect the<\/strong> Brooklyn Botanic Garden and community until a final determination has been made.<\/p>\n

Please mark our next Court Date<\/strong> on your Calendar and Spread the Word.<\/strong><\/u>
\nWe need to fill that Courtroom <\/strong>and let the City and the Developers know, that we are looking, watching and defending our public spaces! \u00a0<\/strong>And these scams\u00a0<\/strong>just show, low and down dirty they can get<\/strong> and\u00a0how powerful our opposition <\/strong>is!!!<\/p>\n

Court Date Information<\/strong><\/span>
\nMonday, December 16, 2019 at 9:30 am<\/strong>
\nLocation: Brooklyn Supreme Court – 360 Adams St. Rm 456<\/strong>
\nPart 7 Judge Boddie
\nDirections: All Trains and Buses to Court St, and\u00a0Borough Hall<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While the Cat Was Away the Mice Were\u00a0Playing The City and Developers Planned to Violate Our\u00a0Temporary Restraining Order Alicia Boyd our main organizer, was away for five weeks out of the country and during that time the Community was advised of a Voluntary Environmental Cleanup Program (VCP) sponsored and paid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-updates"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtopp.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtopp.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtopp.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtopp.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtopp.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mtopp.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":403,"href":"https:\/\/mtopp.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions\/403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtopp.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtopp.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtopp.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}