She’s no traitor, and her only aim is to serve the community.
That was the message Community Board 15 Chairperson Theresa Scavo gave in a heated statement to the Manhattan Beach Community Group at the civic’s meeting on Wednesday night.
“I represent the community,” Scavo said in an interview the next day. “I don’t represent the Manhattan Beach Neighborhood Association or the Manhattan Beach Community Group. Just Manhattan Beach, not either group.”
Scavo said she was responding to insinuations within the community that she was playing politics with the neighborhood’s fractious civic associations, which have been feuding for nearly three years.
The Manhattan Beach Neighborhood Association revealed a laundry list of traffic safety proposals at their meeting last night, and lambasted their rival community group’s efforts for “patting themselves on the back.”
Executive members of MBNA and Community Board 15 Chairperson Theresa Scavo met with representatives of Public Advocate Bill de Blasio’s office on Thursday, July 29, to present their ideas. According to the group, the advocate’s office gave a warm reception to the suggestion and is now issuing letters to relevant agencies to spur action.
“I’ve got to say the Public Advocate’s representatives were extremely attentive,” said Scavo. “They questioned why DOT, why Parks, why [there hasn't been] reception from these various agencies.”
MBNA President Alan Ditchek is optimistic about the plan.
“[These are] very good ideas and certainly will go a long way to rectifying the situation in Manhattan Beach that’s happened here over the last few years,” said Ditchek. “I think we’ve got a very good list compiled and if we implement just some of these things we will certainly see safer streets.”
Mosque opposition group Bay People sent a representative to last week’s Community Board 15 meeting to again press their case against the religious facility. The group has repeatedly criticized media reports that play up the appearance of bigotry, and say that their main objections pertain to zoning. Since Sheepshead Bites has been among the list of media outlets they’ve claimed sensationalize the story, we’re posting this unedited video of the representative from Bay People making their case.
We have additional video from speeches made at Bay People’s June 27 rally that require some editing and cleanup. If you’re interested, let us know and we’ll bump it up on our priority list.
Brooklyn Public Library officials and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have struck a deal to maintain a minimum of five day service at all branches, narrowly escaping devastating cuts that would have shuttered branches and eliminated hours across the board.
[ABOVE: Watch BPL Representative Mel Henkle tell Community Board 15 about the new hours, and thank the community for its advocacy.]
In our neck of the woods, the compromise means that some of our libraries will lose Saturday service beginning July 10, including the Sheepshead Bay, Gravesend and Homecrest branches. Saturday service will be provided at the Kings Bay, Kings Highway and Brighton Beach branches, and the Kings Highway branch will also have summer Sunday hours.
Last week’s Community Board 15 meeting was the final one before summer recess. To mark the occasion, board member and Manhattan Beach resident Manhattan Beach Community Group boardmember Stan Kaplan riffed on a number of topics. [UPDATED]
I like Stan. Although he can never remember what blog I’m from, he cares a lot for the community while also having a sense of humor about the issues it faces. So keep in mind that Stan’s rant is light-hearted, while also touching on some serious topics.
And those topics are:
Bicyclists on the Ocean Avenue footbridge
Manhattan Beach’s zebra stripes
Architectural renderings from developers coming in front of the board
DOB’s use of “non-compliance” as a euphemism for “illegal”
Correction: The original version of this article indicated Kaplan is a boardmember of Community Board 15. He is not; he is on the board of the MBCG for more than 30 years, and a member of MBNA and Madison-Marine-Homecrest Civic Association. We apologize for the confusion.
Representatives of several community groups testified in front of Community Board 15 about their concerns to a proposed private marina development in Sheepshead Bay. The board unanimously agreed to send a letter of objection to relevant agencies urging further study.
The marina will be part of The Breakers, a 75-unit luxury condominium development at 3128 Emmons Avenue, the site of the former Palm Shore Club. It’ll feature 23 boat slips that the developer said is for the use of residents only. The pierhead-line would extend 94-feet from the bulkhead-line.
Below is a video of the three speakers who objected to the plans. The speakers, in order of appearance, are Jerry Borell, former commodore of Miramar Yacht Club; Kathleen Higgins, a member of Miramar Yacht Club; and Laura LaPlant, speaking on behalf of Kathy Flynn, president of the Sheepshead Bay/Plumb Beach Civic Association.
The back of The Breakers, photographed in 2008 while still under construction
A proposed marina attached to The Breakers condominium development is sparking a discussion about Sheepshead Bay’s shrinking navigable lanes, and the project will be on tomorrow night’s Community Board 15 agenda.
