City Council Members Brad Lander Lander, Carlos Menchaca, and Stephen Levin, along with Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon yesterday led a community-driven call for restored and expanded east-west bus service to connect communities along the waterfront with central Brooklyn.
The lawmakers are looking to restore the B71 bus route, which connected the neighborhoods of Columbia Heights, Carroll Gardens, Gowanus, Prospect Heights, and Crown Heights. The bus route, along with several others that ran cross-borough – the B26 was another that connected East New York to Borough Park – was cut along with other Brooklyn routes in 2010.
Since then, community members have repeatedly called for restored and expanded service that would include a connection to transit-starved Red Hook. Following yesterday’s rally, community members delivered over 1,300 petition signatures to the MTA calling for a revived and expanded cross-Gowanus bus route.
“The B71 bus was a vital link for our neighborhoods,” said Lander (D-Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Columbia Waterfront, Gowanus, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Borough Park, Kensington). “When it was cut, students lost a route to school, seniors lost the bus that took them to the grocery store and the library, and families lost a ride to the Brooklyn Children’s Museum and Prospect Park. The MTA has an opportunity now, as they consider improvements to the entire Brooklyn bus network, to invest in a much-needed connection for our growing neighborhoods.”
Before it was cut in 2010, the B71 bus served nine schools, three senior centers and multiple public housing complexes. The neighborhoods surrounding the old route have grown rapidly in recent years and are projected to grow significantly more with the proposed rezoning in Gowanus.
The rally took place ahead of an open house hosted by the MTA. The agency is considering holistic changes to the entire Brooklyn bus network, and conducting open houses across the borough to hear from residents about unmet needs and gaps in service.
“Our Brooklyn neighborhoods lost a vital connector when the MTA eliminated the B71 bus line several years ago. It’s time to restore this bus service with a revised route that would serve the increased transit needs of the area’s growing population. Linking the transit-starved neighborhood of Red Hook to Crown Heights and even possibly lower Manhattan through a new East-West bus route would provide a solid option for riders to go to work, school, medical visits, local businesses, or cultural institutions. A new bus route would also have the advantage of being accessible to people with disabilities and the increasing population of older adults. The community has long called to restore this sorely missed bus line, and now it’s time to make it happen,” said Simon (D-Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Gowanus, Park Slope, Boerum Hill, DUMBO).
Menchaca (D-Red Hook, Sunset Park), said while he joins the call to restore the B71 bus route, there is an opportunity to bring it back better than before.
“The Red Hook Houses sit just a few blocks south of the original west end of the route. Let’s aim for more than restoration. Let’s aim for revitalization by incorporating public housing in a new route. It makes no sense to leave out seniors, families, and students who live just a few blocks away. At tonight’s Bus Network Redesign meeting, let’s make sure we are fighting for our most vulnerable neighbors too,” said Menchaca.
Levin (D-Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Downtown Brooklyn, Dumbo, Fulton Ferry, Greenpoint, Vinegar Hill, Williamsburg) said restoring service from Central Brooklyn through neighborhoods with easy connections to Manhattan is vital to everyone that would be served by that route. “Seniors and students, families and workers all need this once vital connection to become a reality again. We call on the MTA to restore it immediately,” he said.
The call comes as while north-south bus routes running to and from the edge of Brooklyn to Manhattan are many, there is a shortage of cross-borough bus and transit routes that run across the borough. The G train, for example, is the only subway line in the city that runs across the borough without touching Manhattan – running from Church Avenue to Long Island City in Queens.
