Road Work and Street Closures As DOT Creates Traffic Mess In Crown Heights
On the busiest day of the week for Crown Heights residents, and as hundreds of Crown Heights parents rush to gather their children from school, the NYC Department of Transportation closed streets in Crown Heights, creating a traffic nightmare.
by CrownHeights.info
There is always traffic on the busy streets of Crown Heights. With Friday traffic during Tishrei making the situation a whole lot worse.
But this Friday took on a whole new meaning to the term gridlock, when the New York City Department of Transportation closed down Kingston Ave at the height of Crown Heights Friday traffic.
The closure, on Kingston Ave between Montgomery St and Carroll Street sparked outrage, as the backup of vehicles, with no easy way out of the mess, snaked around Empire Blvd and stood at a standstill up the Avenues.
Rabbi Mendy Hershkop, a resident of Crown Heights, vented his frustration on Twitter, saying “They had all summer when half the neighborhood is away to get this done. They could also wait 2 to 3 weeks when all the guests leave and things are back to normal.”
His frustration stemmed around the reason behind the closure, the sudden need to extend a sidewalk, something that was clearly not an emergency.
Crown St between Albany Ave and Kingston Ave was also closed, presumably for the same work.
These terribly timed road closures and construction is not a new problem. Chaim Hershkop, a school bus driver for a local school, has been fighting for communication over this problem for years.
He tweeted this past May over streets shut down for road repair. “Why doesn’t @NYC_DOT work together with @nypd to ensure some order/traffic control? Whatever happened to serving the community? When the neighborhood turns into a a parking lot, it’s time for traffic control to…..TAKE CONTROL! @NYC_DOT should be working with community’s.”
The call for dialogue and teamwork between the DOT and communities has yet to be answered, and the offer is still open according to Rabbi Mendy Hershkop. In the hopes of fixing the issue, he tweeted “I would love to meet with @NYC_DOT before every holiday season and assist with scheduling so work can be done efficiently without causing a strain for thousands of people.”
Outrageous! One of the busiest fridays of the year in crown heights & the @NYC_DOT chose no better time then to close off kingston Avenue and cause major traffic conditions that affect thousands of residents, guests & businesses & emergency responders @NYPD71Pct @NYCMayorsOffice pic.twitter.com/uVw8FMOX9L
— Rabbi Mendy Hershkop (@MendyH10) October 4, 2019
@NYC_DOT @NYCMayor what the what? We just had 10 weeks of summer break, no school, no traffic. No DOT projects. FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL, you are ripping up a major artery in the neighborhood, in what seems to be a big job? Why? This doesn’t make sense, this is abuse!!! pic.twitter.com/a0qO5JKnHF
— Chaim Hershkop (@CHershkop) September 3, 2019
