Community Boards

Thirteen months ago, Brooklyn Community Board 10 voted against painting a bike lane on Bay Ridge Parkway. The lane would have removed neither a travel lane nor parking from the road, but was still voted down by an overwhelming margin: 32 to 8. Council Members Dominic Recchia, Vincent Gentile, and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio all piled on with statements of opposition.

Parking reform in Downtown Brooklyn doesn't go far enough, said developers at a public hearing last night, and the land use committee of Brooklyn Community Board 2 agreed. They want reduced parking requirements to apply not only to new buildings, as proposed by the Department of City Planning, but also to existing buildings and developments under construction. This would allow developers to convert empty floors of parking into retail, housing, or office space.

Responding to the local community board, NYC DOT has shrunk its proposal for safety improvements on Harlem’s deadly Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard. The revised plan only covers half the distance initially proposed. And even with that concession, the board has yet to approve the plan to expand the road's medians and slow speeding traffic.

Last night's Brooklyn Community Board 2 hearing on bike-share was hardly the "battle" anticipated by the Brooklyn Eagle. About 20 people testified after DOT presented the draft station maps for the district [PDF, pages 10-15], and almost all of them supported the bike-share program in general, with several residents expressing delight at the prospect of a new travel option for Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, and Fort Greene. Some speakers objected to specific stations, and it will be interesting to see how DOT adjusts the station map in this area before the July launch.

After more than three years of delay and debate, safety improvements may finally be coming to one of Harlem's deadliest avenues. Under a plan tentatively okayed by Manhattan Community Board 10's transportation committee last night [PDF], Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard will get wider medians, shorter crossing distances, and narrower traffic lanes in an attempt to improve safety for all users of the street.

Changes to bus service on 34th Street have improved travel times and bus frequencies and have increased ridership, according to MTA data presented to the transportation committee of Manhattan Community Board 6 last night. Even speedier and more reliable crosstown rides are expected after the next stages of the street redesign are phased in over the next two years.

NYC DOT presented plans last night for an un-protected two-way bike lane on Plaza Street, which would enhance a critical hub in the Brooklyn bike network by defining space for contraflow riding, but fall short of providing safe cycling infrastructure for all ages. The transportation committee of Community Board 6 voted in favor of the project as a first step toward implementing a fully protected bikeway, along the lines of what DOT first presented for Plaza Street in 2010. Update: The Community Board 8 transportation committee endorsed the plan unanimously, "requesting that DOT continue to look into further pedestrian safety and traffic calming measures," said vice-chair Rob Witherwax.

A quick reminder: Tonight's meeting of the Brooklyn Community Board 6 transportation committee is an important one, with DOT presenting its proposal for a two-way bike lane on Plaza Street. The public is invited to participate in the meeting, so if you want to weigh in on this upgrade to the Brooklyn bike network and whether it should be protected from traffic with a row of parked cars, tonight's your chance.

Manhattan's newest pair of crosstown bike lanes, on 29th and 30th Streets, are set to be striped after strong votes of support from two Midtown community boards. The lanes already exist west of Eighth Avenue, where they were painted in the wake of the death of cyclist Marilyn Dershowitz. With the support of local residents, the lanes will now extend east to First Avenue.