The district manager of Williamsburg’s community board feels “utmost disgust” about the junked cars and giant pile of salt that are visible at the Brooklyn Navy Yard along Kent Avenue between Keap and Rush streets.
Community Board 1’s Gerald Esposito says the cars, which are sold at auction by the city’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services, and the salt, which is used by the Department of Sanitation to clear city streets of snow and ice in the winter, are unsightly and pose an environmental hazard for the surrounding area.
Indeed, from Kent Avenue, it is difficult for passersby not to notice the three-story salt pile covered by a cone-shaped shell and the disembodied auto parts among the skeletal remains of cars in various states of disrepair.
Esposito wrote to the Navy Yard Development Corporation last month to “voice our utmost disgust,” at the eyesores and “request that you take immediate action to remove this junkyard and sanitation facility, or provide fencing that will not display this blight to our community.”
In the meantime, Navy Yard President and CEO Andrew Kimball told The Brooklyn Paper that Esposito’s complaints may be moot: the Navy Yard is redeveloping the six-acre site on the outskirts of the yards, though it could be a year before it seeks out developers.
The plan calls for industrial, commercial and retail space on the site after the salt pile and auction lot are relocated.
Esposito said he spoke with Kimball on Monday and was pleased that the lines of communication were now open.
“I believe that we will move forward in a spirit of cooperation,” Esposito said. “We finally have a dialogue going. I don’t know what kind of fruit that is going to yield, but at least we have that much.”
