Public Transit and Livable Streets

A more robust, efficient and fully-funded public transportation system is key to sustainable growth for our community, and for the city and region as a whole. At the same time, there are simple things we can do to make our city's streets safe for pedestrians, bikers and drivers alike. With more frequent subway and bus service, with safer and more better-planned streets, we can have both a metropolis that really works, and neighborhoods that are more livable day-to-day.

Talk Kensington’s parks, plazas, streets—and more

Posted on May 22, 2015

There are some great projects in the works for Kensington this summer – improved parks, plazas, streets and more. I’m writing with updates on a few of these projects, as well as an invitation to join me at a Brooklyn Community Board 12 meeting next week.

On Tuesday night, come make your voice heard at the Brooklyn Community Board 12 meeting in Kensington. Community boards are composed of fifty local volunteers, who work closely with government agencies to help New York City neighborhoods thrive. Kensington is part of Brooklyn Community Board 12, which also covers Borough Park and parts of Midwood. I encourage you to come out and share your ideas for ways Kensington could be better served by New York City government. Read more »

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Elected Officials, Advocates Demand Increased Funding for School Crossing Guards to Keep NYC’s Students Safe

Posted on April 8, 2015

 Improved Working Conditions Necessary to Achieve City’s Vision Zero Goals and Safer Pre-K Expansion

Today on the steps of City Hall, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, City Council Member Brad Lander, City Council Member and Chair of the Council’s Committee on Public Safety Vanessa Gibson, along with parents, students, elected officials, and safe-streets advocates from across New York City called for a significant increase in funding for school crossing guards in the City’s FY 2016 budget.

The funds are necessary to expand the number of crossing guard positions, better target dangerous intersections, and improve working conditions. Crossing guard jobs pay poorly, are part-time, and only last 10 months per year, with workers furloughed in the summer months and forced to pay to continue their health care. As a result, the NYPD has a difficult time keeping positions filled, with hundreds of positions currently vacant.

These changes are needed to achieve the City’s Vision Zero goals to eliminate preventable deaths from traffic crashes, ensure a safer Pre-K expansion, and keep NYC’s kids safe. Read more »

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Holding Reckless Drivers Accountable

Posted on March 3, 2015

Across our neighborhoods, we’ve witnessed too many tragedies where reckless drivers have killed or seriously injured neighbors and loved ones. The three young teens who were students at MS 51 (Sammy Cohen-Eckstein, Joie Sellers, and Mohammed Naiem Uddin) are not the only pedestrians killed in our district over the past few years. Others have been seniors, workers at local businesses, and young people just starting their careers.

We’ve made a lot of progress since Mayor de Blasio launched “Vision Zero” last year. Pedestrian deaths in 2014 were the lowest in a century. But there’s still a long way to go, toward our goal of a city without senseless traffic deaths. Read more »

Council Member Brad Lander, Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson and Street Safety Advocates Announce Driver Accountability Task Force

Posted on March 2, 2015

Council Member Brad Lander, Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson and Street Safety Advocates Announce Driver Accountability Task Force

Elected Officials Partner with Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets to Improve Prosecution of New Vision Zero Laws in Brooklyn

BROOKLYN, NY – New York City Council Member Brad Lander and Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson in partnership with Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets, announced the creation of a Driver Accountability Task Force for the Borough of Brooklyn. The task force is the first of its kind in New York City. Read more »

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Safer Streets in Kensington & Windsor Terrace

Posted on January 13, 2015

Last Thursday night, our community came together for a well-attended meeting on long-standing concerns about pedestrian safety in Windsor Terrace and Kensington – concerns made all-the-more pressing by the tragic death of Mohammad Naiem Uddin in November. Read more »

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Dark days, and brighter ones

Posted on December 30, 2014

The waning days of 2014 have been dark ones for New York City. The killing of Detectives Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu made real the worst imaginable fears for those who put their safety on the line to serve our communities. Reactions to their murders highlighted tensions among New Yorkers – around how we understand the challenges of public safety and policing – and have risked setting us against ourselves.

Just a few weeks earlier, here in the 39th Council District, we lost 14-year-old Mohammad Naiem Uddin in a traffic crash that reminded us that our efforts to improve traffic safety and reduce speeding have not yet done enough.

Still, as the year turns, I remain truly grateful for what we’ve done together. Democracy can be messy, even painful. We don’t all agree on how to understand the problems, and certainly not on the solutions. But I am genuinely glad about what we’ve achieved together in New York City in 2014. While much of the rest of the country is stuck in a place of political polarization, we have moved forward in tangible ways to make lives better for many New Yorkers. Read more »

Next steps toward Kensington/Windsor Terrace Street Safety

Posted on December 11, 2014

Last week, many of us joined memorial services for Mohammad Naiem Uddin, who was killed in a hit-and-run incident at E. 7th Street & Caton Avenue. As our community came together for the Uddin family (you can make a contribution to support the family, organized by the PS 130 PTA), the call for action was clear: we must do all we can to make sure this does not happen again.

I’m writing to let you know the steps we are taking – to honor Naiem’s memory – toward safer streets in Kensington/Windsor Terrace and beyond:

Read more »

Participatory Budgeting Assemblies Kick off with Streets and Transit

Posted on October 16, 2014

By Neil Reilly, PB Disitrict Committee member, and past facilitator for the Transit Delegate Group

On October 14, the 2014-15 cycle of Participatory Budgeting in our district kicked off at the New York Transit Museum. Participatory Budgeting is a process by which residents make suggestions, craft proposals, and then vote on how their councilmember allocates his or her discretionary funds for capital projects. 

Read more »

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Locals and Officials to Brainstorm Improvements for Gritty Fourth Avenue

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01/14/2014

Fourth Avenue is an "unwelcoming" thoroughfare with a lifeless streetscape, and new luxury highrises aren't doing much to improve it.

Those are a few of the gripes local residents shared in a recent survey about Fourth Avenue, the gritty, industrial stretch on the western edge of tree-lined Park Slope where several residential towers have sprung up in recent years.

The Park Slope Civic Council will present the survey results at a Tuesday meeting where locals and elected officials will brainstorm an action plan for improving Fourth Avenue.

City Council members Brad Lander and Stephen Levin are scheduled to present their visions for the avenue's future, and residents, business owners and community groups will share their top priorities for the busy street. Read more »

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