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The borough president here on News 2 Brooklyn with Brooklyn BP Antonio Reyno, so we're getting to your calls in just a minute, but since we last had you here at BP, some big news made across the borough on two big projects that were in development. We have the Brooklyn Marine Terminal that has now been voted on and approved in terms of moving forward. You were a member of that task force. You voted to approve that project. What was the tipping point for you? Uh, look, the project had a lot of issues. The process was terrible. It was a unique process because it didn't need to move quickly for it to move forward. Uh, we had a, a, a city agency, I guess, or the mayor interested in actually moving this forward. It's been left to abandoned by the New Jersey, New York, uh, um, Port Authority, uh, it's just rot. And that's what exactly what was happening and we saw a chance here to try to do something new. Uh, was the plan what I wanted? It wasn't, but in it I was able to negotiate something called an RFEI which is gonna allow for us to get input from port operators to let us know how they would like to use this site and through that information being able to build a better plan long term. I see the vision plan. That's something that's just not a vision a draft and that we're gonna be able to influence uh what it looks like moving forward in a new task force that's being created now so that RFEI was important to me because we're not just talking about whether or not. Uh, uh, port operation works. We're gonna actually see if somebody wants to do that here. So that that's kind of what the tipping point for me. Looking ahead to potential future opportunities there when we talk about jobs and job creation, of course, on the other side of new development is the Kony casino proposal which was. Mhm. Shot down in the community advisory committee vote you were among those members that did not vote to advance that proposal. Why not? Yeah, you see, in BMT I saw promise it wasn't perfect, but I feel like we can get there, but with the Kony, I think it was an underwhelming application. I was seeing other applications presenting 1.2 and $1.3 billion worth of community. Um, benefits, new parks, uh, uh, contributions to like pedestrian walkways, increased security, building housing. This one was doing almost none of that. Uh, they offered, I think it was $200 million. They weren't committed to night job. I just didn't think there was enough the day before. The vote that decided to add about $600 million worth of g gives and I just thought it was not the way we should have proceeded with it. They should have given us the $600 million before these two public hearings happened because they they split the community in half. It was an ugly sight and it wasn't something that I, I wanted to see for Coney Island, two people that are gonna live together with each other for the next 20-30 years. Uh, at each other's throats for something that might not happen, and I thought that the Kony could have done a better job at building relationships at helping people come together. They didn't do that, so, um, I, it was an underwhelming application and we voted it down. Alright, I appreciate your explanations on both fronts because those are big projects with a lot to look forward to. Let's get to those callers because I've been promising that we're gonna get to your questions. The time to do that is right now. We have Evelyn who has joined. Crown Heights this evening. Evelyn, thanks for your call. What's your question for the borough president tonight? Yes, I would like to know where can you find more affordable housing besides New York City Connect. Yeah, yeah, the lottery that so many people are glued to for that opportunity, the hope that you get selected. Yeah, there is no way our city because of its history and our inability to build, has made it so that. Housing is so scarce that it's deeply valuable. It's a, it's a supply and demand conversation at this point. Uh, if there are no tomatoes in a supermarket, um, the one you find is gonna be very expensive, and that's kind of where we are right now and, um, in these neighborhoods we're telling, uh, folks we need to build more housing in order to build more housing to make it so that the market rate portion of the housing market isn't so high because it's under saturated. Those neighborhoods are giving us a hard time. They're no one wants to build. Everybody wants housing. No one wants to build it in their neighborhood, so we're, we're coming into trouble. The only place to get affordable housing right now in the city of New York is through Housing Connect, which is a housing lottery to the, the city of New York. So one, we need to build more affordable housing as well so that those lotteries are, are, are less lottery and more an opportunity, uh, but we're so. So far in and away from it there in uh I just found out we need about a million new homes in New York City uh in the next 10 years, uh, just to match the energy, right, to match the amount of people that are coming now to get us into a place that makes sense, um, and we're not on track to do even 1/10 of that. So what I would say is going to your local community boards when housing does come. Up that they're not they're the first places where these type of developments go to die we gotta stop that we need to build more housing we need to build more affordable housing, but we need to build more housing across the board and we're not there right now. When we talk about housing, that's another issue that's gonna be on the ballot in November I think now we're starting to educate ourselves with what those ballot proposals are gonna be and I believe 4 out of the 5 are related to housing. And it's phrased in such a way that it looks to promote more affordable housing, but the city council has taken some issue with it. They think it removes some of the democratic process in developing these plans, while others who are very much pro housing are are supportive of this. Have you taken a stance or given any thought to how you plan to vote on those proposals? Uh, I have, um, I think that the city council is fighting for, uh, it's. to continue to be the, the, the arbiter of development in the city of New York, uh, these, but these proposals don't hurt housing in any way, shape or form. There's one where if it's affordable housing, it doesn't need to go through UIP a borough council member doesn't need to see it. It goes straight to the process and we get to build as soon as possible. That's a good thing. We don't want to delay affordable housing development in the city of New York. Uh, the one that they're most concerned of is that there's one. Uh, proposal that says that if the city council votes something down there is an appeals board that is, uh, the borough president, the speaker, and the mayor can come together and if 2 out of the 3 agree that the project is worth moving forward, it moves forward. So the pro the council members are still part of the process but if you're voting something down in New York City right now that is housing related, we need to have a conversation, a serious one, and I think that the appeals board, while it'll give me more authority, I think they feel like it's a threat to their ability to. Uh, to, to, to their voices to be heard on a more local level, but I do also wanna say this is a citywide crisis and I do think it needs a citywide solution and if we leave it to the council, it'll continue to be just a local NIBIA, you know, opportunity versus borough presidents or a citywide view which would um move away from those nimBIA uh nature. Comes back to trying to meet that need for sure. Alright, we're taking a quick break here on Ask the borough president we'll be right back right after this. Stay with us.

