Brooklyn

After today's rain clears out, it looks to be a beautiful weekend for two Summer Streets events in Brooklyn.

A reader emailed yesterday reporting that a bicyclist had been struck and seriously injured at the corner of Third Avenue and Atlantic Avenue near downtown Brooklyn. NYPD confirmed the collision late yesterday afternoon:

Here's a look at the revised and extended route proposed for the Kent Avenue bike path. Currently the bike lane runs from Quay Street to Clymer Street. As you can see in this map from DOT's project presentation [PDF], the new route would continue several blocks further south, to Flushing Avenue.

After a wait that lasted years longer than expected, construction crews are breaking ground on a slate of pedestrian safety improvements for Downtown Brooklyn's traffic-plagued streets.

If you're in Fort Greene tomorrow, drop by 51 St. Edwards Street for some great Livable Streets action. Students from the Community Roots Charter School will be out in the street from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., working on a new mural covering the pavement in front of their school, and volunteers are welcome to join in. The mural painting is the joint handiwork of DOT's Urban Art Program, Livable Streets Education, and local artists and teachers. Sound unusual? It is. We're told this may be the first time NYCDOT has ever approved a pavement painting project.

After a contentious few months full of clowns, scantily-clad women, illegal billboards, and community board strife (since resolved), we may finally be approaching the denouement to the city's most talked about bike lane drama. The Brooklyn Paper reports on the latest Kent Avenue development:

Manhattan Avenue, the bustling main street in my usually quiet Brooklyn neighborhood, became a multi-block crime scene yesterday afternoon when a mini-van driver, reportedly fleeing police at high speed, struck and killed a woman near India Street before crashing into a parked SUV five blocks further north.