#FREEBERRYST
What's Happening Here?
The conditions created from the closure of Berry St. negatively impact residents and businesses on and around Berry St. We want to free Berry St. and restore our beloved street to its pre-pandemic state.
We met with Kyle Gorman of the DOT in April 2021. In October 2021, we met with NYS Assembly Emily Gallagher, CM Lincoln Restler and Brooklyn Borough Commissioner Keith Brey giving testimony and sharing documentation of the safety issues, accessibility issues, delayed emergencies our families have experienced, the harassment and assault we experience for living here, the trucks driving deeper into the neighborhood (in front of Public School) and blocking intersections. Not one of our concerns has been addressed to this day. Gallagher's office wrote us in 2022 saying this is a city issue and to work with CM Restler, yet she continues to do photo ops on Berry St.
The politicians, funded by Transportation Alternatives, work exclusively with NYC DOT and it's mysterious "partners" North Brooklyn Open Streets Community Coalition (NBKOSCC), North Brooklyn Stewards (NBKS) & North Brooklyn Parks Alliance (NBKA). They have all failed to be transparent, gain the support of local residents & businesses, and are not accountable for following DOT guidelines. The "partners" claim to represent the neighborhood yet haven't been forth coming about their identities. They reside in Greenpoint while falsely advertising as "neighbors" and "community." They also run private social media accounts and have been involved in documented harassment, censorship, defamation and retaliation against residents. The closure of Berry St. is a politically led project not community led, desired or a necessity.
An estimated $35,000 dollars (probably more) was spent or pocketed by the above groups to close 1.1 miles of Berry St. 12 hours a day 7 days a week while not having the volunteer numbers to satisfy the project they self-nominated themselves to do. As result, the Mayor's Office is now managing the closure of Berry St. through the Horticulture Society and NYC Clean-Up Crew. The DOT, NBKOSCC, NBKS, NBKPA and Transportation Alternatives want to keep Berry St. closed forever with permanent infrastructure the community is opposed too. The cost of redesigning Berry St. and closing it forever has not been disclosed to tax payers.
Berry St. is an essential service that was taken away from residents and businesses. Berry St. was a "safe passage" for cars, bikes, pedestrians and trucks until the Open Streets Program was initiated. The northbound bike-lane, on Berry St., is safe, when used with traffic going in one direction and pedestrians regulated to the sidewalk. Fear mongering about safety and using baseless claims to attack residents is a strategy used by Transportation Alternatives, politicians, NYC DOT and their "partners" to close as many streets as possible especially ones that connect to parks. Their goal is to "demap" as many streets as possible even if our Seniors and residents lose accessibility to their homes, emergencies are delayed, small business lose revenue, trucks are forced to block intersections, etc.
Streets are essential services. Closing streets without proper traffic studies, environmental impact studies or the input or consideration of the residents, local businesses, NYPD or FDNY's use of the street is irresponsible and not safe.
We met with Kyle Gorman of the DOT in April 2021. In October 2021, we met with NYS Assembly Emily Gallagher, CM Lincoln Restler and Brooklyn Borough Commissioner Keith Brey giving testimony and sharing documentation of the safety issues, accessibility issues, delayed emergencies our families have experienced, the harassment and assault we experience for living here, the trucks driving deeper into the neighborhood (in front of Public School) and blocking intersections. Not one of our concerns has been addressed to this day. Gallagher's office wrote us in 2022 saying this is a city issue and to work with CM Restler, yet she continues to do photo ops on Berry St.
The politicians, funded by Transportation Alternatives, work exclusively with NYC DOT and it's mysterious "partners" North Brooklyn Open Streets Community Coalition (NBKOSCC), North Brooklyn Stewards (NBKS) & North Brooklyn Parks Alliance (NBKA). They have all failed to be transparent, gain the support of local residents & businesses, and are not accountable for following DOT guidelines. The "partners" claim to represent the neighborhood yet haven't been forth coming about their identities. They reside in Greenpoint while falsely advertising as "neighbors" and "community." They also run private social media accounts and have been involved in documented harassment, censorship, defamation and retaliation against residents. The closure of Berry St. is a politically led project not community led, desired or a necessity.
