At last night's Community Board 9 meeting two extraordinary things were revealed in slightly greater detail, directly from the mouths of officials working at DOT and the NYCTA, looking me straight in the eye without blushing or stammering.
As the Q noted previously, a major Congested Corridor study is underway to determine how to unclog and ensafen (my word, thank you very much) the Flabenue, Empire on down. Well done Mr. Keith Bray and his associates at DOT, who have shown enormous willingness to meet with the community and address priorities of drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians. They balance some fairly strident complaints from all camps, and generally do their best to accommodate. (Last night I got a sense of just how much some people HATE bike lanes, even finding them class-ist and even racist, but I'll leave that to another more contentious post. Suffice to say, TREK is a four-letter word to some.) No one can argue however that Flatbush needs some work...they'll come to us with their findings in late winter.
BUT MORE IMPORTANT, and here's the really BIG BUTT for today...
THE MONEY CAME THROUGH TO TOTALLY REHAB THE Q AT PARKSIDE TRAIN STATION! NYCTA IS BIDDING OUT THE PROJECT AS I WRITE THIS!!!
They start in the spring. Granted, there will be half-station closures throughout next summer as they redo stairs, tracks, ceilings, columns, the works. No word yet on how extensive will be the cosmetic work on the headhouse, but believe me I got down on my knees and begged Asst Director Andrew Inglesby for light fixtures, matching doors, scraping down to the bone and repainting. Look, if they don't do the job properly and fix more than the infrastructure, what's the point of spending millions of our dollars? They should want it to LOOK as good as it IS.
Holy crap I'm happy about this news, and I hope you share my enthusiasm. Thanks to CB9 for relentless pressure on the issue. Finally our turn has come. Now about those canners...
There's no place like hometrain, there's no place like hometrain...
18 comments:
That's AWESOME!!
Great news!!
Yay!
Great news!! Thanks Tim for attending and reporting back to the masses.
Yipee!
Story picked up on Brownstoner (w photo!) http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2012/10/full-rehab-for-the-parkide-avenue-q-station/#disqus_thread
Great news, thanks for sharing!
cool!
Wonderful! I really hope they remove all the old paint. I remember when they added the wall tiles some years ago (Dinkins was Mayor), the tiles looked nice but they just added another coat of paint to the many layers already there and within a year, it was flaking.
A huge thank you to you, Q, for beating this drum.
Are there specific elected officials whose offices & advocacy helped bring this funding about?
I'll look into it...though if there's even a smidgen of credit to take, I'm sure someone will claim it. I tried to find out where the Q was in the queue for the past year, but to no avail. I never saw it on any capital plans, did you? Then this. On the same news day as pro hockey coming to Barclay's. Coincidence? I think so.
sorry to hear about the bike lanes. it seems like that sort of thing would be helpful for calming the traffic, especially on a street as crazy as flatbush.
but really...racist? classist? i don't see that. it seems that bike lanes--with the exception of the rogue few--make a neighborhood more pedestrian and kid friendly. and in a neighborhood where restaurants do so much delivery business, it keeps delivery riders off the sidewalk (which drives me crazy). it's a safer alternative.
This is great news, as always thanks for sharing, you are doing a great service to the community!
MTA better do a good job both on infrastructure and light fixtures as they are badly needed, I am really worried to see several worn out structural pieces in the tunnel side of the station.
Question: are they going to work also at Church and/or Prospect Park stations at the same time?
Awesome! That station REALLY needs it. Maybe the upcoming completion of the Lakeside project is spurring the added attention to transportation infrastructure on the east side of the park? Hope so!
-Paul
hoooooray!
Wonderful news!
Fantastic news!! Congratulations to the neighborhood and all my tenacious, visionary neighbors.
Dynamite and the Sex Pistols ... the hell with the hurricane... Bring Parkside back to 1903... YAHOO!!!!
Damn now all the NETS have to do is win the game on Thursday !!
Congrats to the Q, my neighbors, my friends all who live here.
OK now I'm off the high horse... Q you are right... they have to do the job right.
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