BK Heights Votes For 2-Year Construction Over Clark St. Shutdown

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Most straphangers who use the Clark Street station would rather it be under construction for two years than not be able to use it for eight months straight, a new survey found.

A group of lawmakers who held a forum last month about the long-rumored construction project, which will replace the station's three dilapidated elevators, said most of the nearly 700 residents they've surveyed since then preferred the longer of two renovations options presented by MTA President Andy Byford.

Byford told residents that the Clark Street station could either be shut down for eight months while the MTA fixes all three elevators — which are the only way to access the 10-story deep station — or could stay open as they work on one elevator at a time. The one-at-a-time option would mean the construction would take 22 or 24 months instead of eight, Byford said.

But only 38 percent of the 687 residents who answered the survey preferred the eight-month closure.

"The best solution here is to provide as little disruption as possible," one resident said. "This station is widely used and pulling it out of commission will have an outsized negative effect on neighborhood residents' everyday routines. Additionally, I have concerns about the businesses in the Clark St Station, who rely on subway traffic for their livelihoods."

Many of the 62 percent of respondents who said keeping the station open would be better had similar concerns about added commute times or hurting nearby businesses.

Some elderly residents or those with limited mobility said walking to Borough Hall or High Street station would be difficult, while others said it could double their commute time.

The concerns about nearby businesses echoed what business owners and local advocacy groups said they were most worried before Byford announced the options. Business owners told The Brooklyn Daily Eagle back in April, when there were rumors the station would shut down for a year, that the closure would be detrimental to the foot traffic they rely on.

Residents are even worried about having the station close down during the slower hours of the week, the survey shows.

Of those that said they prefer keeping Clark Street station open, about 50 percent preferred the two-year construction that would keep the station open 24 hours a day. Only 12 percent said they preferred the 22-month option, which would mean closing the station during off-peak hours.

Many of those that were open to the station closing down to speed up construction said it would be with the condition that the MTA provide shuttle buses to get from Clark Street to another station, survey comments show.

"[The eight-month closure] is only viable with a shuttle service to Borough Hall Station," one rider wrote. "Many members of the Brooklyn Height neighborhood are elderly or have problems walking, especially in inclement weather."

The lawmakers — including Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams ,Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez, State Sen. Brian Kavanagh and City Councilmember Stephen Levin. — distributed the survey at Clark Street station, at the September forum and online.

They worked with the MTA to develop accurate questions and have shared the results with the transit agency, Kavanagh told Patch.

For him, the results show that the option of keeping the subway station open should be strongly considered.

"If you ask 700 people what they want to do…and they feel that we would be better off with a longer-term project and keeping it in service, we should take that very seriously," he said. "The survey is not perfect, but you're getting people who are coming and going [from the station] so we think it's pretty representative of how the community feels about this."

The lawmakers noted that those who filled it out at the forum, where Byford made a presentation about the project, were much more likely to support fully closing the station. About 86 percent of the survey respondents didn't go to the forum, they said.

The survey also was limited in that it didn't collect answers at Clark Street on the weekends and because there wasn't a way to make sure riders only took it one time.

Kavanagh said he has no complaints about how the MTA has handled the project so far, and believes they will be receptive to what residents have said.

"They’ve ben very cooperative with us and we expect to hear back from them," he said.