New, Improved G Train To Change Brooklyn as We Know It

Rail lines have historically been critical in the way cities evolve and grow. New York as we know it today, was shaped by the extension of its subway and trolley lines. So, when the story surfaced yesterday about the MTA's service changes on the L and G trains, you had to wonder what it will mean. The L train service improvements are a no-brainer. It means that riders getting on at Beford might no longer have to double back five stops to get on a train with room for a few more bodies.

But extenion of the G five stops south to Church Avenue? Now, there's a social revolution in the making. The L Train change will happen first. The G Train extension, well, that will be in 2008. Nonetheless, the day is at hand when North Brooklyn hipsters will be able to visit their South Brooklyn friends without changing trains. Park Slope to Grand Street or Nassau in one shot, baby.

Jen Chung over at Gothamist, who stays atop the MTA's various doings, wrote:

Are pigs flying? Has hell frozen over? am New York finds some glorious information buried in the MTA's 2007 budget...

Gothamist also includes a link to the Save the G website, which is an excellent introduction to the Little Green Torment.

One can see the day when Park Slope parents with strollers roam more freely on Bedford and when more hipsters wearing vaguely ironic work shirts break bread at Sette on Seventh Avenue or, even, invade Church Avenue. Gawker put it this way:

(More) Bugaboos on Bedford Avenue! Even longer lines at Southpaw! Less stuff for people to gripe about in those moving back to Manhattan trend pieces! ....Thank fucking God, is all we have to say. The only tiny downside that we can see is that by the time these plans actually take effect (late 2007-- early 2008), we will be too old for one of the neighborhoods and still too poor for the other. Oh well.

G trains stopping again at Seventh Avenue! Now, that's progress. Except when weekend service changes are planned, in which case the F will terminate at Smith-9th and the G will run from Smith-9th to Stillwell Avenue, with the F skipping J Street and terminating instead at Hoyt-Schermerhorn. Or something like that.

In all seriousness, this is just a tiny downpayment. Check back on the L and the G in another five or ten years when thousands more new North Brooklyn residents are living in waterfront housing in Greenpoint and Williamsburg, all of them depending on the G and the L to get to and fro.