Streetsblog New York City

Construction is set to begin on the first stages of the South Bronx Greenway this summer, marking the first tangible results of a community-based, bottom-up campaign for more livable streets. The project will bring safer walking and biking and much-needed green space to neighborhoods where people-oriented streets are in short supply.

The redesigns of Lafayette Avenue and Hunts Point Avenue, as well as new waterfront park space at Hunts Point Landing, will all begin construction this summer, according to the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Those streets will receive landscaped medians, expanded sidewalks, and new bike lanes. Work on Food Center Drive, which will include the first physically protected bike lane in the Bronx, is scheduled to begin this fall.

Implementation is close enough that people are getting excited about each construction truck that comes to the area, even though so far the crews are just doing regular road maintenance, said Miquela Craytor, the executive director of Sustainable South Bronx and a longstanding advocate for the greenway. 

Construction of the Randall's Island connector, which will eventually tie the South Bronx Greenway into the Manhattan bike network, is scheduled to begin in fall 2011, according to EDC. Adding a biking and walking path from the South Bronx to Randall's Island will give residents better access to the island's recreational facilities and provide a safe route to the new bike lanes planned for First and Second Avenue in Manhattan. When the connector is finished, said Craytor, the greenway will be between a quarter and a third complete.

What's about to be built differs somewhat from the original plans for the greenway, first put forward in 2006. In particular, plans to place pedestrian and bike paths along a median on Lafayette Avenue have been revised, with space for biking and walking shifted to the side of the street at the request of the Fire Department and the Department of Environmental Protection.

"We ended up putting quite a bit of that streetscaping to the sidewalk and expanding the sidewalk," said Craytor, noting that the center median will remain planted with trees and shrubs. She isn't particularly disappointed. "We successfully pushed back and ensured that the concept of slowing down traffic and narrowing the street was increased," said Craytor. "This will be an area for people, not vehicles."

More pictures below the fold:

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This Streetfilm from Robin Urban Smith and Elizabeth Press brings us an update on the state of greenway development in the Bronx. Writes Robin:

The Bronx River Greenway and South Bronx Greenway plans apply community-driven design strategies to help undo years of top down, auto-centric planning and development in the Bronx. The greenways, when completed, will create a network of safe bicycle and pedestrian paths and routes, parks, and waterfront access points throughout the borough. See the Bronx River Alliance's 2009 calendar for a list of events and activities planned on or around the Bronx River. Also be sure to check out Sustainable South Bronx and The Point Community Development Corporation for more information about the projects and for ways to get involved.

The vid includes interview footage with Astrid Glynn, who has since stepped down as New York State DOT commissioner.

We've got a few more details about another local ped-bike project getting a lift from stimulus cash. The street improvements announced for Hunts Point and Port Morris in the Bronx will fund the first three sections of the South Bronx Greenway. This project has been years in the works. When complete, it will bring 11 miles of pedestrian and bicycle paths to neighborhoods where places to play and bike are scarce, and where childhood asthma and obesity rates run high.

"This is extremely helpful moving these projects forward in a time of fiscal crisis," said Miquela Craytor, director of Sustainable South Bronx, which has been instrumental in shaping the project and shepherding its progress. "It's a big win for South Bronx communities that have been underserved for so long."

The three segments include Lafayette Avenue, a connection to Randall's Island, and access to Hunts Point Landing. The Sustainable South Bronx web site has a handy map of the full project [PDF].

We've heard plenty of congestion pricing complaints (and some kudos, too) from the Bronx, but what about the rest of PlaNYC? City Limits reports on a recent community summit where Bronxites said they are unhappy with how the Bloomberg administration composed its legislative centerpiece, among them some who might ordinarily support pricing but are put off by what they see as PlaNYC's top-down execution.

While many supported congestion pricing in principle, the assembled group – including community board members, clean water advocates, local elected officials and members of the Bronx Council for Environmental Quality and of Sustainable South Bronx – questioned its financial projections and implementation.

More fundamentally, the forum revealed skepticism about the overall PlaNYC initiative and frustration with what some called the Bloomberg administration's heavy-handed approach. Speakers voiced concern that PlaNYC was formulated and will be implemented without sufficient input from grassroots urban environmentalists who know what works. Others said the current sustainability goals are too modest and that PlaNYC is more public relations than policy.

"You don't have to skim the surface much to see some real collaboration and change happening in New York and other cities. That's why this is really frustrating, because it feels like the door has been closed and they aren't interested in new ideas," said Miquela Craytor, deputy director of Sustainable South Bronx, an urban environmental justice group that unsuccessfully pushed the architects of PlaNYC to include the creation of "green-collar" jobs – those within or promoting environmentally sustainable industry – as a central tenet of the initiative.

"They are saying, 'we just want to get this plan done and then we'll think about other ideas.' Well, then you just want to tell me what you are doing. You are really not interested in what I say," Craytor added.

In addition to the oft-repeated concerns about motorists using the borough as a park-and-ride hub, there is also doubt, founded on precedent, that transit dollars will reach low-income Bronx neighborhoods.

Craytor and Dart Westphal, a former president of the Bronx Council for Environmental Quality, said the city needs to make subway and bus improvements before the plan is implemented, not afterward.

Westphal said he found it hard to trust that the revenues from congestion pricing would be equitably directed towards transit improvements throughout the city.

"I'm really concerned," he said, recounting promises made by City Hall when the Third Avenue Elevated train was dismantled during the Lindsay administration that it would be replaced with an extension of the semi-mythical Second Avenue line. Buses that troll the route of the old El were supposed to be a temporary fix, Westphal said. "I'm really concerned all this congestion pricing money will go to the Number 7 train extension and the JFK express link in Lower Manhattan and building the west side, and we'll still be stuck waiting for the bus."

Citywide Coalition for Traffic Relief Press Conference
A few quick scenes from yesterday's event
Running time: 2:02

"As this city is booming, it's not moving," lamented City Councilmember Gale Brewer outside City Hall yesterday. But with support from 125 civic groups in five boroughs, the Citywide Coalition for Traffic Relief assembled behind her and outlined an agenda that could change that condition. The coalition, which formed around a year ago, calls for a 15% reduction of traffic by 2009. The plan calls for a serious study of congestion pricing, strict enforcement of parking regulations, and more room on the sidewalks for bicyclists and pedestrians.

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In the aftermath of last weekend's 5,000 rider Tour de Bronx, I thought it might be worth revisiting the the Department of City Planning's August 2006 Bronx Harlem River Bicycle and Pedestrian Study. The study identifies a number of specific ways to carve out space for cyclists and pedestrians and help neighborhoods of the South Bronx get better connected to the Harlem River waterfront. Though it doesn't recommend any ways to actually reduce motor vehicle traffic, there is some good stuff in here. More:

• The Garvin Report, Chapter 2, Page 28 (PDF file)
• A Community Plan for Robert Moses' Highway to Nowhere
• Sustainable South Bronx