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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

More Transportation Thoughts

If you haven't seen it yet, please read Ward Dennis's very thoughtful thoughts about Kent Avenue in response to Wednesday's community board meeting. An excerpt:

All of the problems with the Greenway are problems of implementation, and they are indicative of a complete lack of comprehensive transportation planning on the part of the City. Which really should not be a surprise to anyone. CB1 Transportation Chair Teresa Toro has been calling for a comprehensive transportation study for years. CB1 requested this during the 2005 rezoning, and was told it was not necessary. Every time the issue is raised, DOT says that existing transportation policy and infrastructure is adequate to meet our needs.

Chicken, meet roost.

The problem with Kent Avenue is not the Greenway. The problem is that DOT is asking Kent Avenue to do too much. They want Kent to be a two-way truck route, with existing manufacturing users on the east side of the street and new residential/commercial uses on the west side of the street. Add to that the temporary bike lanes (or the future Greenway), and there is just not enough room.

Read more

Support the New Kent Avenue Bike Lane This Wednesday!

This came to us from the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative. The new bike lanes on Kent Ave are a massive improvement in safety over its previous incarnation of "truck-bike death races."

Next we need some traffic lights to help people get across the street and to keep drivers from going 50 mph on the long stretches without any lights. And after that, we can get the full greenway built, which will benefit pedestrians as well as bikers, and will add hundreds of street trees.

Please attend tomorrow night's Brooklyn Community Board 1 meeting to speak out in favor of the new Kent Avenue bike lane, a key route in the Brooklyn bike network and a vital link in the future Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway.

CB1 Transportation Committee Meeting
Wednesday, November 12th, 6:30PM
211 Ainslie Street, corner of Manhattan Avenue, Williamsburg
Registration for public speaking ENDS at 6:15PM (be sure to get there by 6:00PM and sign up!)

The new Kent Avenue bike lane is already filling up with cyclists. But despite broad public support, the lane has its detractors. It is imperative that local cyclists and supporters of livable streets attend Wednesday night's meeting, sign up to and continue to speak in favor of this important transportation improvement for the neighborhood, for now and for the future!

Update: Photo courtesty I'm Just Sayin
More coverage at I'm Just Sayin

A Benefit for the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative

Our friends at Brooklyn Greenway Initiative send this fundraiser notice along. They've already been able to get a section of the greenway built on Columbia Street--here's to hoping they can do the same in North Brooklyn!

Tuesday, November 18th, 8pm (doors open at 7pm)

Join supporters and friends of the Greenway for an evening of music and program shorts from some of Galapagos’ fabulous resident artists! Proceeds support the development of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, a 14-mile off-street bike and pedestrian route that will connect Brooklyn’s parks, neighborhoods and people. Galapagos is located midway along the planned route, so it's the perfect place for a celebration of recent milestones. Matt Wasowski, founder and Big Boss of Nerd Nite will give a 10 minute presentation about the Coney Island hot dog eating contest and the fascinating world of competitive eating. Other acts TBA. Tickets are $20 per person, or two for $30, so bring a friend! To purchase tickets go to http://www.galapagosartspace.com/events.html

Also, we're having our first raffle, so we're looking for items of every sort that you think will stir the excitement of our raffle ticket buying guests! For example: gifts you were given that don't match your (or your mate's) style that are wasting precious storage space, donated goods,services, gift certificates, meals, something from a local business you patronize, etc. All Donations will be credited on our Website and the evening of the event.

Bikes, Bike Lanes and Bike Love

Bikes and bike safety have been a big topic around the neighborhood lately. In early September, Simon Wiesser of Community Board 1 voiced opposition to a proposed bike lane on Kent Avenue that was approved back in April.

According to the Brooklyn Paper, Weisser wants further review of the Kent Ave lane; he is also proposing shutting down the bike lanes on Wythe and Bedford when the Brooklyn Greenway is finished. Since the meeting, the issue has received much media attention due to complaints that the bikers are an affront to Chasidic religious ideals, as they are often women who don't conform to religious dress codes. (Apparently men can bike in whatever they want.)

However, before you assume that the Chasids are all behind this argument, check out the discussion on the Yeshiva World website. There are many viewpoints expressed, including several urging that the group work with the rest of the community to promote safety for everyone.

Then, a few nights after the community board meeting, a biker was injured while biking along Kent Avenue. A witness alleges that the cyclist was thrown over his headbars when he hit the brakes to avoid colliding with an oncoming Northside Car Service car that was turning onto North Seventh. Gothamist says that the biker has met with Northside and received compensation for his injuries, but a friend of the cyclist is calling for a boycott of the car service.

A great place to read about issues like this is the CB1 Transport email list, run by the amazing Teresa Toro, member of CB1 and head of the transportation committee. You can join it here. Responses to current events have included asking that the police conduct bike safety seminars so that bicyclists are more aware of the rules of the road; requesting a DOT review of the situation on the Pulaski Bridge, where cyclists and pedestrians must share a narrow lane; lobbying for more bike lanes using census data; and many others. The group discusses more than just bikes—mass transit, trucking, and more all come up.

Finally, has anyone seen this guitar-shaped bike rack? Urbanite says it's on North 6th and Bedford. Designed by David Byrne, which is nice, but couldn't they have found an artist who lives here?


Photo by Sawung Gue, via a Creative Commons License