Crown Heights Talk On Brooklyn Queens Connector Set For Jan. 24

PROSPECT HEIGHTS and CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Adam Giambrone, the city's top expert on the proposed Brooklyn Queens Connector (BQX), will discuss the project with Community Board 8's transportation committee on Jan. 24.

The meeting will start at 7 p.m. at 727 Classon St. CB 8 represents Prospect Heights, Crown Heights and Weeksville.

Giambrone is currently leading a series of community meetings on the transit project, which if constructed as proposed would run a light rail train along the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront from Astoria to Sunset Park.

In November, he presented in Red Hook, while in December he offered a presentation in Sunset Park. While the Red Hook gathering featured a mixture of local assessments of the BQX, the Sunset Park meeting was effectively controlled by local activist group UPROSE!, which brought out dozens of members to officially oppose the project, on the grounds that it will speed displacement without significantly improving transit or job access for area residents.

However, at the meeting, Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector, a group advocating for the project that features both community groups and major developers on its board of directors, shared a petition in support of the BQX it said was signed by 200 residents of Sunset Park and Windsor Terrace.

The city's Department of Transportation and Economic Development Corporation are currently conducting a feasibility study of the BQX proposal expected to be released this spring.

Pictured at top: Adam Giambrone. Photo by John V. Santore.