Join Hundreds Tonight In March For Safe Streets
PARK SLOPE – New Yorkers will gather in Park Slope Monday evening to march for safer streets—one week after Dorothy Bruns ran through a red light into pedestrians, killing one-year-old Joshua Lew and four-year-old Abigail Blumenstein.
The community will march in memory of the two children as well as Kevin Flores, the 13-year-old who was struck and killed by an oil truck while riding his bike in Bed-Stuy in January.
Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Congress Member Nydia Velázquez, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, Council Members Brad Lander, Carlos Menchaca, Antonio Reynoso, and Mark Treyger, Families for Safe Streets, Make Brooklyn Safer, Bed-Stuy Safe Streets, All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Park Slope Neighbors, Park Slope Street Safety Partnership, and Park Slope Parents, will join marchers in demanding an “end of speeding and red light running,” a “protected bike lane in every neighborhood,” and the right “to live in a city where the lives of children count for more than moving traffic,” Transportation Alternatives’ announcement for the event reads.
Marchers will gather at 6pm at Prospect Park West at 9th Street, near the location where 12-year-old Sammy Cohen Eckstein was struck by a car and killed in October 2013. Neighborhood children will lead the march from PPW to the site of last week’s crash at 9th Street and 5th Avenue. Attendees are encouraged to bring family, friends, and flowers.
According to the event’s Facebook page, the “NYC Kids March for Safe Streets” was inspired by the 1970s child-led protests against cars in the Netherlands. The “Stop the Child-Murder” (or “Stop de Kindermoord” in Dutch) inspired the Netherlands to reclaim city streets from cars which led to a “huge decline in traffic fatalities.”
Following tonight’s march, Saint Thomas Aquinas Church (249 9th Street at 4th Avenue) will open its doors for those who wish to warm up, meditate, or pray.
Yesterday, Trinity Grace Church, where the Lew and Blumenstein families were parishioners, hosted a memorial service at MS 51.
NYC Kids March For Safe Streets
Monday, March 12 at 6pm
Gather at Prospect Park West at 9th Street