Readers sick over BQE fi x’s threat of toxic dust
Brooklyn Heights residents
will breathe in toxic chemicals
for years if the city moves forward
with a plan to turn the neighborhood’s
Promenade into a six-lane
speedway for gas-guzzling cars
and trucks during the looming
reconstruction of the Brooklyn–
Queens Expressway’s triple cantilever,
experts warn (“Highway
to health problems: Locals will
breathe in toxic air for years if
city sends traffi c along Promenade
to fi x BQE, experts warn,”
by Julianne Cuba, online Dec.
26).
“A 7-year-old would spend their
entire childhood exposed to pollution,”
said journalist and publichealth
expert Laurie Garrett, who
in 1995 won a Pulitzer Prize for
her reporting on an outbreak of
the Ebola virus in Africa.
The historic Promenade, which
sits at the top of the 70-year-old
highway’s crumbling three-tiered
structure, currently acts as a barrier
that blocks the toxic pollutant
known as “fi ne particulate
matter,” or pm 2.5, emitted by the
153,000 cars and trucks on the expressway
daily from fi lling the
lungs of kids, oldsters, and other
vulnerable individuals living in
the Heights, according to Garrett.
Readers let their feelings about
the experts’ warnings be known:
But it’s OK to re-route BQE traffi c
through Fulton Ferry Landing, like
last time, right? Hypocrites.
Former Fulton Ferry Landing’er
from Fulton Ferry Landing
Not only is it irresponsible in the
short-term (next 10-plus years) to rebuild
this roadway in this manner,
it’s irresponsible in the long-term
(next 100-plus years) to replace it in
this spot period. Pollution, noise,
quality of life, waste of premier waterfront
real estate.
We need to tunnel from the ditch
south of Atlantic to the north side of
Brooklyn Heights. If there are things
in the way, we can move them — if
Boston did it so can we. We’d even
need to include direct tubes to the
Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges to
improve functionality over what we
have now. The result would leave us
with a “cantilever riverwalk” where
shops and cafes could be added overlooking
the city’s most astounding
area of waterfront and the Brooklyn
Bridge Park.
The time to think big is now, so
we’re not stuck with this mistake for
our lifetimes — and the lifetimes of
those that will come after us.
Tunneler from Brooklyn
Is there a third alternative near
Brooklyn Bridge Park? What is
wrong with that? Why didn’t the city
fi x the BQE cantilever before it built
Brooklyn Bridge Park?
Did any city offi cials and-or politicians
recommend at that time that
the BQE cantilever be replaced before
the park was created? What
were their names? Titles? Do they
still work for the city?
Did any city offi cials and-or politicians
oppose fi xing the BQE cantilever
before the park was created?
What were their names? Titles? Do
they still work for the city?
David Weinkrantz
from Downtown Brooklyn
Now the privileged, politicallyconnected,
Brooklyn Heights residents
who are among the richest
people in the borough could be subject
to the same environmental hazards
routinely faced by their maids,
servants, landscapers, doormen,
and parking valets, and whose kids
breathe unhealthy levels of ozone
and diesel fumes in other parts of
Brooklyn (in neighborhoods statistically
scarcely covered by the
“Brooklyn” Paper).
There are scores of specifi c,
chronic air and toxic-waste pollution
hazards that denser swaths of population
currently face in the borough
that the “Brooklyn” Paper could
address in a top story, rather than
trumpet the whines of the wealthy
residents of about 25 to 35 buildings
(and who most likely get around by
Uber, taxis and their own private vehicles
when they need to).
Chomsky from Greenwood
Hard to believe that the Promenade
is a barrier to the air pollution
from the thousands of trucks and
cars below. It’s all open air what barrier
is the so-called expert talking
about? The residents that live there
are already poisoned. Frank
from Brooklyn
Commenters: It’s not about who
gets the worst of it or whose turn is
COURIER L 16 IFE, JAN. 4–10, 2019 DT
it now, it’s about fi xing a wrong and
making it right, permanently.
