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The Park Slope Civic Council Civic News October 2007 Volume LXX, No

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The Park Slope Civic Council Civic News October 2007 Volume LXX, No The Park Slope Civic Council Civic News October 2007 Volume LXX, No. 2 www.parkslopeciviccouncil.org It’s a bare patch of land What Park Slope old-timers now, fronting some 145 feet might remember is that, well along Fourth Avenue and a over a decade ago, the De- similar amount east on Sackett partment of Environmental Street. If a vacant lot this size Protection (DEP), the city were located anywhere else agency digging the water on Fourth, it would likely be Coming soon tunnel, promised to turn the a construction site, another in site over to the community the march of undistinguished- Some Day once its work was done. That looking, yellow-brick, 12-story promise holds true according buildings rising high above its On This Site: to James Soroush of DEP’s brownstone neighbors. Community Outreach of- What newcomers to Park GreenSpace fice — but not tomorrow or Slope might not know is that the next day: the lot will lie this lot already has been a barren until the activation of major construction site, but the tunnel’s Brooklyn-Queens one on which the work did not section, now scheduled for top off 120 feet or so in the air. Rather, it bottomed out 558 November, 2009. feet below ground. Weeds, gravel, two ventilation pipes, and Still, just beneath the surface (so to speak), a team of artists, two horizontal metal doors — looking like something out of gardeners and activists remain poised, as they have been for “Alice in Wonderland” or “Lost” — are all that can be seen years, to transform shaft 22b’s lid into GreenSpace: a com- at ground level of shaft 22B, which sometime in the next few munity garden with bells and whistles, designed by one of years will connect several hundred thousand Brooklyn sinks New York City’s best-known environmental artists. and showers to Water Tunnel 3, the largest capital project ever Even though it will be at least two more years before the undertaken in New York City. team can get its hands on the lot, they display remarkable patience — a not-inappropriate attitude considering that Details from artist Meg Webster’s plans for GreenSpace, a demonstration garden for native plants and a natural haven on uber-urban 4th Avenue. digging began on Water Tunnel 3 in 1970, and engineers and GreenSpace, if realized, would occupy the barren lot that sits atop Water “sandhogs,” as the tunnelers are known, have spent their Tunnel 3’s Shaft 22B, at the corner of 4th Avenue and Sackett Street. entire working lives on this single project. “There is a plan and there is a budget, and now it’s not a matter of if but when, and I can live with that” said Craig Hammerman, district manager of Community Board 6. Ham- ...See GreenSpace, page 6 Inside President’s Report 2 A transported DOT Calendar of PSCC Events 2 News and Notes for the Civic Minded 4 In memoriam: Doris Clark Doe Fund cleaners extend reach Trash talk (the good kind)Talk (the Street Lighting Illuminated 5 Postcard from the Past 7 Plaza Street mansions The President’s Perspective: DOT Takes Welcome U-Turn emember the attempt by New DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik- the Department of Trans- Khan chats with PSCC Trustee Aaron portation (DOT) to change Naparstek after a press conference R announcing changes making Grand 6th and 7th Avenues to one-way Army Plaza more friendly to pedestrians streets last spring? Remember and bicyclists. how the neighborhood rose up in defiance, how people you and 4th Avenues and throughout never knew cared were suddenly Downtown Brooklyn; sending you on-line petitions and 2) starting construction on e-mails about community board improvements to the southern meetings? And how the Depart- end of Grand Army Plaza that ment of Transportation eventually will make it safer and easier to agreed to withdraw the proposal traverse the Plaza by foot, bike, in the face of overwhelming op- and car. The Civic Council helped position? It was a case study in push for these changes through its civic activism, and one of the participation in the Grand Army few times in years that the Department of Transportation Plaza Coalition and will continue to work with GAPCo to- had shown a willingness to listen to the community. Well, it wards its long-term vision of transforming Grand Army Plaza appears that event marked a turning point in Park Slope’s into one of New York City’s premier public spaces; relationship with DOT. 3) expanding car-free hours in Prospect Park. Cars are now Janette Sadik-Khan took over as DOT Commissioner in permitted to use the East Drive only from 7am to 9am, and the May, and with her came a sea change in transportation policy. West Drive from 5pm until 7pm. The Civic Council has long The agency no longer views