In place of a regular March meeting (since February's happened so recently) TABK met at the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway Workshop instead, this past Thursday, March 25th.

About the project:

"The Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway is a planned 14-mile multi-use path, stretching from Newtown Creek to Owl's Head Park. The project will increase access to the waterfront, improve pedestrian and bicycle safety and connect the numerous public open spaces along the waterfront."  

This workshop was organized by the Department of Transportation (DOT) with consultants from RBA and members of the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative (BGI) and included local groups and residents who worked in groups with maps and markers to raise concerns, make requests and generally start creating a picture of what we'd like the new Greenway to look like. 

Background for the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway project:

The project began conceptually in 1993 with a Greenway masterplan, in 2009 DOT began implementation with Kent Avenue as a stepping stone. The process going forward will involve creating interim/temporary routes on streets and then a master plan for entire greenway. These long and short term plans are being executed simultaneously, with RBA engineers already working on the structure of the tighter, more challenging areas along the route.

 As the plan develops, there will be instances that will require the coordination of many parties, such as on the Columbia Street portion of the path for which Port Authority and City agencies worked together to move back a fence to create room for the bike path. This type of cooperation among agencies and property owners will characterize the effort going forward as the path goes through varied areas where there are many stakeholders and agencies involved. The path itself covers the area of four different Community Boards, and has benefitted from the New York State Department of State's and Marty Markowitz's help, and from waterfront revitalization funds.

 The intention is to incorporate and complement the existing industrial reality found along Brooklyn's waterfront, allowing existing water-dependent entities to continue to work well. It will not be a copy of Hudson Park, where there is a long uninterrupted stretch that is uniformly designed, but to have the design reflect the diverse nature of Brooklyn and celebrate the unique landscapes, cultures and people found along the path. Other driving factors in design development are focusing on health and safety by having uninterrupted stretches, and focus on the commute by connecting workers to the places they need to go. 

 History of urban greeways:

Ocean and Eastern Parkways were once designed to connect Coney Island to Prospect Park and beyond, designed by the famous creator of both Prospect and Central Parks, Frederick Law Olmsted. These leafy passages were meant for carriages, pedestrians and bikes, since cars had yet to be invented.

Robert Moses actually included bike paths in many of his urban planning projects, many of which have since deteriorated. The Bronx River Greenway is a 22 mile stretch from Long Island to Westchester which has become derelict after decades of neglect. The revitalization of this path echoes a design trend often followed for such projects: the use of the industrial detritus nearby to create design elements, salvaging and incorporated industrial history into present renewal, such as in the recently opened portion of the Brooklyn Bridge Park.

 A good example of a simple solution for bike paths is the 9A path that goes from Battery to 59th street that incorporating bikes on the pedestrian path that goes along the west side highway.

 Present-day examples of the variety of bike lane options: sharrows, painted lanes, protected lanes, bike boulevards (Berkeley, CA), contra-flow lanes, bolting bike path to bridge (Portland, OR), corkscrew ramps over freeways, floating paths on piers, alongside train tracks, under highways

The Workshop:

Four Main Concerns

Continuity along the path, Connecting destinations, Access to water, Design elements 

The Four Topics

 1. Sand St./Navy Yard area to Brooklyn Bridge Park

 Many groups dealt with the Sand St. / Navy Yard question, and one big concern was the cobblestones that exist there. They are historic and must be kept in the neighborhood, but perhaps there is a way for bikes to co-exist? Landmarks commission must be consulted.

• •   removing stones from bike lane and using them to repair holes in other parts of DUMBO
  •    a treatment of smooth stones can blend in with old cobblestones, laid on top.

Groups looked at which streets would be best for bike lanes, could a 2-way path exist on one street or since DUMBO streets are so narrow, would it have to split?

Car traffic is minimal at the moment, but could increase with the opening of a new apartment building. Plymouth and Water street have warehouses that need loading lanes. Could ordinances be implemented that only allow car traffic in that area for loading and unloading, no through-traffic?

 Various ideas were tossed around, and the consensus was that bikes should be given prirority over cars in the area since it is not a high-traffic zone to begin with, and businesses would benefit from more pedestrian and bike traffic.

• • can Navy Yard revitalization plans involve a bike lane?
  • East corner of Navy Yard could be a good green space and place to stop and hang out                along the path
  • Would a tree-lined bike lane on Flushing or in the Navy Yard be too cute? Would it contrast with the industrial surroundings poorly?

 2. Brooklyn Bridge Park waterfront access

 The Brooklyn Bridge Park has one section open now, another section to open in July and in May, a playground at Pier 6 will open. Until the entire park is open though, an interim path solution needs to be developed. The road along the park is often used as a default highway by cars as it runs just under the BQE and doesn't have many stoplights. A protected lane would be perfect, but there's the problem of fitting the bike lane sweeping equipment in that narrow of a space. The lane can't be pushed into the property along the sidewalk because not all of it as of yet is involved in the park project. Much of this land is also used for equipment and material storae for the ongoign construction of the park, pier 5 has active construction.

 3. Flushing Avenue path

 Several ideas were thrown around for the Flushing Avenue redesign, with the question of whether the re-design could maintain 2 way traffic.

• •    take away parking?
  •  bikeway in the Navy Yard
  •   less sidewalk, since there are few pedestrians 

 Improvements to Flushing Ave needed:

• • lighting
  •  fencing could use improvement, a design opportunity?
  • fast and slow segments for bike commuters, since it is uninterrupted and people can gain speed if they want
  • make intersections that approach Flushing more safe

4. Downtown Brooklyn Access

  Bridges to the Greenway are important, some neighborhoods don't have great access to the path

  A bike path entry could be created at Joralemon and State near the promenade, this could connect to downtown bike lanes. One problem with Joralemon is that it is both a steep hill and made of cobblestones.

  Improving signage on existing routes to Greenway and creating bike parking at destinations will help access from bike path to destinations.

Design Elements

    - Include some element that continues throughout the Greenway so that people know they're on the same path

    - Planter barriers

    - Public art by local residents

Next Greenway Workshops:

4/8 Sunset Park

4/13 Red Hook

4/22 Greenpointe (at Brooklyn Brewery!)

Meetings will go on throughout the spring and DOT will come back this summer with plans based on these workshops. Visit the DOT website for updates.