Readers: Accidents are unavoidable!
COURIER LIFE, MARCH 6-12, 2020 23
Transportation advocates
lined the sidewalk outside of
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s go-to
YMCA branch in Park Slope
with a row of empty shoes, hoping
the scene would call Hizzoner’s
attention to the 23 pedestrians
killed by drivers in the city
since New Years.
“We should not accept any
more traffic fatalities this year
or ever,” the advocates wrote
on Twitter. “Would we really
say that if we ended this year at
‘only’ 122 dead New Yorkers that
would be a success?”
The display, which was installed
outside the Ninth Street
gym early Monday morning,
featured quotes from the mayor
himself that read “Our society
can’t prioritize our cars over
our children.”
The scourge of traffic-related
fatalities comes on the heels of a
particularly deadly 2019, when
motorists killed 124 pedestrians
and 28 cyclists — marking the
first time that traffic fatalities
had increased since de Blasio
took office in 2013.
Readers had a lot to say online:
He’s already lowered the speed
limit, built bigger curbs, reduced
street sizes, cops pull drivers over
regularly, and he put out ads telling
drivers to be more careful. Anyone
who thinks he hasn’t been trying
hasn’t been paying attention.
PJ Peter Jones
I don’t get it, past having working
traffic lights and walk/don’t
walk signs, what else do you want
the city to do? If you don’t know
how to cross the street with all
that help, you should be run over.
Vladimir Cousteau
They are traffic accidents. They
are acting like its murder. And
this mayor will cave and restrict
driving even more.
Anthony Sellitto
How about we talk about the
fact that he takes a ride from Gracie
mansion every day to Brooklyn
just to use a gym. What a waste of
taxpayer dollars...
Nicholas Crayton
They were killed in accidents.
Not “killed by drivers!”
Seamus McHenry
Why would they do that?
The Metropolitan Transit Authority
will halt F train service
to Coney Island weekends beginning
in March — for the rest of
the year!
In an effort to upgrade the
line’s aging signaling system,
the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority will suspend train service
between Church Avenue and
Stillwell Avenue from March 21
into 2021, a transit rep said.
“Work on the F train will continue
in 2021. Right now, we are
sharing service changes through
2020 so customers can plan
ahead,” said Kayla Shuts, an
MTA rep.
In the interim, free shuttle
buses will transport riders from
Church Avenue to Stillwell Avenue,
Shuts added.
Readers spoke up online:
That is the stupidest move the
MTA can do especially during the
open season Coney. Running shuttle
busses to Coney will make the
MTA lose money. And instead of
taking 29 miutes to get to Coney, it
will take a hour how stupid.
Nancy Smith
Thank God the N is returning
in 2 months, so I’ll have another
option to return home from work
than just the D train. I for one hate
the summer season at Coney. It’s
far too crowded. Way to many people
on the train and I am just trying
to get home from work. Maybe the
not having the F train on the weekend
will cut down on the crowds.
Barbara White
So the F gets cut for the weekends
to upgrade the signals that
people complain about. I guess
people don’t realize that the D
goes to Coney Island, so does the
Q, and the N will resume full service
soon. God forbid you people
figure out alternate ways to get to
your destination.
Anthony German
Wow, this is a terrible idea.
J. Martin Noble
We needed that...
Just weeks after President
Donald Trump blasted the plan
on Twitter, federal authorities
abruptly halted a $19 million
feasibility study of a massive
storm protection barrier off the
coast of Brooklyn — prompting
experts to advocate for smallerscale,
localized alternatives.
“We are in support of looking
at innovations of resilience and
applying them in places they are
needed,” said Robert Freudenberg,
the vice president of the
Regional Plan Association.
The US Army Corps of Engineers
was halfway through its
six-year, multi-million dollar
storm resiliency study that examined
four proposals to build
storm-resilient infrastructure
around New York.
The proposals included a $9
billion plan to build scattered
levees and flood walls across
the city’s coastal areas and a $62
billion sea wall equipped with
retractable gates that would
run six miles between the Rockaways
and New Jersey.
However, the study came to a
stop when the Army Corps announced
on Feb. 10 that their
2020 work plan did not include
funding for further research —
less than a month after the commander
in chief publicly called
the potential sea wall “foolish.”
Readers spoke up online:
The tragedy is that this is a area
that has been without attention for
decades. I live in Gerrittsen beach.
A traditional sea wall would have
been much cheaper and be at least
partially ready by now. The reason
that this is necessary is because
the accumulation of sand
and silt at several places around
Gerrittsen Beach has led to waters
that are much more shallow than
the depths indicated on the 2011
Jamaica Bay Nautical Chart (50th
Rev. Ed.), which contains Gerritsen
Beach. The chart’s legend indicates
that Gerrittsen Beach was
last surveyed between the years
1940 – 1969. Nearby areas around
the Rockaways were last surveyed
between 1900 and 1939. Political interest
dies at the shoreline.
Peter Sinnott
Good. These were bad ideas.
David Brotsky
Change can be good!
The Brooklyn Public Library
and the Brooklyn Historical Society
announced on Thursday
that the two iconic borough institutions
will merge together,
bringing an unmatched catalog
of Kings County lore under one
unified umbrella.
“By combining with the
Brooklyn Public Library, the
Brooklyn Historical Society immediately
extends our reach to
every neighborhood in the borough,”
said Brooklyn Historical
Society President Deborah
Schwartz. “This partnership
also provides BHS with financial
stability, professional resources
and, and through our
combined programming, an enhancement
and expansion of everything
we do.”
Under the new scheme, the
book lender will serve as the
parent institution of the Historical
Society — while assuming
care of all of its archives
and programming, as well as it
landmarked Pierrepont Street
building,
The archives of the two institutions
will be combined into
one, with regular library-goers
now having easy access to the society’s
collection of rare Brooklyn
related texts and artifacts.
The book repository’s massive
collection of over 200,000
photos, books, maps, and newspapers
of historic Kings County
will now be housed in the Society’s
archives, which the library
says will free up much-needed
space for public programing.
Readers experssed themselves
online:
I live a block from the library
and use the Brooklyn Room quite
frequently. Sometimes a couple
times a week. Not thrilled that I’ll
now have to travel to see the collection
and know that my visits will
be few and far between in the future.
Wesley Jon Greenbaum
I love it!
Vera Ellen Jeffery
I see a huge, exciting userfriendly
website coming to include
all things Brooklyn from the early
Dutch to the recent Gen Xers.
Seth Edwards
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