Pol fi les suit to block conversion
BY JESSICA PARKS
A southern Brooklyn lawmaker
and a coalition of residents
are bringing the city’s
Department of Transportation
to court in hopes of halting
the conversion of a stretch of
Seventh and Eighth Avenues
into one-way streets — claiming
that the city hasn’t done
enough outreach.
“The New York City Department
of Transportation
are just bypassing the whole
system,” said Assemblymember
Peter Abbate, who represents
a swath of southern
Brooklyn which includes Sunset
Park, Dyker Heights and
parts of Bensonhurst. “They
are just doing what they want
to do and that’s not what city
agencies are for.”
Under the DOT’s proposal,
a portion of both two-way
thoroughfares would be converted
to one-ways, with Seventh
Avenue running south
between 39th and 65th streets,
and Eighth Avenue running
north over the same stretch.
The project, which also includes
new protected bike
lanes, extended sidewalks and
other safety confi gurations,
spans community boards 7, 10
and 12.
COURIER L 6 IFE, JULY 23-29, 2021
The plan lies largely in
Sunset Park, where the conversion
will run through the
heart of Brooklyn’s Chinatown
— prompting backlash
from members of the Asian
community who have rallied
against the proposal, claiming
the conversion will destroy
their commerce. Though, the
new one-way streets would
also run through a couple of
blocks of Bay Ridge and Dyker
Heights.
‘A paid posse of
youngsters’
The nine plaintiffs — who,
along with Abbate, include locals
Kenny Guan, Bao Zhi Liu,
Vincent Lu, Qinwen Lu, Paul
Mak, Grace Mo, Kam Fon Mui
and Tsang Sun Mai — fi led an
Article 78 proceeding, an appeal
of a New York agency’s
decision to the state courts,
on July 7 alleging that the
DOT knowingly violated the
New York City Administrative
Code when bypassing the
mandated public outreach to
the affected boards.
That code requires the
agency to notify the community
board by email when
there is any major traffi c proposal
comprising more than
four blocks, after which the
agency must bring the plan
before the board upon the panel’s
request, within 30 days of
that request.
Instead, city transit bigwigs
presented the project to
a Community Advisory Board
of which, the fi ling argues,
members were handpicked to
streamline the project, instead
of including the impacted people
and businesses.
“At the very least the people
and businesses of the affected
districts have a right to
expect their voices to be heard
through the legal processes
set by the law,” the complaint
states, “and not by a paid
posse of youngsters, potentially
skewing personal interviews
to impress their superiors
by obtaining the results
desired by DOT to accomplish
its ends.”
The fi ling further alleges
that Bay Ridge Community
Board 10 District Manager Josephine
Beckmann requested
in a May 3 call to DOT rep Leroy
Branch that the agency
provide a joint meeting for the
three community boards, as
well as a separate meeting for
each board, as she similarly
told Brooklyn Paper in June.
The fi ling states that
Branch told Beckmann in response,
“because DOT wanted
this plan implemented by August,
2021, DOT was going to
create its own public review
process, thus bypassing the
Assemblymember Peter Abbate is taking the city’s Department of Transportation
to court over an alleged lack of outreach regarding a planned
one-way street conversion on Seventh and Eighth Avenues. File photo
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