Quantcast

It’s plaza sweet on Schermerhorn Street

It’s plaza sweet on Schermerhorn Street
The Brooklyn Paper / Mike Short

Downtown is turning into a real walker’s wonderland.

The city has almost finished creating a pedestrian plaza at the corner of Hoyt and Schermerhorn streets, offering bipeds a bit of space in the bustling neighborhood.

The $5,000 project brings a 17-foot by 70-foot walking and sitting area to the front of the main entrance to the Hoyt–Schermerhorn G and A/C train station — protected from traffic and newly painted cycling routes by a row of potted plants.

“It’s some much-needed room to breath on a very crowded sidewalk in Downtown Brooklyn,” said Wiley Norvell, a spokesman for Transportation Alternatives, the pedestrian and bike advocacy group. “Previously, this is space that was sitting under parked cars the entire day while pedestrians squeezed onto a few feet of sidewalk. Now that’s really turned on its head.”

The project — which reclaimed a chunk of sidewalk space often covered by parked police cars — started ahead of the expected November launch date and will be completed in the coming weeks when workers install two benches in the piazza, according to the Department of Transportation.

Here's what it looked like just two weeks ago.
The Brooklyn Paper / Bess Adler