Op-Ed | Want an “abundant” New York? Let’s be bold at the Brooklyn Marine Terminal

May 14, 2025 12:03 PM
Op-ed: Want an ‘abundant’ New York? Let’s be bold at the Brooklyn Marine Terminal
Carlo A. Scissura

When my parents arrived in Brooklyn from Sicily in the 1960s, the bustling waterfronts were a symbol of the unbound opportunity that New York City offered to immigrants from around the world. Many of their fellow Italians worked as longshoremen, alongside the Norwegians, Irish, and Germans, unloading ships under the watchful eyes of the Statue of Liberty on the horizon. My parents chose to open a restaurant, joining a growing, vibrant community of Black, Latino, and Asian small business owners, workers, and families.

“Abundant” is the word we might use today to describe this aspirational New York City that I grew up in. New Yorkers then moved quickly, built big, and embraced the ever-changing, ever-growing city.

But today, that same waterfront is stuck. At the Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Red Hook, the piers are in slow decay and the industry in long decline. Yet there is hope for a bountiful future here: a task force is approaching a vote on a new, bold vision plan for this 122-acre site in coming weeks. As the President and CEO of the New York Building Congress, an organization driven toward a more equitable, prosperous, and resilient future in New York and beyond, I urge them to approve it.

To say the Marine Terminal is long overdue for an overhaul is an understatement. Some of the rotting wooden piers date back to before my parents arrived in the 1960s! At its core, the vision plan includes a full modernization of the terminal’s maritime infrastructure, including the construction of a new marginal pier and repairs to existing piers, the replacement of old cranes, and new flex space for modern maritime uses.

The vision plan delivers new homes, too, including more than 2,000 permanently affordable units. In the midst of New York’s worst housing crisis in decades, and in a community that has built fewer than a dozen affordable homes in the last 10 years, this abundant new housing will provide crucial room for sustainable growth.

The plan also builds climate resilience. Of all the communities hit by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Red Hook was hit hardest. The storm surge gutted local storefronts. Public housing residents were left without power for weeks, long after the floodwaters receded. The vision plan includes a mile of coastal protection and stormwater management infrastructure to guard against future flooding.

All told, the vision for Brooklyn Marine Terminal will inject an estimated $12 billion into the local economy, including 39,000 construction jobs, and more than 2,200 permanent jobs after.

Just down the shoreline, New York City is already at work building the nation’s largest offshore wind port at the Sunset Park waterfront. The 75-acre South Brooklyn Marine Terminal will help generate clean energy to power 500,000 homes, while also creating thousands of jobs in the green economy. Between these two Brooklyn sites, we can bring back the industrial might of this historic waterfront, filling it with jobs of the future.

The New York Building Congress is ready and eager to work. Our member-professionals – metallic lathers and brick masons, architects and engineers, developers and planners – all have the experience and skills to turn any vision for the Brooklyn Marine Terminal into a reality. Building big won’t just benefit the local community, it will also boost the city’s economy and workforce, providing good-paying jobs and career experience to thousands of builders and construction workers.

Just as our parents and grandparents built this city, this is our chance to build something big that will last for generations. Brooklyn needs a new working waterfront, new housing, and new climate infrastructure. New Yorkers deserve good jobs, in construction and in a modern maritime industry. We can’t keep celebrating Brooklyn’s proud waterfront history without doing what it takes to keep it thriving into the future.

The work of the Brooklyn Marine Terminal Task Force couldn’t be more urgent. If we want Brooklyn’s industrial waterfront to once again symbolize hope and opportunity, we can’t sit on our hands and watch as it continues to crumble. We have the vision and the resources, but time is scarce.

We didn’t build the greatest, most abundant city in the world by sitting on our hands. We did it by being bold. Let’s approve this plan and return Brooklyn’s waterfront to glory.

Carlo A. Scissura, Esq. is the President & CEO of the New York Building Congress.