How Many Lobbyists Will Be Able to Trick Community Board 10?
Senator Andrew Gounardes and Councilman Justin Brannan have pushed lobbyist’s wants through Community Board 10.
Neither Brannan or Gounardes told us that there were more accidents and people hurt in Bay Ridge in both 2023 and 2024 because Gounardes wanted the red light cameras to be the fix. (Info)
Community Board 10 has not shared this information either. They have a transportation committee so they should should have shared this data. (See map for Community Board 10 here – adjust dates on the right)
When lobbyist’s projects were pushed through CB 10 the first or second time, it was understandable….maybe the people didn’t know. But now enough people know and Community Board 10 has some political people on it – who definitely know!
It’s 2025 and Community Board 10 is allowing Transportation Alternatives to speak at meetings, without identifying them as a group that has lobbied Justin Brannan and Andrew Gounardes.
At a recent Community Board 10 Meeting, Jack from the Traffic and Transportation Committee said that Community Board 10 met with Transportation Alternatives on October 30th. While committees usually record their meetings, I did not find a October 30th recording for Community Board 10.
At the CB 10 Meeting, Jack called TransAlt a not-for profit. While it is true that Transalt is a registered non-profit, they are also an organization that takes in around five million dollars and they have some big donor supporters. They lobby politicians. Their employees organize protests and attend community meetings and look like community advocates.
This month, Josephine held a CB 10 meeting and Rose was writing in the chat. Rose is not a member of this community and her affiliation to Transportation Alternatives should have been share with residents at the meeting.
In 2024, Justin Brannan was lobbied by Transalt over the red light cameras (State issue) and bike and pedestrian access. Councilman Brannan did not reveal that he was lobbied by Transalt. (You can see this here)
1) 2018: The most well known lobbying deal was: The secret lobbying over the school at Nathan’s. (See here) The same owner locked in another deal for a school on 88th Street and 5th Avenue (one block away from PS 264, which CB 10 said did not have enough students)
2) In 2019 Andrew Gounardes and Justin Brannan were lobbied over the Angel Guardian property. We saw what a mess was created because of these two politicians. Andrew Gounardes didn’t show up as the state representative for the community (he sent Justin Brannan to the online meeting). (Info here and here) Three schools will be on 63th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues.
3) In 2022, CB 10 had the loading zones presentation. Justin Brannan was lobbied over them. (See here and here) Many other Community Boards said no to these loading zones, not CB 10. Some members of CB 10 gave locations where they thought a loading zone should be placed.
4) In 2023, GetAround Cars was able to secure free parking spots in our community. Even though Bay Ridge had car sharing businesses, CB 10 allowed this company to present at the CB 10 Meeting (Info – see here) Soon after, their signs and cars were placed in our community. People in Queens called out Andrew Gounardes as he spoke in favor of the company. (See here) GetAround went out of business in NY in it’s first year. Andrew Gounardes does not understand businesses.
5) 2024: Andrew Gounardes didn’t tell us he was being lobbied over housing. The same guy who won in the Nathan’s deal in Bay Ridge is listed for lobbying Gounardes. (See here) Andrew Gounardes was silent about the City of Yes inside of our community, but Andrew was pushing the City of Yes outside of our district. (See here)
In November 2023, the Bay Ridge Environmental Group did a tour of the area. This environmental group invited Rose from Transportation Alternatives along on the walk. Rose talked about the woman from Bay Ridge, who was killed on 4th Avenue and Senator Street – she never mentioned the woman’s name or told the group the woman was killed by a livery driver. (Source) Years ago, street activist would hold a candlelit service on the street – now they don’t even want to know the deceased woman’s name.
A community activist recorded this walk because they realized Transalt was with a group in our community:
Andrew Gounardes has accepted donations from Mark Gorton.
Wikipedia wrote this about Gorton: “At one point, Mark Gorton was the single largest supporter of Transportation Alternatives, the New York City-based advocacy group for pedestrians, cyclists, and public transit. (See here)
Mark Gorton pushed for Congestion Pricing. (Read more about him here)
Bay Ridge, I’m not sure how to get the lobbyists out of our community board. I think people on Community Board 10 need to call for transparency on this for the transportation and pedestrian safety committees:
Our Community Board isn’t the only one Transalt is interested in:
Mark Gorton’s group Open Plans supports this:
Hugs,
marlene
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