PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Rev. Tiffany Triplett Henkel, Pastor of Metro Baptist Church and Chair of Hell's Kitchen South Coalition, on Port Authority Bus Terminal Project Impacts
1:51:43
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3 min
Rev. Tiffany Triplett Henkel, representing Metro Baptist Church and the Hell's Kitchen South Coalition, expressed concerns about the Port Authority Bus Terminal project's impact on their community. While acknowledging the need for a new facility, she highlighted several issues affecting Metro Baptist Church and other community service agencies.
- Loss of sunlight: Metro Baptist Church will lose 6 hours of sunlight daily, impacting their pre-K program, rooftop urban farm, and historic stained glass windows.
- Construction impacts: Concerns about structural integrity during construction and accessibility of their services over the 10-year construction period.
- Mitigation requests: Advocated for substantive mitigation measures including light and air access, noise mitigation, safe building access, and security for impacted community organizations.
Rev. Tiffany Triplett Henkel
1:51:43
Good afternoon.
1:51:44
My name's Reverend Tiffany Triplett Henkel, and I'm the pastor of Metro Baptist Church and the chair of the Hell's Kitchen South Coalition.
1:51:52
Metro Baptist is located at 410 West 40th Street, which is directly next door to where the proposed staging and storage facility will be built and which I understand will be equivalent to 12 standard stories.
1:52:07
While I acknowledge that a new facility is needed and I am encouraged that the proposed project appears to address some very important issues with the current terminal.
1:52:17
I wanna speak to a few concerns related to the immense impact that this project will have on Metro Baptist Church and other vital community service agencies in our community.
1:52:27
And I appreciate that some of these concerns have already been brought up earlier in this meeting by council member Batcher and others in our community and have been addressed a bit by port authority, but I think it's important for these and others to be reiterated.
1:52:43
My first concern is that Metro and several other historical properties in the neighborhood will lose significant sunlight with the development of this project.
1:52:51
Specifically, Metro will ultimately lose 6 hours of sunlight per day.
1:52:56
We are concerned about this for several reasons, including the fact that we have a year round universal pre k and head start program in our building with the majority of the windows for that program on the west side of our building, which will be facing the staging facility.
1:53:11
And as has already been noted, we also host a community urban farm on the roof of our building, which is only 4 stories.
1:53:19
The loss of 6 hours of life of light, with all due respect, will not be minimal, but in fact will be detrimental to that program and green space, which has served and been a refuge for the community for nearly 15 years.
1:53:34
And, of course, the loss of light light will severely impact the historic stained glass windows of our a 110 year old building.
1:53:41
Related, we're also concerned about the impact of the actual construction on those windows and the wider integrity of our structure.
1:53:49
Additionally, Metro and our on-site nonprofit partners, who've already spoken today, provide essential social services to over 13,000 vulnerable New Yorkers per year through programs such as food pantry, clothing closet, LGBTQ youth programs, asylum services, and other direct and educational programs.
1:54:08
And while we believe the final project may be may better serve our community, we are concerned that during the next 10 years, it would be extremely difficult for people to easily and safely access our services, and construction for several years can make providing those services challenging.
1:54:24
While we remain grateful for the ongoing conversation and openness to the community needs by the port authority during this process.
1:54:32
We continue to advocate for substantive mitigation for Metro Baptist Church as well as other historical facilities and community service agencies who will be greatly impacted by this massive project.
1:54:45
Specifically, some of the mitigation that we have to advocate for is light and air access, noise mitigation, ensuring safe and full access to the building, and and security on our block.
1:54:57
We appreciate the support of the New York City Council and these matters so that we can best manage our new realities and that we can continue and improve our institutions.
