Transportation & Streets - Presentation Boards

Noice and foot traffic with the new mass-transit 2 subway station re-opening. The principles opening site 5 were as the Preserving Time Plaza are great .

I think it’s important to recognize that the area immediately surrounding Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park is not a typical Brownstone Brooklyn residential neighborhood. We are adjacent to Downtown Brooklyn and in addition to small townhouses, there are numerous (and increasing numbers of) high-rise apartment buildings. Most important, unlike other brownstone areas, our neighborhood is served by one of the greatest public transportation hubs in the City.

Many of us chose to live in this area precisely because of the easy access to public transportation and the ability to travel easily within the City and much of its surrounding areas without owning or driving a car. Similarly, cultural institutions like BAM, Mark Morris, Theatre for a New Audience and the Barclay’s arena, as well as the shopping malls, have been attracted to or thrived in this area because it is so easily reachable without a car. And non-residents who work here or come to shop or be entertained should not be seen as intruders; they make important contributions to the area’s economy, safety and vitality.

For these reasons, it’s especially important that subways, subway stations, buses, bus stops, pedestrian crossings, street and garage parking, automobile traffic patterns and bicycle paths be configured in ways that make them as safe and inviting as possible to all who use them.

Also for these reasons, I believe we should make every effort to discourage car ownership among residents and discourage non-residents from driving into the area. That means that our nearby institutions and retail establishments should clearly advertise their proximity to public transportation and encourage users to take advantage of it. Businesses and City agencies (police, fire, teachers) should make the ease of getting here by public transportation a recruitment incentive.

But residents of this area should also be reminded that cars are, in most cases, not needed for navigation around the City. Residential parking permits send the opposite message. They further suggest that a person who lives in the area has a greater right to this amenity than, for example, a police officer or teacher coming from an area in Southern Brooklyn where access to public transportation is limited. Why would we want to discourage such an individual from working here while, at the same time, encouraging residents who may use their vehicles relatively rarely, to take up street spaces?

Of course, some residents have good reasons for owning and using cars, as do some non-residents coming into the area. Parking should not be impossible. I would leave it to others to decide whether that means increasing the number of spaces available in garages or parking lots or freeing up more street spaces or just working to reduce the number of people owning and driving cars.

What are your major pedestrian safety concerns?

What are your major subway concerns?

Do you think residential permit parking would benefit the area?

What are your major street traffic concerns?

Improve air quality at the Atlantic/Flatbush/4th Avenue intersections with street tree plantings

Off-street loading bays in building a good idea. o Limit pickup/delivery hours to ease congestion. Restrict activity to early morning and late evening hours.

What are your major pedestrian safety concerns?

What are your major subway concerns?

Do you think residential permit parking would benefit the area?

What are your major traffic concerns?

"Relocating the entrance...." - this sounds like no additional entrance despite the influx of new residents and foot traffic to new commercial spaces. We need more access not reconfigured entry to the subway.
The Atlantic / Pacific subway interchanges have long staircases leading from the lower mezzanine to the various platforms of the IRT and 4th Avenue BMT lines. These wide stairwells should have been created with at least one escalator at each point. Perhaps the site 5 developer can be mandated to retrofit escalators beneath the headhouse skylight. Better yet, open up the headhouse doors and replace the void with stairs to the southbound 2/3 platform and save passengers at least one staircase when accessing the 4th Avenue and IRT lines from the street.

I'm embarrassed to say, I can't even envision where this times plaza on Flatbush and 4th Ave is. Is that the place where there is an historic building maybe of the old subway system is? At first I though it was where the old midtown florist was. But no. So I don't know how it's working. I can get to the Atlantic Center Shopping Center heading east from my neighborhood and rarely need to enter it from the west. I wonder if Robert Moses envisioned this congestion when he tore down all the houses in downtown Brooklyn to build a more car friendly city?

I actually think parking permits are a good idea. Can you enforce it in a city this populated? Hard to say. Will only the white collar workers working from home be able to afford the parking passes and have the time to move their cars? Should there be a large parking zone outside each major shopping area; work area; residential area; and, everyone be required to park there and take a shuttle bus to their homes? That would be a new configuration for the city. I would love a parking permit and I live within the zone of the Atlantic Center. Do 98% of the people who live in this area really take the subway to work. I highly doubt that.

Again, kind of a dilemma, right. These officers and other government employees need to park somewhere, right? They are probably coming some distance to get to work. Perhaps making it a law that city workers like police, fire etc live in the city might work. But my guess is they would still live far out in the borough where there is either no mass transportation or long commutes on mass transportation to get to work. I say provide a parking garage for them instead of a new residential building for a change. Just saying there's got to be a more egalitarian solution for everyone.

The suggestion was brought up to connect, above ground, the two new proposed entrances. Upon further thought, perhaps the lower portion of site 5 could be an inddor public facing atrium, retail subway entrance. This could be the promised Urban Room, and create an actual indoor space that welcomes the community (vs. Atlantic Center and Terminal).