At BrooklynSpeaks session, most agree on traffic and transportation proposals, but tough questions and political fights await (permit parking? Flatbush Ave. change?)

The BrooklynSpeaks proposals regarding transportation and traffic (my preview) got a general endorsement from the more than 60 people who attended an online session 1/19/22, even as they expressed general dismay about conditions in the area around the Barclays Center and larger Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park project..

Posted below is the video of the presentation, as well as the presentation board/slideshow, but those wishing to comment on the document should go to the posting here.

Uncontroversial asks

After all, who could object to calls for new subway entrances to the expected building at Site 5 across Flatbush Avenue from the arena, longtime home to P.C. Richard and Modell’s.

It’s approved for a large building, 250 feet and 439,050 square feet, but the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park developers want to move bulk from the unbuilt “Miss Brooklyn” tower, once slated to loom over the arena, across the street, creating a two-tower project that could rise 80 stories and exceed 1.1 million square feet.

That expected public process, overseen by the gubernatorially controlled Empire State Development, which oversees/shepherds the project, offers an opportunity for project-related changes, hence the four-week Crossroads series from the BrooklynSpeaks coalition, which includes neighborhood and advocacy groups.

And who could object to new bus shelters in the area and added incremental subway capacity.

Tougher questions pending

But several of the issues require significant political capital and/or public debate, well beyond an online session, involving larger constituencies and official channels, such as oversight hearings.

Some of the issues, surely, will be aired, via public hearing and public comment, and addressed in the state process to revise the guiding General Project Plan. That typically serves the developer's interests but at least gets the state on record, and can be a place for political leverage.

  

Illegal parking and idling

No one disagreed that there should be more enforcement of illegal parking and idling during arena events, but getting there likely requires a city oversight hearing.

After all, it’s been in the arena’s interest to not have enforcement--all those high-rollers having their limos waiting at the curb!-- and the city has gone along with it.

Residential permit parking

Many but not all agreed that a residential permit parking (RPP) system was needed within a five-block radius of the arena, to deter ticketholders looking for free parking and to prioritize locals, and some wanted that radius increased. A few thought that the city should not be encouraging auto use. That said, that wouldn't deter arenagoers.

But RPP requires state approval, and though Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, a longtime BrooklynSpeaks affiliate, is surely supportive, and new state Senator Jabari Brisport expressed interest, previous proposals, before the arena opening in 2012, were rejected by the city Department of Transportation.

Moreover, city and state officials have previously been unwilling to spend political capital. Again, this serves the arena’s interest.

As attendee Michael Rogers put it, though the common response from officials is that New York City doesn’t have RPP, nowhere else are such conditions, with a major entertainment facility so close to residences, so this should be an exception.

One online comment, from Lyn Hill:

But residents of this area should also be reminded that cars are, in most cases, not needed for navigation around the City. Residential parking permits send the opposite message. They further suggest that a person who lives in the area has a greater right to this amenity than, for example, a police officer or teacher coming from an area in Southern Brooklyn where access to public transportation is limited.

Garage snags

An associated issue: several people mentioned congestion at/near the parking garages closest to the arena, serving arenagoers. Those include the garage at 38 Sixth Ave., closest to the arena entrance on Dean Street; at the Newswalk building around the corner on Pacific Street; and down the block on Dean Street just east of Carlton Avenue, at the 535 Carlton building.

That seems an operational question for the garages, but should only get more challenging when 455 spaces are added (under the B12/B13 towers, under construction) to the existing 303 spaces under 535 Carlton, all accessed from that single entrance on Dean just east of Carlton.

NYPD/FDNY parking

Barely discussed was the principle that the city and state “must agree on a plan to move NYPD and FDNY personal parking off of the streets and sidewalks on Sixth Avenue, Pacific Street, Dean Street and Bergen Street, and repair existing damage.”

That's an understandable goal, but a big lift.

Does that mean—as floated at the previous week's session—that the firehouse on Dean Street should close, enabling a new city building with affordable housing, with police parking? How does BrooklynSpeaks know about this, but not anyone else?

Some people also mentioned abuse of placard parking, which goes well beyond police/fire personnel.

Times Plaza

“In 2017-2018 NYCDOT modified Times Plaza’s traffic patterns and crosswalks and expanded the plaza,” one slide read. “How is this working? What else should be done?

From Transportation Alternatives/CityLab

Several suggestions bubbled up. One participant pointed to a proposal from Transportation Alternatives to pedestrianize Flatbush between Atlantic and Fourth avenues, which surely would help pedestrians.

However—not discussed yet—it also could, as I wrote last month, jam up traffic on Atlantic on the short stretch between Flatbush and Fourth avenues.

That potential to “block the box” should be discussed. After all, as participants said, there’s already a problem blocking the box at Bergen Street and Sixth Avenue.

Internal loading and Site 5 scale

Nobody disagreed that “Site 5 must include pick-up and drop-off within the lot lines of its development, including internal loading docks and bays.” 

Some suggested that hours be limited—a general goal the Park Slope Civic Council has called for, according to presenter Michael Cairl—or that the loading be moved closer to busy Fourth Avenue.

But neither the presenter nor the audience addressed the presumed location of the loading and parking entrance on Pacific Street, as I previously wrote, and how that might coexist with turning Pacific into a “slow street.”

Moreover, the volume of deliveries to the Site 5 complex would relate to what’s built there. It’s been previously proposed as having various mixes of office, housing, and hotel space, plus retail, which one executive likened to Brooklyn’s Time Warner Center.

We don’t know the updated plans, but the larger the complex, and the amount of retail, the more likely vehicular traffic. But BrooklynSpeaks has decided to not (yet) address the scale of the building, though some members of the public have questioned it.

One tension is that BrooklynSpeaks wants more affordable housing, and a larger building, of course, could deliver more such housing. Meanwhile, some nearest that Site 5 parcel are, not surprisingly, wary of a giant complex nearby.

Next steps

Cairl advised recognition of things a developer could take on, as well as those local agencies and elected officials must address.

“Our goal is to take the feedback we're receiving this evening, synthesize it and come back to this group and our other neighbors with a plan,” said host Gib Veconi, “that we think will help achieve the benefits that Atlantic Yards was promising this part of Brooklyn for the last 18 years, as well as address some of the needs we have today that you all have been very helpful in identifying.”