Community Boards

A group of profoundly confused Brooklyn merchants have convinced themselves that a nearby empty lot is better used for motor vehicle storage than affordable housing for 152 families. Oh, and by the way, the affordable housing plan includes an even larger parking lot beneath the building. The Daily News reports:

Then: "Honk No" to Mayor Bloomberg's plan. Now: Stop honking and pay $8. Bloomberg's West Side stadium foes are now his congestion pricing friends.

Congestion in Jackson Heights: The DOT needs some new ideas

Police officers from Brooklyn's 94th precinct are, at this moment, clipping bike locks and seizing bicycles parked along Bedford Ave. according to Community Board 1 Transportation Chair Teresa Toro. The precinct gave Community Board members no advanced notice of the police action. Phone calls to the precinct have gone unanswered. Toro, who also works for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, reports that Council Member David Yassky's staff is looking into the situation and says:

A rendering of the proposed Gansevoort Plaza, looking southbound.

Last night, Brooklyn's Community Board 6 narrowly voted in favor of a resolution supporting the Department of Transportation's plan to put Park Slope's 9th Street on a "Road Diet."

In order to foster ideas on how to reclaim 9th Avenue from Lincoln Tunnel traffic, the Clinton/Hell's Kitchen Pedestrian Safety Coalition (CHEKPEDS) sponsored a six month community input process designed by Project for Public Spaces. The process began with a design workshop in January, and has evolved into an impressive final report (PDF). Some highlights from the report:

The Department of Transportation has unveiled plans to turn the gritty Pearl Street Triangle in DUMBO into a public plaza. The plaza will be similar to the one DOT creaed on Willoughby Street in Downtown Brooklyn last year. The Triangle currently serves as a parking lot.

The transportation committee of Brooklyn Community Board 6, of which I'm a member, voted unanimously last night to approve DOT's traffic calming and bike lane plan for Park Slope's 9th Street. The approval came with requests that DOT build a bike lane along Prospect Park West, undertake a curbside management study aimed at alleviating double-parking and that the agency monitor the effects of the new street design over the next year.