On March 4th, the Park Slope Civic Council held a public forum at the Saint Thomas Aquinas Church on Fourth Avenue. The purpose: to re-imagine the future of Fourth Avenue. Here’s an excerpt from the Brooklyn Downtown Star sent to me by Gilly Youner, a member of the Civic Council:

Fourth Avenue might be an important Brooklyn artery, but the Champs-Elysees it’s not.

The no-frills motor-way, which branches off of Flatbush Avenue and slices through Brooklyn, is the route of choice for countless cars and trucks each day.

The centerpiece of the evening was a group of panelists who approached the idea of change for Fourth Avenue from different perspectives and professional disciplines. Overall, they floated visions of a brighter, greener, more pedestrian-friendly boulevard.

Panelist David Sweeny,the founder and president of the Public Development Services Corporation, a real-estate development company, characterized the current Fourth Avenue as “abysmally flat and hollow.”

Sweeny encouraged area residents to envision a Fourth Avenue with a neighborhood sensibility, where pedestrians would enjoy strolling. It is a goal he believes could be achieved, in part, by the avenue becoming a home to ground-floor micro retailers. “It would make Fourth Avenue a dynamic, more interesting place,” he said.

Other ideas ushered forth included planting more street trees, creating a scenic median, and north-south bike lanes.

“Fourth Avenue could be one of the next great boulevards of the borough of Brooklyn,” said Craig Hammerman, Community Board 6’s district manager, also a panelist.