Disqus - Latest Comments for judifrancis

Re: Wider BQE Could Be ‘Intrusion’ on Brooklyn Bridge Park, Ex-Transportation Leaders Warn

judifrancis — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 19:19:56 -0000

There is one simple solution to this problem: Build a by-pass tunnel along a 4th ave straight line, from vicinity of the Navy Yard to vicinity of 3rd Ave where Jetro/Home Depot is located. Tunnels pay for themselves with tolls, and the machinery to create a tunnel is now so sophisticated it requires minimal surface disruption. It is less polluting because large trucks will not only save time going through the tunnel but it cuts out miles of the unnecessary "dog leg" curve around the Heights/BBP. Carbon recapture is in its infancy but could be employed at the terminus for use by manufacturers in the Navy Yard, immediately adjacent to the tunnel opening. Then the Triple Cantilevered Roadway (an engineering feat when first built and remains today an icon) could be reduced to a two lane (each direction) highway for local traffic. No impact on the park which many of us worked hard to create (yes, without unneeded housing where the former DOT guy now lives but that is a different story eh? Feathering one's nest...). Fixing the TCR would be a less onerous reconstruction project to repair, too, if no heavy trucks were allowed on it. This solution was studied by the state and found feasible back when tunneling equipment was still invasive, so the ten year delay has only made a tunnel along the alignment proposed even smarter. A recent set of conferences on this idea also panned out favorably.with experts like Schwartz , the internationally recognized transportation firm ARUP (hired by the City Council five years ago to study this) and other planners affirming this idea. Why is this not advocated by Streetsblog? Why is this not in the mix to be truly vetted? Why is it that only citizens come up with creative solutions that the so called experts ignore without any explanation? This stinks and these crazy DOT ideas will mean local streets delivering goods by trucks will continue to destroy residential living along the entire BQE corridor and the public housing that lines today's BQE will be forever subjected to air pollution that destroys kids lungs. This solution must be studied now! See the Brooklyn Eagle's coverage of this idea in February.

Re: OPINION: Mayor Adams Has Leverage to Force a Reluctant State DOT to Budge on the BQE

judifrancis — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 17:32:12 -0000

There is no solution to bqe connection to the Brooklyn Bridge, Sanjeev, and frankly, there is really no need. The solution for those bridges is congestion pricing and directing through traffic to the Carey Tunnel and Midtown Tunnel both of which are easily accessed by highways and not immediately the issue. Plus, both have tolls which pay for their creation overtime and are easily maintained, too. One never hears of complaints on the Carey Tunnel which would connect to Gowanus as it always does today! and is more than 75 years old! Lasted better than the TCR, no?! Trucks are not allowed on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Re: City Hall: We Hear that People Want to Keep Three-Lane BQE (Really?!)

judifrancis — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 10:30:34 -0000

HI Zach, but a tunnel under 4th ave from K bridge to V Bridge would pay for itself, relieve the choke points that concentrate the really bad particulate matter right where public housing exists and give us the world class city status of experimenting with carbon recapture just where industrial facilities are located today. Isn't that worth studying?

Re: City Hall: We Hear that People Want to Keep Three-Lane BQE (Really?!)

judifrancis — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 10:26:55 -0000

Snarky, agree. But what if this highway could remain two lanes in each direction and send heavy trucks (and any through-cars) under a tunnel to speed them on their way to Verrazano quickly, using the 4th ave alignment already studied and deemed feasible? Such a tunnel would require minimal disruption (at openings), no problem avoiding water, subways or foundations under 4th ave, and paying for itself? A tunnel also allows for carbon recapture at both ends - novel and experimental but worthy to try as carbon is an ingredient for beverages and other manufacturing processes (all located right where the Cross Brklyn Tunnel would come out). Win win. Plus, the choke points on BQE today are exactly where the Mayor is concerned for poorer residents - environmental justice can be achieved in this alignment. We get our goods delivered, vehicles get to go faster using less fuel (commercial companies really like this idea for their trucks) and the narrower highway serves local deliveries better/faster. I don't think, without becoming draconian with no way to move goods in the city going to few roads with all the development in the pipeline, there is any way for fewer lanes longterm without a tunnel!

Re: City May Build A Temporary Highway Through Brooklyn Heights After All

judifrancis — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 12:20:14 -0000

I was intimately involved in the creation (thourgh my husband who got the first funds to study this as a park in 80's and who started what is now the Conservancy, was on the LDC board) and development of Brooklyn Bridge Park, My advocacy organization (which consisted of 10 local community associations plus the Sierra Club), really worked hard to get the BQE repair done before the park got built. Crickets from Bloomberg administration and our LEO's, too. The DOT commissioner for Brooklyn, a guy named Palmieri , spoke with passion at BBP DEIS hearings (2005/6) about the urgent need to repair the BQE before the park was built. too. Our organization shared that advocacy as well as advocacy for a connection to the Promenade (a "new" request from some of these local groups - not new at all!). Palmieri's testimony is available on line through records search for DEIS.

