Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

I'm leading a walking tour Sunday of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park/Barclays Center/Prospect Heights (via Municipal Art Society ), and present several posts in preparation.  One thing to remember: the project remains very much in process. Some impacts feared, expected, or welcomed have not emerged because they were calculated on a larger/full buildout. Others were never examined. What's going on in this photo that I took last Friday at around 5 pm? The view is west from the northwest corner of Sixth Avenue and Dean Street, toward the arena loading dock and associated "pad." Well, members of the Virginia Commonwealth University band, in town for the Atlantic 10 tournament at the Barclays Center, were loading a bus with their instruments and luggage, and getting on the bus. From the right side of the vehicle. Very close to traffic. This is a hazardous situation. The signage does not bar stopping, but it is a turning lane. The boarding, obviously, should be from ...

Line at arena plaza, 8:22 pm On the second night of Barclays Center operations, there were again no major traffic jams, thanks to the use of transit by arena-goers, a massive police presence, again little use of the surface parking lot, and copious pedestrian managers. Also, it's likely that event-goers recognized that they need not converge on the arena by 8 pm, given that headliner Jay-Z wouldn't start for an hour. From BarclaysCenter.com (On  opening night , the delay was about 90 minutes.) This was the second of eight sold-out concerts. As shown in the photo above left, and in videos below, there were still long lines well after the official starting time of 8 pm.  The lag likely was also caused by the security precautions, including use of metal detectors, but given the pleasant weather, people were generally calm. Unlike on  the first night , there was no major pre-event blockage of  the Atlantic Avenue sidewalk, given no red carpet for celeb...