DOT Creates Car Mayhem On Little Old Park Place

Mar 18, 2010

I'm a bicyclist and the very last person you know who would criticize the DOT for restricting car traffic. Kudos to them for all the new bike lanes in our city and other traffic-calming schemes designed to make our streets quieter, safer and more breathable and to get people out of their cars and into mass transit or onto their bikes or feet!

However! Bruce Ratner recently broke ground for his mega-development and stadium at the Atlantic train yards. Not only is this ill-begotten land-grab-of-a-scheme stinking to high heaven from corruption and public/private malfeasance, it's also creating havoc on our quiet, residential streets due to collusion, I believe, between the billionaire developer and the city to make things go smoothly ... not for you and me but for Ratner and his stadium.

If you live in Prospect Heights, you may have noticed a huge uptick in traffic on little old Park Place, a narrow, residential eastbound-only street. But you may not know the reason. Here's why. If one drives south on Flatbush Avenue - i.e. from the Manhattan Bridge heading toward Prospect Park, there are very few opportunities to turn left (eastbound). Yet, large amounts of people live in our neighborhoods to the east of Flatbush Avenue: in Prospect Heights and Crown Heights and beyond.

Click the map for a larger view.

If you live in those neighborhoods and want to go east from Flatbush Avenue, once you pass Lafayette Avenue, you cannot turn left for almost a full mile, until you reach Park Place! That's because --

• There's no left on Hanson Place - it was closed permanently a while ago.

• There's no left on Atlantic Avenue.

• There's no left on Fifth Avenue or Pacific Street - closed permanently.

• There's no left on Dean Street - ever! (until last week one could at least make a left after 7 pm and all day Sundays).

• There's no left on St. Marks Avenue.

This traffic nightmare was "designed" by the folks at DOT and it has transformed Park Place from a relatively quiet and traffic-free street into a major eastbound thoroughfare. Long lines of traffic between Flatbush Avenue and Vanderbilt Avenue are common - cars very often take several red light cycles to finally pass through the intersection at Vanderbilt. Then much of that traffic proceeds up the next eastbound block of Park Place and, frustrated with their long wait on the previous block, many now tear up the street in order to "make" the green light on Underhill Avenue. This has created, noise, congestion, fumes from waiting lines of cars and dangerous speeding by frustrated drivers.

The new sign at Flatbush and Dean - this used to read "no left turn except after 7 pm and all day Sunday." Now it's No Left Turn --- Ever!
Click for a larger view.

Fifth Avenue eastbound from Flatbush - now permnently closed. Privatized for Ratner's stadium.
Click for a larger view.

I'm compelled to ask - is this the professional planning of traffic engineers who ought to be concerned about reducing traffic and making streets safe for residents and pedestrians? Or is it, more likely, an order from up on high to do what has to be done to keep traffic flowing smoothly for the soon-to-be traffic-attracting stadium a few blocks north? It seems to be the latter. The result of this preposterous design is an assault on the residents of Park Place and environs.

No left on 6th Avenue - southbound on Flatbush. The result is that if you want to go east into Prospect Heights or Crown Heights, there's only one way to go and that's up tiny, narrow, residential Park Place. How could this be?
Click for a larger view.

We must demand, from our elected officials and the Department of Transportation, that a better plan be implemented and the current design abandoned. Calls should be made to Community Board No. 8 (Ms. Michelle George, Manager) at (718) 467-5574 or Tish James (our Council Member) at (718) 260-9191 or the Mayor's office at 311.

Call now and call often until this travesty is un-done.

Brooklyn Says NO to Ratner and his Atlantic Yards. Again.

