Opponents of a potential Walmart at the Gateway II shopping center in East New York say that the big box retailer would bring Belt Parkway and the surrounding roadways to a standstill, and they’ve produced a report to prove it.
According to the Daily News, the report states a Walmart at Gateway II shopping center “would draw 10,692 more cars every weekday than the mall’s developers predicted in their environmental study. That’s a 32% jump in traffic, they said.” It also predicts the surge in vehicles would slow traffic by 29 percent along Shore Parkway.
Facebook fan Frances P. got this shot of plows working on her street yesterday.
The Sanitation Department is aiming to clear most or all of the side streets in Community Board 15 by midnight tonight, according to the board’s chairperson Theresa Scavo.
Scores of streets in the area remain unplowed as of noon today, with some larger roadways including Gravesend Neck Road and Avenue W choked by the aftermath of the weekend’s blizzard. Scavo said Sanitation was working to clear those roads and many of the numbered “East” streets during the day, and hope to have them and the “West” streets ready for tomorrow morning’s commute.
Despite the agency’s promise, Scavo shared harsh words for the city’s sluggish reaction to clearing Southern Brooklyn, calling the situation “ludicrous.”
“The snow stopped Monday morning and this is Wednesday. I don’t ever remember a side street being blocked two days after a snow storm,” she said. “There is a law on the books that four hours after the snow stops falling you have to clean in front of your home. What about the city?”
In addition to the side streets, Scavo pointed out that Kings Highway still has unplowed sections, and just about all of the area’s municipal parking lots have yet to be cleared for commuters and shoppers.
Well, if mountains of snow aren’t in your way, parked cars will be. And we’re not talking about those abandoned in the middle of streets during the storm.
It appears drivers are beginning to create new parking lanes on large avenues as most parking spaces remain packed with snow.
The Department of Transportation sent out this year-end update, summing up what work has been completed on the project and what’s to come in 2011. Here’s what they had to say:
We just received this press release from Councilman Nelson’s office. Read it, and see if you have the same concern I do.
(City Hall) – Council Member Michael C. Nelson proudly announces the installation of “Keep Intersection Clear” signs at Voorhies Avenue and East 18th Street. Councilman Nelson requested the installation of the signs on behalf of his constituents who had expressed the burden that many drivers endure when attempting to make a left or right turn from East 18th Street onto Voorhies Avenue. Having also personally been stuck in traffic in this area, Councilman Nelson immediately contacted the Department of Transportation to investigate this location.
UPDATE: It appears it was not an emotionally disturbed person, but an elderly driver who was in a minor accident, losing his side mirror. The man pulled over and was trying to recover the mirror. Police took him off the road.
Original post:
We just received word that an emotionally disturbed man is wandering in and out of traffic on the Belt Parkway.
The man is on the westbound side of the Belt Parkway on the Paerdegat Basin bridge. We’re told a construction worker involved in reconstructing the bridge called police.
This is a breaking story and we will update it as new information becomes available.
The following op-ed is by Allan Rosen, a Manhattan Beach resident and former Director of MTA/NYC Transit Bus Planning (1981). For a complete list of his contributions to Sheepshead Bites, which includes many articles about the bus cuts, MTA and DOT, click here.
In light of the Select Bus Service / Bus Rapid Transit meeting held at Brooklyn College, I came to the following conclusion: SBS along Nostrand Avenue needs to be scrapped. Not because drivers are against it, or because some parking spaces would be lost, but because it is just a poor idea and will not work.
New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) and MTA New York City Transit (NYCT) will be holding an Open House on Select Bus Service for Nostrand/Rogers Avenues on November 15, 2010 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Brooklyn College Student Center (Campus Road and East 27th Street) in the Bedford Lounge, 2nd Floor.
Work will begin in 2011 to transform the B44 Limited bus line into one of the city’s Select Bus Service / Bus Rapid Transit routes. The new line has come under fire in the neighborhood and across the city for a slew of complaints. Its pre-boarding fare collection system is being scammed, since payment is done at machines on the sidewalk and not checked by drivers. The bus line’s dedicated bus lanes will narrow streets for other drivers, or eliminate parking – and the lanes will be enforced by cameras. There’s also concern over whether the time saved, estimated to be just a couple of minutes, is worth the expense of implementing the new lines and reducing parking on commercial streets.
So attend this meeting, find out more and voice your concerns (or support) for the initiative.
One month after the tragic bus accident that killed a 4-year-old boy, Manhattan Beach’s civic organizations are grappling with outraged parents from P.S. 195. But as frustration mounts, the likeliest catalyst for change may not be the civic organizations that have worked for years for traffic safety, but from a lawsuit filed by the victim’s mother.
It didn’t stop some from getting antsy, though, with commenters bemoaning the loss of sleep due to the thunderous banging that they thought would ring through the blocks around Hubbard Street and Shore Parkway.
Well, good news, everybody: DOT community liaison Teresa Toro got back to us and there will be procedures in place to mitigate sound and vibration levels. They will be using a pneumatic hammer, which they say is the “quietest” kind of pile driving machinery, and there will also be a material placed between the pile and the hammer to dampen sound and vibrations.
Toro noted, however, that there still would be some sound, and that the agency is doing what they can to ensure residents’ expectations of peace.
“Sometimes, though, they just can’t get around it,” Toro said.
She added that they’ve done other pile driving during the day, and they try to complete as much work as possible when the sun is still out. But if a segment of work – such as the specific piles they’ll be working on – require a lane closure, it needs to be done at night.
The pile driving should be completed this week, barring severe weather conditions that may cause delays. The entire project will be done in Fall 2011.
