City Council passes bill aiming to cut pollution in Red Hook

From brooklyneagle.com

The NYC City Council on Thursday unanimously approved the “Our Air Our Water Act,” which requires giant cruise ships with the capacity to do so to connect to the electric power grid on shore rather than burning diesel — “where the connection is available and it is safe and practicable to do so.”

The bill also requires traffic mitigation plans for neighborhoods affected by the cruise ships, which discharge thousands of passengers at one time onto local streets. The gargantuan MSC Meraviglia, which docks at the Brooklyn Cruise Ship Terminal in Red Hook, has a capacity of 5,600 passengers plus 2,500 crew — almost all of whom use cars to get to and from the vessel.

The legislation was introduced by Red Hook’s Councilmember Alexa Avilés and co-sponsored by Councilmember Erik Bottcher, who represents the district that includes the Manhattan Cruise Ship Terminal on the West Side.

While aimed at Red Hook, the bill will eventually benefit the entire city, Avilés said in a statement Thursday. “From the jump, the effort to pass Introduction 4-A, the ‘Our Air Our Water Act,’ was organized by and for Red Hook first and to the benefit of the city as a whole,” she said. “This is a community-led victory that’s been years in the making, a step toward righting historical wrongs, and I’m grateful to play a part in its passage.”

The bill’s passage was called “a big win” by Community Board 6 Executive Director Mike Racioppo. “We’re proud to have supported this legislation and thrilled to see the organizing efforts of the Red Hook community come to fruition. Congratulations to Councilmember Avilés and her team on this big win for the community,” he said in an email.

‘No magic bullet’

The Red Hook terminal is the only one on the East Coast that provides an electric shore power system. Many of the cruise ships berthing there, however, including the MSC Meraviglia, are unable to plug into it, since there are as yet no universal standards for power connection points on ships.

A “mobile jib” is expected to be functional in Red Hook by the end of 2024. The jib will expand the ability to connect ships to the electrical grid, according to the New York City Economic Development Corp.

But the MSC Meraviglia will still not be able to connect to the mobile jib “until they add some additional mechanisms,” Adam Armstrong, a musician, environmental activist and member of Resilient Red Hook, told the Brooklyn Eagle on Monday.

Armstrong has been working on the Red Hook shore power issue since 2005. He moved his family to Bay Ridge due, in part, to the pollution from the ships and trucks, he testified at a City Council committee hearing on Feb. 15.

Armstrong praised the “tireless work of the Red Hook community and the fierce advocacy of Councilmember Avilés.” The bill’s passage “is an absolute victory for the community. But it’s no magic bullet,” he said.

There is no mechanism yet to make sure the new rules are being monitored and enforced in New York City, he said. Those mechanisms will be finalized in the rule- making portion of drafting the law.

MSC Cruises spokesperson Field Sutton told the Brooklyn Eagle in February, “MSC Meraviglia is fully shore power-equipped and we intend for the ship to connect to shore power as soon as the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal is equipped with the capabilities necessary to accommodate all ships, in line with our larger goal of using shore power wherever it’s available.”

‘The devil is in the details’

Red Hook resident and advocate Kiki Valentine Rakowsky said she was thrilled with the rapidity of the bill’s passage. “February 15 was the oversight hearing, and the bill passed March 7. It was a very moving experience,” she told the Eagle.

Rakowsky said the bill won’t become law until July 1, because EDC’s maritime agreements, which she described as “clandestine,” renew at that time. She agreed that enforcement mechanisms are important. “The devil is in the details.”

Enforcement includes passenger traffic management, which taxpayers will likely end up paying for, she said. “I think that’s unjust, when pre-K, school lunches, CUNY and homeless services have just been cut, and the cruise ships are making $403 million a year.”

“Hats off to Councilmember Alexa Avilés and her team,” said Carolina Salguero, founder and executive director of PortSide NewYork. Salguero thinks Red Hook should get more community benefits from the ships than the $1 per cruise customer negotiated by EDC in its maritime agreement. “The Hudson River Park Act says the EDC pays 20% of the Manhattan Cruise Terminal rent to that park. It’s time for Red Hook to get 20% — and back rent from 2006 — and for the EDC to fulfill promises to Red Hook like space for PortSide.”

Susan Povich, chair of the Red Hook Business Alliance and owner of the Red Hook Lobster Pound, said in a statement that legislation was just one piece of the puzzle. “Rulemaking, investments, monitoring, enforcement and continuous improvement are integral to ensuring that outcomes are in line with the intent of the bill.”

The cruise ship traffic comes on top of the thousands of delivery trucks and vans servicing the numerous mega- warehouses that have recently proliferated in Red Hook and Sunset Park. The NYC Department of Transportation is currently carrying out a two-year Red Hook Traffic and Truck Study.

EDC opposed the bill

At the Council committee hearing in February, EDC representatives opposed the bill, saying the cruise industry brings enormous economic benefits to the city, including more than 2,000 full-time jobs in hospitality, tourism and transportation and $430 million in spending.

EDC reps also said the corporation had approved in late September 2023 a new, long-term agreement with three major cruise ship companies — Princess Cruises/Cunard, Norwegian Cruise Line and MSC Cruises — that would require cruise ships to use shore power when feasible. EDC says the agreement supplied new benefits to the impacted neighborhoods, including educational benefits, local provisioning, transportation planning and the community fund subsidized by a $1 charge per passenger.

But Red Hook community members and businesses pointed out the lack of community engagement in crafting the agreement, and the many broken EDC promises over the years when it came to the Terminal.

“Pollutants, unbearable traffic, economic challenges. We wouldn’t need a community fund if the community had been consulted in the first place,” Avilés testified.