VTMBH Article: Body
BP/Amoco executives must have thought it would be a piece of cake, delivering a sweet deal to a local Brooklyn community board.
Had they done their homework, they would have learned that Community Board 3 is one of the strongest, if not most vociferous, organizations in New York City.
BP/Amoco is a big company trying to get bigger. That is why their proposed $3 million venture on a corner of Bedford Stuyvesant raises some questions.
Four years ago, on New Years Eve, British Petroleum, for $55 billion, acquired the U.S.-based Amoco, whose own corporate ancestral roots go back to Rockefeller Standard Oil.
The company is not without its problems; some consider it one of the worlds largest polluters, and before the merger, both Amoco and BP had their troubles in this area.
So on the second Monday of January 2002, polite BP/Amoco emissaries (only one who flew in from Virginia wore a designer suit) came to town to talk about their new local expansion plan: a gas station and store that would be good for the neighborhood. The beautiful site would have baked goods, a nice patch of grass and solar-paneled canopy plus 34 jobs for area residents. Promise.
They also informed the board that the New York project is the first expansion project in the country. And, We want to be honest with you. We will make more money on the convenience stores, than on the gas.
What about the bodegas and the several other gas stations already in the area, asked a community resident. The executive dismissed the question with the terse comment, Were not worried about the competition and were not here to put anyone out of business. We made a note of his smile.
Did you contact the church right next door to the property? No.
How does this impact the community? 34 jobs will be available.
Any community outreach plans? Dont know.
At that, Sharonnie Perry announced that the community residents directly affected by the project should be included in the discussion, and put on hold the boards decision on whether to okay the project until the next meeting. She invited the Amoco executives to present at the February meeting to be held in the neighborhood where BP/Amoco wants to do business.
At the time, we were not aware that people of color owned at least three gas stations in the area. Nor did we know that they were Amoco stationsincluding one at Tompkins and Myrtlea block from the planned Amoco site
We would find out at the next monthly Community Board 3 meeting.
Bed-Stuy residents, ministers and business owners who work near the Marcy/Myrtle site in North Brooklyn where BP/Amoco wants to do big business, didnt mince words at the Community Board public meeting at P.S. 33 about the BP/Amoco project last month.
Some 200 people showed up at the Community Board meeting, ready to hear Amocos presentation, only to find there would be no presentation. Amoco sent a lawyer from the firm that is dealing with its variance requests.
With all due respect, Board Chair Sharonnie Perry said to the stand-in, I am offended. We called this meeting so that the community can have a voice and someone should have been here to present.
When the floor was opened to the public, the first speaker held up a copy of Our Time Press. She said, I just heard about this meeting today. It is only fair that people be made aware of what is happening in the community by the people who want to come in here.
The voice of the people is the harmony of the law, said Rev. Whittaker about Amocos plans to build a highly profitable, state of the art food-and-gas combo quick-stop.
Whittaker spent the first 18 years of his life growing up in the nearby Tompkins Houses, a few blocks from the targeted site. He thinks a multi-cultural community center is a better idea. We have to pick up our voices now or no one will hear us.
Ms. Margaret M. Thomas, youth and education advocate, who is chair of the Brooklyn Branch of the NAACP, announced, To Rev. Whittaker and all the ministers and the community, I stand on your behalf. I have spent 28 years at PS 44. I know what the system is all about. Our children dont have school desks. Amoco, if you want to come here, invest in that. You would not go into another community to pull this off!
Hazel Dukes and NAACP are joining forces with the community to tell Amoco, No! We wont have it.
Robert Baird Patterson, a historian and Director of MAMA (Myrtle Avenue Merchants Association) said, they tried this before, but because its across from a residential area they cant do it!
Alma Carroll, a longtime Bedford Stuyvesant resident, said, there should be alternatives to this site. We have gas stations, we have grocery stores, and we need a senior center and low-cost housing.
Mrs. McDonald, PTA President of PS 33, said, A lot of students have asthma in this neighborhood. They dont need another gas station near here. We dont need a bakery. I cook for my children.
A priest asked, What will happen to the people who are already (in the business of) selling? And the people who buy from them? You think they want to buy a loaf of bread that will cost them twice as much money?
A clergywoman stood tall, raising her fist: Take the message back to the elected officials that the people have spoken. We live here, and cant even find out who owns vacant land around here. (BP) comes over here from Europe and in 30 days they know whats going on. And then they offer us only 34 jobs and some grass. Bedford-Stuyvesant is Not for Sale!
