Car-Free Bedford Here at Last: At Least for Next Few Saturdays
Dont hate on Jason Jeffries. He wants to close down Bedford Avenuebut its only for your own good. Jeffries is the architect behind [Williamsburg Walks], an event that will close a stretch of Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn for four Saturdays this summer, beginning this weekend. And, according to Jeffries, this is the best way to build community in the nabe.
Yes, you read that right, no taxis, no cars aiming for folks on crosswalks: Starting July 19 and continuing for four consecutive Saturdays, Bedford Avenue from Metropolitan to North 9th Street will be closed to cars and buses will be re-routed. Other businesses in the same area, from Roebling Street to the waterfront, will be allowed to set up tables outside their shops.
Jeffries has lived in Williamsburg since the mid 1990s and is now a successful businessman and entrepreneur. He launched billburg.com, opened the Verb Café and the Bedford Cheese Shop and started his own design company, blenderbox. He is the Williamsburg-ite that arrived in his twenties and is now in his thirties pushing strollers down Bedford Avenue.
Regardless of who he has become or who he was, Jeffries says there is something about the community in Northside Williamsburg and the social fabric that holds it together that must be preserved.
Whether youve always been here, youre an early artist from the 80s, a new artist, a hipster or a yuppie what makes this neighborhood unique is its color, he says when I speak to him at his office, located in a converted loft building on North 10th Street.
I thought to myself, Wow, Bedford would be perfect for a pedestrian street, says Jeffries. People are already spilling off the sidewalks.
Jeffries, along with various community groups are working toward similar goals with Williamsburg Walks. They aim to maintain the neighborhoods individuality and sense of community while also bringing business to the local merchants. And in planning Williamsburg Walks, various neighborhood groups have been united and the Northside Merchants Association revitalized.
The Merchants Association was founded in the 1980s, at a time when the northside of Williamsburg was recovering from the economic distress of the late 70s and early 80s and long before the shiny waterfront condominiums rising all over the neighborhood and waterfront. While the goal then was to bring people to the businesses along Bedford, the goal now is to preserve the individuality and unique character of the current businesses.
The event is all about the current community, says Jeffries. No outside vendors will be brought in, as is the case with street fairs. This is for the greater good of the community.
The idea to close Bedford to cars was first dreamed up, proposed and shopped around to civic leaders, businesses and residents by [Emil Choski, a long-time Williamsburg resident] and graphic artist. His plan, Car-Free Bedford, advocated closing Bedford Avenue between Metropolitan Avenue and McCarren Park to cars permanently. But in some peoples minds, that was too idealistic.
You cant go from zero to 100 overnight, says Jeffries. Thats more change than most can handle.
Teresa Toro is the Transportation Chair for Community Board 1, which serves Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Toro believes Choskis plan is a good one, but hard to implement. She said a study would have to be done as well as long and bureaucratic discussions with politicians and community members.
Were doing it at a scale people understand, she says.
The shift to car-free streets has been successful in many places around the world, from Bogota, Colombia to Tokyo to London. And across New York City this summer various streets will be closed to cars on selected weekend days. Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights will be closed on Sundays in July. In Manhattan, from 72nd Street to the Brooklyn Bridge, the streets will be closed on three consecutive Saturdays starting August 9. This closure has the full support of Mayor Bloomberg and Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Kahn.
While the Manhattan street closure was proposed by the Mayors Office, the closing of Bedford Avenue and Montague Street were ideas born from within the community. The Montague Street Business Improvement District (BID) proposed the Brooklyn Heights closure but there is no BID on Bedford Avenue, which is why Jeffries brought back together the Northside Merchants Association, started by Keith Senko of Senko Funeral Home. A community group must sponsor a plan like this one.
They came to us, says Ted Timbers, a spokesman for The Department of Transportation. It was already supported by the community we welcomed it.
The Department of Transportation has been extremely helpful, according to both Toro and Jeffries. They met with business owners to discuss the plan and are assisting with permits and added sanitation and police services.
Jeffries says he would love it if the stretch of Bedford Avenue could be closed to car traffic permanently. Transportation Alternatives will be sending out volunteers with surveys to see what works and doesnt work, allowing them to better plan for future closures.
Choski agrees and says he will continue doing what hes been doing.
Im an ideas person Ill keep collecting petition signatures, Choski says. Its important to have open spaces and thats something the U.S. as a whole lacks, public space.
[Image courtesy of Lostateminor.com]