Brooklyn residents had plenty to say about the city’s planned redesign of Grand Army Plaza during an online public meeting on Tuesday, offering both praise for the overhaul and criticism of key elements and the way the city engages the public on major changes to public land.
Officials from the city Department of Transportation presented preliminary survey results, data and early design concepts to members of Community Boards 6, 7, 8, 9 and 14 as part of their public engagement process. The meeting, attended by over 120 people, was filled with both excitement for major safety upgrades for pedestrians and cyclists, while some drivers and area residents lamented the change that will alter the flow of traffic in the major Brooklyn corridor.
Much praise was noted on the connection of Prospect Park with Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Arch, the shifts to the existing bike lanes so cyclists have less contact with vehicles, and shorter crosswalks in some areas.
Casey Gorrell, director of Design and Capital at DOT Public Realm, said pedestrians currently can wait up to two minutes to cross the street between Prospect Park and the Central Library due to the light timing and the redesign will cut that to 85 seconds.
"From an overall pedestrian perspective, we are increasing the amount of public space by 42%. And to really solve some of the complexities, we're able to reduce the number of crosswalks from 23 to 12," he said.
The city's initial analysis indicates buses crossing Grand Army Plaza, the B41 and B69, will run faster, he said. The 766 bus riders during the morning peak hour could see a 41% decrease in travel times.
However, vehicular traffic may slow down due to the redesign, specifically for those travelling between Union Street to Eastern Parkway and Flatbush Avenue as the roadway disappears from the Arch to Prospect Park. However, cars travelling from Vanderbilt and Flatbush Avenues to Eastern Parkway will likely see a decrease in travel times as there will be less intersections they have to go through, Gorrell said.
Many community board members told the DOT officials to focus on the traffic pattern from Union Street and 8th Avenue onto the plaza, as backups as long as 30 minutes can occur as cars queue up to make turns.
CB 9 member Marni Segal said the redesign for vehicular traffic as it stands would build backups on Union Street even more, and would also push drivers onto the side streets of Crown Heights.
"Are people living east of Grand Army Plaza being punished?" she asked.
Gorrell said the DOT is not expecting traffic to get worse, or see a significant increases on side streets.
"[This] just changes to how people are navigating the plaza today," he said.
Fior Orti, a member of CB 8, felt as if drivers were "being vilified."
Lucy Koteen said she was not happy with the way the city was engaging with the public, and deemed the recent public meetings in Prospect Park, the online meeting and the online survey, which got 1,600 responses, was not nearly enough to gauge how community members really feel.
"...the ordinary citizen or resident or truck driver or delivery driver, they don't know anything about these surveys," she said. "So outreach is really very... you know, much too small. And that's been the case in all these redesigns of streets. The outreach doesn't hit the actual users for the most part, including workers, the nurses, the doctors, you know, the guy who delivers to the supermarket with the groceries. They all need to be included. It can't just be a handful of people."
Many participants also said they could not understand the DOT's traffic pattern illustration and preferred to see a moving or animated version to understand how pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles will move in the future.
The DOT also presented three design options for the plaza, which include adding tree canopies and spaces for small and large meetings and events.
Residents also noted their concerns over air quality, the Flatbush Avenue center lane bus redesign, noise pollution, the effect on emergency vehicles, and how congestion will be monitored after the redesigns are implemented.
Mike Jones, president of the St. Johns Street Block Association, lamented how the city presents large public development plans and said he felt "silenced," suggesting that the DOT had already made up its mind and the public meetings were just a formality.
"If we don't like this, can we even stop this?" he asked.
The redesign ignores the working-class people who rely on vehicles to travel from north to south Brooklyn and the changes speaks to affluent gentrifiers, not to long-time residents, he added.
Colin Rafferty, a resident of Plaza Street East, said he was strongly in favor of the changes, as both a pedestrian and a driver.
"I'd hope that it could be done sooner rather than later," he said.
