Sketching Out a Myrtle Avenue Makeover

A big plan for a remake of Myrtle Avenue in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill was posted yesterday. The document is the result of a long period of planning and community meetings by the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Parternship and the Project for Public Spaces. Streets Blog wrote of the effort:

The days when Myrtle was known as "Murder Avenue" are long past. Thriving shops and restaurants line much of the street, in part thanks to the efforts of the Myrtle Avenue Revitalization Project and the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Business Improvement District (constituent members of the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership). But many areas remain where the street's potential is going unrealized, and that's what the collaboration with PPS was meant to address. "We were looking at streetscape conditions," says Vaidila Kungys, the partnership's program manager for planning and economic development. "There's a lot of clutter, crowded sidewalks and problematic intersections."

The plan reenvisions intersections and pedestrian spaces among other things, offering a number of options for resdesign. With the city's new emphasis on creating livable streetscapes, there is actually a chance that some of the concepts will make the jump from the paper to sidewalk.