Underhill Avenue in Prospect Heights is getting a new bike boulevard on the thoroughfare, a decision, the city says, that is meant to calm traffic on the avenue.
But, this summer, City Hall paused the street's reconstruction, because New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the DOT had not gotten substantial input from the people who live on the avenue. At a press conference on Oct. 17, Adams said the DOT would be conducting a survey and knocking on doors of people who live on the avenue to ensure resident voices are heard.
BK Reader spoke to several people in Prospect Heights about the changes on Underhill and their thoughts on the survey that went around.
“I thought [the survey] should've been more specific in regard to danger — it didn’t feel very well thought out,” said Vickie Darden, an Underhill Avenue resident who received the survey.
Darden added she wasn’t pleased with the amount of multiple-choice questions and would have preferred to type in her own answers.
“At least we got a survey, finally, which was shocking,” said Darden.
Darden and her landlord, Isaac Scott, said they don't support the redesign, which changed Underhill Avenue from a two-way street into a one-way street, running southbound between Park Place and Prospect Place and between St. Marks Avenue and Bergen Street. The new street design also includes crosswalk extensions, bike lanes and diamond-shaped traffic diverters.
Scott, who is 85 years old, said he relies on visits from his family for food and chores around the house that he can’t always perform. He told BK Reader his relatives aren’t able to come as often because they face difficulty finding parking, as several spots were removed for the redesign.
However, Lawrence Quigley, who has lived on Underhill Avenue for 20 years, said he supports the redesign because drivers would be more inclined to slow down.
“I think traffic calming is long overdue,” said Quigley. “There’s not enough parking for everyone in Prospect Heights. [Redesign opponents] focus on the 10 or so parking spots that are being taken away as some sort of large infringement.”
The mixed sentiment about the redesign has voices from P.S. 9 on Underhill Avenue and Bergen Street.
One parent of a child at P.S. 9, who asked to remain anonymous, said the redesign created issues with garbage pickup for the school. The parent told BK Reader that garbage trucks used to travel north down Underhill Avenue and then pull into the dumpster storage area. Now, since the block between Bergen Street and St. Marks Avenue is a one-way street in the southbound direction, the parent said there’s no space for trucks to drive in and pick up the dumpsters.
Now, garbage piles up next to the school building instead of being placed in the school’s dumpsters, as seen in the photo below.
“So when they made the bike lane and the lane with the floating parking, the garbage truck now can’t pull in to pick up the dumpster,” the P.S. 9 parent said. "They didn’t pick [the garbage] up for weeks. At the beginning of the school year, it was still very hot and the smell of the rotting food was insane."
DOT did not respond to several questions regarding the redesign, P.S. 9, or the survey at press time and referred BK Reader to Adams’ comments made at the press conference mentioned earlier in the story.
