Some 300 protesters packed the Brooklyn Heights Promenade on Saturday, decrying the city’s plan to temporarily place a six-lane highway on the esplanade to repair a stretch of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
“I am against the damn plan as it stands, plain and simple,” Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams told protestors. “I’m concerned about the continuation of believing the only way we can move through this city is by expanding highways.”
Several elected officials—including host City Comptroller Scott Stringer, state Senator Brian Kavanaugh and Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon—joined the chorus of community advocates slamming the Department of Transportation’s reconstruction plan and called for additional community input on the project set to begin as soon as next year.
“When the city plans a massive years-long project, their top priority should be transparency,” said Stringer. “No project can succeed without community input and the planning process for the BQE renovation has failed that basic standard. The city must consider a wider range of options to ensure this project does not unnecessarily burden the Brooklyn Heights community.”
A Better Way NYC helped spearhead the rally, which amassed near the Pierrepont Street entrance to the promenade. The head of the group, Hilary Jager, charged Mayor Bill de Blasio with “taking a page out of the Robert Moses playbook” by proposing a multi-billion dollar plan to repair a 1.5-mile stretch of the BQE that would close the Brooklyn Heights Promenade for six years.
“Our communities refuse to stand idly by while the City attempts to ram through a closed-door plan that will increase pollution and traffic,” Jager said Saturday. “In solidarity with the thousands who stand in opposition to the current proposal, we call on the City to work with us–transparently–to find a better way.”
Furious protestors chanted “Save lungs not lanes” and “Better way today,” as they waved homemade signs and fliers calling for a new proposal. Locals raised a variety of concerns including environmental impacts, a lack of city transparency and the loss of the historic promenade, which draws millions to the area each year.
Another project alternative would reconstruct the road lane-by-lane. That plan would take some eighth years and involve night and weekend work, likely flooding streets with diverted truck and car traffic during construction.
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