Carlo Scissura Said the BQE was Unsanitary
Mayor de Blasio chose a “panel of experts” to take on the issue of the BQE after there are already great plans out there for the BQE! Heading the panel is the Mayor’s guy, former Brooklyn Chamber President, Carlo Scissura.
Scissura is known by other projects he helped initiate in Brooklyn such as:
A) Inviting AirBnB into Brooklyn. Scissura and Eric Adams backed AirBnB right away and never discussed the consequences on our borough (see here). Eric Adams later had to backpedal as people complained that this caused a problem in the price of affordable housing in Brooklyn. (See here)
B) Cars2Go – If you live in Bay Ridge, you know Carlo Scissura and Eric Adams supported Cars2Go to come into Brooklyn and use our streets like they are a free parking lot for their cars. I wrote about this in 2016 My neighbors in Bay Ridge don’t appreciate not being able to find a spot as a business has their items parked on the streets.
C) Carlo Scissura pushed BQX – the failed light rail. How much money did NYC waste on that project? Remember the city hired a Canadian to head the project – he finally went home this Fall after accruing $160K per year “as the project lead.” We could have used that money to fix the MTA. Why didn’t Scissura back a MTA project?
We watched the Brooklyn Chamber under Carlo Scissura send a representative to speak against a woman whose family owned property in Coney Island for over 100 years. The city wanted to say the area was “blighted.” We went to look at the property. On the grounds was an amusement park ride that was renting the property. There was no garbage and the land was clear. The city did this meeting in the Winter when they knew no one would attend (this is a city tactic when using eminent domain). We asked Mark Treyger to stand with the property owner. He didn’t – the senior citizen, Carol Murray stood alone. (See here) The city already had representatives from the EDC, so there was no need for the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce to be there. This was a powerplay because de Blasio wanted the land so they could do a developer’s plan.
Mayor de Blasio sees Scissura as an expert in urban highways. Maybe Mayor de Blasio doesn’t know a lot of people or he just wants to push around a project to make it look like he is doing something. I have asked Scissura to recuse himself from this project. As a Brooklynite who is passionate about Brooklyn and not connected should be leading this project.
Tonight on Channel 1, Scissura said that the BQE was unsanitary. We’ve heard of people saying a public bathroom or homeless shelter is unsanitary. We have never heard of a highway referred to as unsanitary. It must be the new way “experts” refer to roads.
Play the video and you can hear Scissura’s word soup as he try to cover that he isn’t an expert. It reminds me of Marty Markowitz or Marty Golden talking…..I thought he was going to say, “This is the Greatest highway in the Greatest City in the Greatest State blah, blah, blah). Mayor de Blasio saw Scissura talk about BQX and must want to fool NYC with this project. Scissura has openly said that he wants to bury the BQE – that mindset shouldn’t be leading this project.
Strangely, Eric Adams said Scissura was “performing a service.” Does Eric Adams think Scissura isn’t getting paid? I don’t know what salary people receive for being on a panel, but I don’t think it is a community service project. We aren’t sure why Adams would present it like that?! Didn’t Scissura get paid for being part of the BQx project? How much money did the city use for a project that went nowhere…..see this website doesn’t even talk about the project costs!
Brooklyn has one shot here and this project should be led by someone whose interested in keeping Brooklyn for Brooklynites. Scissura should get out of the way and let the invested community oversee this project – they will do right by Brooklyn. Years ago, Scissura would have understood this because he was part of a group like that…..but time changes things….and people.
Update: Comments left on this blog refer to this article as many of us knew Carlo when he fought against the city and for the people. Times changes people.
Hugs,
marlene
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