Location and Time: Bread & Yoga, 4951 Broadway x 207th at 7 pm.

Attendees: TBD

Agenda:

1. Items to discuss with Councilmember (CD 10) Robert Jackson (W of Bway)

2. Bus Rapid Transit options

3. CB 12 Trans Committee Meeting (Feb 1st) preparation

4. Hudson River Valley Greenway Link

5. Feb. 27 Bronx Parks event, Lehman College

6. Date for February meeting

I just got an email blast from Debra Blow at CB12.  If we are interested to be funded anytime soon, we MUST come prepared to this meeting (or the one for DOT or public safety…)  It’s the last item that ll the committees priorities.  Note that they are discussing Fiscal Year 2010 at this time.  That’s the deadline by which NYCDOT said they wanted to have 15 or 20 MILES of separated bikepaths on city streets.  If our CB would prioritize the Dyckman Greenway connector as one of its prioritize, we have a much better chance of getting what we hope  I kow I’ve put up other sources of funding, but this is the one meeting per year that is critical to have influence (when they set priorities).

I’m out of town at the moment or I would hellp more.

I just got this.  Can anybody go?  It’s tonight.  Open to the public.

 September 2008 5BBC General Meeting

It came out today that (Finally) the City will use citizen-submitted

photos and videos as evidence in court. They’ve already been doing it

(remember the bikie who was pushed to the ground by a cop recently),

so now it is official. From the NY Times, this is the procedure:

For quality of life issues, 1. Call 311, give all the usual info. 2.

for DIN Action, write down the complaint number. 3. If you have a

video that substantiates your complaint (and provides visual and aural

evidence that would make it possible to make an arrest - e.g. license

number, description of car, person, etc) tell the 311 operator you

have such video. The video can be taken with any kind of device, even

a camera phone. If the 311 operator is told there is a video, they

will take down your phone number and a detective will call with info

on how to send the data to a department computer.

We should look into seeing how to put photos and videos up this site

so we can have our own database of records (linked to the 311 calls).

I made this up from what I’d given out at the Community Board in February. It now looks like a resolution that they could adapt. I gave this out to the CB meeting last night (5 members there) and Daniel gave out our new brochure, our fact sheet on economic benefits, our agenda, which included a lot, but not all of our issues. They gave us quite a bit of time. But it again came down to needing to see that the stakeholders are onboard. There was no violent opposition. I won’t be in town for the next one, but I suggest that next time the group goes, it brings a couple, few business people from Dyckman and a good petition. If the petition (the online one) can have a place for people to write their comments (e.g. why they would want a lovely greenway on Dyckman St) that would be even better.

Dyckman Greenway Connector
Rationales

Trees and green corridors have been shown to reduce crime, increase business, and provide a more pleasant pedestrian experience. Most shopping on Dyckman done on foot.

There’s been a growth in cycling in NYC and NYC’s Greenways and Open Streets experiment proves popularity. There is a shift away from driving due to fuel costs / pollution. There has been increased bicycling in Inwood since the river greenways opened; so connector will increase bicyclists and business

At the 3rd annual greenways summit this year, Jon Orcut, policy director at NYCDOT said that NYCDOT will be establishing 10—15 miles of separated on-street greenways for NYC by 2010.

Dyckman Greenway Connector is needed to complete and connect Harlem River and Henry Hudson greenways as well as the East Coast Greenway that will come in from the north.

Dyckman Street / Riverside Drive are hazardous for bike riders and pedestrians even though Parks Dept. has labeled it as a proposed greenway.

Through vehicle movements are accommodated by greenway designs.

Therefore,

It is recommended that CB12 should ask NYC DOT for a Dyckman Greenway connector on Dyckman and Riverside be included in the 10—15 miles of green-separated on-street bikepaths they have proposed to complete by 2010.

