New Concerns about Brooklyn Bridge Park
The Cobble Hill Association fears that impending construction on the BQE and the Promenade could have a desultory effect on the Brooklyn Bridge Park. “In a worst-case scenario, the park could be built and then colonized as a staging area for the rebuilding of the triple-cantilever structure that supports the two lanes of the highway…
The Cobble Hill Association fears that impending construction on the BQE and the Promenade could have a desultory effect on the Brooklyn Bridge Park. “In a worst-case scenario, the park could be built and then colonized as a staging area for the rebuilding of the triple-cantilever structure that supports the two lanes of the highway and the Promenade above it,” they write, and urge concerned citizens to attend the CB6 Transportation Committee meeting this Thursday at LICH. But others fear parts of the park might never be realized. The Brooklyn Paper reports that the walkways raised over the East River, one of the beloved design elements of the park, have disappeared from the proposal, due to concerns about the effects on aquatic life. “Besides the aesthetic appeal, the bridges would have made the park more pedestrian friendly. It provided links between three of the six piers that comprise Brooklyn Bridge Park, allowing park users to stroll from one pier to the next without having to go all the way back to dry land,” they write. Park supporters plan to appeal to the state Department of Environmental Conservation to reconsider.
Wave Goodbye to ‘Park’ Walkways [Brooklyn Paper]
BBP and the Reconstruction of the BQE [CHA]
I have heard from very credible sources that the DOT intends to use most of the former PA piers to house interplanetary aliens whose flying saucers crashed last year near Wasilla, Alaska. Though some of the aliens escaped and assumed human form, most were detained and will be transferred to an inter-gallactic Guantanamo on the old Brooklyn Heights piers. The work will be passed off on the unsuspecting public as related to “necessary repairs” on the BQE, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Wallentas carousel.
We understand the Republican vice presidnetial candidate is keeping close tabs on the progress of the works as it will affect “friends” who wish to have a “bridge to nowhere and beyond” built at Federal expense.
The CHA’s assertion that a worst-case scenario exists in which the future Brooklyn Bridge Park would be colonized and used as a staging area for the BQE rehab is specious at best. This worst-case scenario exists only in the imagination of CHA and to suggest such a “scenario” does not serve them or Cobble Hill well. Also, please note that the BQE rehab project is a State DOT project, not City DOT (unlike the Purchase Building topic).
The DOT is taking part of the old Department of Purchase Building site for staging (probably parking)for repairs (yet again) of the approach ramps and other parts of the BB.
So? Maybe they will take over a part of one of the piers or a portion of the shoulder of Furman Street for the repairs to the BQE. So? That does not mean that the vast majority of the waterfornt slated to become a park is somehow going to be usurped by the DOT. Such nonsense. This whole project has been fraught. The Port Authority should have sold the whole thing to Trump for construction of waterfront homes. There would be a lovely community in place now, no free concerts, no stupiod waterfalls, I hate to sound cranky but I’m fed up with the stupid soon-to-be, any-minute-now, park and with the adjacent communities opposed to anything happening anywhere at any time at any point near them.
This was discussed on the Brooklyn Heights Blog last year, see http://brooklynheightsblog.com/?s=bqe+construction for some posts, see http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/construction/accelerated/wsbqe06.pdf for the Federal Highway administration’s brief on the reconstruction of the BQE.
It’s neither FUD nor hysteria given the City DOT’s recent commandeering of the land where the Purchase Building stood as a storage area for work on the Brooklyn Bridge.
I’m so disappointed that the floating walkways are getting nixed because of potential concern to “aquatic life”. I’m all for Environmental Impact Statements and being sensitive to the issues, but this is absurd.
Does this mean that no new pier will ever be built in NYC? After all, they’ll cast a lot more shadow than these small floating walkways.
And did anyone consider that maybe they’ll impact the aquatic life for the BETTER? After all, lots of creatures seem to love living under the piers — quite likely some form of beast will love the protection/shade/shelter these walkways provide.
Finally, could we keep some of the walkways and do away with others? After all, the walkways along the edges of the piers are neat, but don’t affect the traffic patterns of the park. The piers that connect each pier to one another — those are the vital ones. They get you places and attenuate the waves and currents to create more kayakable water.
Peter
http://www.FlashlightWorthyBooks.com
Recommending books so good, they’ll take your mind off how long this park is taking!
Stoner, I think you mean repair, not construction. The BQE was already constructed a long time ago.
The Cobble Hill Association is making stuff up. Where do they get that the BQE is about to be dismantled and reconstructed? When repairs do begin, the DOT will probably do what they did with the FDR, build a temporary two-lane shunt, perhaps on Furman, to carry first the north-bound, then the south-bound traffic as they repair and rehab those parts of the highway. Highways need to be maintained, that’s life, but to suggest that as a result the entire waterfront area will somehow be subsumed by the construction has no basis in reality. This whole story has no basis in reality. It is just community hysteria and paranoia. Some of the people involved have too much free time and not enough medication.