Brooklyn Transit BROOKLYN-USA.ORG
Straphangers rally to bring crosstown
bus service back to Brownstone Brooklyn
New York City legislators Jo Anne Simon and Brad Lander rallied with locals on Nov. 12th to demand the MTA bring back the B71 bus.
Ben Verde
ONE BROOKLYN | WINTER 2019–2020 13
Park Slope civic gurus rallied on
Tuesday to demand the return of
the crosstown B71 bus, claiming
it’s easier to get from Brooklyn to Manhattan
than it is to reach Red Hook!
“Most of the subway service is oriented
towards north-south, and taking
people in and out of Manhattan — not
connecting people across Brooklyn
neighborhoods,” said Eric McClure,
Transportation Chair of Community
Board Six.
The bus route ran from the Columbia
Street Waterfront District, up
Union Street through Gowanus and
Park Slope, before turning back in
Crown Heights — right up until the
Transit Authority axed the service in
2010 amid statewide budget cuts.
The move deprived locals of an essential
crosstown transit option, which
made stops at nine schools, three senior
centers, and multiple public housing developments,
said one local lawmaker.
“Students lost a route to school, seniors
lost the bus that took them to the
grocery store and library and families
lost a ride to the Brooklyn Children’s
Museum and Prospect Park,” said Councilman
Brad Lander (D–Park Slope).
Another Park Slope activist pointed
out the lack of alternative transit options
to fi ll the vacuum left by the B71’s
demise, especially in Red Hook, where
straphangers can’t rely on the subway
to provide crosstown connections.
“This void represents schools that
families can’t choose because they
can’t get to them, healthy food options
that are fewer, the music lessons that
are just too out of the way,” said community
board member Kathy Park
Price. “This hole represents missed
opportunities.”
Local leaders have pushed for the
buses return since it was eliminated in
2010, but they’re renewing their push to
resurrect the B71 in anticipation of the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s
plan to overhaul the borough’s bus
system. And then there’s the Gowanus
Rezoning, which housing experts predict
could bring more than 8,200 new
residents to the neighborhood.
“Agencies must plan and invest in
smart, sustainable infrastructure to
support new and existing residents,”
said Andrea Parker, Executive Director
of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy.
“Both current and new residents
of Gowanus will benefi t from an
accessible transportation route.”
At the rally on Tuesday night outside
the Park Slope library branch, advocates
delivered a 1,300-signature petition to
transit offi cials calling for the line to not
only be reinstated, but extended to Manhattan
through the Battery Tunnel,
which would create a direct link to Manhattan
for transit-starved Red Hook.
The Transit Authority should be reinstating
the B71 and making other bus
improvements, according to advocates,
who see mass transportation as a way to
mitigate the effects of climate change.
“As the planet gets hotter, we need
to be getting people out of cars and
onto mass transit,” said McClure. “For
the MTA to be contemplating service
cuts... is just unacceptable.”
/BROOKLYN-USA.ORG