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March 15, 2007
One-Way, No Way!
As City Councilmember David Yassky told NY1 last week, "This is Atlantic Yards coming home to roost in the neighborhood."
Now that impacts from Atlantic Yards seem to be washing up on the shores of Park Slope, the neighborhood is up in arms.
Today's coverage:
NY Post, B'KLYN PROTESTERS SAY 'NO WAY' TO ONE-WAY
Brooklyn residents plan to come out in droves tonight to slam a city plan to turn Sixth and Seventh avenues into one-way streets leading to and from the future home of the NBA Nets.
"This is just piecemeal planning for Atlantic Yards by shunting traffic from one place to another," said Aaron Naparstek, a Park Slope Civic Council member.
...
While the DOT declined to comment on whether the changes are related to developer Bruce Ratner's planned basketball arena, Atlantic Yards, a Ratner spokesman said the developer didn't request the changes.
NoLandGrab: Yesterday, StreetsBlog considered how these changes in Park Slope are an accommodation for changes that Ratner requested (or not, depending on which chapter of the Environmental Impact Statement you read).
The NY Sun, Plan for One-Way Roads Draws Ire in Park Slope
Local pols are against it:
[City Councilmember David] Yassky said he plans to speak out against the proposal at this evening's community board meeting, where a vote against the proposal could kill it.
DOT is backtracking:
"If the community doesn't support these proposed changes, we will not move forward with them," a spokeswoman for the Department of Transportation, Kay Sarlin, said.
Community Board 6 (CB6) appears more conciliatory:
"We're hoping that tomorrow is the beginning of a process, not the end of a process," the district manager of Community Board 6 in Park Slope, Craig Hammerman, said. "If we have a chance to work together, our experiences at the local level are invaluable to the DOT's problem solving exercises."
RUMOR MONGERING:
The word on the street is that CB6 was forewarned that many more people were planning to attend the meeting than would fit in the auditorium, which has the capacity for 125. Some members of the community found another larger local venue willing to host, but CB6 refused to change their meeting plans.
Now people are wondering if CB6 is deliberately trying to keep people from hearing directly from the DOT.
It appears that CB6 is miffed that the community has had such a strong reaction, without hearing from the DOT first. Members of the community are pissed that DOT would suggest such a plan without hearing from the community first and doing a needs assessment.
Look out for many unhappy people inside (and outside) the meeting.
Posted by lumi at March 15, 2007 8:09 AM