Community Magazine March 2014

Life in the Big City 102 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE Historic Brooklyn Navy Yard Sees New Development e historic Brooklyn Na vy Yard is alive with new development, ranging from a mega supermarket to massive new sound stages and medical labs, the New York Daily News reports. Admirals Row at the Brooklyn Navy Yard was demolished to make room for a new supermarket. Officials have already landed an anchor tenant, Jack Basch, for Building 77, the biggest building in the complex and one of the final areas of renovation. Basch, a Brooklyn-based developer, plans to use the over 240,000 square feet for his own medical lab and to rent to other firms. NavyYard officials plan to repair the 16-story former ammunition plant with the help of $60 million in city and state grants. Most of the interior is still being cleared out and demolished, a process that will likely take more than a year. Building 77 has windows only on the top two floors, and cannot install any on the lower levels due to landmark tax breaks. Navy Yard officials hope to attract developers to reconstruct the roughly 20 acres of the 300-acre site that still remain empty. According to the Brooklyn Navy Yard Corp, more than 330 businesses are located in the historic Yard in DUMBO and employ about 7,000 people, up from 3,600 in 2001. Officials say that number could rise by several thousand over the next decade. The Navy Yard opened in 1806 and in its prime during World War II, the Yard employed 70,000 people who helped build military supplies. The Yard closed in 1966, but the federal government only recently began transferring the bulk of the site to the city. The Bloomberg administration invested $250 million to boost the infrastructure around the yard, including roads and water and sewer systems. NYC Takes Aim at Jaywalking NewMayor Bill de Blasio is making efforts to reduce the amount of jaywalking, by raising awareness of the dangers and cracking down on offenders in some areas, ABC News reports. Police are starting to hand out more tickets to jaywalkers after 12 pedestrians have died so far this year. “We need to be sensitive to the fact that we do have a way of life, and many of us who’ve been here know that,” de Blasio said. “But we have to educate people to the dangers. There’s a lot more vehicles in this town than there used to be.” According to preliminary figures, a total of 172 pedestrians were killed in traffic last year in New York City. While such deaths have declined by more than a quarter since 2001, de Blasio says there are still consistently too many. Police say it is too early to say how many of the pedestrian deaths involved jaywalking, but the city has recently seen a 9-year-old boy hit by a taxi as he walked across a street with his father, a young doctor clipped by an ambulance, and a 73-year-old man hit by a tour bus. Last year, police issued only 630 jaywalking tickets, but police vigilance has now increased. Recently, at the intersection of Broadway and 96th Street in Manhattan, one officer directed traffic while others wrote tickets to drivers and pedestrians, ranging from $40 to $100, depending on the violation. Mayoral spokesman Wiley Norvell said the crackdown was the neighborhood police precinct’s reaction to three recent pedestrian deaths. Greenfield Asks for Better Signage Along Prospect Expressway to Prevent Unfair Speeding Tickets Councilman David G. Greenfield is requesting that the city Department of Transportation install larger, clearer signage along the southbound Prospect Expressway to alert drivers that the speed limit drops north of Church Avenue. The request comes in response to complaints from drivers about NYPD speed traps that result in tickets for unintentional speeding. In order to bring greater fairness to the situation, Councilman Greenfield is asking the city DOT, which is responsible for the maintenance of this stretch of state-owned highway, to install larger signs at several locations before the speed limit drops. This will help prevent drivers from unfairly being ticketed as soon as the speed limit drops, and will also improve safety by encouraging drivers to slow down to a safe speed before reaching Ocean Parkway. “This is an inexpensive step that the city can take in order to improve safety for pedestrians and reduce the number of drivers who unfairly receive speeding tickets along the busy stretch of the Prospect Expressway heading towards Church Avenue,” the Councilman said. “I have heard from many drivers who did not even realize they were speeding because of the lack of clear signage indicating that the speed limit drops sharply at that location. By simply installing new, larger signs, we can help reduce the speed of traffic while at the same time preventing drivers from going through the frustrating experience of receiving a ‘gotcha’ ticket.” The speed limit along the Prospect Expressway is 45 miles per hour before suddenly dropping to 30 miles per hour just north of Church Avenue, currently with little warning or signage. Better signage would help reduce incidents of speeding through the busy Church Avenue intersection, which is one of the most dangerous crossings for pedestrians in the entire borough and is slated for safety upgrades following the death of a 73-year-old woman in June. New York City Municipal Schedule Occasion Day Date Alt Side Garbage Collection Parking Banks&Post Offices Observance Wednesday March 5 Suspended Normal Normal Open Purim Sunday March 16 Suspended Normal Normal Open Passover: First/Second Days Tuesday - Wednesday April 15 -16 Suspended Normal Normal Open