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In Downtown, a plan to get the cops off the sidewalk

The Brooklyn Paper

One of Downtown Brooklyn’s busiest corners will become a pedestrian oasis when the city constructs a public plaza at Hoyt and Schermerhorn streets.

The Department of Transportation is planning a 17-foot wide by 70-foot long piazza with seating and bike racks in front of the main entrance to the Hoyt–Schermerhorn train station, giving pedestrians more space to walk in an area where sidewalks are often obstructed by parked police cars.

The plaza will be protected from traffic and new cycling routes on Schermerhorn Street by a row of potted plants.

“This won’t just provide some room to breathe on a stretch of sidewalk that is notoriously congested, but it will also taking back some rare public space in Downtown Brooklyn that does little more than sit under cars all day,” said Wiley Norvell, a spokesman for Transportation Alternatives.

Construction might begin as early as November.The move was not only motivated by a desire to get the police cars to find legal parking, but to accommodate scores of new residents along what has become Downtown’s latest residential strip between Smith and Nevins streets.

Reader Feedback

dave from Brooklyn says:
Another creative solution from the Bloomberg Administration......say what you will but the guy is willing to try new things and has the follow-through to get it done. How man new plazas, parks, etc....were developed during previous administrations?? - yet under bloomberg it seems like there is a new one every month as well as new initiatives all the time- 4 more years!
Oct. 2, 2009, 10:27 am

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