One community board member called for a plan of action and warned the residents, If you do not have an organized approach, its meaningless. We go home, and nothing happens. We say. No. Then the Board of Appeals says, Yes. Instead of being emotional, you need to go into this with a strategy for the Board of Appeals, instead of being emotional.
Perhaps the most poignant voices were those of Alfonso Vargas, 29, and Richard Alleyne, 38. The young men run nearby Amoco gas stations and have employees. They, too, came to talk to Amoco executives directly. Area residents are concerned that the presence of the Amocos new project will put the smaller stations out of business. BP/Amoco seems to be throwing them to the side, said one business owner in the area, They are the franchisees who took the risks in this neighborhood. Now that the market is confirmed, BP/Amoco is coming in and putting them out of business. Mr. Vargas and Mr. Alleyne epitomize the so-called American Dream; pull yourself up by the bootstraps. They are from the community. Its not fair. Amoco should be ashamed.
We are parents, said Vargas, who is married with two young children. The new station may start a price war, and drive customers away.
Richard Alleyne, father of twins and owner of the station at Bedford and Willoughby Avenues, said, We take our neighbors as our families, and we agree there are other things that can be put into the community. Our question is: why dont they invest in or upgrade existing sites? Like Alfonsos, which is a block away.
I agree with Our Time Press, said Vargas, who grew up in the area. We already have gas stations and grocery stores. They say the project will add 34 jobs, but how many will be lost, if (Richard and I) lose our businesses?
Wilma Maynard, chair of the Boards Housing/Land Use Committee, says BP/Amoco will go before the Board of Standards and Appeals in the near future to state their case for approval of a change in zoning to accommodate their plans. The targeted area is C-1 zoned for small businesses: bodegas, cafes, boutiques, and the like. At the moment, Amocos plans do not conform to Board of Standards & Appeals regulations for the area, which sits in the shadow of the Marcy Housing projects. To meet its objective, Amoco wants to install huge underground storage tanks for 8 pumps including building concrete vaults for the storage facility.
The community will have an opportunity to present their views. They should prepare their testimonies, and be ready. It may be two days notice about the meeting. Ms. Maynard says they will know the dates for Amocos appeal before the Appeals Board, soon after the March Our Time Press goes to press.
Had they done their homework, they would have learned that Community Board 3 is one of the strongest, if not most vociferous, organizations in New York City.
BP/Amoco is a big company trying to get bigger. That is why their proposed $3 million venture on a corner of Bedford Stuyvesant raises some questions.
Four years ago, on New Years Eve, British Petroleum, for $55 billion, acquired the U.S.-based Amoco, whose own corporate ancestral roots go back to Rockefeller Standard Oil.
The company is not without its problems; some consider it one of the worlds largest polluters, and before the merger, both Amoco and BP had their troubles in this area.
So on the second Monday of January 2002, polite BP/Amoco emissaries (only one who flew in from Virginia wore a designer suit) came to town to talk about their new local expansion plan: a gas station and store that would be good for the neighborhood. The beautiful site would have baked goods, a nice patch of grass and solar-paneled canopy plus 34 jobs for area residents. Promise.
They also informed the board that the New York project is the first expansion project in the country. And, We want to be honest with you. We will make more money on the convenience stores, than on the gas.
What about the bodegas and the several other gas stations already in the area, asked a community resident. The executive dismissed the question with the terse comment, Were not worried about the competition and were not here to put anyone out of business. We made a note of his smile.
Did you contact the church right next door to the property? No.
How does this impact the community? 34 jobs will be available.
Any community outreach plans? Dont know.
At that, Sharonnie Perry announced that the community residents directly affected by the project should be included in the discussion, and put on hold the boards decision on whether to okay the project until the next meeting. She invited the Amoco executives to present at the February meeting to be held in the neighborhood where BP/Amoco wants to do business.
At the time, we were not aware that people of color owned at least three gas stations in the area. Nor did we know that they were Amoco stationsincluding one at Tompkins and Myrtlea block from the planned Amoco site
We would find out at the next monthly Community Board 3 meeting.
Bed-Stuy residents, ministers and business owners who work near the Marcy/Myrtle site in North Brooklyn where BP/Amoco wants to do big business, didnt mince words at the Community Board public meeting at P.S. 33 about the BP/Amoco project last month.
