Transportation Town Hall Meeting For Dumbo

B25 Bus
B25 Bus (Photo by Jane Kratochvil)

State Senator Daniel Squadron, Assembly Member Joan Millman and Council Member Steve Levin invite you to a Transportation Town Hall for DUMBO, Fulton Ferry Landing and Downtown Brooklyn. Join in for a discussion about ongoing transportation issues in our neighborhood, featuring representatives from the MTA, the NYC Dept. of Transportation, and NYPD’s 84th Precinct.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011 7:30pm – 8:30pm
55 Washington Street, Room 216 Brooklyn, NY
RSVP to belinda@danielsquadron.org

Dumbo has been talking about yesterday’s discussion of new parking signs, and the B25 Bus Route on Main Street. If you have opinions on the tour buses on Old Fulton Street, York/Front Street redesign, lack of parking, enforcement (or lack thereof)?

Have your opinions heard!

12 Comment

  • Interesting meeting. Honestly impressed to see Millman and Squadron show up in person for this as well as the staff from MTA and DOT. Not so impressed that no one appeared from our local council member’s office.

    Maybe 50-60 people (about 30 seated, plus a lot standing across the back and side).

    Biggest issue was the routing of the B25 down Main Street, both in terms of number of speakers as well as time spent discussing the issue.

    The B25 also figured in discussion about where to layover the buses (on Fulton or in a new space on Front (I’m guessing under the Bridge but this wasn’t clear to me).

    The parking fiasco on York at Front also figured prominently.

    Some issues raised by residents from Vinegar Hill about additional bus capacity towards Bridge/Gold streets.

    Other issues: two-way Furman means lack of legal drop-off/pickup space for 8 Fulton. Lack of enforcement of no-parking/no-standing on Main Street and around Fulton Landing. Accessibility of buses, train stations. Some sort of connecting tunnel between the York Street station and High Street stations.

    Someone asked about the BQE rehab and the DOT rep responded that they were awaiting a response from the NYS DOT on the issue. I know from the meeting I attended in the spring and ensuing reports I’ve read that there simply is no funding at all at the state or federal level to rehab the cantilever (my understanding is that the recently finished rehab was paid for out of the Clinton era(!) highway funding bill). Unless the state can assess a toll on the BQE, which it is currently prohibited from doing (I guess Federal law), the funding is a major stumbling block for anything other than a nice paint job.

    I’m sure I’ve left out other issues people raised, feel free to add them. I wanted to ask about adding stop signs and lowering the speed limit on Water Street. Perversely now that Water Street is even, traffic flies down it from Main to Fulton (perhaps with a cursory nod to the stop sign at the bend by River Cafe).

  • Interesting meeting. Honestly impressed to see Millman and Squadron show up in person for this as well as the staff from MTA and DOT. Not so impressed that no one appeared from our local council member’s office.

    Maybe 50-60 people (about 30 seated, plus a lot standing across the back and side).

    Biggest issue was the routing of the B25 down Main Street, both in terms of number of speakers as well as time spent discussing the issue.

    The B25 also figured in discussion about where to layover the buses (on Fulton or in a new space on Front (I’m guessing under the Bridge but this wasn’t clear to me).

    The parking fiasco on York at Front also figured prominently.

    Some issues raised by residents from Vinegar Hill about additional bus capacity towards Bridge/Gold streets.

    Other issues: two-way Furman means lack of legal drop-off/pickup space for 8 Fulton. Lack of enforcement of no-parking/no-standing on Main Street and around Fulton Landing. Accessibility of buses, train stations. Some sort of connecting tunnel between the York Street station and High Street stations.

    Someone asked about the BQE rehab and the DOT rep responded that they were awaiting a response from the NYS DOT on the issue. I know from the meeting I attended in the spring and ensuing reports I’ve read that there simply is no funding at all at the state or federal level to rehab the cantilever (my understanding is that the recently finished rehab was paid for out of the Clinton era(!) highway funding bill). Unless the state can assess a toll on the BQE, which it is currently prohibited from doing (I guess Federal law), the funding is a major stumbling block for anything other than a nice paint job.

    I’m sure I’ve left out other issues people raised, feel free to add them. I wanted to ask about adding stop signs and lowering the speed limit on Water Street. Perversely now that Water Street is even, traffic flies down it from Main to Fulton (perhaps with a cursory nod to the stop sign at the bend by River Cafe).

  • thanks for the recap… did it seem like any changes will be made on any of the issues? like the bus route and the 1 main limo parking?
    good point about water st. speed.

  • thanks for the recap… did it seem like any changes will be made on any of the issues? like the bus route and the 1 main limo parking?
    good point about water st. speed.

  • Thanks epc for the recap. I’m also curious to hear more about how Millman, Squadron, DOT, and MTA will take the comments.

  • Thanks epc for the recap. I’m also curious to hear more about how Millman, Squadron, DOT, and MTA will take the comments.

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  • Pingback: Dumbo NYC, Brooklyn » Archive » Transportation Town Hall Meeting Recap (DumboNYC.com)

  • I wrote up a comment yesterday that seems to have disappeared into the ether. The crux of it was that I doubt, based on personal experience working in local government 20+ years ago (in a different state), that anyone present at the meeting had the power to make any commitments other than to review people’s comments and issues and take them into the bureaucracy. The staffers from DOT/MTA who were present simply don’t have the authority to take action without going through the various internal, regulatory, and legislative processes.

    What I would recommend is that people continue to hammer on these issues of importance to them: be a pain in the ass to our elected officials (since they ARE the people who can either make the decision, endorse a staff decision, or block a decision). As for status, progress, etc. Document it somewhere. Share it with the neighborhood.

  • I wrote up a comment yesterday that seems to have disappeared into the ether. The crux of it was that I doubt, based on personal experience working in local government 20+ years ago (in a different state), that anyone present at the meeting had the power to make any commitments other than to review people’s comments and issues and take them into the bureaucracy. The staffers from DOT/MTA who were present simply don’t have the authority to take action without going through the various internal, regulatory, and legislative processes.

    What I would recommend is that people continue to hammer on these issues of importance to them: be a pain in the ass to our elected officials (since they ARE the people who can either make the decision, endorse a staff decision, or block a decision). As for status, progress, etc. Document it somewhere. Share it with the neighborhood.

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  • Pingback: Dumbo NYC, Brooklyn » Archive » New Bus Route Planned for ‘Brooklyn Tech Triangle’ Through Dumbo (DumboNYC.com)