An estimated $35,000 dollars (probably more) was spent or pocketed by the above groups to close 1.1 miles of Berry St. 12 hours a day 7 days a week while not having the volunteer numbers to satisfy the project they self-nominated themselves to do. As result, the Mayor's Office is now managing the closure of Berry St. through the Horticulture Society and NYC Clean-Up Crew. The DOT, NBKOSCC, NBKS, NBKPA and Transportation Alternatives want to keep Berry St. closed forever with permanent infrastructure the community is opposed too. The cost of redesigning Berry St. and closing it forever has not been disclosed to tax payers.
Berry St. is an essential service that was taken away from residents and businesses. Berry St. was a "safe passage" for cars, bikes, pedestrians and trucks until the Open Streets Program was initiated. The northbound bike-lane, on Berry St., is safe, when used with traffic going in one direction and pedestrians regulated to the sidewalk. Fear mongering about safety and using baseless claims to attack residents is a strategy used by Transportation Alternatives, politicians, NYC DOT and their "partners" to close as many streets as possible especially ones that connect to parks. Their goal is to "demap" as many streets as possible even if our Seniors and residents lose accessibility to their homes, emergencies are delayed, small business lose revenue, trucks are forced to block intersections, etc.
Streets are essential services. Closing streets without proper traffic studies, environmental impact studies or the input or consideration of the residents, local businesses, NYPD or FDNY's use of the street is irresponsible and not safe.
Why Doesn't This Work ?
-Violates the American with Disabilities Act which protects seniors and the disabled.
-Car shares and Access-A-Ride have refused to pick up passengers in front of their buildings or drop them off if moving a barricade is required.
-Delays emergency response.
-Burden to residents accessing their home. Residents continue to be harassed and even assaulted by Open Street users.
-Mismanaged non-ADA compliant barricades stay up past operating hours.
-Was forced onto our community, condemning residents to live in barricaded neighborhood 24-7.
-Harms small business that are not bars or restaurants.
-Conflicts with sanitation schedule.
-Diverts traffic to all the narrow one way streets.
-Created a series of intersections being blocked by trucks, delivering to mostly restaurants and bars, refusing to move barricades.
-Is not utilized by more than 2% of community; Majority of the time it's empty and not used for the purpose it exists.
-Creates unsafe conditions with bikes, revels, mopeds, e-bikes blowing through stop signs and going both directions.
-The closure of Berry St. fails to get the oversight or community support needed.
-Barricades never secured during severe weather (heat waves, hurricanes, snow storms, freezing weather, tornadoes, etc.)
-Unfairly requires car services, elderly, disabled, persons accompanying children to get out of their vehicle to access street.
-Application renewal is not held to a performance or public review process, its automatically approved.
-Open Streets is treated like a "destination" which brings partying and crowds outside peoples homes on the weekends and at nights; North Brooklyn does not lack in entertainment space and the Open Street should not be used as one.
-Berry St. is an emergency route.
-The Open Street presents a false sense of safety. People dart out into traffic crossing the active streets without looking.
-Data does not support the claim that Berry St. needs traffic calming infrastructure or was unsafe especially compared to other streets in the district.
-There is no transparency regarding who the DOT "partners" are and they operate private social media accounts that delete comments and block residents.
-Anyone can submit and get approval to close a street even if they do not live there or have the resources to manage the street closure. Partners with documented history of harassing, doxxing and defaming residents have been granted partnership by DOT who is not conducting background checks or vetting their partners.
-The NYC DOT has falsely claimed "everyone loves it" at community boards while colluding with partners and certain media to censor pushback and hide discontent.
-Cars and trucks must circle around requiring more fossil fuels be burned. The over saturation of TLC's (Uber or Lyft) in our neighborhood driving food or no passengers is not being addressed, only private citizens drivers are being targeted.
