TESTIMONY
Testimony: Carolina Salgado Testifies on EDC Misrepresentations and the Need for Legislation
2:26:05
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3 min
Carolina Salgado, Founder and Executive Director of Port Side New York, addresses City Council, highlighting the misrepresentations by the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) regarding waterfront development and community benefits at Red Hook. She underscores the necessity of passing specific legislation to ensure accountability and community collaboration, dismissing EDC's promises as unreliable. Salgado calls for the disclosure of EDC's financials and a community-managed fund to properly compensate Red Hook, advocating for legislative action to enforce commitments.
Speaker 5
2:26:05
Hi.
2:26:06
My name is Carolina Salgado, and I've covered the waterfront as of photo journalist and a waterfront advocate and now as the founder and executive director of a maritime nonprofit port side, New York.
2:26:17
We We are on Pier 11 parallel to Pier 12, the cruise terminal and the EDC tenant.
2:26:22
I've dumped everything I wrote because I'm really concerned by what I heard today.
2:26:26
And I think it's we're all given 3 minutes after 2 hours 15 minutes of the EDC talking during which there were many representations, and I mean many.
2:26:34
So I just want to say to you, chair Forest.
2:26:36
I'm really glad to hear about your experience and commitment to workforce development, for example.
2:26:41
So the EDC will say, we're looking at local educational partnerships that need to be built.
2:26:46
The EDC promised port side of home where we are now, 2008,910, where one of our functions would be the creative pipeline of marine careers.
2:26:55
And since you're from SoundView, rocking the boat, we intended have intended from beginning to have a program like rocking the boat.
2:27:02
They're even willing to advise us now plus training for adults with identified partners we don't have the space.
2:27:09
There were many misrepresentations by the EDC about things here, and I don't have time in my 3 minutes to state them all.
2:27:15
But I wanna say that passing this act is absolutely necessary because the EDC doesn't do right on their own.
2:27:21
They just don't.
2:27:22
And there's a lot of spend to use in turn behind me.
2:27:24
It really was pretty shocking to hear a lot of it.
2:27:27
And so the act is necessary to make things happen.
2:27:30
About the community fund, I I I have been asking for, and actually there was a January 16 meeting.
2:27:35
I said within 2 weeks, can you provide EDC your revenue net and gross?
2:27:40
Every year you run the facility, not just the Brooklyn cruise terminal, but all of Atlantic basin because there was a formulaic car race.
2:27:46
There are other tenants in there.
2:27:48
And I think that should be the starting point for figuring out how much Redhook deserves because otherwise, it's completely extracted.
2:27:54
And what the EDC has done is put a head tax on the cruise ships companies That doesn't reflect necessarily what they're earning locally, and we deserve to know what they're earning locally because we deserve to know.
2:28:04
And then we should start talking about money.
2:28:06
And the EDC, here's another representation.
2:28:09
The official press release says that the EDC would be managing that fund.
2:28:13
Whereas here, Mikaela, I think it was said, no.
2:28:14
No.
2:28:15
This the community is gonna have input.
2:28:16
They say it's an EDC managed fund.
2:28:18
The EDC has ignored Redhook input suggestions, comments over reconstructive for 19 years, and not delivered on promises in the main, including the home from Portside, New York, a fully realized Portside, New York, not just pays for the stewardship, but everything else.
2:28:34
So I I just need to say, CDC promises at this point, sadly are not believable.
2:28:39
There's a community here perfectly willing and deeply willing to collaborate.
2:28:43
But we have not been served well.
2:28:45
And so I implore that you pass this act and that you continue to talk to us so that we can address other issues as well.
2:28:51
And I really thank you for your time, and I wanna thank particularly new council member, Alexa Avila, and Eric Baucher, for taking the initiative on this and for partnering because Red Oak has battled this alone for a very long time, and it's really great for Red Oak to have Manhattan in the house.
2:29:05
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1
2:29:07
Thank you so much for your testimony.