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Since 1978 • (718) 260–2500 • Brooklyn, NY • ©2019 10 pages • Vol. 42, No. 52 • Serving Brownstone Brooklyn, Sunset Park, Williamsburg & Greenpoint December 27, 2019–January 2, 2020
New renderings show a Downtown Brooklyn made for pedestrians WALK THIS WAY
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
A business advocacy group unveiled
a host of snazzy renderings that display
a “pedestrianized” Downtown Brooklyn,
and members are calling on the city
to make its vision of America’s Downtown
into a reality.
“Downtown Brooklyn has transformed
into a true mixed-use community
over the last 15 years, and with its
population set to double in the next decade,
now is the moment for a bold public
realm vision that’s far more welcoming
to pedestrians – from its streets to
its plazas and parks,” said Regina Myer,
president of the Downtown Brooklyn
Partnership.
The renderings were created to show
off the groups “Downtown Brooklyn
Public Realm Vision,” a scheme to expand
pedestrian spaces in the borough’s
business district by extending the city’s
so-called Shared Streets program along
Willoughby Street and its side streets between
Boerum and Fleet places, an initiative
the Department of Transportation
debuted on a section of that thoroughfare
and Pearl Street in September.
The organization wants to expand
sidewalks along Schermerhorn, Livingston,
and Adams streets and improve pedestrian
crossings along Flatbush Avenue,
Jay Street, and Adams Street.
Brooklyn’s original busway, the Fulton
Mall, would be turned into a oneway
street for buses with room for a dedicated
bike lane, while east-bound buses
Local business boosters want to make the Fulton Mall a one-way street for buses, along with a dedicated
bike lane and more pedestrian space.
would be moved to neighboring Livingston
Street, according to the group.
In addition to making life easier for
pedestrians, Downtown Brooklyn Partnership
wants to add some four miles of
green infrastructure, including planters,
bioswales, and 900 new trees, in an effort
to mitigate stormwater runoff and
cool off the area, which is subject to the
urban heat island effect, which causes
metropolitan areas to become hotter than
more suburban townships.
The renderings follow Gov. Andrew
Cuomo’s August announcement that he
would invest $5.6 million to fund new
pedestrian crossings to connect the business
district to areas separated by the
Brooklyn-Queens Expressway — including
Dumbo, Fort Greene’s sprawling
public housing complexes, the Navy
Yard, and Commodore Barry Park —
as part of the state’s $10 million Downtown
Revitalization Initiative.
A spokeswoman for the Department
of Transportation said the agency has no
immediate plans to expand their Shared
Streets in Brooklyn, but said they are continuing
to talk to local stakeholders.
“DOT is actively assessing the potential
for additional Shared Street treatments
citywide however, at this time,
there are no immediate plans in Brooklyn,”
said Lolita Avila. “We have an ongoing
communication with stakeholders
on Willoughby Street and plan to conduct
broader outreach in 2020.”
Photo by Downtown Brooklyn Partnership
Light touch
U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer arrived in Park Slope with his grandson
Noah to light Brooklyn’s largest Hanukkah menorah on Dec.
22 — delighting over a thousand holiday revelers who gathered in
Grand Army Plaza for the occasion. Brooklynites donned festive
outfits and munched on the traditional potato latkes as they listened
to the famed Jewish artist Yehuda Green live in concert
during the holiday event — where several high profile politicos,
like Schumer, Borough President Eric Adams, and Councilman
Brad Lander helped kick off the Jewish holiday celebration.
Photo by Todd Maisel
If the park ain’t broke... and playground space, with a seating
Locals prefer empty lot over new playground at Carroll Park
By Ben Verde
Brooklyn Paper
A group of Carroll Gardens residents
told reps for the Department
of Parks and Recreation not to build
a new playground at Carroll Park,
saying they prefer the vacant blacktop
that’s already there.
“Don’t fix what’s not broken,”
said Seth Hillinger, a Carroll
Gardens dad. “Keep it as big
as it is.”
Reps for the Parks Department
came to a meeting of Community
Board Six’s Parks Committee on
Dec. 18 seeking the civic group’s
endorsement for a major renovation
of the President Street play
space, where the city wants to erect
a new playground that would occupy
a large portion of the asphalt
lot there, which features painted
lines for a baseball diamond and
basketball court, along with a
fenced-in bocci court that sees
little-t0-no use.
And while there’s nothing
flashy about the empty blacktop
at Carroll Park, Hillinger says the
lot provides kids with ample room
to play, which is safely removed
from traffic — two things in short
supply around Carroll Gardens.
“This is where I taught my
son to ride a bicycle, it’s essentially
a big open sidewalk,” said
the father.
Another Carroll Gardens resident
said the playground would
attract younger children to an area
frequented by more mature athletes,
potentially creating conflicts
between kids of different
age groups.
“You can’t put a toddler playground
over here, and an older
playground over there, and then
have kids running around with
their baseballs and soccer balls,”
said Sarah Weber, who volunteers
as a gardener in the park. “You
need the playground equipment
to be more integrated.”
