City’s BQE Promenade plan has Brooklyn Heights in uproar, alternate ideas being explored
Mayor softens support for plan that would turn Promenade into 6-lane highway
Alternate ideas are cropping up to save the Brooklyn Heights Promenade from being replaced by a six-lane highway during the $5 billion reconstruction of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE).
These include one that would reroute the highway to the west of the current BQE, over the eastern section of Brooklyn Bridge Park; another that would reroute the BQE over Atlantic Avenue to Boerum Place; a tunnel approach (long scorned as impractical and too expensive by DOT); and a temporary halt of tolls over the Verrazzano Bridge to lead traffic elsewhere.
No matter the outcome, the proposed destruction of the Promenade, even if temporary, has united the Heights like no other issue. Residents consider the esplanade, with its landmarked views, to be the crown jewel of the neighborhood. Replacing it with the BQE would bring exhaust and noise from roughly 153,000 trucks and cars a day into the backyard of Brooklyn Heights.