August, Hot and Stormy, arrives at Columbia Street Waterfront - and so does our CSWA Website!
In this issue:
- Launching CSWA's Website!
- A Vox Future Perfect article by neighbor Bryan Walsh features our community's victory getting stop signs and cross walks at Summit and Columbia Streets!
- Brooklyn Marine Terminal (BMT) news: last Friday's BMT Advisory Task Force meeting and this week's EDC Public Information session go on despite our recommendation to reschedule to September.
The Board of the Columbia Street Waterfront Association (CSWA) is thrilled to announce our website is up and running at www.columbiastreetwaterfront.org. Take a look!
The website is the fruit of the dedicated efforts of CSWA Communication Committee members Linda Feldman, Lynette Wiley Wood (CSWA Board Member), and Randy Gordon (CSWA President). The work was made possible by the generous donation from Greg O’Connell (CSWA Board Member) and became a reality thanks to the diligent and patient work of web designer Chris Tsanos. Thanks to everyone involved!
The website gives everyone a chance to more easily keep up with the latest goings-on:
- News & Updates: Features BMT updates and all the stories from our newsletter.
- Events: A calendar displays all upcoming community events.
- Resources: Presents all Association documents, like our bylaws and more BMT documents. There will be more to come, including something we all need desperately: a BMT Acronym Glossary.
- Get Involved: Points community members to the many ways to get involved! Join a committee, submit a photo for the website, and more. We’ll soon be adding more about shopping local. And those coming to the website can sign up for this newsletter!
- History: Includes information about Columbia Street Waterfront’s history. Linda Feldman did amazing work researching the rich history of our neighborhood and finding remarkable photos.
- Membership and Support: allows you to become a member of and to donate to the CSWA. Columbia Street Waterfront Association, Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. All donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law. We will have much more on CSWA membership in next week's issue. For now, if you have questions about membership, please email admin@columbiastreetwaterfront.org.
We would love to hear what you think! Send us your comments, suggestions, and ideas to admin@columbiastreetwaterfront.org.
Who would have thought our Fight for Pedestrian Safety on Columbia Street would make it to Vox's Future Perfect Section - but there we are!
In our last newsletter we wrote about our community's tough fight and ultimate victory getting DOT to install stop signs and cross walks at the intersection of Summit and Columbia Street.
Bryan Walsh, in his August 4 article for Vox's Future Perfect section, The simple idea that helped prevent millions of traffic deaths" (subscription required) begins right at that very spot:
"Let me start with the most local of local stories: the intersection down the street from my apartment in Brooklyn, New York, where Columbia Street meets Summit Street."
He goes on to observe what many of our residents would agree with: "...I’ve hated this intersection. It has no stop signs, no crosswalks, no signal. Crossing on foot with my son has meant grabbing his hand and hoping any oncoming cars would slow down, which, given that this is New York City, is maybe a 50/50 proposition at best. Everyone knew a stop sign or signal was needed, but the city did nothing."
And then Bryan tells our story! And includes a link to our new site! (so Future Perfect readers got to see it first!).
"That finally began to change late last year, after a 10-year-old girl was struck and injured by a car just two blocks north of the intersection. The neighborhood organized, packed a public meeting, and eventually walked a city official down the block so he could stand in the intersection and see what they saw every day. Which is how I woke up on July 17 to see four stop signs and freshly painted crosswalks at the intersection I hated so much."
Bryan goes on to tell trace how car safety has improved tremendously over the last century, driven by the realization of a doctor, William Haddon Jr., that car accidents were system failures "and understood cars had to be designed to protect drivers against themselves." But pedestrian safety has lagged, even with Vision Zero initiatives in NYC and across the globe. As Bryan writes, "There are more dangerous intersections in this country than there are communities with the voice and the stamina to demand fixes. A real Vision Zero wouldn’t wait for the crash; it would identify which intersections could kill someone and fix those first."
We can all agree with that statement, while feeling proud we do have the voice and stamina to demand fixes - and get them. Thank you, Bryan, for sharing our neighborhood story and tying the hyper local to the global theme of pedestrian safety.
BMT (Brooklyn Marine Terminal)
Despite CSWA, our electeds, and several BMT Development Corporation directors expressing strong reservations with holding critically important meetings in the high summer, EDC (Economic Development Corporation) went ahead with its scheduled BMT Advisory Task Force (BMTATF) Meeting on Friday, July 31, and Public Info Session on Wednesday, August 5.
For the BMTATF meeting, EDC did not enable the chat for members of the public. EDC had enabled the chat at the previous meeting. This allowed community members to pose questions on the chat. Their ATF representatives addressed these to EDC and their consultants. CSWA made it clear to EDC their displeasure with this retreat from broader engagement. We wrote: "If EDC is serious that their 'goal is to support a process that is transparent, accessible, and responsive to community input', this is not the way to do that."
At the meeting, EDC, WXY Consulting, and other consultants reviewed the presentation we included a link to last issue. The Transit Priority section (starting on slide 23) faced considerable skepticism from former DOT Commissioner Hank Gutman, Red Hook Business Alliance Executive Director Carly Baker-Rice, and others. CSWA is preparing a response to the proposal detailing where we see it failing to meet the needs and concerns of our community.
As for Wednesday's Public Information session, far fewer community members were able to attend than for the July 14 meeting. This was right in line with what Randy Gordon, CSWA President, wrote EDC on July 20. "Our community members are even more likely to be away on vacation in August than July. And the presentation will be the same as for the July 14 meeting, so those who attended that meeting are unlikely to attend the August 5 session. You will have few community members at this August meeting."
As for the meeting's content, here's a post from CSWA Vice President John Leyva's Columbia Waterfront District Instagram page.
Questions? Email us at admin@columbiastreetwaterfront.org. Also, please share our website with your friends and neighbors: https://columbiastreetwaterfront.org/, where they can sign up for our newsletter!
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Media Contact:
Randy Gordon, President
Columbia Street Waterfront Association, Inc.
Phone: 917-593-2674
Email: admin@columbiastreetwaterfront.org