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Straight shooter: Coney pol blasts city for painting squiggly yellow lines to divide stretch of Neptune Ave.

Straight shooter: Coney pol blasts city for painting squiggly yellow lines to divide stretch of Neptune Ave.
Eric Faynberg

This agency needs to get in line!

The Department of Transportation must repaint a stretch of double-yellow lines dividing traffic along four blocks of Neptune Avenue, after laying down a squiggly set last month, according to Coney Island’s councilman, who said the agency’s failure to paint straight lines undermined residents’ trust in city government.

“It was sloppy job that was disrespectful to the Coney community,” Treyger said. “It really calls into question the capacity of local government to do basic functions like painting the street.”

Treyger first condemned the paint job on Nov. 29, demanding transit bigwigs correct the error in a Twitter post that included a constituent’s photo of the zig-zagging lines, which the pol said run along Neptune Avenue from roughly West 33rd to 37th streets. The slapdash squiggles are the latest in a series of less than perfect work done by the agency in the area, according to the councilman.

“First they couldn’t pave Neptune Avenue on time. Then they couldn’t pave right since potholes developed literally days after paving. Now they can’t paint straight,” Treyger said in his tweet. “This is an embarrassment to the city and completely unacceptable.”

Transportation Department reps did not immediately respond to questions this newspaper sent following Treyger’s Nov. 29 allegations, but the agency did respond to the pol on Twitter a day after he criticized its work, sharing its own tweet that argued bad weather botched the paint job, which the department claimed is only temporary to begin with.

“These are temporary markings, which can be affected by weather,” the agency wrote in a Nov. 30 post. “Permanent markings will be installed within the next week.”

After the agency tweeted its reply to Treyger, a spokeswoman replied to this newspaper, explaining that workers finished painting the new double-yellow-line median — and repaving the stretch of Neptune Avenue it bisects — on Nov. 19, and noting that the department always paints temporary markings before installing permanent ones.

And such temporary markings can be affected by rain and cold temperatures, according to the rep, who then did not immediately respond to follow-up inquiries about when the work began, how exactly weather could affect the markings, how the squiggles would be removed, and what company did the work.

Treyger, however, didn’t buy the agency’s claims that the lines are meant to be impermanent, arguing if that is the case, then city transit officials should know better than to do such work ahead of a season known for its inclement weather.

“I have not heard of temporary markings, and even if they were doing temporary markings, you’re telling me they cannot have straight lines as temporary markings?” the pol said. “That is a laughable and unacceptable excuse. If they felt the weather was going to be a factor, then why did they paint those lines now?”

The councilman also blasted those Transportation Department officials who signed off on the paint job, suggesting they should more thoughtfully review such projects before rushing to complete the next one.

“This has been one error after another error here on the part of DOT,” Treyger said. I just have to question, does someone review and oversee this work? How does any supervisor say this is a good job?”

Reach reporter Julianne McShane at (718) 260–2523 or by e-mail at jmcshane@cnglocal.com. Follow her on Twitter @juliannemcshane.