Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon shared the video, one of several, as part of a harsh critique<\/a> of the New York City Economic Development Corporation-controlled process, which she called \u201crushed from the start, constrained by an artificial timeline, heavy-handed, and mired in backroom deals.\u201d She also castigated a \u201cdisheartening lack of courtesy, transparency and meaningful community engagement in this process,\u201d with an important transportation plan blocked \u201cby bylaws that don\u2019t even exist.\u201d<\/p>\n Simon was just one of several task force members questioning the validity of the process. One member told the Brooklyn Eagle that the original BMT Vision Plan procedure was changed at some point before the vote with no explanation.<\/p>\n Even some members who voted for the plan can be heard (on other videos supplied to this paper) expressing discomfort with the way things unfolded. \u201cMoving forward, I want to make sure that the development corporation \u2014 the new task force \u2014 and then the oversight task force, have a much more transparent process with the public,\u201d Councilmember Shahana Hanif was heard saying. \u201cI\u2019m not sure what that would look like, but coming out of this and feeling rotten is not how I want to feel.\u201d<\/p>\n Task-force leadership, however, told the Eagle that members were invited to suggest revisions to the final plan in the months before the vote, but they chose not to.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Roll-call vote hastily scheduled<\/p>\n The 28-member task force<\/a> (later reduced to 25) was chaired by Goldman and co-vice chaired by state Sen. Andrew Gounardes and Councilmember Alexa Avil\u00e9s. Once EDC had the number of votes required to pass their preferred plan, however, Avil\u00e9s was excluded.<\/p>\n The roll-call vote had been postponed<\/a> five times amid unaddressed issues, including the shrinkage of the already-diminished maritime waterfront, the lack of a transportation plan<\/a> for the area\u2019s congested streets, a fuzzy financial plan<\/a>, and the effect of roughly 18,000 new residents in an area with failing infrastructure in a floodplain, among other points.\u00a0<\/p>\n The vote was hastily scheduled for Sept. 22, however, after Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and Hanif, who had been holdouts, dropped their opposition when the EDC modified the plan to address their individual concerns. Other members were notified \u201cout of the blue\u201d the Thursday before the vote was scheduled, having not met for months.<\/p>\n Reynoso, on the Brian Lehrer show before the meeting, said one reason he changed his vote<\/a> was the city\u2019s agreement to issue a Request for Expressions of Interest from the maritime industry. The RFEI would present an opportunity to showcase viable alternatives to a much-reduced port, he said. (On Oct. 2, EDC released the RFEI<\/a>.\u00a0EDC said that the responses \u201cmay further inform the refinement\u201d of the\u00a0already-approved Vision Plan.)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In the video, Goldman can be heard repeatedly shutting down discussion on the recent changes and blocking a rider addressing the area\u2019s longstanding traffic and transportation concerns.<\/p>\n Above the sound of angry chants from community members outside the building, Assemblymember Marcella Mitaynes can be heard asking Goldman to pause the vote for a couple of days since \u201ca lot of changes have been made, and not in this space where it should have. We should at least be able to digest the changes.\u201d<\/p>\n Goldman repeatedly denied her request, saying, \u201cThat\u2019s not the process. We are here to have the vote, and that\u2019s what we are going to do.\u201d Over her protests, Goldman began the voting roll call. \u201cThe first of the roll-call votes will be Congressman Dan Goldman. I\u2019d like to vote yes.\u201d<\/p>\n Tension in the room increased as Simon attempted to offer a motion to vote on the transportation rider. \u201cI\u2019d like to make a motion,\u201d she said, to which Goldman replied, \u201cThere are no motions. We are here to vote.\u201d No more discussion would be allowed \u201caccording to the bylaws,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Simon expressed disbelief that the bylaws did not allow motions, and, overcoming Goldman\u2019s objections, read the entire transportation rider. She was reading it \u201cto have it on the record,\u201d she told Goldman.\u00a0<\/p>\n Task force member Hank Gutman, former commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation, had been negotiating the transportation rider\u2019s wording with City Hall since July. Gutman has been working on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway issue since former Mayor Bill de Blasio\u2019s tenure, when, as commissioner, he announced the strategy to preserve the crumbling Triple Cantilever for at least 20 years, buying time for a more comprehensive highway redesign.<\/p>\n Just before the meeting, New York City First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro confirmed with Gutman that the rider\u2019s language, after several adjustments, was acceptable to the city, and asked Gutman to touch base with Andrew Kimball, president and CEO of EDC, who was also attending the meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n Community members said there was an angry confrontation<\/a> between Goldman and Gutman in the parking lot even before the meeting had started, however, with Goldman vowing to block the transportation rider despite the city\u2019s approval.<\/p>\n The rider included language addressing the current traffic congestion in the area (the Columbia Waterfront District, Red Hook, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens), and the additional volume of traffic that would be created by the 6,000 new units of housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n There was also a separate letter agreement in which the city committed to revert to the 2021 BQE stabilization plan, provided it was still viable and wouldn\u2019t require an Environmental Impact Statement. (This paper has reviewed copies of the relevant correspondence.)