The Current Situation
The proposal by the NYC DOT to permanently build closed street infrastructure is being peddled by Transportation Alternatives a national lobby group that is bike centric. The proposal is not authored by or inclusive of the residents that live on Berry St. We believe their plan to close Berry St. permanently, add two-way bike lane, planters (will end up trashed), bump-outs, chokers in the middle of the block, add excessive signage, reverse traffic, remove parking, install pedestrian plazas, outdoor furniture etc. will compound the dysfunction created by Open Streets. Their proposal negatively impacts residents and small business that are not restaurants or bars. The installation of loading zones will not work since the neighborhood continues to be over saturated with bars and restaurants which create more truck traffic and negative environmental impact than any other industry. Local politicians are supporting this over saturation through their policies and advocacy. Truck blocking was not an issue prior to the closure of Berry St. Small business have reported up to 20% loss in profits since the Open Street program started on Berry St. Residents have been harassed, even in front of their children, for simply trying to access their homes. Seniors and the disabled have been particularly harmed because they are the most vulnerable and are not physically able to navigate the barriers to their homes.
We believe streets need to be designed and purposed with the intersectional commuter in mind not just the cyclist. An intersectional commuter is someone who is young, old, pregnant, disabled/able-bodied, a pedestrian, a cyclist, takes the bus/subway, drives or uses car services, a resident/visitor, etc. The closure of Berry St. servers a very small portion of the total demographic of constituents in Williamsburg. Most people are utilizing the parks and waterfront. The politicians and DOT's desperation to brand the closure of a street as safe space to hang out is disingenuous.
Please let CM Lincoln Restler and NYS Assembly Emily Gallagher know, while Open Streets (closed streets) may work in some locations, the closure of Berry St. is creating more negative impacts than good. Tell them to Free Berry St.
We believe streets need to be designed and purposed with the intersectional commuter in mind not just the cyclist. An intersectional commuter is someone who is young, old, pregnant, disabled/able-bodied, a pedestrian, a cyclist, takes the bus/subway, drives or uses car services, a resident/visitor, etc. The closure of Berry St. servers a very small portion of the total demographic of constituents in Williamsburg. Most people are utilizing the parks and waterfront. The politicians and DOT's desperation to brand the closure of a street as safe space to hang out is disingenuous.
Please let CM Lincoln Restler and NYS Assembly Emily Gallagher know, while Open Streets (closed streets) may work in some locations, the closure of Berry St. is creating more negative impacts than good. Tell them to Free Berry St.
1. Barricades are non-ADA compliant. They create accessibility issues, are sources of harassment and are not managed by NYC DOT or "partners." 2. Human pollution and footprint of closing Berry St on any given Friday, Saturday or Sunday when the weather is nice 3. Restaurants and bar deliveries are double mail delivery (UPS, FedEx) and are not efficiently organized. They block the intersections daily and drive deeper into the neighborhood to avoid the closure of Berry.
Here is a chart showing when the temperature outside is 87 degrees how hot the street gets. Our community doesn't believe the street is where people should be encouraged to walk, when sidewalks are cooler, safer and have natural shade provided by trees. We demand the development of Bushwick Inlet Park be priority instead of diverting money to street closures.
Recent Events
June 30, 2022 the Transportation Committee at Brooklyn CB1 hosted DOT's aggressive redesign of Berry St. Residents and small businesses rooted in the neighborhood for decades were disregarded as the DOT falsified community support. All the people in favor of turning Berry St. into a bike highway are of a particular demographic living in Greenpoint and do not reflect the diversity or varied demographic of the district. No substantial evidence was presented justifying a permanent redesign of Berry St. as a two-way bike lane. In fact local politicians and the DOT have ignored 100's of complaints over the last two years and continue to ignore safety, environmental and emergency issues within their new proposal. A two-way bike lane is located on Kent and Southbound/Northbound bike lanes exist on every other street. Here is DOT Open St. Berry Presentation (starts at 3 hours 30 mins)