November 11, 2025 - Happy Veterans Day - Thank you to all Veterans for your Service

Community Forum - Brooklyn Marine Terminal - Monday, November 17, 6:30 to 8:30 PM, Sacred Hearts Church, 125 Summit Street

In our last several updates, we've talked about the new phase of the BMT project, BMT City Environmental Quality Review (CEQR) and the scoping hearings where community members can speak to concerns and questions about the impact of the project they need the Review to address. There's one remaining in-person session on Monday, December 1, also at Sacred Hearts Church.

Columbia Street Waterfront Association is a Community Partner for this forum, which will be hosted by Assemblymembers Jo Anne Simon & Marcela Mitaynes and Council Members Alexa Avilés and Shahana Hanif. We are all committed to assuring every community member has the opportunity to shape the scope of this environmental impact assessment. The focus of this meeting is to help community members prepare oral testimony and/or written commentary and will include presentations on the BMT project and the CEQR process, and discussion groups. Please see this flyer for more information.

We urge everyone to attend. If you can join us, please think about the one or two questions or concerns you'd like to see addressed because they affect you and your neighbors directly. We'll help you develop these points, so you can speak to and/or write about them, and make sure your voice is heard!

Also, if you are thinking about testifying at the in-person session on December 1 and would like an opportunity to do a dry run at Sacred Heart Church, the same location as the scoping hearing, we will have time near the end of the forum for a few people to do so. If you are interested, please email us at admin@columbiastreetwaterfront.org.

Greening Committee Update

The CSWA Greening Committee met for the first time on Monday, November 11. Many thanks to Amy Jost for organizing the meeting!

We welcomed Matías (Mati) Kalwill, who shared his work on “a potentially affirmative community vision on BMT+ open space”. He offered a bit of backstory for how these compiled opinions came to be, beginning with a request Mati received for ideas for open space within the BMT footprint.

“I went out for a walk, telling myself that putting more effort on BMT stuff would probably constitute yet another bulk of wasted time. But as I saw the now gone Cranes through the site, a few disparate elements for a potentially affirmative community vision on BMT+ open space bubbled up. In the days that followed, I discussed these with Timothy Khalifa (architect), Red Hook buddy and Friend Of Fort Defiance, and proceeded to refine and compile them in the format you've seen, all with corresponding emojis. Shout-out to Leah Carroll (writer) who most recently helped me review and refine the language for readability and accessibility of the concepts. In sharing them with you and others, I don't expect anyone who reads it to agree with everything on it. Instead, my hope is that it becomes a springboard for expressing one's own thoughts, opinions and feelings about open space in the area within and beyond the BMT process. Best case scenario, it engages people in conversation of the 'What Do We Want' kind.”

Click this link for Mati's BMTplus - Open Space Nodes.

The Committee gave Mati a lot of stimulating feedback. We are socializing these ideas with the Columbia Street Waterfront community to give you all the opportunity to share your thoughts. Please email us at admin@columbiastreetwaterfront.org and we will share with Mati and Committee.

CSWA in the News!

Brian Abate, reported for the Red Hook Star-Revue, interviewed Board Member and Acting President Randy Gordon last month. Read Brian's excellent article from the November 2025 issue here.​

Volunteers for Other Committees Needed!

We've had a great response to our request for interest in the Greening Committee. We do have other committees which we hope community members will want to join. Please use this form to indicate your interest.

House of Pizza Food Drive Continues!

Thanks to all of you who donated food to the collection box at House of Pizza & Calzone - 132 Union St. House of Pizza & Calzone wants to keep the box for additional donations (probably at least through the holidays). Collected food will continue to be distributed by Food First, Inc, a Brooklyn-based food bank. If you would like us to arrange pick up, please text Zoe at 503-956-1284.
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