10 MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2017 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP MTA reps visit Sunset Park board meeting to discuss mistakes, plans BY JAIME DEJESUS [email protected] As a variety of train station closings and power outages have caused headaches for local straphangers, Sunset Park residents got a chance to have their voices heard as well as receive updates and information. Representatives from the MTA made a surprise presentation to Community Board 7’s monthly meeting on Wednesday, May 17 to discuss the closed 53rd Street station, future closures and admitted mistakes that were made. Willam Montanile, program manager for the Enhanced Station Initiative of the MTA, said that the renovated 53rd Street station is slated to open this September. “We promised less than six months closure and we will meet that promise,” he said. “Our demolition is almost complete at the station and by now you should be seeing deliveries of our new granite and stair treads. Work is ongoing day and night to get ready for the September opening.” Montanile admitted to mistakes made with the first station closure. “With 53rd Street, we stumbled out of the block with the communication of how we were closing the station,” he said. “We learned our lesson. At Bay Ridge Avenue, before the station was closed, and it’s happening at Prospect Avenue also, we put official New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) signs when we’re taking up portions of the street. We will also be putting a large vinyl sign inside the station at Prospect before it closes, showing what it will look like, why we’re closing and when it will close.” He mentioned to Councilmember Carlos Menchaca, who attended the meeting, that it’s sometimes good to be the first and to receive enhanced stations, but also with being the first comes lessons that are learned. “There is a lot of stuff happening with the MTA, not just the signal breakdowns and a lot of you have experienced that on the R line,” said Menchaca. “A lot of us are also incredibly furious about the lack of information. "So much that we’re asking for is clear," he added. "We want and deserve shuttle buses on Fourth Avenue that connect the three stations out of seven that are connecting us on Fourth Avenue.” Other demands included information in multiple languages to serve the diverse community and more timely updates on closures in front of CB 7; in addition, MTA reps were question as to how the MTA plans to resolve issues of other stations having heavier usage because of the closings. Once updates were given, board members were allowed to discuss their frustration. "I’ve had every single bad experience you could imagine,” noted Melissa Del Valle Ortiz. “I got stuck in the Con Edison signal situation and the token booth clerk was no help whatsoever. She wasn’t getting information out or communicating to the people that were there. They were speaking to them in several languages and all she said was take the Third Avenue bus. There was nothing being said about what was wrong." "We need a public hearing to go over again the multiple projects the MTA is doing on Fourth Avenue," said CB 7 Chair Dan Murphy. "Working on the stations within CB 7, you could’ve had a workshop with the public instead of just saying this is what we’re doing." The Prospect Avenue station is slated to close on Monday, June 5. The Brooklyn Kitchen will be coming to Sunset's Industry City BY JAIME DEJESUS [email protected] The Brooklyn Kitchen, a company founded in 2006 with the goal of helping people burnish their cooking skills, is bringing its popular services to Sunset Park’s Industry City, expanding culinary education programming for those who aspire to cook more at home. Currently operating out of Williamsburg, the Brooklyn Kitchen will offer a variety of services in the massive waterfront space, including high quality classes in what is dubbed a ‘popover” cooking lab. Owner Taylor Erkkinen told this paper she is excited about the move. “We are venturing out to a part of Brooklyn that is more accessible to the rest of New York,” she said, adding that she and the company are preparing for the L train shutdown coming in 2019. “Williamsburg is going to get a lot less accessible so one of the things I’m looking to do is gain a foothold in another part of the city. We’ve been taking a look at where our customers are coming from and they’re coming from Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill — places where it will be easier for them to get to Sunset Park.” Starting as a shop for cooking tools, the Brooklyn Kitchen grew into something bigger beginning in 2008, when, said Erkkinen, "We The Brooklyn Kitchen is coming to Industry City. started doing classes and hit upon a group of young people that were interested in learning to cook. So we started more classes and branched out to open up a butcher shop and grocery store in 2009.” For the past eight years, Erkkinen has been running a business that combines both retail and educational components. “I want to change the world by teaching people how to cook for themselves because I think that’s something that’s missing,” she said, adding that she is excited to bring that aspect of the business to Industry City. “What we try to do with our educational program is be more elemental and essential. We want to bring experience, good habits, practices and flavor combinations that encourage people to bring what they’ve learned into Photo courtesy of the Brooklyn Kitchen their own kitchen. A lot of schools treat recreational cooking as a night out. While I appreciate the business that people are doing, providing an alternative to dinner and a movie, we try to sneak in some real learning as well.” Although, to start, there won’t be an extensive retail element in the Industry City space, Erkkinen said she's leaving open the possibility of expansion, noting, “We may have some items for sale but it won’t be the same level of retail that we’ve been doing in Williamsburg. It’s wait and see at the moment to see where the marketplace is going.” According to Erkkinen, the move should be complete after the Fourth of July with public classes on evenings and weekends. For more information, visit www.thebrooklynkitchen. com. We learned our lesson. -- Willam Montanile, program manager for the Enhanced Station Initiative of the MTA
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