MP Road Diet hearing rescheduled, court date set
Continued on page 75
$10.7M renovation completed for W 229th St. Step Street
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, M BTR AY 31-JUNE 6, 2019 3
BY ALEX MITCHELL
The Morris Park Road Diet
remains delayed - for now.
A Bronx court upheld the
injunction on Wednesday,
May 29, halting planned work
by the NYC Department of
Transportation’s to redesign
the avenue.
This decision is still only
temporary.
After two judges recused
themselves from the case and
another one did not attend
the planned session on that
Wednesday, the injunction
will be revisited on Monday,
June 10.
For Morris Park Community
Association president and
Community Board 11 chairman
Al D’Angelo, he hopes
that this stay of execution will
give the court time to consider
why upholding the injunction
would be in the best interests
of his community.
“Traffi c studies and reports
are showing that fatalities
are increasing with this
new road diet style, obviously
it doesn’t work,” D’Angelo said
after returning from court.
He was additionally perpexed
after claiming that his
trip to court took a painful 45
minutes to cross the Bronx
without even using the Cross
Bronx Expressway.
“We couldn’t get out of Morris
Park. Even the side streets
were jam packed,” he said.
Side street crowding has
been a major concern for
D’Angelo who along with
Councilman Mark Gjonaj fear
will only get worse if the road
diet is to be implemented.
“The city is taking a cookie
cutter approach to doing these
kind of road diets,” D’Angelo
said noting that a similar road
diet proposal for Southern
Boulevard was also met with
community opposition.
“Each area is different,
Morris Park is not downtown
Brooklyn and it shouldn’t be
analyzed like it is,” he continued.
The injunction that
D’Angelo and other community
members fought to have
authorized came as result of a
lawsuit from Gjonaj, D’Angelo
and small business owners on
Morris Park Avenue to Mayor
de Blasio and high-ranking
members of the DOT, which
was fi led at the beginning of
the month, in sequence with
when the DOT planned to redo
the roadway.
“This gives the mayor and
the city an opportunity to revisit
the issue of Morris Park
Avenue,” Gjonaj said.
“Now (paying attention)
to the long-given input of the
community and reaching
something we can all agree
on,” he continued.
If the road diet is imle-
BY ALEX MITCHELL
A street in Kingsbridge
just took a step in the right
direction…about ten fl ights
of them to be exact.
The West 229th Street Step
Street between Kingsbridge
Terrace and Heath Avenue
was offi cially reopened after
a two year renovation on Friday,
May 24.
The new and improved
step street now boasts an approximate
230 feet of smooth
granite steps split between
nine different landings and
at total elevation difference
of 65 feet all done at a fi nal
cost of $10.7 million.
Also installed during
the expensive renovation
were: new trees, drainage
and lighting systems plus
a few benches and an outer
stone retaining walls were
repaired. Bike tracks for pedestrians
to carry bicycles
up and down the stairs were
also added into the mix in efforts
to meet modern safety
and construction standards.
Prior to its renovation, the
large fl ight of stairs hadn’t
been touched (aside from pedestrian
use) during its 90-
year existence.
Continued on page 75
It was in 2017 that the dilapidated,
crooked and dangerous
stairwell became a
repair priority by elected offi
cials Councilman Fernando
Cabrera and Assemblyman
Jeffery Dinowitz.
“I fi rst brought these particular
step streets to the
NYC Department of Transportation’s
attention because
I was so appalled at their terrible
condition,” Dinowitz
said at the time the repair
was announced. “I believe
that this newly rebuilt step
street will demonstrate how
much communities can benefi
t from well maintained,
well-lit pedestrian routes,”
he continued.
Fast forward to 2019, he
joined Cabrera, Bronx DOT
Commissioner Nivardo Lopez,
and NYC Department
of Design and Construction
members to celebrate the
escalation to the neighborhood.
“Step streets are a common
feature of the west
Bronx landscape and add a
visual attractiveness to the
area,” Cabrera said, noting
that he attended the groundbreaking
in 2017, witnessing
what bad shape the steps
were in.
“I’m very happy today to
see the reconstruction of the
West 229th Street Step Street
completed, enhancing walkability,
access to public transit,
safety and restoring an
easy and familiar pedestrian
route,” the councilman continued.
While the popular route
was out of commission for
almost two years, most local
residents had to take a
ten-minute detour to Kings-
Morris Park Avenue is under consideration for a DOT Vision Zero road diet. File Photo
The West 229th Street Step Street. Photo by Edward Watkins