NEW YORK CITY — E-commerce companies such as Amazon shouldn’t be allowed to open more “last mile” centers in Red Hook because the neighborhood’s streets and air are already dangerously choked by delivery trucks, a local board contends.
A letter to Mayor Eric Adams from Brooklyn’s Community Board 6 sent Thursday asks city officials to place a moratorium on the new delivery facilities in Red Hook.
The letter signed by Chair Eric McClure and District Manager Michael Racioppo comes after a damning recent report that found more than 1,200 delivery trucks and vans driving on the neighborhood’s streets on several days.
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Those delivery vehicles are major contributors to poor air quality and traffic congestion in Red Hook, which not only has one of the city’s highest concentrations of NYCHA residents, but also historic cobblestone streets, the letter states.
“It’s unconscionable that this environmental justice community should bear the brunt of other Brooklynites’ predilection for quick home delivery of online purchases,” the letter states.
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Amazon spokesperson Simone Griffin told Patch the company works to be a good neighbor and takes the impact on the community into account.
The company does so by bringing more good jobs, more opportunities for local small businesses and community programs with lasting impact into neighborhoods, she said.
“We also know that there can be some challenges with things like traffic depending on the infrastructure, and we work with the community and local policymakers to try and mitigate concerns,” she said in a statement. “We remain committed to becoming a more sustainable company, and that includes how we show up in neighborhoods where our customers live, and employees work—we will continue to rollout electric delivery vehicles, cargo bikes, and other forms of transportation, in addition to powering local buildings with wind and solar energy where we can.”
But the recent report by Consumer Reports and the Guardian adds support to many long-standing local complaints and fears that e-commerce distribution centers will overwhelm the waterfront neighborhood’s streets.
Community Board 6 members have sent a torrent of letters to city officials since 2020 calling for traffic studies on the impact of delivery centers, delisting of certain streets as truck routes and changes to zoning rules that allow last-mile distribution centers to sprout up with ease.
The city’s government needs to step in or else the neighborhood — which was built with horse-drawn vehicles in mind — is “screwed,” Racioppo wrote in a 2020 op-ed, quoting a local paper.
“Only the government is positioned to balance and analyze all the competing interests and figure out the best path forward,” he wrote.
Racioppo’s and McClure’s latest letter states the Consumer Reports and Guardian investigation “only confirms our fears” about the impacts of thousands of delivery trucks on the neighborhood’s streets.
“At this stage, we believe a moratorium on the opening of last-mile facilities in Red Hook is necessary to address these issues,” it states.
May 2023 Red Hook Truck Letter PDF by Matt Troutman on Scribd
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