Some Greenway by Spring

February 12, 2005

The Brooklyn Papers

By Jess Wisloski

A mammoth green snake will soon take over the Brooklyn waterfront, and residents of Community Boards 2 and 6 are already shrieking -- with joy -- at their first glimpses of what will one day be a bicycle and pedestrian trail.

Last week, officials from the Regional Plan Association, an independent not-for-profit that promotes open-space and better design of transportation systems in the tri-state area, and the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative unveiled conceptual plans for a 30-foot-wide bike and pedestrian path that would border the waterfront from Greenpoint to Bay Ridge.

They also unveiled plans for an interim path that would be publicly accessible, at least in portions, as early as this spring.

"The use on an interim basis in some ways helps people to recognize what it could be," Milton Puryear, co-chairman and director of planning for the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, told The Brooklyn Papers.

"It helps people to see that there ought to be something better here," he said. "That's really all we're trying to do with the interim route -- to help the communities envision what the permanent route could be, what kind of a resource it could be for the community."

At a meeting to introduce the conceptual plans at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights on Feb. 1, Robert Pirani, Director of Environmental Programs for the Regional Plan Association, pointed out the value of a public space that not only reserves a portion of waterfront access to the public, but also acts as a connector among neighborhoods that otherwise are isolated by the Gowanus Expressway, like Bay Ridge, Sunset Park and Red Hook.

Dan Wiley, a spokesman for Rep. Nydia Velazquez, said the congresswoman -- who raised $200,000 for the Greenway pilot studies -- would be asking the federal government for $24 million towards the Greenway's construction.

"This plan, we feel, is a well thought-out plan because community input has been a key part of the process," said Wiley.

Puryear agreed.

"We believe within five years we can see a complete Greenway," he said, speaking only of the portion stretching five miles from Kent Avenue in Greenpoint to Pier 12 in Red Hook within the larger 14-mile pathway.

Now, all they need is land.

While the Greenway planners managed to leap the hurdle of private landowners by inviting those that make up patchy ownership of the waterfront in Red Hook to become planning board members, city and state agencies have presented another challenge entirely.

Unlike the private landholders, they aren't so eager to sit around the same table.

Though the program was declared in 1993 to be a "priority" by the Department of City Planning, a similar patchwork of ownership accounts for the state and city agencies that hold the remaining uplands and piers.

Puryear said the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has shown "promising" commitments in negotiations for rights-of-way along their parcels, and the Greenway planners are likewise "getting cooperation" from the city Economic Development Corporation, with access offered to Pier 11 "on an interim basis" for the bike path during cruise ship off-hours. The city is building a cruise ship terminal at Pier 12 that will use Pier 11 as an access road.

Con Edison has made some noise about opening up John Street to bikers only (while pedestrians can hit Vinegar Hill's cobble-stoned streets on foot) and the city Department of Parks and Recreation is supportive of turning Red Hook's overgrown Halleck Street into a path of its own.

Eventually, the path would extend down the Sunset Park waterfront and connect to Shore Road in Bay Ridge.

But the Department of Transportation, which lords over the stretch of Greenway planned for Columbia and Van Brunt streets from Atlantic Avenue to Beard Street -- where, after Degraw Street, planners had hoped to create an "express route" for bikers and commuters who don't want to follow the hook along the waterfront's leisurely route -- has limited pathways to the bare minimum: 5 to 6 feet wide in either direction for bikers and pedestrians to share.

The DOT's reservations, which officials say are due to a planned $16 million reconstruction of Columbia Street, also throw a wrench into the Greenway's plans for a new park at Degraw and Van Brunt streets, where the path would "circle the Seaman's Center on three sides where a community center, restaurant, café and rooftop deck offer a chance to stop, rest and explore the harbor up-close" and then continue down Van Brunt Street to Beard Street, according to a draft plan by the RPA distributed at the meeting.

And given the limited route width, the Greenway might not be so green in Red Hook.

"The $16 million project will improve the infrastructure and will make curb heights and lane widths compliant with federal roadway standards," said DOT spokesman Craig Chin.

Chin told The Papers the DOT's plans are to extend a path to 11 feet at the widest, leaving only a 5-and-a-half-foot path in each direction for bikers and walkers from Degraw to Sackett streets.

The Greenway planners insist 18 feet is the absolute minimum width they need to function safely.

Puryear added that the Port Authority could offer more land, too, from Congress Street to Atlantic Avenue along Columbia Street, which currently is planned as the 13-foot entrance to Brooklyn Bridge Park. They'd hoped to see a "much grander opening," Puryear said.

"It's totally inadequate," he said of the connection, which would serve all of the path's patrons. "You shouldn't have to tiptoe on a tightrope, it should open up to the park."

City Planning has yet to get involved, even though the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative has asked that they incorporate the Greenway into all the new development plans -- including the Red Hook Ikea, which has promised a public esplanade, and the decrepit Domino Sugar Factory site, which is up for redevelopment.

Though Puryear sounded optimistic about their proposal, Rachaele Raynoff, a spokeswoman for City Planning, deferred to the DOT on the issue of the Greenway in Red Hook.

"Obviously, the DOT has the expertise to identify what is needed for the plans of reconstruction of Columbia and Van Brunt streets," she said. "It's something that needs to be worked out, and when the DOT reviews that, they look at what is necessary, what is required to achieve their goals in the area."

But Ikea officials have yet to accept the Greenway's proposals, and have dug in their heels with a 12-foot-wide bike path.

"We'd like to encourage Ikea to take place in a more meaningful way," said Puryear.

Councilman David Yassky, who chairs the City Council Committee on Waterfronts, said the project needs some mayoral support, as well.