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March 16, 2007
It came from the Park Slopesphere...
More "airplay" from a variety of bloggers on last night's Department of Transportation presentation to the Community Board 6 Traffic and Transportation Committee.
Take The City And Run, Park Slope Speaks With One Voice
As for the presentation by the DOT spokesmen, itself, there were a few points that really stuck out:
First, among the statistics and figures that he threw out was the explanation that traffic performance is graded on a scale of A through F and that the city usually plans for any given traffic system to perform at a D level. The thing is that he, himself, claimed that 6th and 7th Avenues perform at a B or C. If this is the case, why is any change needed at all? The streets are performing above average as is, so why screw that up?
Second, no matter what arguments were made to the contrary, the DOT rep refused to allow that traffic would flow faster on the avenues or that the side-streets would receive more traffic either as a result of more through traffic traveling to the avenues or from people having to circle blocks to get onto the avenue traveling in their direction. Statistics were offered by some and dismissed out of hand. Or the rep would just avoid answering with a straight answer.
Third — the elephant in the room. The Atlantic Yards. The DOT rep avoided talking about the project and claimed it had no bearing on this proposal.
Brooklyn Record, Slopers Jeer One-Way Proposal
Last night's Park Slope Community Board meeting drew nearly 500 angry residents, who came to oppose a Department of Transportation proposal that would turn Sixth and Seventh Avenues into one-way streets (Streetsblog broke news of the plan Wednesday).
Jeff Strabone, Park Slope or the Indianapolis 500?
A member of Community Board 6 explains why he intends "to vote against DOT's proposed changes at next month's meeting, and" believes "the vast majority of the board will vote the same way."
Much of Brooklyn is up in arms this week at the news that the city's Department of Transportation has proposed turning Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Park Slope into one-way streets. There is only one reason for this proposed traffic change and that reason is Atlantic Yards.
Read about Atlantic Yards as a model of Soviet-style planning, what Bruce Ratner's Environmental Impact Statement reveals about the "expansion of the danger zone," and how neighborhoods might be able to protect themselves from "bad planning."
Brooklynian, ONE WAY NO WAY! PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION
A Park Slope motorist explains:
I drive to work every day.
To make all the lights on PPW you need to drive 32 mph.
To make all the lights on 8th ave you need to drive 37 mph.
The maximum number of blocks I can drive on 6th ave before I hit a red is 3-4. Which isn't enough time to get to those speeds unless you slam on your brakes at the end. (yes, there are exceptions)I take PPW and 8th because it takes me half the time, because I'm driving twice as fast.
If they didn't time 8th ave and PPW correctly, are they going to time the lights on 4th,6th and 7th correctly? I don't have any faith in the DOT to properly rehab the streets for neighborhood traffic. This plan only benefits through traffic. Furthermore, the cross streets are way too narrow for this plan.
Daily Gotham, One Way! No Way! DOT faces Park Slope Ire
Mole333 is not very optimistic that the DOT will listen to the community...
As the first ripple of Ratner's overdevelopment of Central Brooklyn crossed Flatbush into Park Slope, those Ratner backers who have grown to expect getting their way no matter what got a major surprise. Park Slope stood up to the Departmentof Transportation (DOT) and, if the DOT keeps its word (something I am doubtful of) this first of many Ratner ripples to cross Flatbush has been stopped.
...and delivers Assemblymember Joan Millman's opinion on the plan.
Joan Millman did not go but she spoke out against the plan. A supposedly off the record comment she made calling the plan "dumb" has already been quoted in the media, and she is happy to stand behind it. In fact she used somewhat stronger language than that when she discussed it at IND.
Also, there were rumors about a talking tablecloth:
But apparently there was a tablecloth. Yes...a tablecloth. I have no idea why a tablecloth, but everyone was making reference to this fabled table cloth that all opponents of the plan who couldn't get in were signing. Why a table cloth? Who knows?
The Lexicographer’s Rules, One Way? No Way!
This video on Streets Blog shows perfectly why I am against turning Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Park Slope, Brooklyn, into one-way streets.
It’s my neighborhood: I live between Sixth and Seventh Avenues on Park Place, more or less a block below Flatbush Avenue (the streets intersect at an angle, so we’re closer to Flatbush in one direction than we are in the other), which is a daily parade of stupid.
Posted by lumi at March 16, 2007 4:48 PM