Re: It’s time to take a fresh look at BQE tunnel: transit activist

judifrancis — Sun, 26 Feb 2023 09:53:10 -0000

Infrastructure improvements are enjoyed for decades and even centuries (just look at the Hugh Carey Tunnel) so why shouldn't it be funded with bonding and paid for overtime by all users? This is also an artery that supports goods going through the borough and not ever stopping in Brooklyn. Tolling helps equalize costs, too, because it will help trucks by cutting out mileage/gas (and of course lowering pollution) by speeding through the borough. Win win for all isn't it?

Re: It’s time to take a fresh look at BQE tunnel: transit activist

judifrancis — Sun, 26 Feb 2023 09:49:10 -0000

The tunnel alignment recommended is inland. The BIG plan which many people advocated for, would be a problem during storms/sea rise, especially the crazy notion of tunneling where the BQE trench is located (from Cobble Hill to Hamilton Ave). It also solved none of the dire transportation issues we need to address for a transformative solution.

Re: OPINION: Mayor Adams Has Leverage to Force a Reluctant State DOT to Budge on the BQE

judifrancis — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 13:54:47 -0000

Appreciate your response, Jon, but you should not conflate those two studies because they were quite different and only one of them solved a transportation problem. The replacement of the elevated Gowanus, studied 23 years ago, did not solve any transportation issue. It was to make 3rd ave more liveable (good goal) but the cost was too high for a non transportation "solution". The Cross Bklyn Tunnel solves five major problems: 1. reduces the BQE to a parkway for local cars, and only two lanes in each direction, which local users have long sought and are really advocating for, 2. enables easy and faster repair of the TCR (which is an historic structure and the communities on either side are now free standing communities unlike the Cobble Hill Assn sponsored study 15 years ago to "reconnect" the water front - not as critical to community building), 3. a tunnel pays for itself (tolling) so users overtime pay and not just one generation plus tunnels are far easier and less costly to maintain, 4. relieves the worst bottlenecks along the current route where vehicles wait to get through the pinch points (several of which are right up against low income housing) helping communities in the north and south avoid particulate matter from this idling, and 5. enables study of carbon recapture for a 21st century solution that NYC should commence (as a world class city).

Also, just so you also know, a tunnel running along the current BQE/TCR road bed is inefficient. A straight line down 4th ave saves drivers time, money and causes less pollution overall. Plus the city and state already deemed a tunnel to replace the TCR alignment is not feasible due to the way the subway comes out under Joralemon St. The idea of divorcing this small section (less than 10% of this roadbed controlled by the city and the rest by the state), as another commenter suggested, is a thought worth exploring perhaps to nudge the State and Feds to do something that can solve all the issues: repair the broken sections, relieve the communities to north and south of air pollution due to jams, turns greenhouse gases into a re-useable commodity and pays for itself.

Re: OPINION: Mayor Adams Has Leverage to Force a Reluctant State DOT to Budge on the BQE

judifrancis — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 09:03:46 -0000

Jon. you are fundamentally wrong about the State DOT process conducted from 2008 to 2011. I participated in the community input for the 21 bridges spanning the BQE from the K bridge to Hamilton Ave (we got the state to extend the study area to Hamilton Ave.). The purpose of that work was to fix the BQE along that stretch and NOT to study a tunnel to replace the Gowanus south of Hamilton! The tunnel the State DOT studied during that process was a new alignment - a straight line under ground basically along 4th ave to relieve the TCR of the massive through traffic, particularly heavy trucks that do not stop in Brooklyn. At that time the State said 60 percent of the vehicles on the BQE were going through the borough and not stopping in Brooklyn. That number changed dramatically when the city DOT decided about three years ago that it was less than 60 percent (we should all understand why the change but I do not have that data), but the point is, the State decided such a straight line tunnel to speed big trucks through the borough to the Verrazano, along a more direct route (under 4th Ave) was both feasible and with new technologies, not disruptive to existing structures. In other words, reduce the lanes on the BQE coming off the K bridge to two lanes in each direction and allow the tunnel to take the overload of vehicles not stopping in the borough through a straight line tunnel/new alignment. Using new technologies (now in experimentation) to capture carbon at the two ends of the cross Brooklyn Tunnel would be a transformative solution for the climate, too! The state found a cross Brooklyn Tunnel along the 4th Ave alignment was feasible both from a geological standpoint as well as its ability to avoid both water and subway tunnels. That was a huge finding right before the State stopped the project and Peter King, of State DOT retired. Most of us who were actively engaged in this very good community process believed it was the battle of the egos - deBlasio and Cuomo - that killed the project but, speaking as someone who represented a community organization and attended all of the meetings over 5 years,, the State was close (it seemed) to executing a new alignment tunnel. The good news is that tunnel technology has only improved today - again, little to no surface disruption and a road that pays for itself with tolling. This is the only solution for all communities because just where the cars jam up today on the BQE is where public housing exists. Talk about environmental injustice! Yet, if we are to get goods delivered we need our roadways but we can be smart about where they are and how they are in fact used. I recommend you take a look at this editorial as another path forward but frankly, the original tunnel proposed is still the perfect solution for all communities - was then and remains so today the most salient and smart solution. https://brooklyneagle.com/a...

