New Interim Greenway on Flushing Avenue

New York City’s Department of Transportation (DOT) has taken another interim step in the process to establish a Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway — a 14-mile, multi-use, off-road path spanning from Greenpoint all the way down to Sunset Park.

DOT has completed a new 2-way bike lane on Flushing Avenue from Williamsburg Street to Navy Street along the length of the Brooklyn Navy Yard — featuring a physically protected lane from Williamsburg Street West to Washington Avenue and a Class 2 (buffered) lane for the balance of the stretch.

Combined with previously created interim segments on Kent Avenue, Williamsburg Street West and Columbia Street, the groundwork has been laid for nearly 4 miles of the Greenway.

The final designed version of the Greenway will be between 20 and 30 feet wide in total, encompassing a 4- to 8-foot landscaped buffer between it and the street, a 10- to 12-foot bike bath, and a 6- to 10-foot pedestrian path.

The bike and pedestrian path recently opened at Brooklyn Bridge Park will also link to the Greenway route.

The Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway was envisioned by Brian McCormick, Milton Puryear and Meg Fellerath, who incorporated as the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative (BGI) in 2004. They have been working with the DOT on the master plan for the entire Greenway route.

Earlier this year, DOT hosted a series of four community workshops in areas that will be affected by the Greenway — Downtown Brooklyn, Sunset Park, Red Hook and Greenpoint/Williamsburg — to hash out the details of the planned route.

For more information about the Greenway, visit www.brooklyngreenway.org.

And check this out if you haven't already: when I was looking up details about bike paths, I came across this handy little online guide by Transportation Alternatives called "Bike Lanes and Paths: A Primer." Also, a quick trip around the Biking Rules web site might give you some useful info.

First Greenway Workshop 'High-Energy, Productive'

Thursday night was the first of four workshops hosted by the DOT in collaboration with the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative (BGI) and the Regional Planning Association to hash out details for the 14-mile route with community members. It was held at Borough Hall in Downtown Brooklyn.

“We had a high-energy, productive workshop,” said BGI co-founder Meg Fellerath in an e-mail message. She explained that there were about 60 community participants, who worked in facilitated groups to come up with route preferences for the Greenway in the Downtown Brooklyn area.

“Lots of thoughtful ideas were presented during the report-back to the large group, and DOT will be taking all of this into consideration as they look at different route alternatives. DOT will present their synthesis back to the community in a few months for comment,” Fellerath continued. “DOT felt that it was a great turnout and level of excitement, and they’re looking forward to the next meeting.”

The Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway is a 14-mile, multi-use, off-road path spanning from Greenpoint all the way down to Bay Ridge. It was envisioned by Brian McCormick, Milton Puryear and Fellerath, who incorporated as the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative in 2004. They celebrated BGI’s sixth anniversary this month.

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DOT Announces Workshops For Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway

The New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) announced it will host a series of community workshops on the future of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway — a planned 14-mile bicycle and pedestrian path stretching from Sunset Park to Greenpoint. When finished, it will connect many existing parks and public open spaces along the waterfront.

With funding from Rep. Nydia M. Velazquez, the Greenway will enhance waterfront access, improve pedestrian and bicycle safety and increase recreational opportunities in these areas, many of which are along underused and difficult-to-access corridors. While portions of the plan have been implemented in sections — including along Columbia Street in Red Hook — DOT is currently conducting a master planning process to refine the project elements and to target gaps in the network. Feedback from the workshops will help the city identify goals for the DOT to work on with other agencies as it develops a long-term vision to implement in the coming years.

The series of four workshops includes one in each of the four waterfront community districts spanned by the Greenway. They will be held in collaboration with the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative (BGI) and the Regional Planning Association and are scheduled from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at these locations:

Downtown Brooklyn
Thursday, March 25
Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon St.

Sunset Park
Thursday, April 8
St. Michael R.C. Church, Fourth Avenue and 42nd Street

Red Hook
Tuesday, April 13
Red Hook Recreation Center, 155 Bay St.

Greenpoint/Williamsburg
Thursday, April 22
Brooklyn Brewery, 79 North 11th St.

RSVP to brooklynwaterfrontgreenway@dot.nyc.gov.

