NAG Supports Updated Kent Avenue Redesign
NAG's Transportation Working Group advocates for safer streets and better/safer transit options in North Brooklyn. The Department of Transportation recently presented its updated redesign plan for Kent Avenue to Community Board 1 (view the presentation here.) The Transportation Working Group responded with the following letter to Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Kahn, expressing our support for the plan and making recommendations for improving pedestrian safety, prioritizing the future Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, and minimizing the potential impacts of a truck traffic reroute.To volunteer with the NAG Transportation Working Group, please contact transportation@nag-brooklyn.org
Dear Commissioner Sadik-Kahn:
Neighbors Allied for Good Growth (NAG) is a community-based advocacy organization serving North Brooklyn. On behalf of the residents of this neighborhood, we want to thank the Department of Transportation for your efforts to resolve the issues surrounding the redesign of Kent Avenue and let you know that we strongly support the new design.
We appreciate your listening to community suggestions in response to the implementation of the first redesign. We also appreciate your commitment to safe cycling and future realization of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, which will be an asset to our community. We are particularly excited about increased connectivity between Bedford and Kent Avenues and increased safety for cyclists via the floating lanes. We are also pleased to see that the new plan restores loading zones for our local businesses.
However, we still have a few concerns that we would like to address. The foremost of these is pedestrian safety. As you know, Kent Avenue is quickly changing from an industrial to a residential street. In addition, the East River State Park, particularly with its increased programming in the summer months, regularly draws large crowds including families. We need more attention to this increase in pedestrian traffic immediately -- many intersections, such as N. 8th (at the entrance to the park), N. 4th, and N. 14th, would almost certainly qualify for traffic lights now. The community simply cannot wait for another lengthy study -- the danger is already there. We also urge that the final design narrow the crossing distance on Kent for pedestrians as much as possible.
In addition, we request that the DOT replace only the number of parking spaces that will be available upon completion of the greenway, and look into placing planters within the buffer as a preview of the greenway's landscaping.
Finally, as you are aware, there is much concern in the neighborhood about the truck traffic that will be rerouted to Wythe Avenue and North 11th Street. We encourage you to implement traffic calming measures, such as stop signs, traffic lights, neckdowns and/or road diets on these streets, and to maintain open communication with the community during and after the plan's implementation to assess the implications of this rerouting.
We thank you again for your attention to this issue and we look forward to a dialogue with you as this project moves forward.
Sincerely,
Lacey Tauber, Kevin Vincent, Michael Freedman-Schnapp, and Alexandra Sweet
NAG Transportation Working Group
image via Gowanus Lounge
Labels: bike lanes, bike safety, greenway, kent ave, traffic, transportation
posted by Lacey at
5:00 PM
20 Comments:
To NAG and Teresa Toro, Thanks for "expressing some concern" on the issue of how The Kent Avenue Improvement Plan might need some extra attention in managing how traffic will affect the people that live and work on the detour route, in your letter to Comm. Sidik-Kahan . It is clear that your choice is to bow down to the specter of "The Greenway", and much questionable negotiating, at any cost; and to indulge it's sense of immediacy into "place saving " action. By your suggested traffic "calming measures, such as stop signs, traffic lights, neckdowns and/or road diets on these streets" as a plan to insure a safe traffic scenario on N. 11th street to Union avenue and McCarren Park one block to the north; is neglectful in properly assessing the potential for harm. I have no confidence in your declaration of support for the plan. I do appreciate knowing what the position
of NAG and CB1's Teresa Toro is. I will continue protesting your choice to approve the current proposal, as is.
Respectfully,
Meredith
To be clear: CB1 did vote in support of the Brooklyn Greenway. However, it was entirely DOT's decision to create an interim plan. CB1 has not taken any position regarding the interim plan; we were not consulted.
CB1 is pushing DOT to consider the implications of the changes for Kent Avenue and the North 11th Street truck route. I hope Northsiders will continue to give important feedback to the board, since it's a critical way for us to know impacts street by street.
Teresa Toro
This letter seems very weak in regard to the truck traffic that will inevitably find its way onto southbound residential streets. Why not eliminate more parking on Kent? Accomodating a progressive, green increase in bicycling while sending polluting traffic right thru the heart of a commmunity is NO gain at all. I'm dissappointed in the weakness of NAG's position. Those calming messages "such as stop signs" etc are a joke. Try waking up to trucks idling under your windows sometimes. Trucks that are supposedly only allowed on truck. routes. Just another example of the inland community being sacrificed for the Kent Ave condos. Is NAG going over to the dark side too?
I find it hard to believe that anybody who has seen N11th St recently would think it appropriate as a truck route. In a year or so it will be one of the highest-density residential streets in Brooklyn.
As a resident of the street, it's not just the danger, but the noise and the pollution which are a concern.
There are already stop signs on every block on N11th that we're talking about, so the comment illustrates the lack of understanding. In fact, the traffic cops regularly sit at N11th and Berry to catch people blasting through the stop sign.
The turn from Wythe onto N11th also looks totally unsuitable for trucks.
