Two Task Force Organizations, UPROSE and the Fifth Avenue Committee, are hosting meetings this Wednesday and next, which may be of interest to Brooklynites. Wednesday, July 23 is the UPROSE Community Education Forum on the proposed USPowerGen update of the Gowanus Generating Station in Sunset Park. Wednesday, July 30 is the next meeting of the Accountable Development Working Group.

More info after the jump.

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On Wednesday, July 23, the City Planning Commission will take public testimony on four of its proposed rezonings at it stated meeting, which begins at 10am at 22 Reade Street. The four projects are:

1) St. George Special District, Staten Island - This rezoning of Staten Island’s transit hub covers four main areas: new retail regulations to encourage pedestrian-friendly shopping streets; allowing easy conversion of vacant office space to residential; regulating building height/bulk to maintain waterfront views; and regulating parking to encourage an active streetscape.

2) Laurelton Rezoning, Queens - This plan seeks to downzone much of this residential neighborhood in southeast Queens, while providing for some modest housing development along Merrick and Springfield boulevards.

3) Waldheim Rezoning, Queens - This plan is primarily a downzoning for a residential area near Downtown Flushing.

4) Dutch Kills Rezoning, Queens - This plan is an extension of the existing Special Long Island City Mixed-Use District, and seeks to encourage a mixed-use environment and the creation of affordable housing.

In the inbox today, an email from the Mayor’s Office of Environmental Remediation:

“As part of Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC brownfields initiatives, the Mayor?s Office of Environmental Remediation (MOER) invites you to attend our kick-off meeting for community brownfield outreach. This meeting will introduce MOER to community organizations working on brownfield issues, discuss capacity-building workshops planned for 2008-2009, and gather your input about what will help you be most effective in your brownfield work.”

When: Monday, 21 July 2008, 1:00-4:00 pm

Where: NYC Economic Development Corporation 110 William Street, 4th Floor, Manhattan.

To register or for more information, contact brownfields@cityhall.nyc.gov.

In 2004, the City approved an extensive rezoning of Downtown Brooklyn. The Pratt Center for Community Development has now released a study titled, “Downtown Brooklyn’s Detour: The Unanticipated Impacts of Rezoning and Development on Residents and Businesses,” (PDF) which it prepared for the advocacy group Families United for Racial and Economy Equality (FUREE).

Pratt Center Director Brad Lander told the Village Voice, “What we mostly found is what members of FUREE already know: The unanticipated impacts of development have not been good for low- and moderate-income people.” As the Voice reports, the study finds that, “100 businesses have already been displaced, as many as projected by the city for the entire rezoning area. And because the new development has been residential and not commercial, there hasn’t even been a corresponding growth in jobs for local residents.”

FUREE staged a protest in Downtown Brooklyn today to correspond with the study’s release. The goal of the protest was to call out developer (and Mayoral candidate) John Castimatidis for failing to deliver on a promised, much-needed supermarket on his Downtown Brooklyn condo development site.

The ongoing controversy over the proposed East Village/Lower East Side rezoning continued in earnest this week, with a group of opponents delivering a 10,000 signature petition to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. (via City Room, photo via Village Voice).

The Empire State Development Corporation officially declared Manhattanville “blighted,” paving the way for the use of eminent domain for Columbia University’s expansion plan. (via Gothamist)

AM New York examined 10 NYC historic buildings that are in various stages of neglect.

News from the Chinatown Tenant Union:

The Chinatown Tenant Union (CTU) is a part of the OUR Waterfront Coalition and has been working with other organizations in Chinatown and the Lower East Side to ensure that there is accountable development around the East River Waterfront. We believe that the community that lives closest to the waterfront - especially low-income people, people of color, and immigrant communities - should be central to any decision-making processes and that any development needs to prioritize the needs of these communities, and not the needs of tourists, the rich, or private developers and big businesses.

This Saturday, July 19th, we will be launching a community visioning process for input into the types of services, programs, and businesses that should occupy the waterfront. We would love for you to come join us, give us your opinions, support the process, and spend the rest of the day playing and eating with us! All for free!

Please contact us for more information or for flyers in Chinese, Spanish, and English at (212) 473-6485. And please spread the word!

Three grassroots organizations have released a new report, “Boom for Whom? How the Resurgence of the Bronx is Leaving Residents Behind” (PDF) documenting the current conditions in the “booming” Northwest Bronx, and the desperate need for jobs for local residents there. The Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition (NBCCC), its Sistas and Brothas United Youth Leadership Program, and the Urban Justice Center’s Community Development Project collaborated on the report, which states, “While the borough has recently emerged from a long period of racism-fuelled disinvestment to become a site of major investment, this has done little to improve the lives of those who reside, work, worship, and attend school in the area.”

The report explores how to address such concerns by, “raising industry standards, enforcing workers’ rights, and connecting living-wage job opportunities to the local Bronx workforce so that residents benefit from development projects.”

The NBCCC is helping make this vision a reality with the redevelopment of the Kingsbridge Armory. As part of the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA), they are seeking, “living wages and union protections for local residents in the construction and permanent jobs, community space, an affordable recreation center, and environmental protections through the negotiation of a Community Benefits Agreement, a Labor Peace Agreement and a Project Labor Agreement with the developer of the Armory.”

Photo of KARA protest at City Hall via the Daily News.

This week, the NY Times’ City Room blog is taking reader questions about rent stabilization, to be answered by housing lawyer Joel E. Abramson.  Visit online and ask away in the comments section!

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg was supposed to deliver a speech at the NAACP convention in Ohio, but was delayed in New York and didn’t get the chance. However, today’s Observer has the full text of the speech, in which the Mayor redefines the poverty line for New York City.

He (would have) said, “Right now, the federal government’s poverty formula tells us that the poverty threshold for a family of four is $20,000 – whether they live in Manhattan, New York or Manhattan, Kansas. This one-size-fits-all formula tells us about 19 percent of New York City residents are poor.

“But the cost of living is much higher than average in New York and many other cities, and our new formula takes that into account. As a result, we’ve found that the poverty threshold is $26,000 for a family of four in New York City – which puts 23 percent of New Yorkers below the poverty line.”

City Room reports today on an audit by Comptroller William C. Thompson’s office, which cites the Department of Sanitation for “disorganization and mismanagement” in its program for cleaning up vacant lots.

The Lot Cleaning Division is charged with cutting weeds and removing debris and large items. However, the audit found, “‘inadequate internal controls’ by the department in identifying lots for cleaning, processing complaints and work orders and managing the clean-ups.” As writer Sewell Chan put it, these lots, “remain significant eyesores in low-income neighborhoods,” and “are dumping grounds for discarded food, trash, construction debris, lumber, appliances and even vehicles.”

So what can communities do to counteract this problem? In Philadelphia, which has had a major vacant property problem, with an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 vacant lots downtown in 2006 according to Philadelphia Weekly, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Philadelphia Green program has created a manual, Reclaiming Vacant Lots: a Philadelphia Green Guide. This manual is geared toward city agencies, community-based organizations and block associations, and outlines a basic “clean & green” approach to managing vacant land, including clearing debris, planting grass and trees and installing fences. It also provides information on settling ownership issues, developing a site plan, and creating a long-term maintenance strategy. Check it out!