City to Remove Pedestrian Islands for West Indian Parade

Two pedestrian safety islands installed less than a year ago on Eastern Parkway are slated to be removed by the city in order to accommodate ‘floats’ for the upcoming West Indian Day Parade in Crown Heights.

“It compromises the safety of the people. It’s not good,” fumed Debora Goldstein, 40, told the New York Post. “The parade is one day out of the year. The main thing is the pedestrians, the kids and the schoolchildren.”

The pedestrian island were installed less then a year ago a the intersections of Kingston and Brooklyn Avenues along Eastern Parkway in response to requests by residents after a number of crashes which resulted in serious injuries to pedestrians.

But parade officials convinced the city to remove the medians so that bulky floats and wide-load trucks can navigate the roadway, a high-ranking police source told The Post.

A Department of Transportation spokesman confirmed that the agency and NYPD will remove the two medians “due to safety concerns involving parade participants.”

“We are looking at ­potential replacement treatments in the area and for the long term,” said DOT spokesman Scott Gastel, who refused to address questions about the cost of installation — and removal — of the barriers.

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12 Comments

  • Wondering

    Yes, I’m wondering, wondering what all the outrage is. Those ‘safety’ barriers were pointless in their complete lack of effectiveness, ie useless, not any better than nothing. Any vehicle could easily jump those curbs and still hit someone in the crosswalk anyway. What is really needed are those 3 foot tall concrete dividers as are used in highway construction. They don’t block a driver’s view and no normal car can move them unless they are traveling at a high rate of speed which doesn’t happen with the new city-wide speed limit of 25 does it?

  • Anonymous

    And these ppl have the chutzpah to say that the jews get everything they want!!!!
    Do u have clue how much this cost to install and remove I mean I’m no fan of them to begin with but the point is how much bending backwords the gov does for them.

    Ps Maybe a walk bridge should be built

    • Walk Bridge

      Yes, walk bridges should be built. I said that to Rabbi Spielman when he was the head of the Community Council over 20 years ago, and his reply was “It will never happen.”

  • Iddd

    MOVE THE PARADE, DON’T MOVE THE ISLANDS.
    MOVE IT TO THE PARK. this is really unfair

  • HAROLD C.

    YOUR COMMUNITY LEADERS WOULD RATHER HAVE A FESTIVAL TO COMMEMORATE A TRAGIC EVENT OF 25 YEARS AGO. I WONDER WILL ANY BE MARCHING WITH THE WEST INDIANS