Coronavirus Streets Plan Needs Brooklyn CB6 Voice: Officials

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Brooklyn's Community Board 6 officials want to give their two cents on upcoming plans to open streets for coronavirus-safe walking and biking.

Within one day of Mayor Bill de Blasio committing to open 40 miles of New York City streets, Community Board 6 officials penned a letter asking for a voice on the open streets plan.

Transportation issues loom large in their district, which includes Park Slope, Gowanus and Red Hook. It's a district with plenty of open space between Prospect Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park, but also some potential social distancing problems during the coronavirus outbreak, they wrote.

"It's also a district with a population density above 33,000 residents per square mile, and with very few blocks with sidewalks wide enough for maintaining a minimum of six feet of physical separation, making the need for this additional space acute," they wrote.

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The officials addressed the letter to the city's Department of Transportation, which is developing the open streets plan.

They're not the only Park Slope-area officials with ideas about how to make open streets work.

City Councilman Brad Lander, who represents Park Slope, proposed using school crossing guards on street closures.

In a Twitter thread, he noted they have the expertise and many are out of work with schools closed.

"Rather than police officers & more realistically than volunteers, school x-ing guards are perfect for the job," he wrote.