State Sen. Daniel Squadron’s proposal for maintaining open space in the Brooklyn Bridge Park development reminds us again why the state’s current financing scheme for the park is so flawed.
Squadron’s legislation calls for an as-yet-unstated portion of property taxes on any newly rezoned lots within .4 miles of Brooklyn Bridge Park to be siphoned off to pay for the $16-million maintenance budget for the open space portion of the 1.3-mile-long development.
In doing so, he seeks what this newspaper has long championed: the eliminatation of one of the most loathsome elements of the Brooklyn Bridge Park development: luxury housing inside the footprint of the 85-acre project.
The proposal would not — at least not yet — raise or change taxes on existing properties in the .4-mile zone. It would only affect land that is rezoned from manufacturing to residential — a move that typically yields a huge windfall for developers.
Squadron is correct in arguing that normal property taxes — not the 1,200 luxury units slated to be included inside the park itself — should be the financing mechanism for Brooklyn Bridge Park.
But Squadron’s plan has one central flaw: the notion that a dedicated revenue stream needs to be created to pay for the park. Brooklyn Bridge Park, like every other public park in the city, does not need to be self-sustaining.
If Squadron is correct, and residential rezonings in and around booming DUMBO do indeed generate nifty property taxes, all of that money should go, as property taxes currently go, to City Hall, where priorities for citywide spending are hashed out as part of the normal budget process. Our elected officials would then have to advocate for our park, just as electeds from other parts of the city will champion their districts’ needs.
Squadron’s proposal comes at a critical moment for Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Mayor Bloomberg has said that he wants the city to take over the project — though Hizzoner has not clarified the most important detail: would his “Brooklyn Bridge Park” continue the failed financing scheme that puts housing and retail inside the development or would the city run Brooklyn Bridge Park as a real park?
If Bloomberg and Squadron truly want a city park along the gorgeous Brooklyn waterfront, they will do what city park-builders have done for years: build a park and maintain it by allocating city budget money to do so.
