He’s mad as hell, and he can’t drive on Avenue P anymore!
Beloved 92-year-old Brooklyn Graphic columnist Lou Powsner says he’s fed up with the city’s slow pace in re-paving Avenue P, which he says gives him head and butt aches every time he drives along it between McDonald Avenue and E. Third Street.
Powsner says that the street, which hasn’t been paved in two years, is bumped and cracked up, and bangs up his 1997 Mercury Sable when he’s driving down to his doctor’s office on E.18th Street between avenues O and P, or to grab a bite to eat at Mirage Diner on Kings Highway.
“You’ll be driving along at a normal speed, then all of a sudden you’re bouncing up and down,” he said. “It’s all rutted.”
And Pownser isn’t the only one complaining that the road, which has been touched-up over the years with a patchwork of pot hole fills, could clearly use a pave job. Other drivers agreed with the Brooklyn icon.
“Avenue P between McDonald Avenue and Ocean Parkway, it’s awful,” said Olesya Grytskiv. “I try to avoid those streets; I feel bad for my car.”
Neighbors on the other side of McDonald Avenue say that they’re also dealing with a slice of hell.
“I fell in that pothole [on West 1st and Avenue P] and sprained my ankle there,” said Dee Bixby. “When they fixed [West 4th Street and West 5th Street] we thought they’d fix it here too, but they didn’t. I’ve called 311 over 100 times about this already.”
Powsner says that he’s been trying to get a lawmaker to help repave Avenue P for nearly two years, with no luck.
“I’ve called the Councilman David Greenfield’s office 36 times in the last year and a half and I never got the courtesy of getting an answer,” the former Coney Island menswear maven said. “The city should come in and fix it right away. It demands repair.”
Reps for Greenfield (D–Bensonhurst) said they have received Powsner’s calls, and have forwarded his complaints to the Department of Transportation.
A city spokeswoman told us that the city will get to the work on Avenue P between McDonald Avenue and Ocean Parkway — but couldn’t give us a timetable of the work.
Reach reporter Dan MacLeod at dmacleod@cnglocal.com or by calling him at (718) 260-4507. You can also follow his Tweets at twitter.com/dsmacleod.