Covering the ditch south of Atlantic
and going underground from
there is the way to go. A tunnel can
be bored over the next couple of years
without ever starting entrances and
exits to it, virtually eliminating 75
percent of the disruption repairing
the cantilever would cause. And
then there are all the other benefi ts
I state above. The BQE is Brooklyn’s
most important artery and we deserve
that it be done right this time
— tunnel it! Tunneler
from Brooklyn
These are the politicians who
knew about the necessary repairs
of the BQE and did nothing prior to
the park being built: Bill DeBlasio
(then councilman), David Yassky
(then councilman), Martin Connor
(then a state senator, who now
also sits on the BBP Board, approving
unnecessary housing at Pier 6
which further complicates the BQE
repair today — something he could
have helped mitigate even just six
months ago when we begged for delays
on Pier 6 housing, too), Daniel
Squadron (who won his seat over
Connor due to his commitment to
stop housing in the park, and then
took money from real-estate interests
and gave up his veto over housing
in an attempt to get elected to
the seat of Public Advocate — a bid
he lost, even though he still managed
to screw the public in this project),
Joan Millman (then Assemblywoman,
replaced by another person
who also wanted housing inside the
park and did nothing to stop the
most recent towers on Pier 6).
Only one bureaucrat spoke out
that the repair must be done prior
to building the park — that was then
Brooklyn DOT Commissioner Joseph
Palmieri, who testifi ed at the
park’s DEIS hearing, in September
2005, that the repair should happen
before the park was built. These
facts are a matter of public record.
Also for the record, only my coalition
of community associations
in support of the park, organized
under the BBP Defense Fund, went
on record advocating for the BQE
repair before the park got built.
Why? Because we knew that there
would be federal dollars fl owing to
the park later, helping to obviate
housing as the means of “paying”
for the park. But the politicians
wanted housing (and the real-estate
dollars for their campaigns as
many proved to secure, beyond just
Squadron) and not a protected park,
nor repairs for this then-known
crumbling roadbed.
This is what happens when
knowledgeable, informed, and goodcitizen
engagement gets crushed by
politicians and the Johnny-comelatlies
who think they know better,
but do not — or worse, have self interests
that take precedence.
judi francis from Cobble Hill
The cost of the east side access
tunnel, which is shorter than any alternate
tunnel here for this project,
and is being built under an already
existing tunnel (no new right of way
issues), is so far more than 14-billion
dollars, according to reports.
Any tunnel here would have innumerable
issues including at least
four subway tunnels crossing the
route, problems with connecting
to the Brooklyn and Manhattan
bridges, as well as water tunnels and
other utilities’ issues.
It wasn’t merely shot down, it
was studied and found not feasible
for at least the above reasons. There
would have also been land-taking issues
as well. You can’t just start it at
Atlantic Avenue and dig down. You
will disrupt hundreds of thousands
of train passengers.
Also, a lot of revisionist history.
The rebuilding of the BQE triple cantilever
planning was well underway
until about 2009. There were scoping
meetings held by the state DOT,
when the state pulled all the funding
for the replacement for the Tappan
Zee Bridge … also known as the Mario
Cuomo Bridge. When the original
section was built, federal money
was unavailable and the city paid for
it. I don’t know if the city was ever
reimbursed.
There has not been a new federal
highway-funding bill passed in
at least 10 years, and the highwayfuel
tax trust fund is exhausted.
There is no money in that fund.
And the money when available goes
to the state. As is the rule in New
York for every project inside the
city, outside the city must get one as
well. Anyone got $10-billion-plus lying
around?
It would be nice if a tunnel was feasible.
It would be nice if it was done
already. It would be nice if the state
hadn’t stolen the money. It would be
nice if you didn’t need trucks to deliver
food. It would really be nice if
you-know-who wasn’t president but
Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the
money for a tunnel here is about just
as likely. sid from Boerum Hill
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