Residents Speak Out Against Brooklyn Assembly Member Who Wants to Charge Landlords to Prevent Flooding
By Yehudit Garmaise
Who should take responsibility for the contaminated water that floods the streets of Boro Park?
Assembly Member Emily Gallagher, who represents Williamsburg and Greenpoint in Assembly District 50, has introduced legislation that would allow New York City to impose “stormwater fees” on developers and private building owners, according to NY1.
Such stormwater taxes would make landlords pay for the catastrophic flooding and dirty stormwater Boro Park residents must face during and after every heavy rainfall, such as months ago on Erev Sukkos.
“Charging building owners to upgrade the wastewater treatment facility plants that can’t quickly process all of the stormwater, trash, and sewage rushing into them doesn’t make sense,” says Pinchas B. “The flooding is the City's issue. The City government should deal with the flooding and pay for the infrastructure that needs to be fixed.”
Gallagher blames the climate crisis for flooding issues in New York City, but Boro Park residents say that the street garbage that clogs is a big driver of the flooding problem.
“Half the problem is that there is so much garbage in the sewer drains that the water doesn't have anywhere to go, so it overflows and floods,” says Tzvi G. “When Sanitation cleans up the streets for Alternate Side Parking, the trucks push all the dirt to the drains, and just leave it there.”
In Boro Park, where the population is constantly growing, many residents say the City must take responsibility for adjusting the infrastructure in neighborhoods that face debilitating flooding every heavy rain.
“If the City has to redo the complete sewer system, well then they have to do it: because the flooding is only worsening,” says Duvid K.