This announcement comes in conjunction with BGI’s sixth anniversary. Milton Puryear, Brian McCormick and Meg Fellerath incorporated as the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative in 2004. They envisioned the 14-mile off-road path spanning from Greenpoint all the way down to Bay Ridge to be multi-use and have different components.

According to BGI’s plan, the path will be between 20 and 30 feet wide in total, encompassing a 4- to 8-foot landscaped buffer between it and the street, a 10- to 12-foot bike bath, and a 6- to 10-foot pedestrian path.

BGI hosts monthly cleanups along the Columbia Street section of the Greenway. The next one will be on Saturday, April 22.

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Greenway Pedals Forward

Almost 100 people packed into Speak Low Cocktail Lounge here on Monday night to acknowledge the tireless efforts of the three founders of the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative (BGI) and those who have supported them for the past five years.

It’s BGI’s five-year anniversary, but its founders, Meg Fellerath, Brian McCormick and Milton Puryear (pictured above with Independence Community Foundation (ICF) Executive Director Marilyn Gelber), have been advocating for the Greenway for much longer.

“Myself and Milton have been working on the Greenway since 1998,” McCormick told the Eagle in December. “We were the chair and co-chair of an organization called the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway Task Force. Meg joined us about a couple of years later.”

The three of them incorporated as the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative in 2004. They envisioned the 14-mile off-road path, spanning from Greenpoint all the way down to Bay Ridge, to be multi-use and have different components. According to BGI’s plan, the path will be between 20 and 30 feet wide in total, encompassing a 4- to 8-foot landscaped buffer between it and the street, a 10- to 12-foot bike bath, and a 6- to 10-foot pedestrian path.

Because the route travels through many different neighborhoods and community boards, the first step was to enlist the support of these community boards and their officials.

The magnitude of the project required that it be split into pieces. The first piece was “the middle section, Community Boards 2 and 6 — the Brooklyn Navy Yard through Red Hook,” as Puryear described it. Next, they tackled the area in Community Board 1, Greenpoint and Williamsburg, and started setting up design guidelines.

“One of the purposes of the design guidelines was to try to come up with a scheme that would let you know that you were on the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway no matter where you were on it,” he continued. “But that also allowed each neighborhood to have a different feel in design quality. Unlike Hudson River Park, which is fairly uniform in terms of the Greenway design, we envisioned the Brooklyn Waterfront to really look good and feel different in different neighborhoods.”

Puryear told the Eagle that the next step for BGI would be to work with the city to develop what he called a “master plan for the whole 14 miles of the Greenway.” And now, this step is slowly approaching a reality.

BGI announced at the party that “the NYC Department of Transportation has committed to a producing a master plan for the entire 14-mile Greenway route — a major project milestone,” said McCormick. “This work will begin later this year.”

Also announced on Monday night were two more partnerships: one with the Horticultural Society of New York to launch a green-collar mentoring program along the Greenway route, and another with the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation to offer historic bicycle tours of the Brooklyn Navy Yard in the fall.

Upcoming events include the seventh annual Greenway Bike Tour, on May 2, and as usual, BGI will continue its monthly Greenway cleanups, which take place on a stretch of Columbia Street along the waterfront that was paved last summer. McCormick has called it the “non-designed interim Greenway,” and BGI has assumed responsibility for its upkeep.

“If people are going to use it and think it’s the Greenway, we need to do our part,” Fellerath said. The monthly cleanups along the street generate interest, build the community and “establish our presence on the Greenway.”

The next cleanup will be this Saturday, April 4. For more information or to RSVP, e-mail bmccormick@brooklyngreenway.org. To register for the 10-mile Greenway Bike Tour, send full name and contact information to ride2009@brooklyngreenway.org.

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Help the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative

I received an email from Brian McCormick, one of the founders of the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative (BGI). He reached out for help to win a grant from Green Mountain Coffee for BGI.

"The funds will help sustain our work over the next five years when the design of the greenway will be completed and the first segements will go into construction. In the current financial environment, coming up wiht the required match for our funding from the NYS Environmental Protection Fund is proving challenging. You can help by voting for the greenway as an innovative climate change solution at www.justmeans.com/competitionidea/7254/promoteidea.html."

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