Reader “epc” posted a great recap of yesterday’s Transportation Town Hall meeting worth reposting here. For those who attended, please add any other comments. It would be interesting to see how State Senator Daniel Squadron, Assembly Member Joan Millman and Council Member Steve Levin work with the MTA and DOT on the issues that were raised by residents:

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 Ed for the recap!