Controversial service changes coming
to Brooklyn’s busiest bus route
B46 straphangers targeted for cuts that drew protests in Downton Brooklyn
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority will increase wait times along the B46 — Brooklyn’s busiest route — but add longer articulated buses,
starting in January 2020. Photos by Elissa Esher
BY KEVIN DUGGAN AND ELISSA
INSIDE
WWW.BROOKLYNDPAPILEYR.C.COOMM 1 METROTECH CENTER NORTH • 10TH FLOOR • BROOKLYN, NY 11201
Drape nuts: Dancers move among the hanging fabrics of “On
the Backs of Fireflies,” part of the exhibit “Grand Installations:
Spatial Relations” at the Red Hook gallery Brooklyn Waterfront
Artists Coalition. Sam Joseph
Give ‘em space
Giant exhibits take over Red Hook gallery
By Elissa Esher Space is the place!
A Red Hook gallery has
launched an exhibit of enormous
three-dimensional art pieces, inviting
audiences to lose themselves among the
artwork. The Brooklyn Waterfront Artists
Coalition exhibit “Grand Installations:
Spatial Relations,” on display Saturdays
and Sundays through Oct. 27, spotlights
work by eight artists from around the
country in an effort to make visitors think
about their own physical presence, said
the show’s curator.
“We want our audience to experience
this art, not just see it,” said Fritz Weiss.
“We have huge installations here that
force you to think about how you inhabit
negative space, videos complementing
the work, and visitors are even doing yoga
as part of one of the pieces. It’s different.
It’s exciting.”
One notable installation, a 20-foothigh,
50-foot-long sculpture titled “On
the Backs of Fireflies,” uses recycled
metal objects and colorful fabric to create
a playful object. The artist said that she
was inpired by the rusting metal that
surrounded her home, growing up in rural
Vermont.
“I work a lot with chain-link fencing
in ‘On the Backs of Fireflies’ because
I’m fascinated by the way it transforms
when you put some paint and fabric over
it,” said Victoria Cowles, who now lives
in Washington, DC. “It was one of the
cheapest and ugliest things you could buy
where I’m from, but take it out of context
and juxtapose it with color and texture and
somehow it becomes a dignified, beautiful
shape. In my art, I like to take the raw and
gritty things in life and see joy.”
During the gallery opening on Sept.
21, Cowles brought in two dance teams
to perform around her piece, while
oscillating fans caused the fabric to move
and seem alive. After the performances,
said the artist, ordinary visitors also
began interacting with her piece.
“Adults and kids were dancing
together and they even wore some of the
pieces I had set out there like clothes,” she
said. “It was heartwarming. Art is sort of
magically transformed when people get
involved in it.”
Visitors will find their own way
to react to each piece in the “Spatial
Relations” show, said its curator.
“Each of the artists we chose has
created an entirely different experience,
both for the audience and for themselves
personally,” said Weiss. “We’ve only
provided them with the space to do it.”
The Artists Coalition also has two
other fall exhibits on the display in its
warehouse space in Red Hook: “Color,”
a juried exhibition exploring the meaning
of pigments, and “Fall in/Fall out,”
an exhibit of work by the Coalition’s
members.
“Grand Installations: Spatial
Relations” at Brooklyn Waterfront Artists
Coalition Gallery 481 Van Brunt St.
between Reed Street and the water in Red
Hook, (718) 596–2506, www.bwac.org.
Sat–Sun through Oct. 27; 1–6 pm. Free.
Your entertainment
guide Page 37
Police Blotter ..........................8
Education .............................. 27
Opinion ...................................22
Letters ....................................23
Standing O ............................ 26
NYC Works .............................. 31
HOW TO REACH US
COURIER L 2 IFE, SEPT. 27-OCT. 3, 2019
ESHER
Transit honchos are applying
a similar suite of controversial
service cuts that drew
protests from B38 straphangers
to the busiest bus route in
Brooklyn.
