Yesterday the New York Times broke the story of the Adams administration's new strategy for the BQE and the Triple Cantilever. In a nutshell, their plan is to immediately start community engagement in order to develop a plan for the cantilever and compete for federal funding in May 2023 and in the following years. If the Adams administration can develop a consensus plan and secure the required city, state, and federal approvals to move forward, the work to fix the triple cantilever would be designed and implemented over the next decade. At the same time, the administration will begin community based planning in other Brooklyn neighborhoods impacted by the BQE. While we welcome the renewed focus on this pressing issue, many questions remain. We expect the community engagement process will be robust, and that moving with haste will not mean sacrificing a quality process. And, as we told the Times, the end result cannot be a rebuild of the Moses-era, pollution spewing mess that we have now, “We’ve moved beyond that. People would be upset not to see something more transformative, more green and more 21st century.” As always, we will keep the community informed as things develop, and we look forward to your ideas and thoughts about how to transform the triple cantilever! |