"Atlantic Yards"

DOT’s Park Slope Proposal: Is this Atlantic Yards Planning?

Last week, DOT quietly revealed that it was planning to narrow Fourth Avenue and transform Park Slope, Brooklyn's Sixth and Seventh Avenues in to one-way streets. Agency officials say that the the changes are being proposed for no reason other than "to make it safer for pedestrians crossing the street."

By Aaron Naparstek

2:30 PM EDT on March 13, 2007

Last week, DOT quietly revealed that it was planning to narrow Fourth Avenue and transform Park Slope, Brooklyn’s Sixth and Seventh Avenues in to one-way streets. Agency officials say that the the changes are being proposed for no reason other than “to make it safer for pedestrians crossing the street.”

Fourth, Sixth and Seventh Avenues — the streets that DOT wishes to redesign — all terminate at the edge of the Atlantic Yards development. Naturally, many are wondering if DOT’s plan has anything to do with Forest City Enterprises’ basketball arena and 16-skyscraper mega-project.

Adding fuel to the fire is the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Atlantic Yards project (Chapter 19-11) which proposes closing off the northbound side of Fourth Avenue between Atlantic Avenue and Flatbush to motor vehicles (which, actually, could be a really nice thing to do regardless). Could it be that DOT’s Park Slope plan is aimed at shunting Fourth Avenue’s Manhattan Bridge-bound morning traffic jam over to Sixth and Eighth Avenues?

We put the question to DOT. We’ll let you know the answer when they get back to us.

Here is the relevant excerpt from the Atlantic Yards FEIS:

Aaron Naparstek

Aaron Naparstek is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparstek's journalism, advocacy and community organizing work has been instrumental in growing the bicycle network, removing motor vehicles from parks, and developing new public plazas, car-free streets and life-saving traffic-calming measures across all five boroughs. He was also one of the original cast members of the "War on Cars" podcast. You can find more of his work on his website.