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April 24, 2012
Overestimated sidewalk widths may spell trouble for arena patrons and residents alike
Atlantic Yards Watch
If you ever had any doubt that AKRF was hired to produce the Atlantic Yards Environmental Impact Statement for any reason other than that they would produce a document greasing the skids for the project, let this put that notion to rest.
Unlike nearly every other arena and stadium in the country, Barclays Center is fit tightly inside residential neighborhoods. It is largely surrounded by one way local streets and residential-width sidewalks, not the highways and commercial-width sidewalks that serve most other facilities of its kind.
Changes to the project have resulted in less capacity for travel lanes, lay by-lanes and sidewalks than was originally analyzed in the project's environmental impact statement. Now, a survey by AYW confirms the sidewalks in the vicinity of Atlantic Yards also have less capacity for pedestrians than the project's environmental analysis anticipates. The study finds that a critical measurement used in the formula to assess sidewalk capacity by the State was regularly used incorrectly in the FEIS. As a result, the capacity of more than 86% of the sidewalks in the 2006 Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) are overstated, often by significant margins.
This is a concern because sidewalks created to accomodate local residents and patrons of small scale retail businesses will now have to handle the surging crowds of an 18,000-seat arena. Narrower effective widths mean a higher risk of vehicle/pedestrian accidents on the streets surrounding the project exists than the FEIS identifies. And the sidewalks will simply be less desirable to use.
Related coverage...
NY Daily News, Sidewalks around Atlantic Yards project too narrow for Barclays Center crowds, report finds
Sidewalks around the Atlantic Yards project are too narrow to hold massive crowds from the new Nets arena, advocates charge.
They found in a new report that 86% of the sidewalks are actually narrower than state officials claimed when they approved the project.
“We took a tape measure and went down exactly the same sidewalks and measured them, and we came up with totally different numbers,” said Peter Krashes of Atlantic Yards Watch, which measured 22 sidewalks and found they were an average of 4.5 feet narrower than the state claimed in its environmental analysis. “The assessment is wildly off.”
State officials have said they used maps to come up with their numbers, rather than doing physical measurements.
But fear not, folks — the Empire State Development Corporation is satisfied.
Arana Hankin, Atlantic Yards director for the Empire State Development Corporation, said the agency’s consultants recently analyzed sidewalks around the arena site. “The analysis determined that pedestrian conditions operate at acceptable levels of service,” she said.
Posted by eric at April 24, 2012 11:23 PM