Some 200 people showed up at the Community Board meeting, ready to hear Amocos presentation, only to find there would be no presentation. Amoco sent a lawyer from the firm that is dealing with its variance requests.
With all due respect, Board Chair Sharonnie Perry said to the stand-in, I am offended. We called this meeting so that the community can have a voice and someone should have been here to present.
When the floor was opened to the public, the first speaker held up a copy of Our Time Press. She said, I just heard about this meeting today. It is only fair that people be made aware of what is happening in the community by the people who want to come in here.
The voice of the people is the harmony of the law, said Rev. Whittaker about Amocos plans to build a highly profitable, state of the art food-and-gas combo quick-stop.
Whittaker spent the first 18 years of his life growing up in the nearby Tompkins Houses, a few blocks from the targeted site. He thinks a multi-cultural community center is a better idea. We have to pick up our voices now or no one will hear us.
Ms. Margaret M. Thomas, youth and education advocate, who is chair of the Brooklyn Branch of the NAACP, announced, To Rev. Whittaker and all the ministers and the community, I stand on your behalf. I have spent 28 years at PS 44. I know what the system is all about. Our children dont have school desks. Amoco, if you want to come here, invest in that. You would not go into another community to pull this off!
Hazel Dukes and NAACP are joining forces with the community to tell Amoco, No! We wont have it.
Robert Baird Patterson, a historian and Director of MAMA (Myrtle Avenue Merchants Association) said, they tried this before, but because its across from a residential area they cant do it!
Alma Carroll, a longtime Bedford Stuyvesant resident, said, there should be alternatives to this site. We have gas stations, we have grocery stores, and we need a senior center and low-cost housing.
Mrs. McDonald, PTA President of PS 33, said, A lot of students have asthma in this neighborhood. They dont need another gas station near here. We dont need a bakery. I cook for my children.
A priest asked, What will happen to the people who are already (in the business of) selling? And the people who buy from them? You think they want to buy a loaf of bread that will cost them twice as much money?
A clergywoman stood tall, raising her fist: Take the message back to the elected officials that the people have spoken. We live here, and cant even find out who owns vacant land around here. (BP) comes over here from Europe and in 30 days they know whats going on. And then they offer us only 34 jobs and some grass. Bedford-Stuyvesant is Not for Sale!
One community board member called for a plan of action and warned the residents, If you do not have an organized approach, its meaningless. We go home, and nothing happens. We say. No. Then the Board of Appeals says, Yes. Instead of being emotional, you need to go into this with a strategy for the Board of Appeals, instead of being emotional.
Perhaps the most poignant voices were those of Alfonso Vargas, 29, and Richard Alleyne, 38. The young men run nearby Amoco gas stations and have employees. They, too, came to talk to Amoco executives directly. Area residents are concerned that the presence of the Amocos new project will put the smaller stations out of business. BP/Amoco seems to be throwing them to the side, said one business owner in the area, They are the franchisees who took the risks in this neighborhood. Now that the market is confirmed, BP/Amoco is coming in and putting them out of business. Mr. Vargas and Mr. Alleyne epitomize the so-called American Dream; pull yourself up by the bootstraps. They are from the community. Its not fair. Amoco should be ashamed.
We are parents, said Vargas, who is married with two young children. The new station may start a price war, and drive customers away.
Richard Alleyne, father of twins and owner of the station at Bedford and Willoughby Avenues, said, We take our neighbors as our families, and we agree there are other things that can be put into the community. Our question is: why dont they invest in or upgrade existing sites? Like Alfonsos, which is a block away.
I agree with Our Time Press, said Vargas, who grew up in the area. We already have gas stations and grocery stores. They say the project will add 34 jobs, but how many will be lost, if (Richard and I) lose our businesses?
Wilma Maynard, chair of the Boards Housing/Land Use Committee, says BP/Amoco will go before the Board of Standards and Appeals in the near future to state their case for approval of a change in zoning to accommodate their plans. The targeted area is C-1 zoned for small businesses: bodegas, cafes, boutiques, and the like. At the moment, Amocos plans do not conform to Board of Standards & Appeals regulations for the area, which sits in the shadow of the Marcy Housing projects. To meet its objective, Amoco wants to install huge underground storage tanks for 8 pumps including building concrete vaults for the storage facility.
The community will have an opportunity to present their views. They should prepare their testimonies, and be ready. It may be two days notice about the meeting. Ms. Maynard says they will know the dates for Amocos appeal before the Appeals Board, soon after the March Our Time Press goes to press.