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February 21-27, 2020
ALSO SERVING PROSPECT HEIGHTS, WINDSOR TERRACE, KENSINGTON, AND GOWANUS
A rendering shows what the BQX could look like. New York City Economic Development Corporation
‘WE DON’T WANT THIS’
Red Hookers demand better buses instead of BQX
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The city should not waste
$2.73 billion on Mayor Bill
de Blasio’s recently-revived
Brooklyn-Queens Connector
trolley — also known as the
BQX— and instead spend the
city’s resources to improve
the buses of transit-starved
Red Hook, residents said at
a local outreach meeting on
Feb. 13.
“I think it’s a fi asco, a
monumental potential waste
of money when in fact there
are far more effi cient modes
of transportation,” said
John McGettrick, a co-chair
of the Red Hook Civic Association.
“We currently have
inadequate bus service with
the B61, putting this there
would be more of an impediment
and make that bus service
even worse.”
The city’s Department
of Transportation and Economic
Development Corporations
— the agencies partnering
on the project — held
a workshop featuring maps
of the proposed trolly route
from Red Hook to Queens,
along with reps who took
questions and feedback from
locals, ostensibly to help improve
the city’s designs for
the controversial transit
project.
But one common piece of
advice locals offered the city
was to abandon the scheme
in favor of a more cost-effi
cient transit system, although
advocates are skeptical
that offi cials will heed
their suggestions.
“At all of these meetings
we’ve said, ‘We don’t want
this and why are you doing
this,’ and they just said, ‘Oh
we’re doing this we’re moving
forward, help us make it
better,’”said Alyce Erdekian,
who’s attended numerous
meetings regarding the BQX
since it was announced in
2016.
Civic gurus offered similar
critiques at a Community
Board 2 meeting held
in Downtown Brooklyn last
month, where locals pleaded
with offi cials to build some
form of Bus Rapid Transit
in lieu of the trolley, which
EDC’s own head said would
cost $800 million less at a
Council hearing last summer.
Some Red Hook residents
Continued on page 16
Towers
in court
Judge boosts
lawsuit against
Crown Heights
developments
BY BEN VERDE
A State Supreme Court justice
denied Crown Heights
developer’s requests to move
construction equipment onto
their sites, in a minor victory
to anti-development activists
seeking to halt the projects.
Activists have accused
Carroll Plaza Development —
the developer behind one of
the residential towers located
at 931 Carroll St. — of violating
the restraining order by
performing preliminary construction
work including soil
excavation at the site. On Jan.
9, fi ve activists were arrested
trying to block dump trucks
from entering the property.
Due to the activity at the
site, activists have schemed to
fi le criminal charges of contempt
of court against the developers,
along with a temporary
bond injunction, which is
slightly stronger than a temporary
restraining order. A
motion for the injunction has
been scheduled for April.
The restraining order
stems from a lawsuit Boyd
brought against developers
behind the two 16-story towers
and the City of New York, who
she accuses of failing to conduct
a thorough environmental
impact statement before
approving a controversial rezoning
necessary for the housing
project to move forward.
Activists have long complained
that the develop-
Continued on page 16
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