Brooklyn merchants are suing over Court Street's bike lane redesign

“I don’t know how people are going to make deliveries,” said Mario Belluomo. Photo courtesy of Mario Belluomo

COBBLE HILL — Businesses along Court Street in Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens filed a lawsuit on Friday seeking to stop the implementation of the redesign of Court Street from Schermerhorn Street to Hamilton Avenue, which they say has been causing traffic jams and unsafe conditions since it rolled out over the last several weeks.

“We filed an order to show cause to get [the Department of Transportation] to stop implementing the redesign and remove what they have done so far,” an attorney hired by the Court Street Merchants Association, who did not wish to be named at this time, told the Brooklyn Eagle on Friday.

The new design puts a “buffered-by-parking” bike lane against the curb along the east side of Court Street, and reduces the road from two lanes to one lane, southbound. It includes new loading zones, pedestrian islands, curb extensions and daylighting features.

The purpose of the redesign is to make the corridor safer for drivers, pedestrians and bikers, the city’s Department of Transportation says. But local residents and merchants — including some bike aficionados — are saying the redesign does just the opposite.

Fourth-generation Carroll Gardens resident Mark Scotto said the backlash over the redesign has revived the Court Street Merchants Association.

“When this happened, there was an uproar,” Scotto told the Eagle. “We feel completely slighted and ignored. The city DOT is saying that they came to the community, and basically they’ve lied to us on multiple occasions. With the Court Street Merchants Association’s lawsuit, we’re asking for discovery. We’re asking DOT, ‘You reached out to all these businesses and you say 200 businesses have supported this plan? So who are they? And where’s the documentation? You’re telling us that you’ve done all these studies that show Court Street is so dangerous? Then show them to us.’”

Gridlock at the southern end of Court Street can be particularly bad. Photo courtesy of Mario Belluomo

The merchants don’t have a problem with bike lanes, Scotto emphasized. He personally rides a high-end Trek carbon fiber bicycle. “I bike from my residence in Downtown Brooklyn to New Jersey, I bike to Long Beach in Long Island, I bike all over the place. But this bike lane doesn’t work for a host of reasons.”

Scotto says businesses have multiple concerns. “Safety is the first and foremost thing on everybody’s mind, followed by accessibility, not only for first responders and deliveries but for customers,” he said. “These electric bikes do not make a sound, they go upwards of 30 miles an hour in both directions, and there’s no buffer off the sidewalk. It’s just a matter of time before somebody gets critically hurt.”

Emergency vehicles have to drive in the bike lane now, and, “Obviously, fire trucks cannot make it down the bike lane. I’m not sure if an ambulance can,” Scotto said. “I personally witnessed police cars doing 40 miles an hour in this protected bike lane, right on the curb. And that is a huge, huge concern.”

The lease for the CVS on Court Street between First and Second Place is coming due in six months, “and the regional management says if this bike lane stays like it is, and they have that much trouble getting their tractor trailer in for deliveries, they’ll just go out of here,” Scotto said.

He also cited the traffic jams. “I was on Court Street last night, and a UPS truck — one of those big brown trucks — stopped in the middle of the street and the driver went down the block to deliver. The traffic was backed up all the way past Atlantic Avenue. After he cleared the spot and left, a police car came down the emergency lane, and at First Place he couldn’t continue because the CVS tractor trailer was half in the bike lane, so he had to get out onto First Place and go in the regular traffic lane, which was completely jammed up, and he just couldn’t get there.

“There are so many problems that we’re seeing with it, and all we get from DOT when we bring up these issues — and many of them are safety issues — is, ‘Well, the plan is still being implemented, and we’re not at full implementation yet, so it’s going to get better,” Scotto said.

Cars stacked up on Court Street behind a fire truck responding to an emergency. Photo courtesy of Mark Ledzian
Business down 10-15% at D’Amico’s

D’Amico Coffee Roasters, at 309 Court St. (between Sackett and DeGraw streets) since 1948, is one of the oldest businesses on the street.

The lane redesign “is hurting business tremulously,” said owner Joan D’Amico. She is still in the middle of computing the numbers, but says business “is definitely down. I would say maybe 10 to 15% already.

“They’ve moved the bus stop to the middle of the block, and where the bus stop used to be there’s now a turning lane,” D’Amico said. “Then they took away all the parking on this block. The only parking there now is commercial parking from 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.”

