Savor the Last Full Month of Summer, Columbia Street Waterfront!

In this issue:

1. Support the Columbia Street Waterfront Association - Help us Strengthen our Community!
2. Save the date! Cobble Hill Association and CSWA Co-Sponsor a City of Forest Event at Van Voorhees Playground - Saturday, October 3!!
3. Brooklyn Marine Terminal (BMT) news: About those BMT ATF (Advisory Task Force) Office Hours sessions.

Support the Columbia Street Waterfront Association -
Help us Strengthen our Community

Membership and Donations

With your help, the Columbia Street Waterfront Association will:

• Advocate for our neighborhood;
• Host neighborhood events and greening projects; and
• Educate our community on local, city, state, and federal projects that affect all our lives.

Our budgets are minimal and we rely on volunteers to make this work happen. Your membership and donations help us cover our expenses and offer neighborhood programs all year long.

We invite you to become a member of the Columbia Street Waterfront Association!

Columbia Street Waterfront Association, Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. All donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law.

We’ve worked hard to keep CSWA’s expenses to a minimum, but we do have necessary expenses to cover, including this website and our newsletter software. Events come with venue fees and supplies to buy. So far, we’ve relied on the generosity of board and committee members to chip in and businesses to offer event spaces and refreshments pro bono. We have big plans for more advocacy, more ambitious events, and more community education. And we want to do more to support our local businesses—and feature business members on our Shop Local page!

CSWA offers three membership types, Individual, Business, and Affiliate.

CSWA does not want to exclude anyone from membership because of cost. So, these are suggested annual donations only.

In addition to joining the CSWA as a member, you can also make charitable donations to the Association.

We are working to schedule our first annual meeting for this fall. We would love to have as many community members and businesses as possible join the Association ahead of that meeting. The larger our Association, the more successfully we can advocate for our community with government agencies and officials.

Ready to join or donate? Visit our Support page here.​

If you have questions about membership, please email admin@columbiastreetwaterfront.org.

Save the Date! Cobble Hill Association and CSWA Co-Sponsor a City of Forest Event at Van Voorhees Playground - Saturday, October 3!

Van Voorhees Playground has long been a favorite spot for families from Columbia Street Waterfront and Cobble Hill. Kids love the swings, the playscapes, and the sprinkler. This year, community advocacy has led to traffic safety improvements community advocacy has led to traffic safety improvements which have made the walk to the park much less stressful.

This spring, our CSWA Greening Committee and Cobble Hill Association (CHA) started discussing a joint event to beautify this vital park. We decided to plan a tree and plant stewardship event for Saturday, October 3, which is City of Forest Day 2026! ​

Stay tuned for more details!

BMT (Brooklyn Marine Terminal)

(Oh, yes, about those stacked containers - see below)

This month, the Economic Development Corporation scheduled two BMT Advisory Task Force (ATF) "Office Hours" sessions. Per EDC, "These meetings are an opportunity for ATF members to ask any questions they may have. The meetings will take place virtually and are open to the public for observation." Note that the public can ONLY observe; as CSWA members found out at the first session, on Tuesday, August 11, members of the public cannot ask questions live or via chat.

ATF members who joined the first Office Hours continued to question the EDC's Transit Priority Proposal (slides 22-32) which EDC first unveiled at the July 31 ATF meeting #5. One ATF member asked, "Given the concerns and pushback expressed in ATF Meeting 5 around the proposed traffic plan, will a significantly new concept be proposed, or do you plan to incorporate and provide robust data around the current concept?"

The consultant responding said that the project team, planning team, and the EIS team (yes, three teams!) are "continuing to work through the transportation plan, its impacts, which will be reported fully in the EIS [Environmental Impact Assessment]." A response like the footnote to the startling numbers on slide 30 of the deck (60% of traffic diverted from Van Brunt Street! 90% of traffic diverted from Columbia Street!). Here's the footnote: "All transportation data and projections shown are for planning purposes only. When released, the EIS will include transportation data and projections of future conditions for purposes of environmental review based on the CEQR Technical Manual." Apparently, even the Transit Priority Proposal is for planning purposes only. Whatever that means.

The 2nd Office Hours will be this Thursday, August 20, 12-2 PM. The link to observe is here.

And now, about those stacked containers overlooking (overshadowing?) Columbia Street: PortSide NewYork emailed Mike Stamatis, President and CEO of Red Hook Terminals. MIke's response, which PortSide shared with permission on Columbia Waterfront District's Instagram page: "The new STS crane arrived today and we needed to make room on pier 10 for the crane assembly work area. We are super busy and needed to utilize the space in the upland of Piers 9A/B for container storage. We will be unloading the crane vessel over the next 4 days and then the assembly of the crane will commence and continue over the next few months."

CSWA is aware of residents' concerns about the high stacks and is following up to get more information on how long these will remain in place.

Questions? Email us at admin@columbiastreetwaterfront.org. Also, please share our website with your friends and neighbors: https://columbiastreetwaterfront.org/, where they can sign up for our newsletter!

Some of you may be receiving this newsletter for the first time. Welcome! We hope you decide to stay with us. You can always click "unsubscribe" below.

Media Contact:​
Randy Gordon, President
Columbia Street Waterfront Association, Inc.
Phone: 917-593-2674
Email: admin@columbiastreetwaterfront.org​​