VIDEO: Community faces DOT in first town hall on BQE rehab plan to replace Brooklyn Heights Promenade
Packed into a gymnasium, hundreds of residents furled their brows, shook their heads, yelled out in opposition or took to the microphone last week to challenge city Department of Transportation (DOT) representatives on the agency’s proposed plan to replace the Brooklyn Heights Promenade with a 6-lane highway to repair the ailing BQE.
The DOT previously proposed two plans to be discussed first during the two-year environmental study of the highway’s repair: fix it using the typical lane-by-lane approach over eight years, or finish it in six by replacing the promenade temporarily between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street.
“Please hear us out, I understand a lot of people are going to hate what we propose, but I guess I just want to suggest, as much as you hate what we propose, I think what we found when we looked at it was none of the alternatives are … very lovable,” DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg told the crowd at the Ingersoll Houses Community Center.
Peter Bray, executive director of the Brooklyn Heights Association, said community members likened the choice to Dante’s Inferno.