Re: Reporter Who Interrupted White House Press Briefing Threatened With Possible Suspension, Expulsion From WHCA

judifrancis — Mon, 16 May 2022 14:33:46 -0000

I have seen almost every press conference of this presidency and I fully and unequivocally support Psaki and am against this awful, ney shameful, display of inconsideration during Jen's last presser. She is great and has called on Doucy and other agitators like this buffoon, at every presser. He is wrong. The Association should have fired him immediately. He is lucky to still be allowed in the room. His denials and excuses are ridiculous, too. Banish him!

Re: A Tale of Two Brad Landers: An Open Letter to the New York City Council on the Gowanus Rezone

judifrancis — Sat, 27 Nov 2021 09:53:19 -0000

Good luck with that, DH. Look what he did with LICH - not one affordable unit there and he controlled the entire site. Look at what he did with Brooklyn Bridge Park - one thirty story tower and five other towers inside the boundaries of a public park. How many affordable apartments there? Count them yourself - 124 out of over 1000 luxe apts. plus you have to make over $80K to "qualify" for those "affordable" units. If this is your dream for NYC you are among the very few. There are many ways to improve affordability in NYC without endangering the lives of all pe0ple who live there - today and in the future. Wait until the ground is safe for goodness sake!

Please support Voice of Gowanus. The Gowanus is a fetid, dangerous place that must be totally cleaned before people are allowed to live there. Lander's plan does not allow for that. He would place thousands of seniors and the city's most needy - including kids - on the nation's 14th most polluted Superfund site. Is that equity?

Re: A Tale of Two Brad Landers: An Open Letter to the New York City Council on the Gowanus Rezone

judifrancis — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 14:35:00 -0000

As someone who helped elect Brad Lander (something I now obviously deeply regret), I can assure you that he is a liar and a dangerous man. He lied directly to me (and others) about Brooklyn Bridge Park, vowing to uphold the agreement we had reached with Gov. Patterson to stop any more housing in the park after it was clear no funds were needed for the last luxury towers to go up inside this park. Then, when we tried to preserve the Cobble Hill Historic District, save the hospital (that served 350,000 brooklynites), along with building a school, affordable housing and park lands, he turned his back on our community, turned his back on the promise of the school, affordable housing and more parks, in favor of the high-rise ALL luxury apartment complex we now have...with HIGHER buildings than the ULURP plan which he had pre-negotiated behind the backs of the community. Plus, the two remaining buildings on that former hospital site, will go through ULURP which means the residents of Cobble Hill will be screwed yet again by this creep. Sadly, the combination of Adams and Lander will mean that the city we love is now in grave danger of hyper gentrification, more luxe development, more give aways (like 421A) to developers, no more park lands and no plans for much needed sewer upgrades. We will have to look forward to 60-80 story towers looming over four story historic structures in Cobble Hill. The residents of Gowanus will likely have to fight hard to stop this guy. I hope everyone will donate the the Voice of Gowanus' law suit because not doing so will guarantee an ugly, gentrified and very toxic place, just like this guy.

Re: Erosion of women’s rights is wrong

judifrancis — Fri, 15 Oct 2021 11:28:55 -0000

Thank you for this editorial. No woman should have to report to another person regarding her own health. And especially not to the government! Are we in Iran? Are we in Afghanistan? This is America! Every woman should have the RIGHT to make her own choices. Get the government, get the Supreme Court, and get the republican party out of my uterus!

