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May 23, 2012
Meeting on TDM plan is cordial, constructive, and frustrating; distrustful faces suggest residents not convinced plan will work; first phase sure to be an experiment
Atlantic Yards Report
Schwartz (aka "Gridlock Sam") and others fielded numerous questions from the public, read by Community Board 6 District Manager Craig Hammerman and culled mainly by CB 2 District Manager Rob Perris. In the audience was Brooklynite Kenneth Adams, CEO of Empire State Development (ESD), the state agency overseeing the project and his top aide Justin Ginsburgh.
And while Hammerman called the meeting “extremely healthy and constructive,” the emphasis on getting people to use public transit, without specific disincentives (or even incentives like a free MetroCard) led Gib Veconi of the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council to grouse, “It’s a marketing plan,” not a true plan to deter drivers.
(See Veconi's comments on Patch's live-blog coverage, also emphasizing the lack of details about the surface parking plan, and the PHNDC's Danae Oratowski's comments about the lack of community leverage, as well as comments by CB 2's Perris observation that the plan is "a good starting point," which should eventually lead people to realize they shouldn't drive.)
“It’s our job to make this work as best we all can,” Hammerman said, leading off the Q&A session. “There's no longer an us and them... I need to represent that building. I need to make sure it works.”
How well it works, however, remains in question. Two follow-up studies are planned for 2013, portending tweaks and changes in the transportation plan. And it will take weeks if not months, most likely, for the use-transit message to sink in.
That suggests that the first season of Barclays Center operations will be an experiment, and the neighborhoods around the arena will bear the brunt of that experiment.
Click through for much more, including video of the presentation.
Posted by eric at May 23, 2012 12:16 PM