One Way? No Way! Park Slope Plan Bites the Dust
From Eric McClure, Campaign Coordinator
Park Slope Neighbors, [email protected]
Dear Park Slope Neighbor,
You did it! Thanks to the incredible, unified outpouring of community support for maintaining 6th and 7th Avenues as safe, neighborhood-friendly two-way streets, Community Board 6 on Wednesday night voted unanimously to reject the Department of Transportation’s proposal to convert the avenues to one-way operation.
CB6 — responding to 2,500 “One Way, No Way” petition signatures, the 700+ Slopers who showed up at Methodist Hospital for DOT’s presentation, and numerous emails in advance of Wednesday’s meeting — amended the motion passed by the Transportation Committee on March 15th, adopting a much stronger resolution rejecting the proposed street changes. In a letter to the DOT sent Friday, CB6 Chairperson Richard Bashner wrote:
“CB6 resolved unanimously to insist that the department not proceed with its proposal to convert 6th and 7th Avenues from two-way to one-way streets.”
We’d like to thank all of you who took action. Our streets will be safer for your efforts.
In regard to other local transportation matters, CB6 declined to take a position on the DOT’s proposal to reconfigure 4th Avenue, asking DOT to further engage the community on the proposed changes. While PSN believes 4th Avenue could be substantially improved, we do think any significant changes should be part of a comprehensive regional plan to reduce traffic and improve and promote the use of mass transit and other modes of transportation. We hope that the Mayor’s sustainability plan, which he’ll unveil on Earth Day, will incorporate robust transportation initiatives.
Unfortunately, CB6 also declined to take a position on the DOT’s traffic-calming plan for 9th Street. PSN supports the plan, which includes putting 9th Street on a “road diet,” adding left-turn bays and bicycle lanes. The plan is opposed by a group of 9th Street residents, and while we respect their opinion, we believe their concerns, which appear focused almost exclusively on the bike lanes, are unfounded. Streetsblog has a bunch of good information on the 9th Street plan here:
http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/04/10/updated-version-of-dots-9th-street-plan/
and explains why it’s a good idea here:
http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/04/11/dots-9th-street-plan-frequently-asked-questions/
We’ll have more on actions you can take to support the 9th Street plan in a future update. Stay tuned!