“The Vision Plan is not perfect, but it is clear and concise. It is a 15-year, three-phase framework that sets enforceable commitments around housing, climate resilience, transportation, and social services, while strengthening maritime and industrial uses.”

City and state officials announcing plans to redevelop Red Hook’s Brooklyn Marine Terminal last year. (Caroline Rubinstein-Willis/Mayoral Photography Office)

On Monday, Sept. 22, I was one of 17 members of the Brooklyn Marine Terminal Task Force who voted in favor of approving the Vision Plan, achieving a two-thirds majority as required by the rules. I was proud to cast this vote and wrote this to explain how and why, on behalf of Brooklyn Community Board 6, I came to vote yes. 

From the moment I was appointed to the Task Force, I have taken and continue to take that responsibility seriously. I worked off of CB6’s District Needs Assessment to ensure our priorities were not only raised but also incorporated. A big reason they were incorporated is that Rebecca Kobert and Arif Sunmonu’s contributions were invaluable throughout the process. Rebecca, CB6’s Land Use Coordinator, brought deep policy expertise and attended nearly every Task Force meeting with me. Arif, a lifelong resident of the Columbia Waterfront District, served on the Task Force’s Housing Advisory Group and ensured a most local perspective informed the housing discussions. Without their work, my own contributions would not have been as thorough.

The Vision Plan is not perfect, but it is clear and concise. It is a 15-year, three-phase framework that sets enforceable commitments around housing, climate resilience, transportation, and social services, while strengthening maritime and industrial uses (pages 10-15).

Housing costs are the most pressing crisis facing New York City. The plan delivers up to 6,000 new homes, with 2,650 units permanently available at deep affordability levels, including 250 units reserved for NYCHA residents from the surrounding neighborhoods. It also includes $75 million for affordable housing in Community District 6 and $200 million for repairs at Red Hook Houses (Vision Plan, pages 18-22).

These commitments will result in the construction of more than 3,600 affordable units, representing approximately 60 percent of the total housing. Just as important, housing will be built concurrently by multiple developers, with family-sized units required across both affordable and market-rate apartments. These are hard-won protections designed to avoid the mistakes of Atlantic Yards.

Climate resilience is built into the plan. The marginal pier will be raised to account for anticipated sea-level rise, and stormwater and drainage infrastructure will be implemented to reduce flooding (Vision Plan, pages 27-30). These measures will protect neighborhoods like Red Hook, which have faced decades of environmental neglect, and ensure that the waterfront is sustainable and ready for the future.

Transportation investments include pedestrian-first design, expanded ferry service, electric shuttles to connect residents to subways and ferries, and nearly a mile of improved greenway linking Red Hook, the Columbia Waterfront, and Brooklyn Bridge Park. The B71 bus is explicitly referenced, with a new commitment from the MTA. State Sen. Andrew Gounardes secured a comprehensive study on how to improve circulation and street safety from the water to Clinton Street (Vision Plan, pages 33-37). These are tangible steps toward reconnecting Red Hook to the rest of the city.

Social services and workforce commitments include a workforce training center, a Project Labor Agreement, targeted NYCHA hiring, more than 225,000 square feet of industrial space at discounted rents, half of it managed by nonprofits, a new public school, expanded community facilities, and over 28 acres of new open space (Vision Plan, pages 40-45). These are investments in people, not just property.

Equally important is governance and accountability. Community Board 6 will be the first community board in New York City with a binding seat on a development corporation. That matters. It is not just a seat at the table that can be pulled away, but a guaranteed role in shaping and monitoring the plan over the next 15 years (Vision Plan, pages 47-49).

The plan also allocates funding for legal support, enabling CB6 and other stakeholders to enforce commitments, particularly those related to affordable housing. This is a clear break from Atlantic Yards, where promises evaporated and accountability failed. Here, enforcement mechanisms are built in. 

I understand skepticism and opposition. It pushed us to make the plan stronger, and it will continue to drive accountability as implementation unfolds. The Gowanus rezoning and congestion pricing also faced loud opposition, but today they are broadly seen as necessary steps to address housing and sustainability. Most criticism of the BMT Vision Plan does not cite the plan itself, the pages of which demonstrate enforceable commitments that align with the priorities of CB6 and the broad coalition of area leaders, advocates such as Transportation Alternatives, unions, and civic groups.

After decades of neglect, the Brooklyn Marine Terminal finally has a path forward. This plan is for our district, the communities we serve, the borough of Brooklyn, and the City of New York. That is why I voted yes.

P.S. Over the last year, CB6 has compiled, and continues to compile, BMT info at: bit.ly/bmtcb6.