itself primarily as an advocate for advocated a three month car-free trial in Prospect Park; helping cars navigate city streets. Rather, what is emerging 4) hiring our neighbors and well-known transportation is a more holistic approach oriented towards improving and policy experts Jon Orcutt, Bruce Schaller, and Andy Wiley- maintaining neighborhood quality of life and increasing the Schwartz for high level jobs at DOT. Orcutt is a Williamsburg efficiency of New York City streets by encouraging alternative resident and former head of the Tri-State Transportation forms of transportation. Campaign, and he was a panelist at PSCC’s 2005 transporta- In the few months since being hired, Commissioner Sadik- tion forum. He has been hired as Sadik-Khan’s senior policy Khan has succeeded in: advisor. Schaller, who lives in Windsor Terrace and ran a 1) implementing portions of the Downtown Brooklyn Traffic transportation-policy consulting firm, is now DOT’s Deputy Calming Plan which had sat on the shelf for years. Short-term Commissioner for Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, a improvements include traffic-calming measures along 3rd new office set up to implement the transportation elements of Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC 2030. Wiley-Schwartz, a Boerum Hill resident who worked at Project for Public Spaces, is now PSCC Calendar an Assistant Commissioner at DOT in charge of the agency’s new public plaza program. Harvest Festival Saturday, Oct. 13 and Halloween JJ Byrne Park Perhaps most importantly, the new DOT commissioner has 11am-4pm Costume Swap demonstrated a willingness to really work with, and listen to, the community. For those who have worked on transporta- Saturday, Oct. 20 Convene in front of Key Fall Civic Sweep tion and urban environmental policy, it is a welcome change. 10am-2pm Food, 5th Avenue This new outlook at DOT comes at just the right time. As development brings more residents and commercial activity Clean Walk to Oct. 29-Nov. 2 18 Park Slope Schools to our neighborhood, the need for innovative transportation School Week planning and policy is ever-more clear. Halloween Party Oct. 31 Party: Prospect Park YMCA Opportunities for the Park Slope Civic Council are also and Party: TBA Parade: Seventh Avenue, clear. As Wiley-Schwartz said this summer at the unveiling Children’s Parade Parade: 6:30pm beginning at 15th Street of a new public plaza in DUMBO, DOT is looking for com- munity partners to help establish and maintain projects and Thursday, Nov. 1 NY Methodist Hospital PSCC Meeting programs that make neighborhood streets more “livable.” 7pm Exec. Dining Room PSCC has, in many ways, been setting the standard for how a community group might work with DOT. Last fall Civic PSCC Grant Go to the PSCC website for Nov. 16 Council trustee Lauri Schindler and a group of volunteers Applications Due applications and information canvassed the neighborhood to identify locations for new bike Civic News Vol LXX No 2 October 2007, Page 2 racks. After Schindler handed off a list of bike rack locations to DOT, the agency’s Bicycle Program coordinator told her that PSCC’s project was a “model” that he would like to see replicated in other neighborhoods around the city. Specializing in Park Slope since 1987 To take advantage of the new spirit of cooperation and in- novation at DOT, what transportation issues and ideas might the Civic Council start working on? 1) The number one issue on the city’s transportation agenda right now is Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal for a three year congestion-pricing pilot program. PSCC will work to make sure that the plan works to reduce traffic, improve transit, and enhance quality of life in Park Slope. 2) Regardless of congestion pricing, and especially if a major “trip-generator” like Forest City Ratner’s proposed Marc W. Garstein Ellen Blau basketball arena is built in the area, it is time to set up a Resi- President VicePresident dential Parking Permit program in Park Slope. 3) Park Slope is blessed with one of the most extensive and Mary Lou Bradley, Justine Campbell-Elliott, Tom Curtis, Tara well-used bike networks in the city. For cyclists, the next step Falk, Karen Fulbright Anderson, Katinka Goertz, Leah Hartog, is to improve bike network connectivity to adjacent neigh- Jennifer Hero, Michelle Herrera, Virginia Hunter, Aaron Isquith, borhoods and to get more bike racks installed, particularly Michele Kaye, Judith Lief, Luis Martinez, Judith Rivera Schneider, Janet Skinner, Ellen Sussman, in the South Slope. Jennifer Thompson, Aldo Valmon-Clarke, Jack Walsh 4) 2008 is going to be the Year of the Bus. If the Mayor’s congestion pricing plan moves ahead, New York City will Please call for a no-obligation receive $354.5 million in federal money to beef up bus service home valuation and market analysis throughout the city.
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