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Nadler Urges City Council to Maintain Critical Container Shipping Port in Brooklyn

CITY HALL – Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-08) today joined a rally at City Hall, where community and labor leaders gathered to protest a draft City proposal to close the Red Hook Container Terminal.  After the rally, Rep. Nadler testified to the New York City Council Hearing on the Future of Brooklyn’s Piers 7-12.


“It is critical that Brooklyn achieve its deserved place within the economy of international shipping,” said Nadler at the hearing. “Red Hook is currently and, for all intents and purposes, likely to remain our only container terminal on the New York side of the Harbor, and its continued health and viability are critical for Brooklyn and New York City.  The City should not be allowed to close the Red Hook facility – as it plans to do next spring – without contemporaneously opening a container terminal in Sunset Park.”

In February, 1999, Rep. Nadler, Mayor Giuliani and many experts agreed in the “Strategic Plan for the Redevelopment of the Port of New York” that a major, state-of-the-art, deep-water container port must be established in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and that the Red Hook Marine Terminal must be kept open and functioning as a port until a Sunset Park facility is open.

That plan – which the Bloomberg Administration continues to ignore - projects that container ports in Howland Hook, Sunset Park and Red Hook would generate more than 30,000 jobs in New York City alone and $300 million in annual tax revenues.

“If realized, the City’s new plan could spell the end of Brooklyn’s coveted piece of the shipping pie,” added Nadler at today’s hearing. “This type of myopia and short-term economic planning will only mean fewer jobs for New York City, a less dominant shipping industry, more vehicular traffic and congestion, and rising transportation costs for all of us.  Absent a Brooklyn container port, we would be entirely dependent on the ports located on the other side of the Kill Van Kull.  This must not happen.”

Nadler thanked Waterfront Committee Chair Mike Nelson and Landmarks, Public Siting and Maritime Uses Committee Chair Jessica Lappin for their leadership in arranging today’s hearing.  He also expressed gratitude to Council members David Yassky and Sara Gonzalez for being long-standing champions of maritime use of the port.

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