Jul 29, 2009

To chants of "Hey, Hey! Ho, Ho! Atlantic Yards has got to go!" hundreds of Brookllynites jammed the street in front of Kilgord Auditorium of the NYC Technical College. The school was the scene of hearings called by the state's Empire State Development Corporation which has overseen this land-grabbing boondoggle - a scandal of enormous proportions. The project, which would have built enormous sky-scraping, sun-blocking luxury high-rise buildings over the Long Island Railroad tracks, was funded with a no-bid lowball air rights giveaway from the MTA and huge tax breaks from the city and state. Never mind the impact on the surrounding low-rise and historic brownstone communities. Never mind the destructive effect that would drive rents up and working class and less affluent populations out of their homes and neighborhoods. Only mind the huge profits that could be gotten by building Bruce Ratner's vision of what he thought Brooklyn should look like.

But now that the economic bubble has burst, the Ratner project has fallen on hard times. First to be ditched was the so-called affordable housing components and a large number of the proposed residential buildings. After that, Ratner gave a pink slip to his star showcase architect, Frank Gehry -- he's way too expensive now. We're left with a plan that has as its star attraction, the Nets Stadium at the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues. But with Gehry's departure the rendering looks more like a gym for a community college in a small town rather than the flashy design once proposed. On top of this, Ratner demands that taxpayers should give him even more breaks and the MTA should give him an even more lenient and favorable contract on the air rights. Only an arrogant billionaire would have the chutzpah to make such demands. The question is will the politicians, the Mayor and the Governor, who have been so willing to accommodate this scandalous land grab, continue to play ball with Ratner or finally listen to the people and end this sham deal once and for all? Time will tell. Our voices can help them decide.

What's going on - monster high-rises in Downtown Brooklyn - dwarfing everything in sight, blocking sky and sun, congesting the streets to an even greater extent. This is our spineless and corrupt political leaders' vision of "progress" and of Brooklyn's future.

This is what it's all about. Save our communities ... from avaricious developers.

A large and spirited crowd of Brooklynites marched outside the ESDC hearings to demand an end to the Ratner Atlantic Yards scandal.

Daniel Goldstein of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, flanked by fighting NYC Council Member Letitia "Tish" James.

To loud approval from the crowd, Council Member Letitia "Tish" James gave a rousing speech and demanded that the Mayor put an end to the shameful Atlantic Yards project.

To see all my photos from today's protest just CLICK here for a PHOTO GALLERY.
Or CLICK here for a SLIDE SHOW

A Bike Ride To The Battery - Courtesy Of IKEA.

Sep 2, 2008

A new park has risen in Brooklyn. But unlike the old days when parks were the creations of cities and governments on behalf of their citizens, this park comes to our borough on the back of private enterprise. Ikea, the giant furniture chain, has come to Brooklyn and put itself down on the edge of the harbor. Ikea has placed its enormous blue and yellow box on land that once fronted the largest man-made harbor in the country, the Erie Basin. Since the demise of the historic and once-bustling Brooklyn waterfront, that land and the piers and structures that lined its shores entered a long period of decay. Abandoned by the ships that once carried grain and product from American farms and factories to the markets of Europe and beyond, the Brooklyn waterfront became a decrepit and crumbling shoreline, devoid of activity. Hulking wrecks of piers and warehouses have, for decades now, lined its once-proud shores. Neighborhoods died as well, inhabited only by the poorest of the poor.

Now Brooklyn is undergoing a massive renaissance as vast swathes of its territory are transformed (perhapds "demolished" is a more accurate term) and replaced with luxury condos and hi-rise apartment houses for upper income folk. Manhattan has beoam the borough for the very wealthy set and so waves of people have moved across the river to more "affordable" locales. And the developers saw dollars to be made. Thus does Ikea come to down-and-out-for-decades Red Hook.

