Mayor Adams Meeting Request

October 17, 2023
Mayor Eric Adams

City Hall
New York, NY 10007
284 Park Place
Brooklyn, NY 11238
Dear Mayor Adams:
646.847.9720 As the local partner for Open Streets on Vanderbilt Avenue and Underhill Avenue, we
www.phndc.org write to request a meeting with you to discuss completing work on the Underhill
Avenue Bike Boulevard. After more than two years of community engagement by
DOT, and implementation of the Bike Boulevard nearly finished, your office halted
work on the project in August due to complaints from some residents, leaving our
neighborhood with an incomplete street lacking important features required for the
safety of cyclists, pedestrians and motorists.
The Underhill Avenue Bike Boulevard is implemented with “light touch” techniques
that can be adjusted based on DOT’s observation of use. At a town hall meeting on
October 12, Commissioner Rodriguez and yourself stated that DOT would conduct
door-to-door outreach to gather feedback about the Bike Boulevard. Gathering feedback
is a step that should be taken after implementation is complete, not before. Having
community members comment on a new street design before it has been completed is
not a meaningful exercise, and delaying the completion of the work puts users of the
street at risk. In short, we ask that you just let DOT finish the job. Any further delay
makes no sense and is irresponsible.
The Bike Boulevard is necessary as a traffic calming measure on a local street that has
in the past been used as a shortcut for through drivers, leading to serious crashes,
particularly in the vicinity of James Forten Playground.
Prior to the introduction of Open Streets on Underhill Avenue, it was a Vision Zero priority street. Traffic calming
through Open Streets led to a significant reduction in crashes beginning in 2020. The Bike Boulevard design
provides more comprehensive traffic calming without the need to deploy metal barriers.
Response to our recent Prospect Heights Streets for People petition (with over 2,600 signatures to date)
demonstrates that the Underhill Avenue Bike Boulevard, the Underhill Plaza, and the Vanderbilt Avenue Open
Street have strong community support centered in the Prospect Heights neighborhood, extending to surrounding
neighborhoods.
We point out that those initiatives are in no sense a case of outsiders “dictating” to long-time residents, as you
suggested at the town hall meeting. PHNDC has served the Prospect Heights community for twenty years, and has a
history of collaborating with DOT and elected officials to improve street conditions in this neighborhood.
• In 2005, we worked with Borough President Markowitz, Council Member Letita James and Transportation
Alternatives and DOT to implement the safer, traffic-calmed design for Vanderbilt Avenue that exists
today.
• In 2013, Mayor Bloomberg approved PHNDC’s application for a Neighborhood Slow Zone in Prospect
Heights, an application which you supported as State Senator.
• In 2014, PHNDC worked with Council Member Laurie Cumbo, Transportation Alternatives, Tri-State
Transportation Campaign and the New York League of Conservation Voters to have the de Blasio
administration designate Atlantic Avenue one of New York City’s first arterial slow zones.
• In 2017, as Borough President, you provided PHNDC with a capital grant of $575,000 for DOT to install
historic street lighting on Vanderbilt Avenue.
• And in 2020, Mayor de Blasio approved PHNDC’s Open Streets for Vanderbilt Avenue, of which the New
York Times later wrote, “Of all the ways the pandemic reshaped New York City’s streetscape, the most
profound example might have been found on Vanderbilt Avenue as it cut through brownstone Brooklyn.”
In sum, PHNDC is a long-term advocate for better streets in Prospect Heights, promoting successful projects that
have enjoyed broad political and popular support, and which have received citywide acclaim.
We note that several large streets initiatives for Prospect Heights are in either proposal or planning stages. These
include capital projects being planned for Grand Army Plaza, Underhill Avenue and Vanderbilt Avenue; as well as a
redesign of Atlantic Avenue proposed to be included in the Atlantic Avenue Mixed Use Plan, together with Bike
Boulevards to be implemented on Bergen and Dean Streets, and other street improvements. There is simply no way
projects of that scale can be implemented by encouraging a tug of war among supporters and opponents.
You have cast your role as Mayor as one of “balancing out” community opinions on transportation projects. We
believe you have a greater responsibility to ensure benefits of projects that flow from City policies on improving
street safety, reducing carbon emissions, and promoting economic development are explained to New Yorkers in a
way that acknowledges their concerns, while diffusing conflict in communities already struggling with issues like
displacement. We look forward to a discussion of how that can be done.
We appreciate your timely response.
Sincerely,
Gib Veconi
Chair

Mayor Adams Meeting Request

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Mayor Adams Meeting Request

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Mayor Adams Meeting Request

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

October 17, 2023

Mayor Eric Adams

We appreciate your timely response.

You might also like