I wonder if Rabbi Leib Glanz , in one of his three closed door meetings with Deputy Mayor Sheekey, at the end of last year, were about this project. Stu Loesser himself declared that they were meetings about housing and transportation. They amount to Bloomberg currying favor with a big group of voters for his third run. The Satmars will put aside the red herring of scantily clad bicyclists zooming thru south Williamsburg , if they can get their parking back PLUS the bonus of getting less trucks rolling thru. Bloomberg's myopic vision for a Greenway in his legacy will be accomplished at any cost to communities. Some of us have a more valuable currency to exchange in how it is put in place. Votes.
Anonymous/Commenter #5 brings up a good point. Historically, voting turnout in Northside and Greenpoint is really low, especially in primary races. If you're planning to stay in the community for any length of time, REGISTER TO VOTE HERE. We have as much power as we have active voters!
Kent is barely residential compared to the other roads in the area, its also an important access route for North Greenpoint residents, its not only Williamsburgers being affected here. It should be kept the way it is, it works fine, and those shouting loudly about losing parking spots have hijacked the debate. I do agree with the installation of traffic lights for N8th and Kent. As for traffic calming measures - we need speed bumps in most of the residential side streets.
is this solution being considered? makes the most sense:
http://www.brooklyn11211.com/archive/2009/06/better-kent.html
That IS a way better plan. Thanks for the link. Now, how do you get your own Community Board to stand up for ALL of us in Williamsburg/Greepoint and bend to the side of reason?
As I indicated earlier, DOT is examing additional measures. The suggestion you refer to in this blog:
http://www.brooklyn11211.com/archive/2009/06/better-kent.html
is already one of them, per my request.
FYI: The blog linked to in the June 26, 1:36 am comment is by someone who is a member of the NAG Board and a member of CB1. He signed off on this letter.
This post has been removed by the author.
Teresa Toro's new plan, to turn Wythe Avenue into a Southbound lane, will endanger children by increasing car and truck traffic. By her own admission, they know they can not control it. If they install traffic lights on Wythe Ave. it will just force traffic to idle, increasing childhood asthma for the kids who live on this street. There are 3 daycare centers, a public school and a playground on Wythe Ave. None on Kent. Teresa Toro's goal to turn Kent Ave., originally designed to be a 2-way commercial route, into a bike lane route, will destroy the neighborhood. This is high-irresponsible of her. She should be ashamed of herself.
I think that you may have read things a little wrong. I am with you on it being a premature and poorly planned project to go ahead with, but the DOT's Kent Avenue Improvement Plan spells out in big bold print that Wythe avenue (the more obvious choice for a reroute) will NOT be the designated south bound route. That is lucky for you. What will happen is that southbound traffic will be diverted towards McCarren Park down N 11 th street. A horror show for those of us on the Northside. It is such a shame that when this neighborhood was re-zoned almost 5 years ago, that the DOT and the city did not look at what development would do to traffic. Kent should have been widened years ago. Consider your self lucky as a south-sider, to have powerful advocates looking out for you and your families.
redseapedestrian:
Based on your comments, I doubt that you've attended any transportation committee meetings. That's not a bad thing, but you're clearly getting your information from unreliable sources. Why don't you come to community meetings to find out what's really happening? You might learn something that's actually true.
You're all wrong. The plan to make Kent Avenue one-way was from Jerry Esposito who is running for city council and trying to drum up voters. He works at the community board, you should ask him what he was thnking when he told DOT to make such a big change that would send more trucks through 11 Street.
Wrong. Esposito has nothing to gain by such a dimwitted plan. It's the mutual admiration society of Vito Lopez and the UJO , if anyone has put undue influence on the DOT to "redesign" the plan in such a manner.
Wow - some people here need to put their tinfoil hats back on. Neither Gerry Esposito, Vito Lopez nor UJO had anything to do with telling DOT *HOW* to redo Kent Avenue. The only pol that pushed a one-way Kent solution was Nydia Velazquez (no friend of Vito's). The Satmars that were most active in fighting the original DOT plan are largely in the anti-UJO faction. And the current DOT plan is not Teresa Toro's - more than anyone, she pushed DOT to fix their initial mistakes, and was ruthless in pointing out why the original plan was a fail, but she always said that HOW to fix it was DOT's problem.
You all need to get out more - wherever you're getting your information, its just plain wrong.
http://www.greenpointnews.com/news/cb-1-comes-out-in-support-of-yasskys-kent-proposal-but-seeks-more
To put it quite simply, this is such a dumb idea. Bikers need to stop their nagging because they already have Wyeth, Berry, Bedford, etc. There is no reason they should get Kent as well.
When kent didn't have bike lanes, everything was perfect. Parking wasn't being fought over like it is now and traffic wasn't being pushed into the more residential streets. What we have now is a big problem.
When a tractor trailer holds up a light or two just because they can't turn onto Wyeth to get onto the expressway, that's a problem.
When I can't cross the street because of all traffic being diverted to Wyeth, that's a problem.
Additionally the parking situation on Kent that they have implemented prevents anyone from parking there at all. Take a look at the signs when you get the chance.It's all to ridiculous. Re-doing a street twice because of ignorant bikers and politicians.. yeah.. go ahead and waste money.
Maybe if bikers could actually pay attention to the rules of the road and not get in a cars way, I would have more respect for this so called project.
All in all, politics and NYC government is all corrupt.
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