Bed-Stuy

Eyes on the Street: Franklin Avenue

The Shuttle, as seen from Brevoort Place.

By Aaron Donovan

3:20 PM EDT on June 15, 2007

The Shuttle, as seen from Brevoort Place.

This four-stop line deteriorated and was nearly abandoned by the MTA in the 1980s and again in the 1990s. Instead, after community opposition, it was restored for $74 million in 1999, although one station, Dean Street, was closed. Does anybody know more details about the community advocacy that led to the preservation of the line?

Aaron Donovan

Before he began blogging about land use and transportation, Aaron Donovan wrote The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund's annual fundraising appeal for three years and earned a master's degree in urban planning from Columbia. Since then, he has worked for nonprofit organizations devoted to New York City economic development. He lives and works in the Financial District, and sees New York's pre-automobile built form as an asset that makes New York unique in the United States, and as a strategic advantage that should be capitalized upon.