CONVERSION
legally mandated Community
Board process and the Community
Board public hearing.”
Then, less than two weeks
later, Branch allegedly emailed
Beckmann requesting she
join the Community Advisory
Board to represent the views of
CB10 — a process she’d never
heard of prior to its use in this
project, the petition alleges.
In neighboring CB7, District
Manager Jeremy Laufer
wrote to DOT Commissioner
Hank Gutman on June 3, asking
that he halt all conversion
plans and end conversation
with the “unprecedented and
arbitrary ‘community engagement’
processes” until they
work with the three respective
boards, as is required in
the City Charter.
The court fi ling also calls
for the Kings County Supreme
Court to prohibit the agency
from commencing construction
on the thoroughfares until
the court makes a fi nal determination,
and to prohibit
the use of the term “Community
Advisory Board” in connection
with the project.
A stressful situation
Though agencies like
DOT have historically gone
through the city’s community
boards for feedback (their recommendations,
COURIER L 22 IFE, JULY 23-29, 2021
at the end of
the day, are purely advisory),
many argue that the panels’
involvement often serves as a
roadblock for safer streets.
And while the Seventh
and Eighth Avenue conversion
plan hasn’t gone board
to board, the head of a southern
Brooklyn-based bicycle
advocacy group maintains
that there’s been plenty of outreach.
“I haven’t perceived a lack
of outreach,” said Brian Hedden,
president of Bike South
Brooklyn. “I have sat in on a
couple of meetings and I know
that they’ve had other meetings
that I did not take part
in. It does seem to me like the
DOT has created a number of
avenues where people can sit
in on DOT presentations and
have their feedback heard.”
In those meetings — held
virtually amid the coronavirus
pandemic — Hedden said
DOT representatives made
sure to address every comment
in the chat and answer
all relevant questions.
Hedden further argued
that the conversion wouldn’t
just benefi t bicyclists and pedestrians
who he said fi nd
traveling the thoroughfares
chaotic but it would also provide
smoother travel for vehicles
and riders of the B70 bus.
“The whole thing is a highstress
environment and makes
people not want to be there,”
Hedden said. “In addition to
actually increasing safety,
it would also lower the perceived
stress for anyone using
that corridor … and hopefully
make it accessible to larger
groups of people.”
Similarly, a press representative
for DOT said the
agency has engaged residents
of Sunset Park on several occasions
about the plan to improve
safety on the corridor,
where the injury rate for children
and seniors is 40 percent
higher than the borough average
— namely at two recent
public forums where DOT answered
over 100 questions.
“Seventh and Eighth Avenues
are major Vision Zero
priorities, and DOT has engaged
Sunset Park in several
conversations, across languages,
on our plan to make
it safer,” said Lolita Avila.
“We’re looking forward to
continuing those conversations
and designing a plan
that works for the community
and keeps people safe.”
In the meantime, the project
has been on hold since
the lawsuit was fi led in the
Kings County Supreme Court
on July 7 by Stephen Harrison,
a lawyer and member of
Community Board 10. The
case will next go before Judge
Rosemarie Montalbano on
July 22, when the defense will
attempt to compel the courts
to allow the project to move
forward while the lawsuit is
underway.
Continued from page 6
The proposed one-way conversion coming to parts of Seventh and Eighth avenues. NYCDOT