Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Joke or No Joke? Deck Over BQE to Connect Cobble Hill, Columbia Street District

The Post broke this rather unbelievable story: As part of his plan to create space for housing, Mayor Bloomberg is proposing "the biggest coverup in city history."

The mayor said his administration would consider constructing decks over rail yards, rail lines and congested highways -- including the sunken stretch of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway bordering Hicks Street, dividing "Carroll Gardens West" (the Columbia Street District, mistakenly called Carroll Gardens in the illustration above) from Cobble Hill in Brooklyn.

"A platform could be constructed over the below-grade section of the BQE to create nine new blocks of housing reconnecting two neighborhoods," said a mayoral panel, according to the Post.

This would reconnect the Columbia Street District once again to Mother Brooklyn, leading, we suspect, to skyrocketing property values. But rather than nine new blocks of housing, we would like to suggest a nine-block swath of greenery: a new public park with all the amenities.

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