34th Council Debate

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Like I said, busy times. Next Monday, Churches United for Fair Housing is sponsoring a debate for the candidates in the 34th Council District (Reyna) race. It’s not clear if all of the candidates (Maritza Davila, Gerry Esposito and Diana Reyna) are going to show. Given that this is the only debate, forum or reception for the candidates in this race, it would be a shame if anyone was a no-show.

When: Monday, August 31 (7:00 to 9:00 p.m.)
Where: First Presbyterian Church of Williamsburg, 161 South 3rd Street (at Driggs)



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Town Square 33rd District Forum Reception

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There are about two weeks left until the Democratic primaries, so while it may be Summer vacation for the rest of us, the political season is in full swing. There are a host of local events coming up – and first up is Town Square.

I don’t know what a forum reception is (as opposed to a debate, or a forum, or a reception), but Town Square is holding one for the candidates vying for the 33rd (Yassky) Council Seat tomorrow night.

When: Thursday, August 27th – 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.
Where: 110 Kent Avenue



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Steve Levin Carpetbagger?

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No one seems to know who is behind Real Reform Brooklyn. But it’s pretty clear that he/she/they do not like Steve Levin. (Or Jo Anne Simon for that matter, but he/she/they definitely does not like Levin more more than he/she/they doesn’t like Simon.)

Its nice to see someone engage on a local race like this, but it seems to me that there is much ado about nothing in a lot of Real Reform’s attacks on the various candidates (including their “deconstruction” of Evan Thies). Take, for instance, the Levin carpetbagging claim. I don’t doubt that Steve moved into the 33rd District in order to run for Councilmember* – candidates do that all the time.

So what?

It would make a difference if Steve had no track record of community involvement, but that’s not true. He has worked in the community for many years, and has made a name for himself. Yes, Steve is Vito Lopez’s candidate. He might be his “own man” once he gets into office, but for now, he is running on his resume as Vito’s Chief of Staff (and he has built up a nice resume there). You might not like him because of his connections to Vito, but it’s a big stretch to call him an outsider.

Keep it real – focus on real issues.

*(Claims by Levin supporters commenters that he only moved “down the street” are just plain silly – 26 blocks is not “down the street”.)

Short Candidate Profile: Doug Biviano

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Aaron Short continues his series of candidate profiles for the 33rd Council District with Doug Biviano. If I were voting on biography alone, Biviano would be my choice (he had me at sailing).

[I know I linked to Thies, who was the first in the series, but was on vacation when Simon ran – you can find Jo Anne’s profile here. I’ll dig around the Courier archives (always a painful process) to see if there were others. And Aaron – any chance you’ll be giving the 34th the Short profile treatment?]

[Photo: Aaron Short]


Kent Avenue: An Inauspicious Start

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5:30 pm: Traffic backed up on Kent Avenue; even the northbound cars are unsure where to go.


Today, DOT implemented one-way traffic on Kent Avenue from Clymer north to Broadway. How did it go? As one Curbed commenter noted, not so great. Instead of diverting traffic from Kent over to Roebling, DOT just diverted traffic off of Kent, leaving everyone to fend for themselves once they got to Broadway. Which meant that most traffic tried to use Wythe – even the 18-wheelers, which are too big to make the turn off Broadway onto Wythe. When I passed by at 8:30 this morning, DOT had a flagman waving southbound off Kent and onto Broadway. There was no one directing traffic away from Wythe, and no one enforcing the no truck rule on Wythe. There was an 18-wheeler trying to make the turn, which required much backing up of the truck and hence much backing up of traffic on Broadway.

This evening, just before 5:30, the situation was even worse. The flagman was gone, creating a free-for-all at Kent and Broadway. Southbound traffic (cars and trucks) was backed up past the bridge on both Kent and Wythe. Trucks and buses were using Wythe, and using side streets to get from Kent to Wythe. Most of the traffic turning onto Broadway from Kent (including all of the trucks and school buses) quickly made a right onto Wythe.

So knowing that they were dealing with a hot-button issue and making a major to traffic patterns in North Brooklyn, DOT’s traffic-management solution is a flagman (who probably knocked off at 3:00) and a couple of no-left-turn signs. No traffic agents to direct traffic. No police officers to issue warnings to trucks going off the designated truck routes.

This does not inspire much confidence in the City’s ability to manage Kent Avenue II any better than it did Kent Avenue I. And it really isn’t that hard. There are a few pretty simple ways to make this whole change work more or less to everyone’s advantage:

1. Divert through traffic (truck and otherwise) away from the Franklin/Kent route.

2. Enforce the existing truck route regulations (and for the next few weeks, take some traffic agents off ticket-writing duty and put them on traffic-control duty).

3. Install traffic signals and traffic calming measures along the Northside portion of Kent Avenue. (Commenter Teresa says that DOT will do pedestrian counts once the new traffic pattern is in place, which will be just in time for the off-season of the State park.)

4. Install traffic signals and traffic-calming measures along Wythe Avenue to discourage trucks and through traffic.

5. Conduct a district-wide transportation study to determine the impact that thousands of new residents, the loss of hundreds of manufacturing establishments, the installation of a greenway on Kent Avenue and the conversion of large swaths of the waterfront to destination parks has on the transportation needs of North Brooklyn. Okay, this should have been #1. And it should have been done in 2004, not 2009.

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Cars and trucks making the right onto Wythe Avenue. The constant stream of cars going eastbound on Broadway
also backed up traffic coming eastbound to turn onto Wythe (such as the B61).

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Traffic on Wythe was also backed up past the bridge, with a large number of (illegal) trucks.

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Trucks and buses were also using side streets to get from Kent to Wythe in the hopes of bypassing the
bottleneck at Kent and Broadway.




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