Bed-Stuy Block Plagued By 5 Construction Sites

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — It started off with two vacant lots on Chauncy Street between Malcolm X Boulevard and Patchen Avenue. And now, residents say, there’s five construction sites on their small residential block.

The projects, residents say, are overwhelming for the block. Noise from demolition and carting materials disrupts the day, and residents say a noisy boiler, which reportedly runs all night long despite being broken, makes sleep impossible. A loss of parking — partly due to massive dumpsters, trailers and alleged illegal parking signs — has made the block, which also houses a large school, a dangerous traffic jam.

And, of course, there’s rats.

On top of that, neighbors say an unsecured and seemingly abandoned site at Jackie Robinson Park’s tennis courts has dangerous, deep holes and possibly contaminated soil due to the discovery of old gas tanks from a long forgotten gas station.

“I want to know how they got so many projects approved on this one small block at the same time,” asks Linda Sanders, 54, who has lived in the neighborhood for 52 years and in her current home on Chauncy Street since 1999.

Work at the two vacant sites, both owned by HPD, began about a year ago but then suddenly stopped, with the buildings, a two story and a three story multi-unit building, half finished.. Neighbors say the only issue with those is their temporary parking restrictions, which are still in place until November, contributing to the traffic issue.

“They haven’t been there in seven or eight months now,” Sanders said. Other residents say that neighbors who park near the vacant sites have found wires in their cars chewed out by rats.

“I never heard of that happening before,” said Sally Jules, 51, who has lived on the block for 10 years.

Next, a project at P.S. 21 to replace a boiler, a nearly $7 million project part of the PlaNYC initiative, began chugging along. Because of classes, the work had to be done at odd hours, including a recent night where workers were throwing heavy waste into a streetside dumpster until 11 p.m.

“It sounded like bombs were going off,” Jules said.

But that’s not the only noise Jules has to contend with. A massive, noisy mobile boiler was brought in to pump heat in the school as the old one was replaced.

“It runs all night,” Jules said of the street-side physical plant, “I can hardly sleep.”

According to family and teachers Sanders, a former DOE employee, spoke with, “the thing doesn’t even work.”

“It’s missing a part I heard. They said the kids were freezing this week and they had to bring in space heaters,” she said.

At Jackie Robinson Park, the tennis courts were ripped up for a drainage project but then stalled, residents said, seemingly after the discovery of old gas tanks from a former gas station that previously sat on the park site.

“Somebody didn’t do their research,” Sanders said.

“Was there something in the soil? Is that why they stopped?” Sanders wonders.

“They haven’t told us anything,” Jules said.

Now the site sits abandoned, with exposed old gas tanks and construction equipment. Sanders and Jules both say the site is hardly secured and people hop the fence regularly to check it out. The rest of the park is still open for children to play in. That, and the school next door, they say, makes them worried something dangerous could happen.

A spokesperson from the city's Department of Environmental Protection told Patch that the tanks were discovered in August during excavation with fuel inside, which they said was properly disposed.

"As a precautionary measure, the excavated soil was covered and kept on site so it could be tested before being properly disposed of," the DEP spokesperson said, adding that the tests came back negative for contamination and work would resume on Friday.

“The rest of the park is open and that site is unsecured,” Sanders said, “I see people going in there every day. Kids could go in there.”

Additionally, Sanders shared with Patch emails from DOT officials confirming that temporary “No Parking” signs outside the tennis courts site lacked proper DOT permits.

“We went from 35 spots on one side of the street to six spots,” Sanders said of all the projects, adding that a new CitiBike rack was recently installed.

DOT confirmed speaking with a resident about the parking signs.

One of the issues, in addition to the simultaneous disruptions, is that residents say they feel out of the loop and they don’t know what’s going on. Sanders, an active member in the community, has reached out to multiple agencies to get answers, including the local community board.

At their monthly meeting on Monday, Sanders tried to bring the block’s issues to attention. In a later conversation, Sanders said, the board chair was unable to answer her questions.

“We’re not opposed to the projects at all,” Jules said, “we just want to know what’s going on.”