Adding Insult to Injury

In addition to the predicted traffic backups, with concomitant driver frustration and consequent honking horns, resulting from the narrowing of the Eastern Parkway service lane from Washington Avenue to Plaza Street, the newly installed street lamps on the refurbished median are overly bright, cold, garish bluish-white.

 The other street lamps on the same stretch of Eastern Parkway are the softer, amber-colored lights, which provide the same amount of illumination, but are warmer, friendlier, more aesthetically pleasing.

 This is another instance of total disregard for community input into the Eastern Parkway Project redesign. We haven’t yet seen the unhappy pedestrian/bicycle clashes, since it is winter, with few pedestrians, few bicyclists, but the traffic jams, increased noise pollution, and now, the visually jarring installation of the garish lighting are enough of a reminder of the blatant disregard for community concerns, and community input occasioned by the unhappy collaboration of the Prospect Park Alliance and the DOT.