The intersection on Bedford Ave & Lorimer Street should be left alone. There has been a proposal given by Kevin LaCherra, to Brooklyn Community Board 1 on creating a public plaza he calls the “Bedford Slip.” This would eliminate the left turn onto Manhattan Avenue from Bedford Avenue completely. This would create more traffic and potentially unsafe conditions that could cause more accidents on Bedford Avenue, Nassau Avenue, Manhattan Avenue, and all of the surrounding blocks. Not to mention, this would create more pollution to our environment because the traffic and loss of parking would cause more time spent driving. He claims that this is an unsafe place to cross the street due to one horrific accident. He blames the accident on the layout of the intersection, but in reality this was a freak accident where the driver was satanic, impaired on drugs and arrested, according to the New York Daily News. Not everything needs to be changed. Although this incident was a tragedy and could have been prevented, it was isolated and not because of bad infrastructure. There is enough public space there already along with McCarren Park, which is huge, just across the street. He also has blocked out any negative or opposing feedback and said that it is harassment, when clearly Greenpointers are not fond of his proposed idea. On his instagram for the Bedford Slip, he deletes any comment not in favor of his idea. During the week, small numbers of people group here, which means that ultimately, it is not worth taking an essential street away.

Greenpoint, Brooklyn is loved by all because it is a preserved neighborhood. Our neighborhood is not like Downtown Brooklyn or Times Square, that have many public plazas or skyscrapers. Whether you have been in Greenpoint forever, or just moved here recently, I think we all can agree that we do not choose to live here because we fell in love with this type of infrastructure. If we wanted this, we would move to Dumbo. Let Greenpoint stay Greenpoint. We need to stand up and stand against this or before we know it, we do not even recognize the neighborhood anymore. Luckily for us, Kevin can not make the motion to apply for the NYC DOT Plaza Program until April 2022 to propose this to the city, so we still have a strong chance at having our voices heard, and stopping this from happening. There have been too many times where Greenpointers find out about these things when it is too late and after they have already been snuck in.. Not this time!