Northern Crown Heights Has Great Street Quality, City Says

PROSPECT HEIGHTS, CROWN HEIGHTS, and PROSPECT-LEFFERTS GARDENS, BROOKLYN — Nearly 73 percent of the streets in northern Crown Heights are in good condition, according to Department of Transportation (DOT) data analyzed by the city's Independent Budget Office (IBO). By contrast, about 64 percent of the streets in southern Crown Heights are officially ranked as being good.

Each year, the DOT assesses the quality of at least 50 percent of the city's streets, though it often covers about 90 percent of roadways, according to a DOT spokeswoman.

DOT staffers take a look at a variety of street qualities, such as their level of "cracking, patching, surface peeling, raveling (wearing away) or rutting," the spokeswoman explained.

At that point, a ranking is provided. Streets deemed to be in "good" condition have less than 5 percent of their surface area classified as being "distressed," the spokeswoman explained. "Fair" streets are between 5 and 50 percent distressed, while "poor" streets are more than 50 percent distressed.

The DOT uses the results of its surveys to help determine how to prioritize street repaving, according to the spokeswoman.

So, how do Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens stack up? According to a visualization of the DOT's data from 2014 and 2015 put together by the IBO:

• In Prospect Heights, nearly 65 percent of the streets are in "good" condition, while about 35 percent are "fair" and none are "poor."
• In northern Crown Heights, nearly 73 percent of the streets are good and 27 percent are fair, while in southern Crown Heights, 64 percent are good and 35 percent are fair, with just under 1 percent rated as poor.
• And in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens and Wingate, nearly 70 percent are good, about 30 percent are fair, and less than 1 percent are poor.

Borough-wide, the city concluded that just over 75 percent of Brooklyn's streets are in good condition. Fort Greene had the best streets in the city, with nearly 90 percent ranked as good, while Seagate-Coney Island had the city's worst streets, with just 35 percent qualifying as good.

Additional Patch coverage of the IBO's work, including a complete ranking of the city's neighborhoods by street quality, is available here.

Pictured at top: the intersection of Washington Avenue and Eastern Parkway. Image via Google Maps.