It's a commentary on 30 tragic years of conservative rule that new parks today have to be given to us by corporations (as a payback of sorts for very generous tax breaks from City Hall). But with three trillion dollar wars, cities don't have money for such things as waterfront parks (or schools or public hospitals for that matter) as tax dollars have taken a one-way trip to the Pentagon and war-profiting corporations. A recent article in the New York Times documented that fact. In a portrait of New Haven, the reporter showed that many localities now depend on wealthy corporations to undertake major improvements to their cities. In New Haven it's Yale. In New York it's Ikea. But the trend is clear and it's called privatization. The question is - who's calling the tune and deciding what gets built and where? When its corporate money you can be sure that there are interests beyond those of the public that hold sway. So it is with waterfront parks and so it is with un-needed stadiums and sun-blocking high rises in the backyard of beautful and historic brownstone communities.

However, a beautiful park it is. Ikea has done a great job - a pedestrian/bike path wanders about a mile or so along the Red Hook waterfront. Signs explain the history of this once-busy port as a massive parking lot now lies where once giant shipyards stood. Here and there they have left standing some of the detritus of a former civilization - giant cranes hover overhead, painted a dull but dramatic navy gray; giant gears and mechanisms from some sort of portside machinery lie frozen in time below them. Maritime grasses and lovely flowers have been planted in abundance and in Ikea's spare and modern style, benches and chairs are placed along the length of the promenade. The view - a fabulous panorama of New York harbor - Governor's Island, the distant Port of Newark (that helped kill the Brooklyn ports), the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline all compete for your attention. And by the way, this has to be the greatest sunset viewing location in all of Brooklyn!

And the fantatic kicker to all this is that you can bike out to Red Hook and then board, gratis, a NYC Water Taxi for a trip across the harbor to Wall Street. Bikes are welcome on board and you don't even have to shop at Ikea!

So on a beautiful end-of-summer Tuesday, my friend Ed and I pedaled over the Ikea for a free taxi ride to Manhattan.

Ed calls for me and we set off for Red Hook by bike.

Red Hook is separated from Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill by the giant, hulking Gowanus Expressway.

Wow - what a view. Prime waterfront land for a furniture store. Hey! But we got a nice park out of it, right?

Fabulous views of our city's harbor abound. Here, old cranes from yesteryear are hover above you as the promenade wends its way along the old port. In the distance, the Statue of Liberty.

The ferry boards at Ikea and takes you to lower Manhattan.

The ride across the harbor is breathtaking. As you leave the shelter of Erie Basin, views of the remote Manhattan skyline stand in contrast to the rotting decay of the abandoned piers and structures of the Brooklyn waterfront. Then, quickly, you pass Governor's Island, the Statue of Liberty, and Downtown Brooklyn with its new high rises. Approaching the Wall Street pier where we would debark, other boats pass by and helicopters hover overhead and lower New York's gleaming skyscrapers tower above set off against a brilliant blue sky. Further up the East River, the Brooklyn Bridge spans the horizon and I thought that this is truly one of the great panoramas to be enjoyed anywhere.

Leaving Brooklyn, the Manhattan skyline competes with the rotting decay of Brooklyn's moribune waterfront.

There's the statue!

Fabulous views of Brooklyn, Manhattan and New Jersey!

We pass some of the last few working piers on Brooklyn's waterfront - a shadow of their former self.

A good opportunity for photos.

Looking up the East River - the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge beyond it.

We reach our destination - the Wall Street pier and lower Manhattan.

Supersize Brooklyn - Residents Say Fughedabout It!

May 3, 2008

The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. Take the plans for the Ratner mega-development in downtown Brooklyn for example. When residents rose up to oppose a similar scandal at the site of the Brighton Beach Baths in the early to mid 90's, the developer, Alexander Muss & Sons, stopped at nothing to push his development to completion. The community was overwhelmingly opposed to Muss's Brighton By the Sea. Congestion, out-of-scale buildings (the original proposal called for buildings of 50 stories which would have made them the tallest in the borough), overloading of the sewers, subways and other services were among the objections of the residents. But Muss, who was responsible for the wall of skyscrapers along Collins Avenue in Miami beach, and had that same vision for Brooklyn's shoreline, used bully tactics, the power of his money and connections to his political cronies to try and get his way.