In the end, members of Community
Board Six’s Parks Committee
voted by show hands for
a project that improves the play
equipment currently at the park
— which already has a play space
— in lieu of creating an entirely
new playground.
City officials stressed that the
designs presented on Wednesday
were purely preliminary, and that
the project remains unfunded at
this time. Parks officials will continue
soliciting community input
and modify designs based on the
feedback they receive.
This was the second time the
city came to board members with
their pitch for the Carroll Park redesign,
and earlier renderings of
the park showed the blacktop being
divided between artificial turf
area in the corner.
The designs shown on Wednesday
had fewer specifics. There is
no commitment to turf being installed
on the upper level, but officials
said that remains a possibility,
with the space around the
playground being labeled as “flexible
use.” The size of the proposed
playground expansion has also been
scaled down significantly.
At past community meetings,
residents had pushed for a litany
of improvements, including a dog
run — after a group of pet owners
were issued fines for walking their
dogs off-leash amid what one local
man described as an ICE-style
raid. But Brooklyn Parks Commissioner
Martin Maher shot down the
possibility of pooches ever having
a spot to run free in the historic
park, saying there just wasn’t
enough space.
“There is not going to be a dog
run at this park,” he said.
Photo by Ben Verde
Residents want Carroll Park’s open spaces to remain just
that — open.
P’Park to get rid of garbage cans
Plans to institute a carry-in, carry-out trash policy next year
By Colin Mixson
Brooklyn Paper
The non-for-profit caretakers of
Prospect Park will ask visitors to
take a greater hand in maintaining
Brooklyn’s Backyard beginning
sometime next year, when certain
areas of the park will be subject to a
“carry-in, carry-out” garbage policy
modeled after the National Park
Service’s like-named program, according
to a spokeswoman for the
Prospect Park Alliance.
“I can confirm that we are planning
to pilot a carry-in, carry-out
trash program in the park’s Lookout
Hill,” said Deborah Kirschner
.T
he upcoming pilot program is
designed to help protect wooded,
highland areas of the park, where
work vehicles have difficulty maneuvering
and litter poses a danger
to the natural environment,
according to Kirschner.
Prospect Park’s upcoming garbage
program is in the early stages
of development, and is being modeled
after carry-in, carry-out policies
utilized by the National Parks
Service, in which trash cans are
removed from natural areas to encourage
visitors to manage their
own litter and free up state resources
for other projects, according
to a City Lab report.
However, fewer trash cans
hasn’t always translated to less
litter, according to a report by the
Wall Street Journal, and Kirschner
said that the Alliance’s program
would be accompanied with
a strong public education campaign
in an effort to increase compliance.
The spokeswoman could not
confirm whether the Alliance
would reduce garbage pickups
in the affected areas, but said
that garbage cans would be reshuffled
to centralized locations
within the park and that the aim
of the new policy is not to cutback
on maintenance.
“The idea behind carry-in,
carry-out is to centralize the garbage
cans in key access point areas
– it does not necessarily mean
fewer cans or fewer pickups, just
more strategic placement of cans
and garbage removal points,”
Kirschner explained.
Prospect Park Alliance President
Sue Donoghue unveiled the
upcoming carry-in, carry-out
policy to volunteer members of
the Prospect Park Community
Committee — a coalition of local
organizations that gather on a
monthly basis with the Parks Department
and Prospect Park Alliance
to discuss issues concerning
Brooklyn’s Backyard — at a
meeting on Nov. 20, where some
members were skeptical that park
patrons would do their part maintain
the green space.
Stanley Greenberg, a longtime
member of the Brooklyn Bird Club,
pointed to the proliferation of dog
poop around the park, along with
the city’s failure to police the prohibition
on cars in Prospect Park
as a sure sign of the plan’s impending
failure.
“This kind of policy doesn’t
work for dog walkers, or drivers,
so I don’t expect that it will
work for people who litter,” said
Greenberg.
But others were pleased at the
new direction the Alliance was
taking, claiming it’s high time
that the people who love and enjoy
Prospect Park do their part to
keep it clean.
“We can’t have a garbage can
every 10 feet,” said Seth Kaplan, a
member of the Prospect Park Community
Committee. “It’s giving
people a new frame of reference
and saying, ‘just bring it in and
take it out,’ and that’s all.”
The Prospect Park Alliance
will institute a carry-in, carry
out garbage policy affecting
certain areas of the
park next year.
Photo by File Photo
JOIN THE CROWD
Developers plot massive tower in Fort Greene
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
Manhattan-based developers
are angling to erect a massive
glass tower in Fort Greene,
which will house around 120 residential
units and a spacious new
music school.
Builders with Gotham Organization
plan to construct the
285-foot condo building on St.
Felix Street between Hanson
Place and Lafayette Avenue —
on a vacant lot adjoining the historic
Williamsburg Savings Bank
Tower — senior rep for the company
Bryan Kelly told Commu-
The 285-foot condo tower (center) will front on St. Felix Place.
Photo by FXCollaborative
See TOWER on page 4
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