Markowitz task force meets to plan ‘Brooklyn Boulevard’

January 24, 2013 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle
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A task force organized by Borough President Marty Markowitz to come up with a plan to revamp the entire length of Fourth Avenue will meet to discuss safety measures for the Bay Ridge end of the four-mile thoroughfare.

The meeting, which is being presented with the cooperation of the New York City Department of Transportation and the Traffic and Transportation Committee of Community Board 10, will take place on Thursday, Jan. 24, 7 p.m. at P.S. 264, 371 89th St. 

The session follows a series of similar meetings that the task force has held with community boards and civic groups all along the Fourth Avenue corridor. Under Markowitz’s vision, the entire length of Fourth Avenue would be turned into a grand boulevard featuring widened sidewalks, medians with gardens, traffic calming measures, trendy shops, art galleries, and improved housing.

The plan would turn Fourth Avenue into a Brooklyn version of the Champs-Elysees in Paris.

Markowitz, who unveiled his grand plan in his State of the Borough Address in 2010, stated that Fourth Avenue should be renamed “Brooklyn Boulevard.” In 2011, Markowitz formed the task force to implement his vision.

The purpose of the Jan. 23 meeting is to seek public feedback, officials said.

Back in 2010, Markowitz asked urban planning students from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service to draft a proposal outlining what a new Fourth Avenue would look like.

The report was released in May of that year. “This report introduces some of the possibilities for making Fourth Avenue a great boulevard,” Markowitz said at the time.

Markowitz said it has always been his intention to include residents in the discussion about changes on Fourth Avenue. “It remains my goal to see that all efforts to transform Fourth Avenue reflect and receive guidance from the vision of all members of the local community,” he said.

Fourth Avenue is one of the longest streets in the city, stretching more than six miles from downtown Brooklyn to Bay Ridge.

Any major changes to Fourth Avenue would have to win the approval of the City Council.

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