Brooklyn Groups to Bloomberg: Transportation Policy, Please

[Traffic photo posted by gawillia82 on flickr.]

Twenty-eight Brooklyn neighborhood groups have signed on to a letter to Mayor Bloomberg that is highly critical of the negative impact of what they say is his administration's lack of a coherent transportation policy and its impact on the borough. The letter is shared by streetsblog, which consistently does fine work in reporting progress or lack thereof on critical transportation issues.

The groups say that the Bloomberg Administration has failed to "articulate clear, goal-oriented transportation policies or priorities" and that "worthy city transportation initiatives are few, and many drift along as studies, failing to deliver any public benefit."

Among other things, the letter lambastes the city for a rezoning of Downtown Brooklyn that dealt with transportation "in a superficial fashion." It criticizes the Dept. of Transportation for "unilaterally" discarding a "traffic calming" plan for Downtown and other neighborhoods. And, it slams last year's the Williamsburg/Greenpoint rezoning for promoting growth and ignoring transportation planning even in the face of already critical subway overcrowding.

While Brooklyn's population is surging, the letter says that the city is continuing its decades-long failure to increase mass transit capacity in the borough. Among other things, the letter calls for a parking permit system in some neighborhoods and quick creation of Bus Rapid Transit lanes (as opposed to more years of study). Groups signing the letter range from the North Brooklyn Alliance and Park Slope Civic Council to the Bay Ridge Community Council and Fort Greene Association. The full text and more details are available at streetsblog.