Which brings me back to today. In a fashion reminiscent of Muss, Bruce Ratner has tried to force his distorted vision of Brooklyn down the throats of residents in Park Slope, Prospect Heights and Fort Greene. His plan would build a wall of sun-blocking skyscrapers that would separate some of Brooklyn's most beautiful and historic neighborhoods from each other; communities that are beloved for their low-rise and historic character. In addition to those 16 over-towering high-rises he would install a stadium at the junction of Atlantic Avenue and Flatbush, already the city's most congested intersection. This $4 billion project would use close to $2 billion of public money (our money!) and abuse the state's power of eminent domain by taking private property and handing it over to the billionaire developer for enormous profits.

Asking the Governor to stop the plunder of our neighborhood.

A broad coalition of neighborhood groups and organizations under the leadership of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) has led the fightback to protect the neighborhoods. At stake is not only questions of congestion, out-of-scale development and destruction of historic, low-rise neighborhoods but also the negative effects of gentrification with its inevitable disappearance of affordable housing due to escalating rents. With Ratner's luxury towers setting the pace for development in the surrounding area, poor people, working people, people of moderate incomes will be forced from the neighborhood as more affluent people move in. This is not conjecture. It's fact - just look across the river to Manhattan and all around Brooklyn right now to see it in action right before our eyes!

Recent downturns in the economy have prompted statements from the developer that only the arena could be built presently. The other elements, he said, including promises of jobs, affordable components as part of the luxury high-rises would be put on hold indefinately. Further, Ratner demanded that the public fork over even more subsidies on top of the $2 billion already estimated to be provided, if the development was to proceed. What chutzpah!

It was in light of those uncertainties that hundreds of residents turned out today at the site of the development to demand that Governor David Paterson call a "time out" on Ratner's Atlantic Yards. Speakers, including Councilwoman Letitia "Tish" James, State Senator Velmenette Montgomery and Councilman David Yassky addressed the crowd. James said it was a scandal that billions would be given to a private developer while funds for our public schools were being drastically cut. Yassky said it was time for the community to finally be heard and listened to. Montgomery thanked DDDB and the others who have kept community protest alive during all these years. "You are the reason that this project will eventually go away," she said.

People's Councilwoman Tish James gets the applause of Chris Owens who MC'd the event.

Entertainment was provided by the Manson Family Picnic (above) and Scott Turner.


Scott Turner, of Fans For Fair Play, sings a song of fair play for Brooklyn residents.

Chris Owens, community activist and President of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, MC'd the event and led the crowd in loud and boisterous cheers of "Time out! Time out! Time out!" that could be heard for blocks.

Hearkening back to the nefarious tactics of Muss, the developer imported counter-demonstrators to harass and intimidate the residents. But they were kept at bay by police and their presence did little to dampen the spirits of the Brooklynites who assembled to protect their communities. How ironic and sad to see some unions and workers promised jobs by Ratner(which now seem to be evaporating as quickly as Ratner's other promises). Can't they see that to side with a billionaire developer against a community striving to safeguard its rights is the wrong side? As the old union song asked - "Which side are you on?" Ratner is no friend of workers. That's for sure.

Imported counter-demonstrators are kept at a distance by police.

Muss eventually had to compromise. But before the community could force him to back off he demolished a beloved, old neighborhood asset: the Brighton Baths. Eventually he was forced to compromise. He still built his buildings but at a much lower level thanks to the unending opposition of the surrounding neighborhoods. Even though he refuses to bend, the same fate faces Mr. Ratner as the opposition to his ill-fated and scandal-ridden plans continues to grow and grow. This battle ain't over by a long shot. The people of Brooklyn refuse to live in Ratner's shadow.

WANT TO SEE MORE?
For a slide show of photos of today's rally just CLICK HERE.

For a gallery of photos, CLICK HERE.