A NAG Grows In Brooklyn

Urban environment watchdog groups, by their very nature, tend to attract prickly constituents. Of course, this can be all to the good: Good complainers often make for good neighbors, when you’re up against a century-long history of urban industrial neglect, legendary toxic spills, and present-day breakneck development at the hands of the the powers that be.

Still, prickly constituents do not make for easy collaboration. The mushroom-like proliferation of acronym-loving environmental justice groups that call North Brooklyn home stands in testament to this fact. Consider that OSA, NAG, GWAPP, and FBIP all largely ply the same activist waters (open space advocacy, development oversight, toxic-waste watchdoggery), and the picture begins to come clear.

In a commendable trend, then, two of these aforementioned groups are now set to merge: Neighbors Allied for Good Growth(NAG) and Greenpoint Waterfront Association for Parks and Planning(GWAPP) were betrothed earlier this summer, with final vows to be taken in an institutional wedding later this year. With similar missions applied to a limited waterfront, and both organizations facing the facts of reduced funding and volunteer energy, a merger was something of a foregone conclusion, though parsing the details of how to legally wed the two organizations has taken it’s share of time.

The newly-merged organization will go by the new name North Brooklyn Neighbors, and be overseen by newly-seated Executive Director Anthony Buissereth. A community organizer by trade, Buissereth bears the burdensome responsibility of smoothing the transition from two scrappy but storied local institutions into a single fire-breathing North Brooklyn watchdog group.

Happily for residents of North Brooklyn, Buissereth comes to the job well prepared: A lifelong New Yorker, with past stints on such trials-by-fire as Brooklyn’s Community Board 3 and the Youth Communication Project, he is well acquainted with the rough-and-tumble nature of Borough politics. He sketches his duty at NAG in clear-eyed terms. “I always want to ensure that the people have a sufficient voice in the neighborhoods that they live in,” he notes. “I think my main concern is that business gets a greater say than people. So, we're working to make sure things are more collaborative and always include the people. ”

NUHART AS CASE STUDY
Buissereth road-tested his organizing chops at a recent community meeting last Thursday night, seeking to secure neighborhood buy-in and input on the remediation plan for the toxic NuHart State Superfund site in far North Greenpoint. The meeting was arranged in concert with NAG, and served as an informal kickoff to a 60-day public comment period, currently scheduled to end on November 19.

As one of the most polluted places in the state, and witha new K-6 school proposed on land abutting a known phthalate spill, the cleanup of this block-wide site stands as one of the most passionately observed civic endeavors in the neighborhood in recent history. With families and children’s health on the line (phthalates are known endocrine disruptors and carcinogens), the stakes are high for the City Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to get this right, and to secure the public’s blessing in the mix.

As a DEC representative talked through her plan, and public comment began to flare, Buissereth took the floor to promote NAG’s role as convener and neighborhood advocate, pledging the resources of his organization to address areas of concern contained within the remedial action plan.

One example: As excavation and monitoring advance at the site, significant amounts of data will be generated. One key area of concern was that that data be hosted and regularly updated on some sort of public website, enabling concerned citizens to monitor progress. However, with the DEC claiming bureaucratic constraint, and the developers offering only tepid endorsement of the idea, the proposed website began to seem a non-starter, and the room began to noticeably steam up.

Sensing an impasse, Buissereth stepped up to pledge NAG’s website as an ideal host, and volunteer his own services to organize for daily data dispatches, effectively moving the meeting forward. It was a welcome demonstration of NAG’s enduring role as a convener, and a bold statement of public intent from the new director.

FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO PARTY
As a merged NAG matures, and Buissuereth grows into the role, we can only hope that the organization maintains the capacity to effectively guard the neighborhoods interest without giving short-shrift to the vital work of melding the two watchdog groups into one. Certainly, the need for a singular, focussed organization to take on the role of neighborhood development ombudsman is great, and Buissereth is an appealingly focussed steward, with a clear-eyed view to the big brass ring of neighborhood involvement at its most neighborly. The people of North Brooklyn should by rights toast his efforts.

Good thing there's a way to do just that....

NAG is helping to facilitate the "open comment" period regarding the NuHart site, which concludes November 19th. If you have concerns about this site, or wish to stay abreast of developments therein, get in touch with Anthony at NAG. More information about the Superfund cleanup can be found here.

You can support NAG’s efforts, and toast their new director, at this years' NAG Gala, coming up this Thursday, October 11 in Williamsburg. More information is here.