Friends of the Amity St. Wiggle

03/23/2017

Fellow Wigglers, it's time for a status update. In the last few months both of the community boards whose districts contain the Amity Wiggle proposal, Brooklyn CB2 and CB6, have taken the DOT proposal under consideration - and after very close votes, each board declined to pass a resolution regarding the Wiggle plan. It is our position that without any guidance from the relevant CBs, DOT should proceed with this safety enhancement for local cyclists and pedestrians, and furthermore should strongly consider the pedestrian island that was included in our presentation and was supported by the CB2 Transportation Committee's proposed resolution supporting the Wiggle plan. Thanks for your continued support though each step along the way and lets hope that we see the Wiggle enhancements as the spring cycling season arrives.

02/13/2017

Friends, we had a little setback last Thursday night. Before I get to that, it's critically important that you make time on **Thursday evening, February 16**, to attend the CB6 Transportation Committee meeting, where the Amity Wiggle will be discussed for a second time. The previous time it was before CB6, on a freezing December night, we had several members of the public speak in favor of the Wiggle and no one spoke against - so a member of the committee declared that it was unfair and tabled it until fewer people would be able to come to support it! Here's the info - we need you! Thursday, February 16, 6:30 PM, Community Board 6 Transportation Committee Meeting, in the Cobble Hill Community Room, 250 Baltic Street (entrance on the exterior of the building, to the right of the main door).

What happened last Thursday? After the Transportation Committee of CB2 endorsed the Wiggle at their committee meeting, the motion to approve was debated by the full body of Community Board 2 (the Wiggle bridges CB2 AND CB6, with Court St. being the boundary). After a long discussion - and at least 3 board members saying that they themselves do "the wiggle" - a hand-vote was apparently tied, so a roll call vote was called... and the Wiggle failed by 1 vote. Technically, that means that CB2 took a position of "no opinion" on the Wiggle - which is why it is so important that we get CB6's approval!

02/07/2017

Hello, Wigglers! Our next hurdle is tomorrow (Wednesday, Feb. 8) night. The Transportation Committee of Community Board 2 voted in favor of Amity Wiggle and now the resolution needs approval by the full board of CB2. It is possible that the floor will be open to comments from the public and if you can speak in favor, it could make a big difference. Meeting details: Wednesday, February 8, 6:00 pm, at Brooklyn Hospital, Third Floor Auditorium, 121 DeKalb Avenue at St. Felix Street, Brooklyn. I hope to see you there!

01/27/2017

There was healthy discussion last Thursday at the Bk CB2 Transportation Committee meeting, and in the end the committee voted to approve DOT's plan for the Amity Wiggle - and the committee even went as far as to recommend that DOT also consider the pedestrian island that is part of our community proposal for the Wiggle! Thanks, CB2! Coverage here in The Brooklyn Paper:

Cyclists in Cobble Hill could soon have a little more wiggle room.

01/18/2017

The Amity Wiggle tour continues! Tomorrow, Thursday Jan. 19, NYC DOT will present their proposal regarding the Amity Wiggle to the Transportation Committee of Community Board 2. We need you to tell the committee that you support the Amity Wiggle concept and you ask them to, too. The CB2 district is the east side of Court St., but no matter where you live you can let them know that you support the Wiggle! The meeting is at 6pm, in the Jonas Boardroom in LIU’s Metcalfe Hall, at the corner of Flatbush and DeKalb Avenues.

12/14/2016

Hello friends, put on your woolly sweaters! It’s gonna be cold Thursday (tomorrow) night and we’re gonna need you!

Thanks for stopping by our “Amity Wiggle” open house back in June. Apparently we got the attention of NYC DOT because DOT is bringing a proposal based on the Wiggle plan to the community board for approval!

It comes as a welcome surprise to us that DOT is pressing forward with a plan to make this rational connection for safety-minded cyclists. But not everyone is sold on this simple change: there was earlier push-back from some neighbors who opined that a bike lane on Amity St. would result in traffic backups and disrupt the ability for ambulances to drive on Amity St. Our take is that these concerns are unfounded and far-fetched given the city’s long experience with bike lanes and given Amity St.’s excessive width and very light traffic volumes, but I fully expect to hear a few people expressing their fears at the committee meeting to try to prevent this small beneficial change.

If you’d like to review what our proposal consists of, you can read this Streetsblog article: http://www.streetsblog.org/2016/06/10/the-case-for-the-amity-street-wiggle/ or take a look at our presentation slideshow, http://www.tinyurl.com/amitywiggle. I know some of the main elements of our request are contained in the DOT proposal but haven’t seen the details of the agency’s plan.

Also on the agenda for Thursday’s meeting is a bike lane installation on 7th Ave. in Park Slope; particularly in light of the 2 cyclist fatalities in Park Slope this year, it’s critical that we demand safer routes through Park Slope for the huge number of people who cycle in the neighborhood.

Meeting information:
Thursday Dec. 15 (tomorrow), 6:30pm,
Old First Reformed Church
729 Carroll Street, Upper Hall
(northwest corner 7th Avenue)

The street network has no good, officially-sanctioned bike connection from points west of Court Street onto the Dean Street bike lane. But hundreds of cyclists each day make their own route, taking Amity Street, then doing a short jog against traffic on Court Street to hit Dean. That maneuver — whic...

08/22/2016

Hello friends! Put Thursday, Sept. 15 in your calendar: the date of our presentation to the Community Board 6 Transportation Committee, and we'll need your support! We'll be requesting that DOT consider our suggestions plan and return with a project proposal. See you Thursday, Sept. 15 (6:30pm, location TBA).

06/15/2016

Hello and welcome, everyone! Our original goal to present the Amity St. Wiggle plan to the Transportation Committee of Brooklyn Community Board 6 on Thursday, June 16, has unfortunately been delayed. There was a sizable outcry - in my view, completely illogical - by residents of Amity St., so we are going to take more time to try to educate and alleviate their concerns.

Unfortunately the community board will be on summer break, so our presentation won't take place until September - but we'll need your help then for sure. Thanks for signing-in! -- Ian

06/11/2016

Thanks to Streetsblog for a great summary of our chalk introduction to the Amity Street Wiggle at our June 7th Open House!

The street network has no good, officially-sanctioned bike connection from points west of Court Street onto the Dean Street bike lane. But hundreds of cyclists each day make their own route, taking Amity Street, then doing a short jog against traffic on Court Street to hit Dean. That maneuver — whic...

06/11/2016

On June 7, 2016, we chalked out the Amity Wiggle propsal at the corner of Amity St. and Court St. and invited neighbors to see what our plan entails and give some initial feedback.