The city should aggressively redesign the streets of Downtown Brooklyn to prioritize pedestrians, cyclists and bus riders and maximize the neighborhood’s strengths as a mixed-use transit hub, according to a recent analysis commissioned by Council Member Lincoln Restler.
Twenty-two years after a landmark rezoning of the neighborhood sought to turn Downtown Brooklyn into New York City’s third major business district, Restler and the Regional Plan Association took stock of the results for a study on how to make the most out of an area still overrun by traffic gridlock and illegal parking by municipal employees.
“There are ways to beautify and green more streets in Downtown Brooklyn, pedestrianize more areas, dedicate more space for buses, enhance the network of protected bike lanes that all further improve the attractiveness and competitiveness of Downtown Brooklyn to be more of a jobs hub, more of a higher academic hub, and more of a housing hub and cultural hub, as a great mixed-use neighborhood in New York City,” said Restler…