• Lowe’s Mill Basin Opens Tomorrow


    by on Jul 22nd, 2010

    Lowe's in April 2010

    Tomorrow heralds the grand opening of Lowe’s Home Improvement in Mill Basin. The home improvement store on Avenue U and East 55th Street will welcome shoppers with an appearance by former Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez, according to a report in Courier-Life. They’re also featuring a “board-cutting ceremony” instead of a ribbon-cutting, meaning workers will saw through a plank of wood. Oooh, how clever.

    Of course, some community members are still smarting over the expected traffic snafus the Lowe’s parking lot will cause, with an entrance/exit leading to Avenue U. Some are asking for a traffic light, while others would like to see a dedicated turn lane. The Department of Transportation will conduct a traffic study after it opens to determine need, and is also sending a rep to the Mill Basin Civic Association’s September meeting.

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    • BrooklynBus

      Don't you mean Ave U not Ave Z?

    • Animo916

      I would love an entrance/exit leading to Ave Z.

    • Tripnotized

      I can't wait for the all the traffic and congestion to completely block avenue U. As if the traffic is not bad enough already.

    • http://www.nedberke.com Ned Berke

      Whoops. Fixed.

    • BrooklynBus

      During the 2003 to 2006 so-called comprehensive Southern Brooklyn Transportation study conducted by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council which costed $6 million and accomplished nothing, I made numerous bus improvement and traffic suggestions. Others suggested improvements regarding long range subway improvements and freight delivery improvements. Of over 100 suggestions, all suggestions were rejected except for about three. One suggestion I made was for an underpass at Flatbush and Avenue U. They rejected that one as too expensive, but agreed to look at an overpass. But I don't know whatever happened with it.

      The reason we have so much congestion is the City is constantly overdeveloping without making the necessary transportation infrastructure improvements that are needed.

    • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

      I like the idea of an underpass, but wouldn't building one curtail traffic on Flatbush Avenue going south during the process? The side streets would be stressed to handle the traffic to Avenue V, I think/

    • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

      That would be a trick.

    • BrooklynBus

      An underpass would allow two lanes in each direction of Flatbush Avenue (mainly Belt Parkway and Rockaway traffic) to completely bypass the intersection, so most of the remaining traffic would be traffic turning for Kings Plaza. This would allow more time for turning traffic at the intersection and more time for pedestrians to cross. The entire Grand Concourse in the Bronx was built that way at key intersections, i.e. GC and Fordham Road. We once had an underpass for trolleys at Church Avenue and Ocean Parkway.

    • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

      oh I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. I was referring to the construction period. Since Flatbush Avenue is the through route to the Rockaway Peninsula I was worried serious congestion problems caused by re-routing.

      I was at Ocean Parkway and Church recently. I was trying to figure out when the underpass was removed. If it was in the late-fifties – early sixties then I suspect that other changes were made more recently as well.

    • alknowles1

      This will not be an easy fix. Just look at the patches that are done to the area streets around some other stores. For example, look at the area Staples' stores on Ocean, which block off turns across the double yellow lines. Or where nothing is done, like that great stretch on Ave. Y where Stop-n-shop, Doody's and Petco have entrances/exits onto Ave Y, along with the underused entrances/exits onto the side streets.

      The one thing that Lowe's have, is that Ave U is a two-way, double lane street. Makes it easy to cut into one lane, and say it is straight only, and making the other a turn lane only. This is something I've seen a lot around at 65th street and Bay Parkway; and at Stillwell Ave and Ave P.

    • BrooklynBus

      There are always problems during the construction phase of any project. It's just a fact of life. Broadway was in a shambles when they were building the IRT.

      The underpass was never removed. It's still there. The entrances were closed off and it was probably filled in with dirt. Since it was for trolleys, it was too narrow to carry automobile traffic in two directions. It could have been paved and made into a one-way underpass, but the City probably did what was the cheapest.

    • http://www.njluxurymotors.com Arthur Borko

      There's an underpass at Ocean Parkway and Church? What? Where?

    • alknowles1
    • BrooklynBus

      If you notice, Church Avenue widens for a few blocks before and after Ocean Parkway. The reason it does this is because of the former sealed off trolley underpass.

    • BrooklynBus

      Yes.

    • Nik

      I went there on opening day and it was great!!!!!

    • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

      Last month they were doing street repair along the southern perimeter of Church Avenue. I'm not sure exactly why.

      http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001/4827140…

    • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

      And I just found this document relating to the ending of the Church Avenue Trolley route. Along with the McDonald Avenue route It was the last trolley running in Brooklyn.

      http://www.brooklynrail.net/pdf/PCC_demise_NYCT…

    • BrooklynBus

      I checked the link. They lied. I doubt it if any of the buses were new. The Church Avenue buses were spewing obnoxious black diesel fumes the first day. I didn't think the McDonald trolley was ever replaced with buses.

    • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

      They just dropped the McDonald Avenue route altogether.Since the tracks were kept perhaps they were wary of running buses over them. OTOH, this probably would have been the case on other streets as well. But on McDonals the tracks were being used by TA for their workcars.

      I'm guessing that few people paid much attention to the fact that they did not put new buses on the Church Avenue route. Complaints could be dealt with by claiming that there were delays in getting the new buses.

    • BrooklynBus

      Just read that memo again. Misleading, in typical TA style. They make it appear that by extending the B69 to Cortelyou Road they are serving a good portion of McDonald Avenue riders, and they say the train serves the rest of the route. In reality the B69 only serves a very small portion of McDonald Avenue / Shell Rd.

      In addition to the tracks, which I don't think were a problem by themselves, the buses also had to contend with the el pillars. Together with the tracks, that may have caused a problem, but then as now, perhaps they only were looking for an excuse just to cut service.

    • Animo916

      Have you looked at Stillwell & Ave P lately? They removed a lane of traffic on each road, and put cement medians at the intersections. Just another recipe for disaster.

    • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

      I remember that the tracks on McDonald Avenue could be a problem for some cars. You probably remember the tracks were exposed on Coney Island Avenue in some places during the early sixties.

      What ended up happening was that there was no north-south bus service for a significant portion of Brooklyn. Perhaps this slightly slowed down some of the intense development that happened elsewhere in Southern Brooklyn. There were, of course, train service on McDonald Avenue as well as West 7th Street. But buses are a choice that should be available.

    • BrooklynBus

      It was especially bad because few were willing to pay a double fare to transfer to the train when they could use the B68 and walk up to a half mile.

      I don't remember the exposed tracks on CI Av because I didn't grow up here. I do remember the last block of the B68 trolley when it turned into what is now Beach Walk past Parkway Baths. I remember the Utica Avenue tracks that remained until about 1957 or later. (at least 6 years after the trolleys stopped running here.)

    • alknowles1

      Yep, I'm not saying that this is the smartest thing with the concrete partition.

      Worse, is that people are turning onto Stillwell Ave from Bay Parkway or Bay Ridge Ave, and they learn quickly that there is a left turn only lane onto Ave P.

      During the day, is there police presence to make that corner a revenue generator for the city?

    • http://www.moldremoval.com/ Mold Testing Moreno Valley

      There are always problems during the construction phase of any project. Thanks for the great site. i wish to visit again.

    • joebkny

      did you get this story from mill basin bites?