By Harold Egeln
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

WINDSOR TERRACE — With two western Prospect Park car exits now closed since April 27, Community Board 7 officials finally met face-to-face with city officials to express their reservations and to complain about the lack of opportunity to give their input on the issue.

Board 7 leaders were encouraged by indications of support for their position by Borough President Marty Markowitz and state Sen. Eric Adams. The two entrances/exits permanently closed by the Department of Transportation (DOT) are the West Third Street exit/entrance in Community District 6 and the 16th Street exit at Prospect Park Southwest just north of Park Circle in Community District 7.

With the DOT action, “democratic decision-making� has been tossed to the side of the road, complained Board 7 Chair Randy Peers. The recent meeting with DOT officials, while welcomed, did not resolve the basic concerns of the board, he said, and recent public reports making the exit closings solely a bikes-versus-cars issue miss the point.

“Yes, cars versus bikes is a much sexier issue to report on than issues like democracy, accountability and compromise,� said Peers in a letter to board friends about the recent meeting with the DOT, which made clear its goal to ban all cars from the park. Cars only use park roads for two morning rush hours northbound and two evening hours southbound.

“All they [the DOT] said was that the exits were underutilized and the closures were being done to reduce the chances of cars and bicycles coming into conflict,� said Peers. “They produced no written study or data collected regarding either utilization of the exits, or more importantly, potential impacts, especially to Park Circle.�

Board 7 is frustrated, he said, because at a DOT community forum in February about Park Circle, which has been plagued with traffic problems for years, the department solicited opinions about how circle traffic could be improved. That forum appeared to mark “a new beginning� in the DOT community outreach, said Peers — except that there was no mention of the planned exit closings.

Windsor Terrace and Kensington residents, he explained, are concerned about how a total ban on cars in the park would affect traffic in their neighborhoods. Peers said, “Assemblyman Jim Brennan also has concerns and believes such a change should not occur without conducting a rigorous environment impact study. And while DOT has also failed to address current traffic problems along Prospect Park Southwest, it is eager to divert more cars from the park to PPSW.�

That is when “simple geography� kicks in, Peers said, noting that heavy commuter traffic will now traverse Windsor Terrace’s residential streets rather than circle around Green-Wood Cemetery and Prospect Park on either side of Windsor Terrace.

“On Friday I received a very supportive call from Borough President Marty Markowitz regarding Board 7’s crusade to hold the NYC Department of Transportation accountable to neighborhood residents,� Peer said. “Our office also was copied a letter that state Sen. Eric Adams sent to the DOT commissioner supporting the board’s concerns about community input.�

Transportation Alternatives has waged a campaign to make Prospect Park completely car-free. Its study last summer found that during the four hours during the workweek when cars are allowed on park roads, nine out of 10 were speeding, endangering pedestrians and bikers.

Community Board 6 also wants the DOT to try banning cars for a trial period to see what effect it would have.

In Peers’ view, the DOT looks favorably on Transportation Alternative position. He charges that the DOT “has adopted an activist agenda� and that DOT leadership “forgoes any semblance of democratic decision-making.�

Taking action “in our crusade to restore some community involvement in transportation planning,� Peers directed Board 7 District Manager Jeremy Laufer to submit a Freedom of Information request to obtain “all official traffic studies that the DOT has conducted around Prospect Park in the last seven years.�

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