Leaders from Downtown, Bay Ridge,
Sunset Park, Slope, W’burg Speak Out
By Raanan Geberer
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
BOROUGH HALL — Say you’re a “C” train rider who would like to be able to stand nearer to the ends of the platform to get a seat, rather than have to go toward the center.
Or else you’re a rider of the B-41 bus in Park Slope who works in Downtown Brooklyn and who desperately wishes there were more buses so you won’t have to stand all the way.
Or maybe you’re a Canarsie resident who goes to Brooklyn College, and would like to take one bus all the way to school.
You can get all these improvements and more, it was announced at a press conference by the Campaign for New York’s Future, a coalition group supporting congestion pricing, at Borough Hall yesterday.
Now lest you say, “Oh, no, another plan,” they have already been approved by the MTA as “short-term improvements.”
There’s a catch, however. In order for the transit agency to get the federal money to implement them, the city’s congestion pricing plan or an equivalent must be approved by Albany by the end of January. Already, a task force is working on the recommendations.
That’s why the coalition is, in effect, urging New Yorkers to support congestion pricing in order to receive these transit improvements, which can then be put into effect even before congestion pricing. A Brooklyn hearing on the subject is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 1, from 3 to 5 p.m. at City Tech’s Klitgord Auditorium in Downtown Brooklyn.
“Brooklyn can have its cheesecake and eat it too,” said Michael O’Loughlin, head of the group. “You can have transit and clean air quality!” He later reminded the group that “only about 3 or 4 percent of New Yorkers drive to work” in Manhattan, but “100 percent” of the city’s residents would benefit from the plan.
Features of these short-term improvements include:
• A new express route from Bay Ridge to Manhattan that would go down Fourth Avenue, rather than go along the Belt Parkway as do the two existing express bus lines.
• A new local bus route from Metropolitan Avenue to Lower Manhattan via the Williamsburg Bridge.
• The aforementioned new local bus route from Canarsie/East 80th Street/Avenue H to Flatbush Avenue.
• Some 58 new buses on the B41, B5, B17 and BM2 buses; and
• Expanding capacity on the C train from eight-car to 10-car trains.
Present at the press conference were Brooklyn community leaders from several different neighborhoods. They included Patrick Condren of the 86th Street Bay Ridge Business Improvement District, Teresa Toro of Neighbors Allied for Good Growth (Williamsburg); Joanne Simon, Democratic district leader of Downtown’s 51st Assembly District; Doug Giuliano of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership; and Cece Caprio of United Puerto Rican Organization of Sunset Park (UPROSE).
“Mass transit is the best and only option for travel for the majority of Brooklyn residents,” said Condren. “The mayor’s PlaNYC initiative [of which congestion pricing is a part], therefore, is critical as it would fund necessary transit service improvements and expansions without overburdening these riders with massive fare hikes.”
Toro added, “Our community suffers from its prime location between two toll-free bridges, the Williamsburg and the Queensboro, and the large volume of traffic that runs through our streets. What is free to car and truck drivers is a costly health and safety hazard for us.”
This reporter asked O’Loughlin about allegations by critics of the congestion pricing plan that it would lead to people from outlying areas such as Flatbush and Canarsie driving to a central point, such as the Flatbush Junction or Downtown Brooklyn, grabbing local parking spaces, and then hopping the train to Manhattan.
Simon answered that one way that problem could be prevented was by use of neighborhood parking permits in affected areas.
A representative of the Park Slope Civic Council who was scheduled to be at the meeting was not able to come, but submitted a statement supporting the pricing plan.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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