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March 23, 2007
More anger over city plans for one-way streets
The Brooklyn Paper, Letters
More evidence that Park Slopers are as NIMBY as everyone says. First they shrugged off Atlantic Yards, since it wasn't in their backyard. When the impacts finally did land in their backyard, they had one of the best collective tantrums seen in recent years.
To the editor,
The proposal to convert Sixth and Seventh avenues to one way, has made me furious (“7th Avenue Express,” March 17).
My anger, though, is not directed at the Department of Transportation or Bruce Ratner, but instead at my fellow Park Slopers. Had the Slope mobilized in 2004, when Atlantic Yards was in its infancy, we might never have been at this point.
How clearly I remember the reaction to those passing out brochures against Atlantic Yards at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in 2004. The comments I heard, consistently, were “It’s so far away from here”; “It’ll be great for our neighborhood,” and “We don’t live in that part of the Slope.” Instead, the response in those critical first few months was anemic at best — “negligence” and “apathy” are more apt terms.
Now that traffic pattern changes are coming for the arena — as we all knew they would — people are getting off their arses and starting to notice that Atlantic Yards is going to destroy our quality of life. Did it need to take three years to figure that out?
Shame on Park Slope — a place full of smart, vocal and active citizens — for letting it get this far.
Rob Underwood, Park Slope
NoLandGrab: It is probably best that this criticism came from within the neighborhood. For years, Ft. Greene and Prospect Heights have noted Park Slope's indifference to the plight of any other brownstone neighborhood, only they haven't said anything thus far because they needed Park Slope to get mad about Atlantic Yards -- in fact, they still do.
Posted by lumi at March 23, 2007 6:28 AM