The owners of The Breakers complex at 3128 Emmons Avenue (near Ford Street) submitted plans to the Department of Environmental Conservation to create a 23 slip marina as an accessory to the existing 75 residential units. The plans are to be reviewed and either rejected or approved by the department alongside the Army Corps of Engineers.
But the potential impact of a private marina on the local captains navigating the already clogged Sheepshead Bay is drawing the attention of the Community Board.
Community Board 15 Chairperson Theresa Scavo said the project’s paperwork states that it will involve an excavation and fill in navigable waters.
“For me, that’s a red flag,” she said. “The bay is already narrowed by silt” causing some boats to get stuck in the muck during low-tide.
Left to right: Ed Jaworski, Joe Dorinson, Lew Fidler
Madison-Marine-Homecrest Civic Association – our rabble-rousing neighbors to the north – finally won an appointment to Community Board 15, with the group’s executive vice president, Joe Dorinson, to sit during the upcoming term.
Community Board members are appointed by Borough President Marty Markowitz on the recommendation of the area’s City Councilmembers. Councilman Lew Fidler recommended Dorinson, a Long Island University history professor.
“He’s been a community guy for as long as I’ve been around the neighborhood,” said Fidler. “He’s a smart guy that understands government … I was happy to have the chance to recommend him.”
Members of MMH Civic, though, are saying the appointment is a victory after a long, hard-fought battle to get members of the group appointed to the board. MMH is known for taking adversarial roles on development issues in the neighborhood, battling out-of-character home enlargements, zoning variances and condominiums.
Community Board 15 is meeting tonight at 7:00 p.m. in Kingsborough Community College’s faculty dining room. The meeting, the second to last before it breaks for summer, has on the agenda a number of issues recently discussed on Sheepshead Bites.
Board members will hear a presentation from the attorney representing the two Sheepshead Bay Road developments seeking variances for their parking. As we wrote last week, the developer that owns both properties – 1501 Sheepshead Bay Road and 1401 Sheepshead Bay Road – is seeking to build a nine-story building (and here), the parking from which will also supplement his other building, which is short nearly 70 spaces. In total, the buildings need 178 spaces, but the owner is asking it to be reduced to 101 spaces. The plans have been criticized by neighboring businesses and Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz (who has also requested a DOT traffic study).
The issue will be put to a vote following the hearing. Two variances for Manhattan Beach homes (represented by the same attorney) are also on the agenda.
The board will also vote on two Department of Transportation projects that affect the area, following presentations last Monday. The first is the replacement of the B44 Limited with Select Bus Service / Bus Rapid Transit along Nostrand Avenue. The new bus configuration seeks to improve commute times and efficiency with off-board fare payment, dedicated bus lanes, traffic signal priority, and low-floor buses. Neighbors are criticizing it for taking away parking and travel lanes, and being an excessive expenditure in the face of massive service cuts.
The second DOT vote regards the Safe Streets for Seniors program, for which Sheepshead Bay is an early deployment site. Several intersections along Ocean Avenue and Coney Island Avenue will receive improvements such as extended curbs, longer walk signals and pedestrian refuges in the middle of the street.
As a reminder, the Community Board is an advisory panel to government agencies and elected officials. Its vote signals to these entities the general neighborhood sentiment, and it is not binding but does help coordination and increase community involvement. So make sure you turn out so that the community’s feeling can be accurately accounted for!
The Department of Transportation is rolling out a new program to create safer streets for senior citizens across the city, with swaths of the Sheepshead Bay area planned as a test area.
DOT representative Hillary Poole presented details of the project to Community Board 15, following a presentation regarding Bus Rapid Transit / Select Bus Service on the Nostrand Avenue corridor. The Community Board will discuss the issue at their meeting next Tuesday, May 25, at 7 p.m. in the Kingsborough Faculty Dining Room.
The initiative identified areas of concentrated senior citizen populations throughout the city, and also considered data regarding accidents and pedestrian fatalities. Sheepshead Bay, Gravesend and Midwood have clusters of senior citizen residents, and a number of dangerous intersections are targeted for improvements through the program.
Among the proposed changes to increase safety are pedestrian refuges in major avenues (which will be landscaped), extended curbs to improve visibility, and longer traffic signals to accommodate slower walking. They will also ban left turns in some locations to make crossing streets safer.
The majority of the improvements target Ocean Avenue between Gravesend Neck Road and Avenue T, and Coney Island Avenue between Avenue U and Avenue T. (For a list of site-specific improvements, view the pdf after the jump).
During the Monday meeting, a number of board members expressed concern regarding the pedestrian islands. They say the island created at Coney Island Avenue and Brighton Beach Avenue has caused traffic pileups and made the situation more dangerous. The landscaping was also a concern, for fear that trees would limit visibility and falling leaves would make the road slippery in the fall.
