Author: Grand Street Democrats

We are basically waiting to see what shakes out when congestion pricing rolls in at the end of June; the DoT has taken a ‘wait-and-see’ approach to any more big changes in the neighborhood;

Some of the recurring issues: 

• No Right Turn from Grand to Clinton Pilot Program: 
  • It appears that the level of illegal turns have subsided somewhat, both at Grand and Clinton and at Grand and Norfolk. 
  • There are occasionally traffic enforcement agents (TEAs) who try to prevent illegal turns, but no one I know has reported seeing the NYPD issuing summons for illegal turns
  • Matt Marello waged a persistent campaign writing to Google to remove the illegal right-hand turn from its directions, and Google finally did so;
  • Unfortunately, Google Maps is now telling drivers to go south on Clinton and then make an illegal u-turn in order to go north to the Williamsburg Bridge. We will need to do a crowd-sourced complaint to Google in order to get that to stop;
  • The DoT is supposed to reassess the ‘pilot’ after a year, which will be coming up sometime this July, but again, they will probably wait until congestion pricing shakes out before they make any more changes.
• Some Good News: The NYS Assembly and Senate passed “Sammy’s Law”, allowing NYC to lower the speed limit on some streets from 25mph to 20mph; 
• Other efforts by GSD members:
  • Tony Alfieri has been waging a persistent letter writing campaign with our NYS elected officials:
    • To support the “Red Light Camera” bill to allow NYC to install and operate more red light cameras;
    • To push the DoT and MTA to install more air quality monitors in the area of Grand and the FDR in preparation for congestion pricing;   
  • Tina Carr was struck by a car turning left at Clinton and East Broadway on Valentine’s Day. Tina escaped serious injury, but her dog ran away and was eventually found that day in Brooklyn! Tina is working on having a rally-type event on the corner to push the DoT to:
    • Include Sundays on the rule prohibiting LEFT Turns from East Broadway onto Clinton from 4pm-12am) be extended to include Sundays.
    • Designate the intersection of East Broadway & Clinton as a “Don’t Block the Box” intersection, with street markings and signs stating the penalties of blocking the box.
    • Assign traffic enforcement agents to monitor that intersection to prevent illegal left turns and blocking of the box, and to give summonses for the latter.
    • The tentative date is Sunday, May 19^th.

Elevator Accessibility at Essex-Delancey Subway Station:

We continue working on a campaign to push the MTA to upgrade the Essex-Delancey subway station (the 29^th busiest station in the entire subway system of 400+ stations) with elevator accessibility in the MTA’s next Five Year Capital Plan (2025-2029).

• Multiple community organizations have been involved:
  • Daisy Paez, local district leader from the 3 Bridges Democratic Club;
  • SALT (Senior Advocacy Leadership Team);
  • Manny Cantor Center;
  • UA3 Food Pantry
• We have gathered over 1300 signatures on petitions (in Spanish, English, and Chinese);
  • Daisy, Chi Loek of UA3, and I presented the petitions to the MTA at a full MTA board meeting at the end of March. An MTA representative contacted us to arrange a meeting about the issue;
• Simaultaneously, our elected officials (Goldman, Kavanagh, Lee, Marte) had a second meeting in March with the MTA, and more importantly, including the Delancey Street Associates (DSA), the people responsible for Essex Crossing, because there is some contention whether an an easement from DSA is needed to build the elevators near the old Essex Market building;
• We have developed maps that illustrate that at least, and maybe three of the elevators, can be installed without the need of an easement.
• This is a work-in-progress.

If you want to join the Traffic Working Group, point your phone here …

DoT came to a CB3 Transportation Committee meeting on 12/5/2023 to discuss local traffic. Issues:

• No Right Tu:rn from Grand to Clinton Pilot Program: There was a lot of discussion about the “No Right Turn from Grand to Clinton”
• Impact at Grand Street traffic turning onto Clinton
• Impact at Grand Street traffic at Norfork
• Impact on Clinton Street traffic at E. Broadway
• Other Intersections
• Based on community input, DoT has since: Installed a promised stop light at Broome & Clinton; Clarified “No Left Turn” for eastbound traffic on Grand trying to turn onto Norfolk; Added more TEAs on Norfolk to enforce the turning regimen.

DoT claims they are going to re-assess when the pilot is over after 1 year.

If you want to join the Traffic Working Group, point your phone here …