City May Turn Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel Ramp Into Pedestrian Space

A nice-sized pedestrian space is shaping up in the Financial District, thanks to the Downtown Alliance, City Council Member Margaret Chin, and Community Board 1.

Elizabeth H. Berger Plaza is separated from Trinity Plaza by a redundant exit ramp for the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. The Broadsheet Daily reports that the Alliance wants the city to close the ramp so the plazas can be merged into an 18,000-square foot space.

Berger Plaza is bordered by Edgar Street, Greenwich Street, Trinity Place, and the tunnel ramp. Broadsheet Daily describes Trinity Plaza, to the immediate south on the other side of the ramp, as “a forlorn, irregularly shaped expanse of concrete that is bordered by Trinity Place on the east, but largely cut off from the surrounding community on all other sides by fencing and guard rails for the tunnel.”

Former City Council member Jessica Lappin, who is now Downtown Alliance president, said DOT has completed its studies and a Parks Department design is pending approval from Commissioner Mitchell Silver. Community Board 1 asked the city to fund the project, and Chin allocated the capital funds.

"As the Financial District's residential population continues to grow," Chin told Broadsheet Daily, "we must make it a priority to improve and increase public open space within the neighborhood.”

Lappin says the Alliance hopes to bring the proposal to CB 1 soon after Silver reviews it.