BY JESSICA PARKS
Gerritsen Beach residents
are calling on city
planning honchos to revisit
a neighborhood-wide plan
to refurbish the area’s Sandy
damaged infrastructure,
complaining that the scheme
would narrow streets and ax
dozens of parking spaces.
“We want them to tweak
it to our favor,” said John
Mooney. “You can’t go wrong
with paving the streets, but
shortening the blocks and
taking away 50 parking
spots, that’s a no-go.”
The project — spearheaded
by the city Department of
Design and Construction
— includes replacing water
mains, sewers, and catch basins
in Gerritsen Beach’s “old
section,” which is defi ned as
the neighborhood’s southern
peninsula, while also
upgrading street lights, traffi
c signals, hydrants, curbs,
sidewalks, and roadways as
part of the project.
But Mooney, president of
the Gerritsen Beach Property
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COURIER L 10 IFE, JANUARY 24-30, 2020
Owners Association,
said the plan to install new
catch basins requires the
city to eliminate a whopping
50 of the area’s already
scarce parking spots.
“They are moving catch
basins over three feet,
that takes a parking spot,”
Mooney said. “Additional
spots will be taken away by
the new sidewalks.”
The city wants to widen
sidewalks throughout the
neighborhood as part of the
sprawling infrastructure
plan, which another Gerritsen
Beacher, Salvatore
Speciale, claimed would
force work vehicles to sideswipe
cars parked on the
narrower streets.
“They want to come out a
couple of inches on the sidewalk
when they have never
had them before,” Speciale
said. “People are going to get
wiped out their mirrors and
everything when the sanitation
trucks come by. The
Department of Transportation
never took any of this
into account.”
Local Councilman Alan
Maisel said he would champion
the effort to revise the
city’s controversial scheme,
and plans to write a letter to
the planning agency to formally
request the Department
of Design and Constriction
head back to the
drawing board.
Gerritsen Beachers are calling for the city to revise a reconstruction
project planned for its streetscape. NY City Map
Gerritsen Beach suffered
severe flooding during
Superstorm Sandy, which
caused widespread damage
throughout the neighborhood,
which has since been
overrun by heavy construction
vehicles that have torn
up the streets, Mooney said.
“Another round of trucks
is coming, I tell people to
take pictures of the foundation
on these blocks,”
Mooney said. “People are
selling their houses because
the work is ridiculous.”
The $26.3 million
streetscape upgrade began
in Winter 2019 — despite initially
being planned in 2013
— and is slated for completion
in the winter of 2022.
The Department of Design
and Construction could
not immediately respond to
comment.
A SORE SPOT
Gerritsen Beachers demand city halt
scheme to ax parking spots
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