The Metropolitan Transportation
Authority will run
less buses along the B46 route’s
Select Bus Service from Williamsburg
to Mill Basin starting
January 2020, which will
lead to $2.4 million in savings
for the agency, while forcing
commuters to wait an extra
one to three minutes between
buses, according to a release
by the agency.
The sting of reducing the
overall amount of buses from
the line will be tempered by
the addition of new longer
buses that will increase capacity
from 85 to 115 riders,
which an agency spokeswoman
claims will result in
a net positive for straphangers.
“When we’re running longer
buses, buses with more
people on it per bus, then
you’re increasing capacity,”
said Amanda Kwan.
The agency announced
the cuts the same day that advocates
rallied in Downtown
Brooklyn against service reductions
to the B38 and B54,
of which, the former was also
affected by a nearly identical
cost-saving scheme, with
less, but longer buses.
Transit offi cials claimed
the new less-is-more strategy
would enhance reliability
along the route, ensuring
drivers hit their marks and
made stops on time, but riders
claimed that delays and
issues such as bunching continued
to plagued the B38 following
service changes.
“I’ve waited for more than
40 minutes for the buses to arrive,
just to have three of them
come together at the same bus
stop,” said Pedro Valdez-Rivera,
a B38 rider, who joined
Thursday’s protest.
The B46 and its express
bus line represent the busiest
bus route in the borough and
the third-busiest citywide,
carrying more than 38,000
riders a day from Williamsburg
to Kings Plaza in Mill
Basin, through Bushwick,
Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown
Heights, East Flatbush, and
Flatlands along the transitstarved
Utica Avenue corridor.
The B46 SBS currently
has a mix of both shorter
and longer buses, and Transit
Authority fi gures show
that buses routinely arrive
at stops over capacity, with
buses being 108-percent full
during morning rush hours
on weekdays and 121-percent
full on Saturday midday.
Meanwhile, the agency
plans to spend $5 million under
its recently announced
capital plan to study an extension
of the subway along
Utica Avenue, either from Fulton
Street’s A and C stop or
the Eastern Parkway 3 and 4
stops, according to The City .
But commuters are having
a hard time accepting the
good with the bad, with one
Crown Heights woman saying
transit offi cials went over
the community’s head.
“I’m past frustrated, I’m
angry,” said Mary Gibbs.
“They never asked the community
about this. Nobody
at the MTA asked us what we
wanted to do with our own
line.”
Another rider said that
local residents already suffered
from living in the transit
starved area and that the
cuts will lengthen his commute.
“We already have so little
public transportation here,”
said Freddy Williams, also
from Crown Heights. “It’s
just messed up. I take the line
every single day. If there are
less buses I’ll have to leave
earlier in the morning.
Mail:
Courier Life,
1 Metrotech Center North
10th Floor, Brooklyn,
N.Y. 11201
General Phone:
(718) 260-2500
News Fax:
(718) 260-2592
News E-Mail:
editorial@schnepsmedia.com
Display Ad Phone:
(718) 260-8302
Display Ad E-Mail:
jstern@schnepsmedia.com
Display Ad Fax:
(718) 260-2579
Classified Phone:
(718) 260-2555
Classified Fax:
(718) 260-2549
Classified E-Mail:
classified@schnepsmedia.com
This newspaper is not responsible for typographical errors in ads beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2019 by Brooklyn Courier Life
LLC. The content of this newspaper is protected by Federal copyright law. This newspaper, its advertisements, articles and photographs may not be reproduced, either in whole
or part, without permission in writing from the publisher except brief portions for purposes of review or commentary consistent with the law. Postmaster, send address changes to
Brooklyn Courier Life LLC, One MetroTech North, 3rd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201.
/WWW.BROOKLYNDPAPILEYR.C.COOMM
link
link
link
/www.bwac.org
/www.bwac.org
link
link
link