Tell The City How Much The Brooklyn Heights Promenade Means To You

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS – Community members are taking action against the Department of Transportation‘s (DOT) proposed plan to build a temporary highway in place of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade during years of repair work to the deteriorating BQE.

Along with the “Save the Promenade” online petition which has already collected more than 15,000 signatures, community members are asking New Yorkers to head over to the promenade this week and write a message in chalk telling city officials “why the Promenade is special” to them. Organizers hope to fill up the promenade’s entire pavement with messages before this weekend’s predicted rain. Chalk will be provided.

Last month, DOT revealed two proposals for repairing the 1.5-mile span of the BQE between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street. One plan, the “traditional” option, would have crews working incrementally lane by lane. This approach would take approximately eight years or more to complete and cost between $3.4 to $4 billion.

DOT’s second “innovative” option would address the triple cantilever portion of the BQE by demolishing the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and building a temporary six-lane elevated roadway in its place. This approach would cost between $3.2 to $3.6 billion and take approximately six years—with the temporary roadway taking approximately a year and a half to build.

Locals are not happy with either of the agency’s two proposed plans and demanded that DOT develop alternate, less disruptive options.

Mayor de Blasio, told WNYC’s Brian Lehrer on the October 12 edition of the radio host’s “Ask the Mayor” segment that he preferred the second approach of building a temporary highway in place of the promenade. He acknowledged that this option would “definitely cause a lot of inconvenience” and would “definitely have a big impact” to the surrounding neighborhood but noted, “I think it’s the way to address the bigger problem once and for all and as quickly as we can do it.”

The following week, on the October 19 edition of the radio show, the Mayor said that he is willing to consider an alternate plan proposed by Council Member Stephen Levin and Brooklyn Heights residents that would keep the popular promenade in place, the New York Post reports. They propose building a temporary roadway below the upper levels of the BQE that runs parallel to Brooklyn Bridge Park along a grassy berm that blocks traffic noise from the public park space.

Construction is expected to begin in 2020 or 2021. DOT will host more public meetings to discuss the project in the coming months. Learn more about the BQE Project here.