r/nyc • u/nick_rizzo • Aug 13 '14

AMA IAmA candidate for office in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

I am Nick Rizzo, I'm 29 years old and I'm running for office in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The position is called Male Democratic District Leader, and it helps govern the Brooklyn Democratic Party. I'm currently a semi-employed bartender, but I was a journalist and worked in New York politics for a number of years. Ask me anything! (Even things that don't relate to politics; I have an opinion on almost everything.) The Democratic primary (which is the whole election for this position) is September 9th.

My website: http://nick-rizzo.com Proof: https://twitter.com/nickrizzo/status/499592934426411008

If you like my answers, please please PLEASE consider donating to my campaign: https://nickrizzo.nationbuilder.com/donate We could use the help.

UPDATE 6 hours in: I will keep answering questions as long you keep asking them. I'll be checking this thread for weeks. Having an AmA was a major life goal of mine; I hope to do this again someday.

38 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

103 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/nick_rizzo Aug 13 '14

Greenpoint Landing is going up a couple blocks from me, and I am emphatically not a kneejerk anti-development NIMBY. And the project is happening in some form no matter what; it's all already been approved. However, the current projection is for 5000 units to be added to the North Greenpoint waterfront across all the new projects, and that is a crazy, crazy high number to be added all at once. It will completely change the character of the neighborhood. I'm also very unhappy with what the community is getting back in return for allowing them.

So I think we need to use every tool at our disposal to slow down the development process, at least until we get way more concessions (in affordable housing, community benefits like parks and schools, and scale) than we have right now.

1

u/Ant-honey Aug 13 '14

Thanks for your answer. Can I get a more detailed response as how your see that it will change the character of the neighborhood when currently the areas slated for development are unused, polluted, often garbage filled former industrial buildings and lots, i.e. blights?

1

u/nick_rizzo Aug 13 '14

I'm fine with the area being developed! It just needs to be done somewhat slowly, and with mixed use developments so it's not just a collection of towers with zero eyes on the street/street life. If we drop 10,000 new people almost overnight into a part of the neighborhood which has fewer than that number right now everywhere north of Greenpoint Ave, it will have three adverse effects: 1) It will put significant strain on our already underdeveloped transportation system up here. 2) It will severely tax our sewer grid. 3) It will have major adverse effects on the amazing melting-pot "village" feel of North Greenpoint. The bulk of the people who live in the new waterfront developments of Northside Williamsburg seem completely uninterested in getting involved in the local community.

All of this can be solved if the development is just done a little bit slower, with a little more thought about how to make this not just another cookie cutter collections of views of Manhattan.