Re: Romney: Afghanistan crisis the fault of both Biden, Trump administrations

judifrancis — Sun, 29 Aug 2021 18:00:49 -0000

No Mr. Romney, it is the FAULT of Bush 2 and Trump. Biden got the dump and dealt with it. Not cleanly, but out (where we should have been right after getting bin Laden which you could fault Joe as VP for (but, of course, NOT his decision). Biden is doing what no other president was willing to do. I mourn the losses for the society, for women especially and the educated. But I blame G.W. Bush and Trump for tying our hands

Re: - Gothamist

judifrancis — Sun, 19 Jul 2020 17:26:18 -0000

Eviction during this pandemic is insane. What, will we have 23 million people, who are now out of work, camping out on the street, with winter just months away and no vaccine in sight and securing new work even more questionable? Yes, we all have bills to pay, even the landlord, but we will not succeed as a nation unless we ALL SUPPORT EACH OTHER including landlords and those of us who can pay more in taxes (and should, BTW, commensurate with income). Bravo to Professor Strabbone, too, for his nailing this on the head: Dickensonian move by a rapacious landlord. Bravi to all those who protected these tenants. Bring it on!

Re: Remembering Joseph Merz: architect, urban advocate and Brooklyn fixture

judifrancis — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 02:13:57 -0000

Joe was a wonderful civic colleague, neighbor and friend. He was on the board of my organization, the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund, but your article is wildly incorrect on important facts regarding his engagement with the park. Joe did NOT have a problem with active recreation in the park - hardly. He DID have a very large problem with private housing inside the borders of a public park. He also decried the lack of a Master Plan for the park, having participated in the park's original planning process that had a well developed plan with provisions for how visitors would arrive, how the park connected to the entire waterfront and to existing communities, and what visitors would do there. The original park plan, unveiled with great celebration in 2002, was completely abandoned for the condo-park that revolved around luxury real estate interests, first and foremost. Bloomberg and deBlasio abandoned the park plan that had the community's full support - a plan that provided for arrivals down Atlantic and Fulton streets, robust recreational features long needed (indoor and outdoor pools, ice rink, playing fields and passive recreational areas) but also planned for infrastructure to aid visitors in safe passage and one that integrated the park more closely with the surrounding communities -communities that so desperately needed park lands (and still do). Our waterfront requires good planning, and respect for community engagement, and Joe, to the very end, despaired of the lack of it in the van Vallkenburgh iteration of Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Re: Conservative Principles Never Require You to Submit to Tyranny

judifrancis — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 13:34:30 -0000

OK so my right to control my own body is something you all would deny me. No freedom of choice. You are a hypocrite, Sir.

Re: James Mattis Calls Trump Threat to Constitution, Based on Lafayette Park

judifrancis — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 21:15:03 -0000

Thank goodness for Mattis! Finally, a real patriot and not the racist, misogynist, facist, narcissist, sociopath who resides in the White House today. Mattis is a real hero. Bravo!

Re: ANALYSIS: Corey Johnson’s Two BQE Recommendations Will Enable, Not Break, the Car Culture

judifrancis — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 09:24:48 -0000

Gersh, the tunnel idea, as you describe it, is not the idea that Roy Sloane originated a decade ago, and that resurfaced in this report. Roy's tunnel alignment, which the State had already preliminarily studied 10 years ago under Peter King's leadership, runs no where near Brooklyn Heights. The recommended tunnel would be a by-pass arterial that runs from the Navy Yard to the Verrazano (in a straight line). This eliminates the through-traffic (mostly heavy trucks) from the TCR "dog leg". The current BQE roadbed from Williamsburg down to Carroll Gardens would then be a feeder road for local deliveries and traffic - reduced to 4 lanes, with restrictions on trucks. Plus the tunnel pays for itself with tolling and, according to ARUP, the engineering for a deep - bore tunnel has been tremendously upgraded so costs and lead times are much improved, along with its feasibility through the many possible substrates. And, please note that the cost for the tunnel alone is less than 1/2 of the highest number ARUP presented (the other half is for the BQE repair and for creating a west-side-like highway, not recommended by Sloane). Sloane did not recommend burying the trench, but did recommend following through on Congresswoman Velazquez's funded study Sloane conducted in 2010 to build pedestrian and bike bridges across the trench, uniting the communities along Hicks Street. With more goods delivered by trucks, now choking our streets, and the TCR falling down, time to think big. Take a look at carbon recapture, too, which the by pass tunnel can accomplish. Shrinking the BQE and providing a means to deliver goods up and down the east coast corridor seems smart. A win win.

Re: Crown Heights developers stymied in Brooklyn Botanic Garden lawsuit — for now

judifrancis — Wed, 18 Dec 2019 04:30:31 -0000

Brava Alicia Boyd! Our open space is precious and the Botanic Garden is one of Brooklyn's best examples of nature retained within the city's walls. How depraved are our politicians to allow this gem to be harmed by unnecessary overbuilding? How can this happen, again? Where is the political leadership?