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Thanks so much for staying with us for this edition of Ask the Borough President and time now to get to some questions that we received online and specifically this one on Facebook from Annelise who writes, what have you done to help and assist military veterans and what are your future plans to assist military vets, namely for Annelise, female veterans who are a very small minority here in New York City. So, so the first thing is that, uh, veterans, there's no veterans that live in New York City that don't get access to housing emergency. housing, so I just wanna be, uh, the first thing is if you don't have housing, you should, you're not, you shouldn't be in a homeless shelter. We have a system by which we can get them housing any veteran, including female veterans. um, also we work alongside the Buffalo Soldiers Project, which is a group that helps us bring resources so every single year they have a resource fair and we make sure that all resources that we have available in our office, um, are available to veterans and that they know they exist and then we also work with another group that helps us, uh. Provide dogs to veterans uh that have PTSD are suffering with depression, anxiety or are lonely or alone um in those cases these dogs have been shown to make huge differences and jumps they get trained by military veterans and then they're given to a military veteran we we just uh have paid for one recently and gave it to a soldier and when he received the dog started crying immediately and it was just the connection was there, you know, he's been wanting that for such a long time. But we're always trying to think of new ways to be able to help veterans, but the first thing is making sure that they know what's accessible to them here and a reminder of the resources that do exist is so important. I also want to look ahead to this push to bring back year-round outdoor dining. I know council member Lincoln Wrestler is really leading the charge. You have expressed your support for this. What's different about this version of the plan that makes it better, more sustainable than what we saw pandemic and post-pandemic? It's your own. I don't want to be very clear that the city. Council ruined it. We had a great program, uh, with, you know, the 5% of bad actors that exist in everything, and instead of modifying it so we can get rid of the bad actors and keep this beautiful system that has transformed New York for a two summers, um, instead they, they go and overreach and overregulate and then the city council passed laws that made it so that there are very few outdoor dining opportunities here. But one of the biggest mistakes they did was make it that it wasn't year round. So all of these folks have to tear down these things for 3 months. They gotta find storage for it as well and then they gotta rebuild it. It's it's not practical for business owners and for the city council to think that they can do that. It was ridiculous. Lincoln Wrestler's bill is gonna solve for that. All right, we will follow that as it makes its way through the council real quick before we go, the pin design competition, the timeline has been extended. Yes, it has. So please be supportive. Get in there if you're creative, make it happen. We're here for you. It was a lot of fun and be a part of Brooklyn history. BP Reynoso, always great to have you with us and thank you all who tuned in tonight.

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News 12's Amanda Bossard sits down with Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso to answer YOUR pressing questions in this month's edition of Ask the Borough President.

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