BY DENNIS LYNCH | Community leaders in Chelsea have banded together with members of block associations and community groups in and outside the neighborhood to push their concerns over the fate of 14th St. come the L train shutdown in 2019.
The Council of Chelsea Block Associations, which is made up of 15 block associations covering 25 blocks, is spearheading the effort with a task force of members and members of other neighborhood groups with a stake in the future of 14th St.
The group’s main concern is with proposals to ban all but buses, bikes, and pedestrians from 14th St. to transform it into a more pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare. The transit advocacy group Transportation Alternatives (aka TransAlt; transalt.org) came up with the most prominent of such proposals, the PeopleWay, as a way to maintain efficient public transit along 14th St. while the vital L train is out of commission to repair the Canarsie Tunnel to and from Brooklyn, which was heavily damaged during Hurricane Sandy.
The plan is likely the most efficient way to move people across town without the L train, which moves roughly 225,000 people from Brooklyn and 50,000 people in Manhattan alone everyday, but it would also displace the 16,000 cars that use 14th St.
Those vehicles would spill over onto adjacent east/west streets to get across town without major mitigation measures — and that would be a nightmare for people living there, according to opponents of the proposal.
“The side streets have been inundated with traffic for years; even our sidewalks are crowded now,” said Michele Golden of the Flatiron Alliance, who is part of the task force and lives on W. 18th St. “There’s this misconception that the side streets are empty. I love living on West 18th Street, but they’re honking day and night. It’s beyond a quality of life issue at this point.”
Golden also pointed out that many elderly and disabled people who live along 14th St. need to be able to walk out their door and access curbside car services.
Last week the task force spoke with state Senator Brad Hoylman, who represents the entirety of 14th St., who supported their calls for involvement.
“I think what the neighborhood is seeking is entirely reasonable and necessary, which is a seat at the table for these discussions for mitigation of the effects of the L train shutdown,” Hoylman said. “The streets around 14th Street are going to bear the most impact from any potential closure, and we want to make sure that residents’ voices are heard.”
There are some people who do want to see cars and trucks banished from 14th. St. though. Gary Roth, a W. 24th St. resident and Columbia University urban planning professor told our sister publication, The Villager, in October that it was the only way to move the huge volume of riders who take the L train each day.
“When you take down roadways, people don’t drive in, so there won’t be this flood of traffic,” Roth said. “I think this is the best way to do it. As the High Line helped change how an urban park is conceived, I think a redesigned 14th St. could be a new way to look at a crosstown route in Manhattan, and this could be the template of a crosstown street.”
The Department of Transportation and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) are studying solutions to the looming “L-pocalypse,” as some have called it, after local elected officials, including Borough President Gale Brewer, urged them to do so.
The agencies have largely kept quiet about all of the proposals, but the community will have a chance to weigh in with ideas at joint workshops this month to “develop service alternatives and mitigation proposals tailored to the affected neighborhoods,” according to the MTA.
The agencies said they will use the community input to inform “traffic modeling and analysis currently being conducted as service plans to minimize impacts are developed,” and they will run down what the repairs will entail for the public. They’ll have representatives “available to discuss construction impacts, ADA issues, and bus and subway service as it relates to the closure,” at the workshops as well.
Community Workshops will take place at the Town and Village Synagogue (334 E. 14th St. btw. First & Second Aves.) on Thurs., Feb. 9, and on Thurs., Feb. 23 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church (328 W. 14th St., btw. Hudson St. & Eighth Ave.). Both meetings are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. and last for two hours.
