Excerpts from a public letter from Kevin Burget, a local filmmaker, about changes to 6th and 7th Avenue traffic and THE NARROWING OF FOURTH AVENUE, which may be the real reason behind the DOT’s proposal. Here he lays out his objections to the proposed DOT changes.
A summary of the proposed changes follows, but in even more of a
nutshell: The proposal is to turn 7th and 6th avenue into one-way
streets to handle the traffic overflow from a proposed NARROWING of 4th
avenue, the main route into Park Slope and much of Brooklyn
from outside the city. This will do so much to erode the local nature
of our neighborhood I can’t begin to express it. Park Slope will
become a drive-through neighborhood host to traffic trying to ride the
green carpet of one-way traffic lights on their way to and from
destinations such as Atlantic Yards. If you agree with the assessment
that follows please try to get the word out. I know that you steer
clear of things political, at least as a bookstore owner, but I do
think the neighborhood is effectively about to be steamrollered by
these proposed changes, and that does something to addle my own life of
the mind. It’s not simply a matter of old stodgy Park Slope being
unwilling to welcome new neighbors. I am all for changes that make
sense and continue to promote community. I think you’ll find these
don’t. Let me know your thoughts if you can. The most important
upcoming moment to confront this is:New York Methodist Hospital506 6th Street(7th & 8th Avenues)AuditoriumThurs. March 15ANYWAY, if you don’t know it already…. here’s the rap that I’ve
posted to Park Slope Parents. The Park Slope Civic Council and Park
Slope Neighbors Group are in agreement:
The plan:
The NYCDOT’s forthcoming proposal to reinvent Park Slope’s streets is to me big news and very worrisome.
http://www.streetsb log.org/2007/ 02/28/dot- to-propose- radical-new- traffic-plan- for-park- slope
It
seems to play transparently right into the hands of the developers
putting up new buildings along 4th avenue, as well as those developing
Atlantic Yards, while running roughshod over Park Slope in a way that
will forever change the character of the neighborhood, making it in
effect a runway or service road for these new developments.
The proposal is to do three things:
1) Narrow 4th avenue
2) Make 6th avenue run one-way north3) Make 7th avenue run one-way south
As to 1) narrowing 4th avenue: 4th
avenue has always been one of the main industrial arteries into most of Brooklyn
from outside the city. As such it carries an enormous amount of
essential traffic, much of it heavy trucks providing goods and
services. The decision to NARROW 4th avenue by eliminating 2 out of
its 6 lanes (1/3 of its capacity) could not be more wrongheaded. A
stadium hosting sports events is going up and tens of thousands of new
rental units. Narrowing the one barely viable conduit into Brooklyn
from the outside beggars belief. The only possible winners here are
perhaps thought to be the new tenants in the buildings along 4th
avenue, because they will have a little less street under their noses.
But that street will be like a clogged artery guaranteed to be filled
round the clock with smog and traffic.
Which
brings us to 2). Any incoming trucker in his right mind faced with a
NARROWED 2-way 4th avenue will of course want to get OFF 4th avenue at
the earliest opportunity, which according to this plan will be about at
23rd street at which point the trucker will turn up 2 blocks to 6th
avenue where he/she will be able to ride the green carpet of one way
traffic lights all the way to Flatbush. So 6th avenue, now a very
local-oriented tree-shaded residential avenue will be turned into a de
facto truck route. Most of Park Slope will suffer here from swift and
hurtling truck and car traffic trying to ride the green lights. This
has historically made such avenues more forbidding, less local, and
much more dangerous. A comparison has been made to 8th avenue or PPW,
which some feel are not so bad for the character of their traffic, but
these avenues have never been tasked with a fraction of the kind of
traffic that this plan will bring to 6th and 7th avenues.
7th avenue, under this plan, will become the exit route of choice for all heavy traffic leaving much of Brooklyn
and Atlantic Yards. Again, given the choice of 2-way traffic lights or
1-way, any experienced driver, whether of a truck or car, will opt for
the express. 7th avenue will become the route of choice. Its existing
character will be decimated as a result. Doing this to Park Slope’s
historical main street will make it so much more noisy and less
friendly for pedestrians that I predict store and restaurant owner’s
will suffer. Pedestrians will want to flee the noise and frenzy, and
cars won’t want to stop or even linger because of the crushing momentum
of the traffic they find themselves in. Its character will be more
akin to Flatbush, say, (although even Flatbush is 2-way…)
Yes, as it is, it can be difficult to turn off of 4th, but cutting 2 lanes would seem to make it even more difficult and impact traffic further.
I don’t think this is an “hysterical” response, just a cautious one.. the selling off of Brooklyn continues….besides jobs for construction workers, why do we really need this damn arena so much ?
I don’t think anybody objects to the changes to 4th Av. In fact, its a welcome suggestion.
But do you think that DOT will actually *reduce* traffic capacity thus? They want to compensate for the reduction by increasing the flow on 6th/7th Avs.
I think people are being just a tad histerical. The “narrowing” of 4th Avenue is being suggested not as a way to reduce traffic, but to improve the traffic flow. If you ever drive on 4th Avenue you know that turning left is very difficult. During rush hours, the left hand lane often gets blocked b/c turning cars and trucks don’t fit into the short turn lane. The changes to 4th Ave. would in fact improve traffic flow by eliminating this problem. Its worth at least thinking about.