✉️ The MTA Letter is Sent & What We Heard from the DOT

🌟 Author’s Note

Happy Sunday and 👋 to the 3 new subscribers of the Better Block Project, bringing our group to 119 members strong 🙌 

✉️ The MTA Letter is Sent

This week, our letter to the MTA was officially submitted with over 100+ signatures to improve the bus stop on Franklin & Fulton. Thank you to everyone who participated in this effort! We sent the letter to Chi Osse and Phara Souffrant Forrest’s offices for approval and they both also signed on and sent it to the MTA. I want to thank both of their offices, especially Tasheika Gordon in Chi Osse’s office, for moving so quickly on addressing our concerns with the MTA. Now, we wait ⌛. Our hope is the MTA will get back to us quickly and take action to (1) remove the construction in front of the bus stop, (2) add permanent lighting, (3) remove the seating close to Fulton that is only used for illicit activity and (4) add security to the bus stop area until it is consistently safe.

🚌 Our Conversation with DOT

On Tuesday, I had the chance to meet with Leroy Branch, Deputy Borough Commissioner in Brooklyn of DOT, to discuss our concerns about the Franklin and Fulton bus stop and see what actions they could take (thanks again, Jason, for the re-intro!). We talked about the opportunity to replace the bus shelter on Franklin with a new shelter and add lighting. According to DOT, permanent lighting would most likely have to come from the MTA, so our letter to them was the best route to get that done. Separately, they are actively exploring getting a new JCDecaux bus shelter for the space. You probably recognize these shelters from walking around Brooklyn. They are glass and have advertising on the side and are in much better condition than the MTA shelters. You can learn more about them here.

The next step to making this happen is to get the funding for the shelter, which they are exploring with the new 1057 Atlantic Avenue development. Given many of their future residents will walk by the shelter, they are also interested in improving the bus stop. We’re going to follow up with the team directly at 1057 Atlantic to advocate for this as well, as we believe a nicer shelter will promote better behavior at the bus stop.

I plan to give the MTA two weeks to respond to our letter, and then we’ll follow up with next steps. I expect it will take continued advocacy to get them to make the improvements we are looking for.

💡 What This Means for How to Make Change in our Neighborhoods

Through this journey improving the bus stop, I’ve internalized two things about how to actually make change in our neighborhoods:

1. We have to take ownership

2. Change happens incrementally

The bus stop is the way it is because of a lack of sense of ownership from city agencies. As we shared in our first update on the bus stop back on July 20th, the maintenance of the bus stop crosses 5 city agencies. MTA technically runs the bus stop, DOT manages the street, DSNY cleans up the bus stop, DSS assists with homeless services, and NYPD manages public safety. Not to mention, elected officials are responsible for writing the laws that govern what can and can’t be done at the bus stop. The result of this is as problems occur, everyone is looking at each other for what the solution should be.

DOT says MTA is supposed to put up the lighting. NYPD says politicians need to change laws that allow the behavior. And it goes on and on. I heard a similar story from another member of Better Block this week about removing scooters on Fulton, “DOT tells me to call NYPD who tells me to call DSNY”, was the direct quote. In our bus stop situation, no one is truly accountable for ensuring it is safe and useable, and as a result, the illicit activity festers.

As neighbors walking by this bus stop daily, it means we have to take ownership over the outcome. I deeply want the city to solve this problem quickly, but I’ve learned that just isn’t going to happen in the timeframe I want it to. While the city certainly plays a role, I do believe we have to shift our thinking on how to drive change from asking the city to do it for us to working with the city to get it solved. There’s a famous JFK quote from his inaugural address that has been ringing in my mind the past week, “…ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.” We’ve advocated with the city to improve the bus stop, but it still hasn’t worked. So, what else can we do ourselves?

Change happens incrementally. I would much prefer that the bus stop was improved overnight, but it’s unfortunately not the way that progress happens, which presents both good and bad news. For good news, it’s important to acknowledge that the corner of Franklin and Fulton is actually significantly better than it was 20-30 years ago. As I have spoken with more long term residents of Bed Stuy, I’ve learned how that corner has always been this way, and used to be a much larger magnet for illicit activity in the 90s. However, over the years, it has improved.

As we think about where the bus stop is today, any change we will be able to make will happen in small steps. MTA has to remove the construction and add lighting. DOT has to replace the bus stop with a new bus shelter. NYPD has to increase their presence to deter illicit activity from happening. And, as a part of the Atlantic Avenue Mixed Use Plan, a new mural is set to go up on the wall which will beautify the space. It’s all of these things combined that help drive the outcome we’re looking for: a safe, clean bus stop we are proud to have on our blocks. Given that, it takes both persistence, patience, and a deep sense of ownership to ensure all of these things happen.

That’s all for this week’s update. As a reminder, on Saturday, November 13th we are going to have our 🗑️ Trash Clean Up on Fulton Street to do our part to improve the street, at least for 1 day. It will be 10am-12pm, I hope you can make it. Look out for more details in next week’s update. As always, if you like what we’re doing here at the Better Block Project, forward this to someone else you know who wants to do more work in the community!

See you next week,

David