Brooklyn

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.

Tonight, at a transportation committee meeting of Brooklyn Community Board 6, DOT will present plans for a two-way protected bike path along Prospect Park West, from Union Street to Bartel Pritchard Square. The proposal would reduce the number of traffic lanes on the high-speed thoroughfare from three to two, according to the meeting agenda.

Dollar Van Demos, the unlikely union of transportation needs and musical dreams that has entranced New York bloggers, is giving private transit operators in Brooklyn and Queens some of the best press they've ever received. But that isn't the only reason it's worth taking a fresh look at dollar vans. If the state legislature can't avert the MTA's doomsday scenario, the vans may soon see a surge in ridership -- perhaps big enough to launch a few recording careers.