Bring The B71 Bus Back, Brooklynites Will Tell The MTA

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — A group of elected officials and advocates will use an open house on Brooklyn bus redesigns to call again for a bus route cut in 2010 to be restored.

Council Member Brad Lander and other elected officials have scheduled a rally for Tuesday to demand the MTA bring back the B71 bus, which once ran from Red Hook to Crown Heights.

The rally will come before an open forum with the transit authority at the Park Slope library, one of 10 "open houses" the MTA has planned across the borough as it considers how to redesign Brooklyn's bus networks. Advocates hope to make restoring the B71 part of that plan.

"The B71 was a vital cross-town connection for our communities — until it was cut in 2010," Lander's office wrote in a flyer for the rally.

This is far from the first time advocates and elected officials have called for the bus to be restored.

Rallies were also held back in 2017 and 2015 to demand the B71 be brought back. In 2017, a coalition of over two dozen neighborhood groups circulated a petition and asked that the B71 be revived along with a Manhattan-Brooklyn connecter.

The bus route was first axed in 2010 amid a wave of MTA budget cuts. At the time, the MTA noted that the bus route had one of the lowest riderships in the city.

Tuesday's rally will include Lander, Council Member Stephen Levin, Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon and neighborhood groups like Citizen Squirrel, a Park Slope organization that promotes civic action among children.

Citizen Squirrel noted that the B71 bus once served nine schools, three senior centers, public housing complexes and popular destinations like Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Museum.

"Now, as we plan for the future of Gowanus, investing in public transit for our neighborhood is more important than ever," the organization wrote in an email to members. "This is a great way to engage the kids in something they understand and see daily as New Yorkers: public transportation!"

The rally will be held at 5 p.m. in front of the library, where the forum will start at 6 p.m.