We have provided a template letter for voters to send to politicians. Please feel free to modify by adding a few sentences or more describing your experience with the closure of Berry St. and why you oppose a bike boulevard being installed on Berry St.  

Here are some reasons why we oppose Berry Open Street and a bike boulevard:

ACCESSIBILITY

·  Violates the American with Disabilities Act by creating challenges to accessing businesses and residential spaces.

·  Car shares and Access-A-Ride have refused to pick up passengers in front of their buildings or drop them off if moving a barricade is required or a no entry sign is posted.

·  Barricades are not ADA compliant. They are designed to barricade.

·  Unfairly requires car services, elderly, disabled, persons accompanying children to get out of their vehicle to access street.

·  Parking will be taken away with the redesign; Cars accommodate a wider demographic than bikes do all year.

·  Businesses that are not bars or restaurants have lost clients, deliveries and their commerce disrupted from not having unfettered access to the street. Customers and employees have been blocked from accessing businesses that provide jobs and revenue in our community.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE

·  Delays emergency response. Berry Open Street diverts traffic and creates congestion on adjacent streets. The redesign reverses traffic on some blocks of Berry to slow traffic and access to Berry and adjacent streets.

·  Intersections are blocked by trucks daily. Creation of loading zones doesn’t address the increased demand created by bars and restaurants, thus truck deliveries. Prior to pandemic trucks did not block intersections.

·  Berry St. is an emergency route. The DOT barricaded and wants to add traffic calming measures aka bike boulevard to an emergency route-the most efficient street to travel when responding to emergencies.

MISMANAGED

·  NYC DOT has failed to address one complaint out of 100’s registered with their portal.

·  Application process and renewal for Open Streets is not held to a performance review or public review process.

· Barricades never secured during severe weather (heat waves, hurricanes, snow storms, freezing weather, tornadoes, etc.)

· There is no transparency regarding who the DOT "partners" are and they operate private social media accounts that delete comments and block residents. It is not community led.

· Hours of Open Street are excessive. 24-hour closure is aggressive and unnecessary. Most of the time Berry Open Street is empty.

ENVIORNMENTAL

·   Cars and trucks must circle around requiring more fossil fuels be burned. This is creating more noise and air pollution.

·   Open Streets is treated like a "destination" which brings trash, noise pollution, partying, and crowds outside people’s homes on the weekends and at nights; North Brooklyn does not lack in entertainment space. Berry St should not be used as one. The redesign calls for street furniture and public seating in front of people’s homes.

·  Conflicts with sanitation schedule. Redesign is not sanitation friendly requires manual cleaning.

SAFETY

·  Bikers have existing and substantial infrastructure on all the streets around Berry
Creates unsafe conditions with bikes, revels, mopeds, e-bikes blowing through stop signs and going both directions. A two-way bike lane on Berry makes it less safe for pedestrians and drivers on cross streets.

·  The Open Street presents a false sense of safety. People dart out into traffic crossing the active streets without looking. Mixing pedestrians, cyclists, motorized vehicles, mopeds and revels is not safe.

·  Data does not support the claim that Berry St. needs traffic calming infrastructure or was unsafe especially compared to other streets in the district.