Mike Racioppo is the district manager of Brooklyn Community Board 6 and a commissioner on the Charter Revision Commission.

The post Opinion: How And Why I Voted Yes on the Brooklyn Marine Terminal Plan appeared first on City Limits.

After Minnesota decided to go all-in on J.J. McCarthy, and Aaron Rodgers finally signed a one-year deal with Pittsburgh, it appeared Sunday’s game between the Vikings and Steelers was set for high drama — as in more than just who wins or loses the game.

Afterward, it seemed, there would be a referendum on whether Minnesota’s brain trust made the right choice in passing on Rodgers. While no quarterback matchup is truly a head-to-head contest, it would at least allow fans give it the old eye test.

Instead, Sunday morning’s game in Dublin will present Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah with the only head-to-head comparison that really matters right now: McCarthy vs. Carson Wentz.

Sidelined by a high-ankle sprain suffered in a 22-6 loss to Atlanta Week 2, McCarthy has been temporarily supplanted by Wentz, an 11-year pro who took over the offense and looked terrific in a 48-10 victory over Cincinnati last week at U.S. Bank Stadium.

O’Connell declined to answer a question Wednesday about whether McCarthy will automatically regain the starting job when he is healthy, because he’s not an idiot. Wentz didn’t look like Dan Fouts last Sunday, but he was just plain good, an accurate passer who looked absolutely at home in this offense despite not having a training camp to prepare.

After one game, O’Connell and Adofo-Mensah have to be wondering if Wentz, 32, can be this year’s Sam Darnold, who joined the team on a one-year deal last year and led the Vikings to a 14-2 record before the team was just outclassed by Detroit and, in the playoffs, the Los Angeles Rams.

The coach and GM have a decision to make, and Wentz can make it easier — if not definitive — by running the point in another victory Sunday. He doesn’t have to throw for 300 yards and three touchdowns, just use his experience to keep the chains moving. Mostly, he needs to show he won’t be rattled; that’s the biggest advantage Wentz has over McCarthy.

McCarthy, 22, had an admirable NFL debut, rallying the Vikings to beat the Bears in a Monday Night game in Chicago. There are a lot of reasons to believe he can be an excellent pro quarterback — from his size and arm strength to what we saw of his competitive spirit at Soldier Field. But there is no getting around the fact that he looked lost against the Falcons.

If the Vikings are serious about trying to win a Super Bowl — and with this defense and backfield, they should be — they need to be able to rely on their quarterback to make the right plays when required.

That’s an awful lot to ask of a quarterback playing his first NFL season, especially someone who hadn’t seen defenders in his face since he led Michigan past Washington in the 2024 NCAA championship game. McCarthy apparently has a beautiful mind, but when there are 11 guys suddenly stepping into gaps and running at you with malice in their eyes, well, it takes some getting used to.

Aaron Rodgers #8 of the Pittsburgh Steelers is sacked by Milton Williams #97 of the New England Patriots during the first half at Gillette Stadium on Sept. 21, 2025 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Jaiden Tripi/Getty Images)

O’Connell knows this first-hand, as a player and a coach, which is why some of us were surprised when he told his friend Rodgers that the Vikings felt strongly that McCarthy was the answer. He was bound to run into challenges, though to be fair, with the regular-season opener on the doorstep, they traded backup Sam Howell to Philadelphia and signed idled free agent Wentz.

This game is no longer about Rodgers, it’s about Wentz.

O’Connell, a celebrated quarterback whisperer, righted Darnold’s floundering career. Can he help Wentz, the No. 2 pick in the 2016 draft, win the Super Bowl stolen from him by a late knee injury in 2019?

That’s what matters now. Rodgers has a rare chance to show a team, and a friend, on the other sideline that they made a mistake by not accepting his help. But if Wentz can do it again on Sunday, the storyline in Minnesota will be quarterback controversy.

That’s generally a problem for any football team, but for the Vikings, it would be a good problem to have.

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By JAKE OFFENHARTZ

NEW YORK (AP) — The former high school football player who killed four people inside a Manhattan office tower that houses the headquarters of the NFL, and who blamed the league for hiding the dangers of brain injuries, was suffering from the degenerative brain disease CTE, New York’s medical examiner said Friday.

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Shane Tamura, 27, had “unambiguous diagnostic evidence” of low-stage chronic traumatic encephalopathy, commonly known as CTE, according to the New York City medical examiner.

Tamura, a Las Vegas casino worker, shot himself in the chest after spraying bullets into the Manhattan office building on July 28, killing four people, including a police officer, a security guard and two people who worked at companies in the building.

