After traffic chaos around Disney on Ice performances, no-shows from Barclays Center, DOT, NYPD leave question marks
This is the eighth of ten articles on the 11/19/19 Quality of Life meeting, which focused on the new B12 and B13 towers. The first concerned plans to finally move forward with Site 5. The second concerned the timing of the platform over the railyard. The third concerned the single parking garage entrance on the block. The fourth concerned the design of the new towers. The fifth concerned open space plans on that southeast block. The sixth concerned B4, Times Plaza, and the railyard. The seventh concerned art on the Dean Street construction fence. The ninth concerned the Pacific Park Conservancy. The tenth concerned the Pacific Park Owners Association.
Typically a representative of the Barclays Center attends these bi-monthly meetings to make announcements and take questions. Occasionally, representatives of the NYPD's 78th Precinct attend. Less occasionally, representatives of the city Department of Transportation (DOT) attend.
None attended this meeting, but their presence might have helped answer why the previous weekend around the Barclays Center had proved so challenging for neighbors. The arena hosted Disney on Ice: one show Friday night, then three on Saturday and then Sunday.
Such clusters of shows are common--here are the 2018 and 2017 schedules for Disney on Ice--but this was more chaotic than most.
What went wrong?
After the meeting, I asked Prospect Heights resident Elaine Weinstein, co-president of the North Prospect Heights Association, about it.
Weinstein, who attended a show herself, said the arena looked pretty full, with only the top section with vacancies.
"No one's moving and horns honking," she said, describe the scene on multiple streets around the arena: Dean Street, Pacific Street, Sixth Avenue, Carlton Avenue, Atlantic Avenue, Flatbush Avenue. "If someone had to get a car out or child was ill," they would've been trapped, said, calling the situation far worse than in previous years.
What made this different? Weinstein suggested that the lack of traffic control personnel, other than those directly at the arena, made things worse. Usually they're present at least one block in, to Sixth Avenue, she said. "And no police presence whatsoever."
It's unclear whether there was a change, or a lapse, or whether she missed something. But that's what these meetings are for--to try to make sense of such impacts and improve from there.
Tobi Jaiyesimi of Empire State Development said she'd reach out to the arena to attend, and "make sure it's not a recurring thing." A representative of Council Member Laurie Cumbo, nudged by one speaker, said she'd bring up the need to get agencies like DOT to the meeting.
Typically a representative of the Barclays Center attends these bi-monthly meetings to make announcements and take questions. Occasionally, representatives of the NYPD's 78th Precinct attend. Less occasionally, representatives of the city Department of Transportation (DOT) attend.
None attended this meeting, but their presence might have helped answer why the previous weekend around the Barclays Center had proved so challenging for neighbors. The arena hosted Disney on Ice: one show Friday night, then three on Saturday and then Sunday.
Such clusters of shows are common--here are the 2018 and 2017 schedules for Disney on Ice--but this was more chaotic than most.
What went wrong?
After the meeting, I asked Prospect Heights resident Elaine Weinstein, co-president of the North Prospect Heights Association, about it.
Weinstein, who attended a show herself, said the arena looked pretty full, with only the top section with vacancies.
"No one's moving and horns honking," she said, describe the scene on multiple streets around the arena: Dean Street, Pacific Street, Sixth Avenue, Carlton Avenue, Atlantic Avenue, Flatbush Avenue. "If someone had to get a car out or child was ill," they would've been trapped, said, calling the situation far worse than in previous years.
What made this different? Weinstein suggested that the lack of traffic control personnel, other than those directly at the arena, made things worse. Usually they're present at least one block in, to Sixth Avenue, she said. "And no police presence whatsoever."
It's unclear whether there was a change, or a lapse, or whether she missed something. But that's what these meetings are for--to try to make sense of such impacts and improve from there.
Tobi Jaiyesimi of Empire State Development said she'd reach out to the arena to attend, and "make sure it's not a recurring thing." A representative of Council Member Laurie Cumbo, nudged by one speaker, said she'd bring up the need to get agencies like DOT to the meeting.
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