<\/p>\n Local officials \u2014 including Goldman \u2014 have long been urging the city to return to that plan, which had been derailed during the first year of Eric Adams\u2019 administration. In December 2024, Goldman was one of numerous officials who signed on to a joint letter<\/a> to then-Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi formally requesting that DOT follow through with the rehab, to \u201cpreserve the safety and integrity of the Triple Cantilever section for the next 15 to 20 years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Following Simon\u2019s reading of the transportation rider, Gutman seconded the motion, only to be cut off by Goldman.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no proper motion. You are not recognized,\u201d Goldman said, citing \u201cbylaws.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s fine, you can have me arrested,\u201d Gutman shot back.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI wish Assemblymember Simon had brought those considerations and concerns to the city and other members of the task force within the last two months after we had postponed the vote in July and we could have figured out a way to incorporate them, but given that this is the final date by which we have to vote on this, we are going to move forward with the vote,\u201d Goldman said.<\/p>\n Both Goldman and Gutman raised their voices. Goldman was well aware that the amendment was in the works, Gutman said, because it was Goldman\u2019s office that wrote the first draft months ago.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not going to debate this,\u201d Goldman said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not debating it, I\u2019m stating the facts,\u201d Gutman snapped. \u201cI know why you want to shut me up. Because you were the author, as you bragged about, of the very rider that Jo Anne just read into the record.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou can cast any aspersions you want \u2026 We are going to go forward with the vote now,\u201d Goldman said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat video really speaks for itself,\u201d Gutman later told the Eagle. \u201cA number of people who saw it were horrified and told me, \u2018I\u2019m so sorry, I can\u2019t believe they did that.\u2019 People I barely know. We worked very hard with City Hall to address the transportation issues \u2014 as Goldman knew \u2014 only to throw it all away,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Carly Baker-Rice, executive director of the Red Hook Business Alliance, who voted against the Vision Plan, told the Eagle there were no bylaws, but instead, a Task Force Decision Making Process document. \u201cThe stated goal was to achieve consensus on the whole plan,\u201d she said. If members could not reach a consensus, members could ask EDC consultants to prepare alternate recommendations.<\/p>\n At some point, it became \u201cvery clear\u201d that that process was not moving forward, \u201cBecause anything we said that they didn\u2019t like, they just ignored,\u201d she said. In the spring, the voting plan \u201cwas replaced with a straight up-and-down vote. They acted like nothing had changed, but it was totally different than what they gave us on day one.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere were never any bylaws to speak of,\u201d Avil\u00e9s agreed. \u201cThere was never parliamentary procedure at all used throughout the whole process. In fact, 90% of the process was EDC and their consultants talking at people.\u201d<\/p>\n After watching the video again, \u201cI\u2019m overtaken by what appears to be incredible rudeness towards all of the people who didn\u2019t commit their vote,\u201d Avil\u00e9s said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Once the two-thirds approval number was achieved, congeniality went out the window, leaving her excluded from the conversation despite her status as co-vice chair, she said. \u201cCongressman Goldman and Sen. Gounardes and EDC, who convened all the calls, did not at all reach out to our office about the vote, about how they were planning to incorporate or not incorporate anything \u2014 literally, there was no communication.\u201d<\/p>\n The approval of the Vision Plan as is creates more complications down the road for the Brooklyn Marine Terminal, she said: \u201cIt is a laundry list of unfunded promises that the mayor was willing to make to get a win on paper, but it is going to be the problem of the next administration.\u201d<\/p>\n Mitaynes told the Eagle she was taken aback by some of the tactics used to obtain \u201cyes\u201d votes. \u201cFirst, they\u2019re nice to you, and they\u2019re like, \u2018How can we work together? What is it that you need?\u2019 And then they\u2019re arm-twisting or offering stuff \u2026 Some of the stuff that I heard is just unbelievable.<\/p>\n \u201cThey went from saying, \u2018Let\u2019s dream big about a port of the future,\u2019 to just cutting [the maritime portion] in half and saying, \u2018OK, we don\u2019t have the money for the port and this big vision about a highway of the future,\u2019\u201d Mitaynes said. \u201cAnd the excuse all the time is, \u2018We don\u2019t have any money. We have to have private investment.\u2019 Of course, the private investment is real estate.\u201d<\/p>\n The plan may have been approved, \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t change any of the fundamental flaws,\u201d Simon told the Eagle. \u201cYou\u2019ve got a water table that you can\u2019t build on beyond a certain level in Red Hook, and you have no water and sewer out there \u2014\u00a0 certainly not enough for commercial purposes, let alone housing. And you\u2019ve got no ability to get people in and out. Like, what are you talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n Goldman\u2019s spokesperson Simone Kanter defended the process.<\/p>\n \u201cAs chair of the task force, Congressman Goldman\u2019s role was to enforce the task force policies and procedures that have governed the task force since its inception. All task force members also received multiple briefings on the voting process, and each member was well aware of the rules, which clearly prohibited changes to the vision plan during the vote,\u201d Kanter told the Eagle.