🚌 Bus Stop Meeting with the MTA Upcoming on January 29th

🌟 Author’s Note

Happy Sunday to the 125 members of the Better Block Project 👋. I hope you all are staying warm as the winter storm hits tonight. If you are a senior, you can email Councilmember Chi Osse’s office for free snow removal tomorrow. Just send the message to [email protected]. With that, here is the TLDR for this week’s update:

• City Council and the MTA is meeting this coming Thursday, January 29th, to discuss our asks to improve the bus stop

• In addition to this meeting, City Council has also submitted a lighting study of the block with DOT to determine if a new streetlight is needed

• The Atlantic Avenue Mixed Use Plan, passed in May 2025, is set to bring a number of investments to the Franklin and Fulton intersection

• The major investments include new public art on the Franklin Avenue wall, repainting the Shuttle pedestrian overpass, and creating a central repository for all quality of the life issues occurring in the area

🚌 Bus Stop Meeting with the MTA Upcoming on January 29th

After a few follow ups, we learned from Chi Osse’s office that they are tentatively meeting with the MTA this coming week, Thursday, January 29th, to discuss the asks we have to improve the bus stop. We asked for community members to attend this meeting, but were unfortunately told no as they expect to discuss other issues as well outside of the bus stop. In order to ensure the lighting actually goes up at Franklin and Fulton, we’re targeting a few milestones over the next couple months to push this forward:

1. 🧑‍💼 Identify the decision maker at MTA or DOT to install lighting on the block

2. 📝 Understand the full proposal for where lighting would be added (we’ve made some progress here)

3. 🤝 Secure commitment from the MTA or DOT to install the lighting

For this week’s meeting, my hope is we’ll make progress on #3 above and get MTA’s commitment to add lighting to the area. I visited the bus stop with a couple of residents a couple of weeks ago (s/o to Chris and Flo for attending in the freezing cold…at night 🥶 ), and it’s clear the bus stop area is quite dark today, and lighting would make a huge difference with overall safety.

Separately, we’re also still planning to pursue the budget request angle and work with DOT to see if it’s possible to add lighting that way. Chi Osse’s office put in a request with DOT to do a lighting study of the area, which is the first step towards adding more streetlights. I will share an update following the MTA meeting this week once we hear back from Chi Osse’s office. 🤞 Hopefully, we get the commitment we are looking for!

🌆 How the Atlantic Avenue Mixed Use Plan will Impact Franklin and Fulton

In addition to our work to improve the bus stop on Franklin and Fulton, the recently passed Atlantic Avenue Mixed Use Plan (AAMUP) will have a large impact on the subway station and cross streets. AAMUP was passed in May 2025, led by Crystal Hudson and Chi Osse, and rezoned areas primarily on Atlantic Avenue from Washington Avenue to Nostrand Avenue for higher density housing. In addition to this rezoning, it also came with $235M in community investments and infrastructure. You can find all of these in the NYC Rezoning Commitments website, where you can see commitments the city makes for all rezonings (thank you, Jason, for sharing this!). The specific investments worth calling out for Franklin and Fulton are outlined below.

🖼️ Install Public Art on the West Franklin Avenue Wall

Behind the bus stop today there is a large wall that is going to be resurfaced as a part of this effort. Within 6 months of that resurfacing, the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) will install the art in collaboration with the City Council’s office.

🚇️ Address Quality of Life Surrounding the C Station and Repaint the Pedestrian S Overpass

As a part of the plan, the city calls out streamlining interagency communication issues around quality of life and creating a central repository to monitor quality of life issues. In addition to this, MTA is planning on deep cleaning the station and repainting the overpass of the S shuttle (above Fulton Street) to beautify the area. Note, this is planned to start in 2025 but the status of this work is listed as “N/A”.

🚶‍♂️ Invest in Streetscape and Benches on Lefferts Place

DOT is also evaluating installing leaning bars and benches near the C station, although it is unclear where they plan to do that. In our letter, we actually requested the MTA remove the seating closest to Fulton given it has become a destination for illicit activity. However, many in the neighborhood have suggested replacing the benches with leaning bars, so this could be what they are referring to. Outside of that, they do plan to remove a fence underneath the shuttle overpass on Lefferts and Franklin, and provide benches and movable planters.

In addition to the specific investments on Franklin and Fulton, other investments in the area that are worth calling out are:

• NYC Parks plans to work with the Lefferts Place Community garden to identify improvements including potentially providing water supply service, replacing the fence, sidewalk improvements, and/or sidewalk reconstruction

• EDC plans to study additional uses of the Bedford Avenue Armory which currently serves as a men’s shelter. They are going to evaluate building system repairs, consolidating / relocating laundry services, and options to expand the buildings interior

With our asks of the MTA to improve the bus stop, and the investments as a part of the plan, the future of the bus stop and the corner of Franklin and Fulton certainly looks bright. However, it’s unclear when all of these investments will happen. It’s worth noting this plan was passed under the Adams administration, so it’s possible some of these commitments could be re-evaluated with the new Mamdani administration.

That’s all for this week’s update!. As usual, if you like what we’re doing at the Better Block Project, forward this to someone you know that is looking to get more engaged in the neighborhood.

See you next week,

David