People used to run in and grab a cup of coffee or breakfast in the morning, or a pound of coffee to take home, and that’s impossible now, she said. “We open at 7 a.m. That means when my customers come by in the morning, there’s nowhere to pull up.”

The two restaurants across the street from D’Amico have the same problem, she added. Diners will have to feed the meters every hour until 10 p.m. — if they are even allowed to park in the zone for more than an hour.

“Nobody’s against the bike lane; it’s the way they did it,” she said. “No one knew the extent of this at all, and they didn’t ask for our input on anything. They ended up hurting us tremendously with such a severe change.”

Churches also say the design is dysfunctional. Monsignor Guy Massie, Administrator of St. Mary Star of the Sea Church at 467 Court St., told Catholic publication “The Tablet” that the bike lane would block access to the church.

“How do I get a funeral in here or a wedding in here?” he asked. “How do you do this without causing more chaos on Court Street?”

This fire truck is parked in the traffic lane at Court and Baltic streets, with traffic jammed up into the distance. Photo courtesy of Mark Ledzian
One FDNY ladder truck can jam traffic to Atlantic

“I’m a bike rider. I appreciate the concept of more bike lanes — but the new lane on Court Street doesn’t make sense,” Brooklyn Heights resident and cyclist Mark Ledzian told the Eagle. “It was immediately apparent to me that what’s great for the bikes would be a disaster for Court Street, the traffic and anyone in need of emergency assistance.”

Ledzian sent in photos of a Fire Department ladder truck parked in the traffic lane at Court and Baltic streets, with cars jammed up into the distance. “This is the scene on Court Street Sunday afternoon,” around 4:30 p.m. on October 19, he said. “We could smell smoke. The traffic jammed up immediately. Some cars attempted to back out but there was nowhere to go.”

Mario Belluomo, a former Kings County Supreme Court officer and photographer, also sent in photos. “We were driving on Court maybe two weeks ago,” “My wife and I noticed that something was weird, and I said, ‘Something’s not right here.’ It took us literally a half hour, to 35 minutes, this was around school time, to get to Ninth Street. It was backed up, between the bus and the lights not being synchronized. I said, ‘I’ve never seen anything like this.’“

He added, “I don’t know how people are going to make deliveries. It’s crazy. It’s just a crazy idea.”

Overview of some of the design elements in the Court Street redesign plan. Graphic: NYCDOT
Ninth Street especially bad

Industrialist John Quadrozzi Jr., who owns the Gowanus Bay Terminal, said that the Ninth Street truck route “can get pretty bad, as gridlock frequently occurs, coupled with turning buses and trucks that cannot swing the turn onto Court due the car parking in the middle of the street. This is the issue on many of the busier cross streets, but not as frequently as Ninth Street, being it’s the lower end and backed up from Hamilton Avenue.

“Sadly, Court Street was the last semi-functional street in the area,” Quadrozzi said. “To me, it seems that the anti-car climate of city government is at play, and it’s narrow minded, impractical and a disservice to public interest and needs.”

Overview of some of the design elements in the Court Street redesign plan. Graphic: NYCDOT
DOT says be patient

The New York City Department of Transportation told the Eagle on Friday that the redesign is ongoing, and they will monitor and make adjustments as needed. They expect to wrap up the project in the coming weeks.

“Court Street is actively being redesigned, with much more work to come to repaint the road, retime signals, and add loading zones for businesses,” DOT spokesperson Vincent Barone said. “It’s far too soon to judge a half-finished design, and we expect traffic to flow smoothly on Court—protecting New Yorkers from dangerous crashes and supporting local businesses—when it’s completed, as we’ve seen with countless projects across the city.”

The agency cites studies showing that adding bike infrastructure like this is good for businesses, with sales revenue increasing after such lanes are installed. One is DOT’s “The Economic Benefit of Sustainable Streets,” and another is Streetsblog’s study showing business improvement after a protected bike lane was installed on Skillman Avenue in Queens in 2017.

In her recent newsletter, Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon said she shared her concerns with DOT about the need for increased communication and engagement, and to address safety issues during the rollout. Several changes have already been made to the original design, she said.

“Local merchants expressed to me that they feel they weren’t consulted and have ideas for how to resolve what they believe is a problematic approach that will interfere with regular deliveries,” Simon said. “I encouraged DOT and the Court Street merchants to discuss their concerns.”

You can learn more by viewing the DOT’s June presentation.