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring the past two months, every task force member was invited to make any suggested revisions to the Vision Plan,\u201d he said. \u201cUnfortunately, some task force members only did so after the revised Vision Plan was distributed four days before the vote. In order to allow for task force members to digest the revised Vision Plan and discuss it with their various constituencies before the vote, task force leadership clearly stated that no changes would be made before the vote.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe congressman looks forward to addressing many of the outstanding concerns as the process moves forward after more than two-thirds of the task force passed the Vision Plan,\u201d Kanter added.<\/p>\n Gounardes agreed that the procedure was followed.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter the vote was last delayed two months ago, Task Force members who were supportive of the plan worked to engage with members who weren\u2019t. In the meantime, some individual Task Force members who had opposed the plan engaged in good faith on their own and suggested edits that would make them more supportive,\u201d Gounardes said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAfter we incorporated those ideas\u2014including the RFEI and increased funding for school and housing\u2014the full Task Force was sent the updated vision plan and given five days to review,\u201d Gounardes continued. \u201cThe Task Force decided to vote on the proposal before us and approved it 17-8, meeting the threshold for a two-thirds vote required by the rules we set out at the beginning of this process.\u201d <\/p>\n He added, \u201cI look forward to continuing the conversation with all Task Force members in the next phases of this process to discuss recent changes and ways to further refine the plan.\u201d<\/p>\n EDC has scheduled the public \u201cscoping hearings\u201d<\/a> leading to the Environmental Impact Statement for Oct. 28 ( in person<\/a>) and Oct. 30 ( virtual<\/a>), perplexing community members and organizations who haven\u2019t even seen the plan.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are doing the scoping meeting while still not presenting the final plan to the community,\u201d Victoria Alexander, interim chair of Resilient Red Hook, told the Eagle. \u201cAnd on top of that, Red Hook is in crisis mode right now because we\u2019re still dealing with the fire,\u201d she said, referring to the five-alarm conflagration<\/a> that destroyed a massive warehouse, home to the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition and numerous commercial and creative tenants.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hanif is pushing EDC to host a public presentation before the hearings. \u201cThe final BMT Vision Plan has not yet been presented publicly, yet the city is proceeding with scoping as though informed engagement has already taken place,\u201d she wrote in an Oct. 10 letter to EDC, the Mayor\u2019s Office of Environmental Coordination and BMT Task Force leadership. Not doing so \u201cundermines the [City Environmental Quality Review] process and prevents substantive input.\u201d<\/p>\n Hanif also urged EDC to add a meeting within \u201cthe district most affected by the massive project, District 39,\u201d which includes the Columbia Waterfront, Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill, and to extend the public comment period \u2014 currently set to end on Nov. 10, 2025 \u2014 by at least 90 to 120 days \u201cto ensure meaningful participation.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n She pointed out that the dates EDC chose, Oct. 28 and 30, interfere with local memorial events related to Superstorm Sandy and come just \u201cdays before a citywide election when civic bandwidth is limited.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/BMT-video-shocks-03-Simon-480x600.jpg\")
<\/a>Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon said the BMT Vision Plan process was \u201cmired in backroom deals.\u201d Photo courtesy of Simon\u2019s Office<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/BMT-video-shocks-06-Mataynes-by-Mary-Frost-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Assemblymember Marcella Mitaynes said she was taken aback by the tactics used to approve the BMT Vision Plan. Photo: Mary Frost, Brooklyn EagleProtesters outside the room, discourtesy inside<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/BMT-video-shocks-04-Gutman-490x600.jpg\")
<\/a>BMT Task Force member Hank Gutman clashed with Rep. Dan Goldman over the squelched traffic amendment. Photo courtesy of Hank Gutman<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/BMT-video-shocks-09-cranes-Mary-Frost-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Cranes at Atlantic Basin within the Brooklyn Marine Terminal site. Photo: Mary Frost, Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/BMT-video-shocks-08-screengrab-Simon.jpg\")
<\/a>A screen grab from the video depicting the acrimonious Sept. 22 BMT Vision Plan vote. Photo: Courtesy of video from Simon\u2019s OfficeProcedure changes without explanation<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/BMT-video-shocks-07-traffic-map-NYCEDC-1024x451.jpg\")
<\/a>This graphic illustrates some of the traffic issues facing areas surrounding the Brooklyn Marine Terminal. Map: NYCEDC<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/BMT-video-shocks-02-three-chairs-NYCEDC-1024x452.jpg\")
<\/a>BMT Task Force Chair Rep. Dan Goldman and co-Vice Chairs Councilmember Alexa Avil\u00e9s and state Sen. Andrew Gounardes. Photos: NYCEDCGoldman, Gounardes: Those were the rules<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/BMT-video-shocks-05-Hanif-by-Mary-Frost-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Councilmember Shahana Hanif wants more community participation in the BMT project. Photo: Mary Frost, Brooklyn EagleHanif pushes to reschedule the scoping hearings<\/p>\n