Re: House to vote this week on impeachment inquiry procedures

judifrancis — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 16:53:41 -0000

"Dozens of House Republicans stormed the secure facility last week to protest the lack of more widespread access for all members of the House. " This misleading statement suggests that Republicans were not allowed in the hearings! That is FALSE. 47 republicans - all who sit on the investigating committees - have full access to these "grand jury-like" hearings. What a croc this publication is for not being fully truthful about how many of those who "stormed" the hearings were actually members of those very committees and who have had full access the entire time to these hearings.

Re: Brooklyn Bridge Park presents Squibb Bridge reconstruction plan to CB2

judifrancis — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 14:12:17 -0000

Glad the park is finally dealing with the chip seal but we, the community, pointed that out to them BEFORE that surface was laid down, and all through the many phases of this park's build out as these paths were created from 2011 to about 2016. This is why bureaucrats fail communities - when you disrespect knowledgeable people, when you ignore our legitimate concerns, when you outright lie about our requests, knowledge and engagement, it costs all of us, wastes money and actually ruins the engagement that our democracy is built upon. This public authority has no business running this park and some - like our politicians - ought to change that now before this public authority continues to waste our time, our tax dollars and our good will.

Re: Fort Greene high-rise opponents have their day in court

judifrancis — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 16:32:41 -0000

Brava Sandy Reiburn! Zoning laws are so easily worked around with developer schemes and our elected officials sitting on the sidelines. Then the communities are wrongly called NIMBY and anti-affordability. Whatever happened to reasonable development, community planning, and a real hard look at infrastructure our tax dollars should pay for, versus the lie of so-called "benefits" a developer says they will produce that either never materialize or are so insufficient as to make the whole project suspect? Look no further than the "luxury housing" manifests that have been posted in the storefront windows in the so-called "affordable housing" building inside Brooklyn Bridge Park today. That which killed the last three acres of parklands in this long advocated park now advertises luxury apartments and still no school seats for our kids, no restoration of the bus lines removed four years ago to service these new residents, and severely questionable "affordability" ? But the developer got the park-soul killing 30 story luxe tower and another 15 story tower that now advertises itself as having "Luxury" apartments for rent...yeah, right. Hopefully this judge will see the fig leaf and our elected officials will work WITH communities vs. against them in the creation of real affordability and infrastructure that is so very needed today.

Re: OPINION: Bite the bullet, start the rebuilding of the BQE now

judifrancis — Wed, 03 Oct 2018 09:42:07 -0000

Yes and where were you when we begged for this repair to be done back in 2005 before the park got built? Where was your advocacy at the DEIS that September when the head of Brooklyn DOT - Commissioner Palmieri - testified to fix the BQE before building the park? Oh no, you wanted housing there and fast, urged then head of the BHA, Nancy Bowe. Housing or bust. Well now we are in the "bust" phase. And where were you just last summer when we sued the city and state yet again over Pier 6 housing - unnecessary housing for park funding - when we also testified against building the pier 6 housing until the BQE work was completed because this space was then and remains needed for staging this massive project? I would suggest "shame on you" but I know you have no shame. Your only voice is to shame those of us who saw this train wreck coming for over a decade. This paper is part of the problem and has ever been thus.

You demanded park housing and now that it is there, you advocate for the ruination of a historic district and its existing housing stock, and the quality of life for existing residents whose children's bedroom windows will be mere feet from a 6-lane highway that is at capacity 24/7, because we can no longer use the uplands of the piers to help accomplish this job. You ought to own up to your folly, at the very least.

Re: BQE Rehab: Promenading No More?

judifrancis — Fri, 28 Sep 2018 09:29:49 -0000

Thank you, Clara, but until our elected officials actually DO THEIR JOBS and represent their constituents, it doesn't matter what thoughtful, creative and knowledgeable experts and other engaged citizens think or request. Our politicians are pathetic...they can't find solutions using the park as the base for this traffic despite knowing for over 30 years this roadbed must be repaired? The BBP public authority is Robert Moses on steroids. We should be scared, very scared, of these kinds of bureaucratic overreaches and the lack - complete lack - of planning, working with and for residents, and creativity. Silencing the voices of those who do know and can do something about it is absolutely stupefying. This public authority REPORTS to Dep. Mayor Glen who sits at the behest of Mayor deBlasio. Is anyone so dense that they don't realize this is pure Bill deBlasio on this thing? In one stroke of a pen this situation could be settled and the roadbed be placed through the park. But this is the world we live in, even in the so-called progressive NYC .