February 17, 2007: Vol. 30, No. 7
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‘Park’ will be spared during BQE repairs
The Brooklyn Paper
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del.icio.usLong-overdue repair work on the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway will not devastate Brooklyn Bridge Park, state officials said this week.
“We are not using the park as a staging area for the renovation,” said Adam Levine, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.
Levine’s comment comes on the heels of criticism that the agency was planning to repair the three-level section of the highway running alongside the Brooklyn Heights waterfront even as a different state agency was building a housing, commercial and open space development in the same area.
Critics said the park component of the waterfront project would be devastated, citing a report showing that it would be used as a staging area for the BQE repairs.
Robert Perris, district manager of Community Board 2, said the DOT told him the staging area scenario was indeed proposed, but was rejected last year.
Plans for the renovation — which isn’t set to start for at least nine years — haven’t been finalized yet, however, and the ambiguity is still causing worry for park advocates.
“We’re very concerned,” said Judi Francis, president of the Brooklyn Bridge Defense Fund, which has been fighting the state’s current development plan in favor of a “real park.”
She rejected Levine’s assurances.
“The [BQE repair] plan will have a profound and stunning impact on the park,” said Francis.
“The only way to get into the park is over Furman Street,” added Francis. “If they redirect traffic onto Furman, we won’t have a park.”
Perris has invited state DOT officials to an upcoming community board meeting to speak about the project, but was told that discussing the situation with the community was “premature” at this point.
©2007 The Brooklyn Paper
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