The Department of Transportation plans to downsize a popular car-free plaza in Greenpoint after a six-week test period and instead reopen it as an open street for weekends later next month.
The so-called “Bedford Slip” between Nassau and Manhattan Avenues became an all-day pedestrian zone starting in July, as the Department of Transportation closed the left-turn road to motorists to reduce congestion for nearby shuttle buses during the G Line closure in that neighborhood.
During the limited period, tables and chairs were set up in the square, there were outdoor markets and regular Sunday lunches. The city had originally planned to resume normal business operations – that is, car traffic.
But after residents campaigned to keep the road open for people and not cars even after the subway repairs, the Ministry of Transport decided that the road would only be regularly used on Saturdays and Sundays between September 28 and the end of the year.
“The community has clearly welcomed the temporary opening of the Bedford off-ramp to pedestrians to improve bus service during the first phase of the G-Bahn closure,” DOT spokeswoman Mona Bruno said in a statement to Streetsblog. “We are working with residents to develop a longer-term vision for this block as part of the Open Streets program.”
The North Brooklyn Parks Alliance will manage the space after spending the past few weeks building the temporary space with other local volunteers, and its executive director still hopes to eventually expand the partial closure to 24/7.
“We have successfully demonstrated that we can use the square as a pedestrian plaza and that the community has a desire to make it a public square,” said Katie Denny Horowitz. “We will continue to advocate for a 24/7 opening option that is more like a public square than an open street, because that is the goal.”
The offshoot at the north end of McCarren Park is one of the busiest corners for pedestrian traffic in northern Brooklyn, and open streets advocates have closed it to traffic on some weekends in recent years. The six-week experiment of a complete closure showed the space was ripe for a plaza, a local politician said.
“I think the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance and the North Brooklyn Open Streets Community Coalition have done an excellent job over the last six weeks of activating this plaza and showing the community that this place would benefit tremendously from a plaza and permanent open space,” said Council Member Lincoln Restler.
The end of the temporary space came as the subway resumed service in northern Brooklyn this week, with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority moving the G Line further south to modernize the Crosstown Line’s aging signaling system.
However, closing the road to motorists has angered some businesses that have opposed the change in the streetscape since advocates began lobbying for it four years ago.
“I won’t be satisfied until everything is completely back to normal, the way it was,” says Billy Essling, second-generation owner of Billy’s Locksmith & Security Service, which has been in the neighborhood for 47 years.
Essling said his business declined during the six-month street closure and lamented that he and his customers could not park in the metered parking spaces in front of the store.
“It was tough because I had to go out and carry my tools and materials down the block and couldn’t stop in front of the shop,” he said. “Customers would come in and complain that they had driven around for 20 minutes to find a parking spot to recut a key.”
Aside from the fact that Essling’s delivery truck often occupies the metered parking lot when the street is open to cars, Horowitz added that businesses along the entire G-Bahn have been negatively affected since it was out of service for weeks, suggesting that the closure of public transit was the main factor.
“I don’t think the pedestrian zone had any impact on businesses in that half block,” she said.
Nearly two-thirds of households in Brooklyn’s Community Board 1, which includes Greenpoint and Williamsburg, do not own a car, and 84 percent of people commute by public transit, bike or foot, according to data from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Advocates and politicians have proposed creating loading zones around the corner on Manhattan Avenue, but drivers have rejected this for one simple reason: You can’t trust other drivers!
“There could be a car in the loading zone, but they won’t drive away,” said Migmar Tsesing, manager of the clothing store ID Menswear. “Nobody follows the rules.”
The closure would create more space for people on the crowded corner, said a sous-chef at Five Leaves, a restaurant on the south corner of Slip Lane.
“It’s going to draw people to the corner and give them some space so they’re not walking around in the middle of the street,” Shawn Romero said. “There’s probably an influx of people, especially on that block.”
Residents have been pushing for the car-free strip since an accident in 2020 in which a driver pushed a woman against a boulder at the pedestrian overhang of an intersection.
In the years since, there have been several weekend closures to cars, and supporters of open space have collected nearly 3,400 signatures on a petition in favor of a plaza. State Senator Kristen Gonzalez and Representative Nydia Velázquez have also sent letters to the Department of Transportation in recent days in favor of an all-day plaza.