He had traveled across the country intending to target the NFL office, officials said, but took the wrong elevator.

Among the dead were a police officer, a security guard and two people who worked at companies in the building. An NFL employee was badly wounded but survived.

In a three-page note found in his wallet, Tamura said he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy — diagnosable only after death — and implored those who found him: “Study my brain.”

FILE – This undated image provided by Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles shows Shane Tamura. (Nevada Dept. of Motor Vehicles via AP, File)

Among his grievances against the NFL was a claim that the league put its profits ahead of player safety by concealing the harm CTE, and football, can cause.

“There is no justification for the horrific and senseless acts that took place,” an NFL spokesperson said in response to the findings. “As the medical examiner notes ‘the science around this condition continues to evolve, and the physical and mental manifestations of CTE remain under study.’”

The disease affects regions of the brain involved with regulating behavior and emotions. It has been linked to concussions and other head trauma associated with contact sports, with evidence of the disease found in both professional and high school athletes.

After more than a decade of denial, the NFL conceded the link between football and CTE in 2016 testimony before Congress, and has so far paid more than $1.4 billion to retired players to settle concussion-related claims.

Tamura played high school football in California a decade ago but never played in the NFL.

Police have said Tamura had a history of mental illness. In September 2023, he was arrested on a misdemeanor trespassing charge after allegedly being told to leave a suburban Las Vegas casino and becoming agitated at being asked for his ID. Prosecutors later dismissed the case.

It was perhaps the most dramatic moment of the 2025 playoffs for Minnesota Wild fans.

With the best-of-seven series versus Vegas tied and two games each, and Game 5 tied 3-3 in the waning minutes of regulation, Ryan Hartman went hard to the Vegas net. With just 75 seconds left in the game, the puck went in. The red light went on, and with a smile his face, Hartman looked at the Wild bench and strutted to the corner of T-Mobile Arena, as the rink went mostly silent.

In that moment, the Wild were barely a minute away from heading back to St. Paul with a 3-2 lead in the series, needing a home win to reach the second round of the playoffs for the first time in a decade.

But just a minute or so later, the Golden Knights fans were roaring again. The play that led to Hartman’s goal was reviewed, and the video showed that Gustav Nyquist had entered the offensive zone with a skate roughly an inch over the blue line and ahead of the puck.

The goal came off the scoreboard. The game went to overtime. Vegas scored and took a 3-2 series lead back to Minnesota. The Knights would close out the series two days later.

Once again, Minnesotans were left wondering what might have been. And those Wild fans who spent the summer fixated on that one play were not alone.

“That goal stuck in my head along with a lot of other people. Obviously, hard,” Hartman said after a training camp practice at TRIA Rink. “But that’s hockey. There’s plays in every series where you wish you could have a goal back. Even if I score, we still have to win the hockey game. So, we move past that.”

For Hartman, who turned 31 in September, the last month of the 2024-25 season and the playoffs were about moving on, emphatically, from injuries and a suspension that had him shelved for eight games in February.

Just as he doesn’t dwell on the goal that was disallowed, Hartman has moved past the disciplinary action handed down by the NHL, and the play in Ottawa that led to it.

“It was a one play, you know? It’s not like I was going around cheap-shotting everyone. It was an unfortunate play that ended up in a suspension that I learned from and moved on,” said Hartman, who posted 11 goals and 15 assists in 69 regular-season games. “I’m still going to play the same way and play up to the line and not cross over. But for me to be my best, I’ve got to be engaged. physically and emotionally. That’s when I do my best.”

In the past, the Chicago native has spent much of the summer back in the Windy City. But after he and wife Lauren welcomed a daughter 13 months ago, they limited their Illinois time in 2025, coming back to Minnesota Aug. 1 to get settled in for training camp and his 12th NHL campaign.

“It’s a little different,” he said. “We used to be able to just kind of show up and get right into camp. Having a baby, it was nice to kind of get settled and get back on a routine before things started.”

The message from general manager Bill Guerin and Wild coaches when Hartman returned to the lineup in early March was that the second chances were gone. Hartman was fine playing up to the edge, but he and the team could no longer afford to go over it. For the regular season’s last two dozen games or so, that’s the player they got.

After returning from the suspension, Hartman played some effective hockey down the stretch, and after resisting the Knights’ attempts to goad him into penalties early in their series, averaged a point per game in the playoffs. Wild coaches expect more of the same from him this season, which begins with the season opener against Columbus on Oct. 11.

“It’s no mystery that if he plays with the intensity level and the discipline and the details he played with in the playoffs, he’s going to be a major impact for our team,” Wild coach John Hynes said.

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