At yesterday’s (Sept 8, 2008) meeting of City administration and borough president’s officials (including 2 reps from the Mayor, a comptroller, a few Parkies, and 5 boro pres reps - all I can remember) I gave the following, more or less,  orally:

After identifying myself as from 1795 Riverside Drive, Tenants Assn, Inwood Livable Streets, and the RING Garden, and living as close as possible as one could get to the marina, and having stayed up nights in the past listening to the DIN, and having to help found DIN Action (which I described - FYI this is Dyckman Inwood Noise Action, a Yahoo group founded because of the din), I made the following points:

The concessionaires were asked at a CB12 meeting about how having a restaurant for 300 diners would impact traffic, parking, congestion and air pollution.  There was no answer.  I said that there is no plan for mitigation of environmental impacts stated in the contract.  I recommended that a traffic study and parking study be done as part of CEQR and SEQR review (Environmental Impact statement) before any deal be concluded about this development.  (Parks head of concessions, Kloth, was asked why they didn’t do an EIS, and he gave a weak argument (that there always was a restaurant and marina at the end of Dyckman and they didn’t think this was anything different).  Two problems with this “reasoning” is that the last development was no good environmentally, and this one will be much bigger.

I said that the contracts allow the concessionaire free rein to advertise and what with the schedule of payments required to be given to the City in the contract mentioning revenues possibly being in the $4-5 million /year range based on a six month open season, I suggested that in order to do a project on this scale would require lots of dinners.  I said that the concessionaires would not tell us at the Community board meeting how much a hamburger would cost, so all this together would indicate that the development is designed to attract customers from the region at the environmental cost to the local area.

Liz Ritter had mentioned that there is no mention of NYPD being involved to keep the peace and enforce laws.  I echoed that.  She had also mentioned insufficient attention to parking.

I mentioned that the restaurant closings for special events can be done as often as they want and Parks is well within its purview not to review any of the requests before the events occur the way the language is stated.  Same goes for concerts.

I mentioned that the contract requires emptying the sewage tanks regularly, but there is no mention of periodic checking for leaks.

I could have gone into what the EIS could have studied, but I think I made my points.

I have no idea what the next step is or how to find out.  I’ll bet CB12 knows..

I’ve prepared a brochure introducing our group for the CB12 Traffic and Transportation Committee meeting on September 8. Please review.

Inwood & Washington Heights Livable Streets brochure [PDF]

Some of you might be aware that the Parks department has been working to establish a new concessionaire for a marina and restaurants at the west end of Dyckman St since the last concessionaire was kicked out for having illegal operations (and caused frequent loud noise well into the night). An organization has now been chosen (Manhattan River Group) and we can now read the full contracts between Parks dept and the Manhattan River group. At a Community Board 12 meeting recently, this group indicated their desire to have 2 restaurants seating 300 people. No traffic study had been done to predict impacts on the neighborhood. These are the links to the two 15 year contracts that will be discussed at the hearing on Monday afternoon at 22 Reade St. 2:30 pm. This may be the only remaining opportunity for public input into this process. http://geography.hunter.cuny.edu/~mclarke/LicenseManhattanGroupMarina.pdf http://geography.hunter.cuny.edu/~mclarke/LicenseManhattanGroupRestaurant.pdf These are big files (21 megs and 28 megs) so they will take a long time to download. I hope that those interested will go to the hearing and testify.

Is this the study we have been waiting for? The one that we can use to talk to all those stakeholders who doubt the incredible value of calming and greening our streets? 1. 2. 3. Let’s read!

On August 6th, T.A. released a new report that compiles and analyzes the most recent data on the benefits of great streets. Called Streets to Live By: How livable street design can bring economic, health and quality-of-life benefits to New York City (PDF), this study details the outcomes of livable streets projects around the world. It finds that street designs that make people comfortable and draw them in are, in fact, the very groundwork for a healthy community and local economy. The study also details the benchmarks of livable streets, including physical activity, better air quality, more social cohesion and increased economic activity; benchmarks that City agencies can use to measure the livability of any given street or neighborhood. “Streets to Live By” draws on the plans of other major Cities, makes bold challenges for New York and convincingly argues that the quality of our streets reflects the true priorities of our City. Check out the full report here. (PDF)

I’ve changed our group name and logo to Inwood and Washington Heights Livable Streets to reflect our broadened concern for livable streets initiatives in both districts, since they are represented by the same community board. Hopefully, this name change will also encourage more people in Washington Heights to get involved!