How much longer does Pfizer need to keep its promise?
As Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young once sang, “Teach your children well.” Pfizer’s inaction in the last two decades has been teaching a generation of children in the Broadway Triangle that their word can’t be trusted. This is not a good look for a pharmaceutical company.
“I’m standing in [the Beginning with Children Charter School (BwCC2)] playground and behind me here you see this empty ugly lot. This lot has been part of this community as long as I’ve lived here, and I graduated in 2002 and it’s still empty. Imagine what we can use this space for,” said BwCC2 Assistant Principal Ms. Scott.
In 2004, Pfizer began developing plans to build the Charles Pfizer Community Education Center on the vacant lot next door to 11 Bartlett Street, the property they lease to BwCC2.
According to Beginning with Children’s (BwC) leadership team, they have spent years trying to work with Pfizer on a plan for the space that would help meet the needs of the surrounding community, including building affordable housing, resources for seniors, community space, or expanded school facilities to serve local students. Yet Pfizer has failed to put into action any plan to develop this lot for the community. The surrounding area continues to develop while this site stays empty.
On May 5, community advocates and elected officials joined with BwCC2 in a rally to urge Pfizer to keep its word.
“For years, the vacant lot at 11 Bartlett Street has been a blight on the community in Williamsburg. Despite promising to release this land from ownership so it can be developed to benefit the community, Pfizer has yet to deliver,” said U.S. Representative Nydia Velázquez. “Developing this land isn’t just about fulfilling a promise, it’s about investing in the future of our children and our community. Pfizer has let this land remain vacant for far too long. They must come to the table so we can transform one of the few unutilized spaces in Williamsburg into something we can all be proud of.”
“The community has worked diligently to communicate and partner with Pfizer to come to an agreement about what to do with this unmaintained and unutilized space. And for the majority of that time we were met with silence. No response, no change,” said Eloise Cummings, Co-Principal of BwCC2 Middle School. “That is why we have come together today to say to Pfizer: Deliver on the promise. Come take your seat at the community table. It’s time to talk.”
GREENLINE reached out to Pfizer for comment. They responded, “Pfizer is currently constructing a landscape improvement project on the property to improve its aesthetics while the company continues to explore future options for the vacant property. We look forward to sharing our future plans for the site with elected officials and the community of Brooklyn once finalized.”
The Greenline 