Brighton Residents: City Needs To Reconsider All Elevated Comfort Stations, Not Just New Brighton Site

A group of long-time Brighton Beach advocates seized the opportunity of Monday night’s hearing about the Oceana comfort stations, telling the Parks Department that they ought to give equal consideration to all of the elevated bathrooms already installed – and not just those near the condominium complex.

The packed hearing, which drew approximately 130 residents to the Shorefront Y (3300 Coney Island Avenue), was called by the Parks Department as a result of a court order, which requires them to produce an environmental impact statement (EIS). The hearing was an opportunity to address the scope of the planned EIS and suggest that Parks consultants evaluate additional aspects of the project.

However, it was ultimately a cathartic expulsion of rage and frustration by residents miffed with government bureaucracy and the perceived threat to their quality of life.

A small crew of residents from around the neighborhood urged the Parks Department to produce similar studies for the already-completed comfort stations further down the boardwalk and citywide, or at least extend its conclusions to those structures.

“If it has been determined that these structures are unsafe or undesirable will these same standards be used for the other locations?” asked Brighton Beach resident Ida Sanoff during the hearing, noting that 35 of these elevated comfort stations have been installed citywide.

“If one is determined to be dangerous, if this is a design flaw, then it’s a design flaw in all of them,” Sanoff told Sheepshead Bites after the hearing.

Sanoff and the others were not at odds with Oceana and Seacrest Terrace residents who led the charge against the New Brighton location, but took to the microphone to urge them to join a greater fight.

“[Oceana and Seacrest Towers residents] have raised this issue. If they hadn’t raised this issue then we wouldn’t be talking about it,” Sanoff told Sheepshead Bites after the meeting.

Sanoff was joined by Yelena Makhnin, executive director of the Brighton Beach Business Improvement District, as well as Rob Burstein, president of the Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance, in calling for the opponents of the New Brighton Comfort Station to join a larger battle about the safety of these structures citywide:

During her statements, Makhnin directed some of her statements towards elected officials, encouraging them, as well, to apply the same standards to all of the elevated units.

“Unfortunately most of the elected officials and their representatives left. I’m going to repeat what I said. All elected officials represent each and every citizen of Brighton Beach,” she said.

The issue has received the support of several politicians, most notably Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz, who was in attendance. Senator Charles Schumer and Congressman Hakeem Jeffries then joined the cause, the latter of which sent a representative to the meeting to read a statement. Councilman-elect Chaim Deutsch attended and spoke, staying until the end of the meeting. Most of their statements, which you can watch below, focused on the New Brighton comfort stations and the concerns of Oceana residents:

In total, about 30 people took the opportunity to stand at the microphone and express concern over the design and frustration with government bureaucracy before the Parks Department was forced to clear the room for Shorefront Y’s basketball program.

The strongest argument against the comfort station – which is also what spurred a Brooklyn Supreme Court judge to order an environmental review – is a design element that allows the stairs and ramps to break away from the structure if hit by a strong storm surge. Many residents were concerned that those breakaway pieces would become dangerous debris, slamming through the windows of the residential complex.

Many residents also brought up quality of life issues, with one woman sharing fears that the structures would encourage a “tent city” of homeless people, while another Oceana resident groused about the smell of urine and human waste wafting through his window during the summer.

Most of all, perhaps, was the troubling way residents saw the city pushing the project through without community input. They railed about the opaque process, and said that the city started work in the dead of night just before a scheduled meeting with the department to hear out their concerns. Sheepshead Bites transit columnist Allan Rosen took the microphone as well, floating a theory that the city rushed the demolition of the existing structures in order to obtain federal funds to replace them, rather than spending city funds to repair them.

Here’s a broad sampling of the statements by the project’s opponents:

While it may have been therapeutic for residents to get their concerns out in public, the Parks Department may be able to bypass most of the comments made. Scoping hearings are intended to solicit input on the subjects of analysis for the EIS, an objective not made particularly clear by public officials. Only a few speakers actually addressed the issue, demanding further analysis into the impact of the structure if caught in a storm, or requesting more descriptive details about energy usage and other metrics that the proposed scoping statement claimed had only a negligible effect.

Here are some of those comments:

As for whether or not the findings of the EIS will be extended to the other comfort stations, the Parks Department was less than forthcoming. Asked if this comfort station’s designs were found to be dangerous and required modifications, would those modifications be made to the others, we received the following from a Parks spokesperson:

This is a targeted EIS, looking only at the proposed station at New Brighton. Although the installation of the replacement comfort station is classified as a Type II action under CEQR, an EIS for the New Brighton comfort station is being prepared to comply with a court order.

Residents can continue to offer comments about the scope of the environmental impact study in writing, by e-mail or by phone until December 2. Contact Director of Parklands Colleen Alderson at Colleen.alderson@parks.nyc.gov or (212) 360-3441.

Correction (November 21, 2013 at 5:55 p.m.): The original version of this article stated that Schumer and Jeffries were “recruited” to the cause by Cymbrowitz. Congressman Jeffries’ press officer Stephanie Báez took the time to note, “Congressman Jeffries was not ‘recruited’ by State Assemblyman Cymbrowitz as your article erroneously states. Residents of the Brighton Beach community reached out to the Congressman directly and he responded to their concerns steadfastly.”  The article has been amended.