Transportation Justice
UPROSE advocates for equitable and just transportation ranging from the reliability and accessibility of public transit for transit-dependent riders, to the safety and cleanliness of street infrastructure for Sunset Park pedestrians. UPROSE is involved in the following policy efforts:
LOCAL INFRASTRUCTURe
and
POLICY ADVOCACY
UPROSE is partnering with the NYC Department of Transportation on the Upland Connector Streets project, which will link the Sunset Park upland community to the working waterfront. As the largest walk-to-work community in NYC, Sunset Park needs Connector Streets to safely guide upland residents/workers to industrial jobs on the waterfront while also providing linkages to the Greenway and Bush Terminal Piers Park. Central to this project will be the incorporation of green infrastructure to adapt and fortify the neighborhood against the threats of future storm surge and flooding.
We are a part of Brooklyn Community Board 7’s 4th Avenue Transportation Task Force that is working to ensure that the 4th Avenue improvements planned by the Brooklyn Borough President's Office reflect the needs and priorities of Sunset Park Residents.
We are also a part of the partnership between community groups and Transport Workers Union Local 100 to adequately address our mutual concerns and shared vision of transit workers and riders for achieving a more equitable, affordable and sustainable transit system.
This video highlights the NYC Department of Transportation's latest recommendations for the Upland Connectors Project in Sunset Park, which aims to connect residential Sunset Park to its working waterfront. These recommendations were presented at Community Board 7 on February 2nd and come out of two years of community-based engagement, education, and planning events.
STATE-WIDE
and
FEDERAL POLICY ADVOCACY
UPROSE joined the Coalition as the Brooklyn Coordinator for the MoveNY Fair Plan. Click on the link below to read more about the MoveNY Fair Plan.
UPROSE is a member of Transit Riders for Public Transportation (TRPT), a coalition that seeks to make federal funding more available for public transportation to support the growing dependence on public transit.
Read More Click on this link to go to the MoveNY webpage iheartmoveny.org
Bring Back the B37
UPROSE is a founding member of the Restore the B37 Bus Coalition. In 2010, as part of severe MTA bus service cuts, the B37 bus was eliminated, which had long served as a crucial means of transportation for Sunset Park residents to downtown Brooklyn, healthcare facilities, municipal agencies, and places of education, work, and worship.
The elimination of this service line had a disproportionately tough effect on the elderly, young, disabled, and infirmed living along the Third Avenue corridor. In response to these cuts, community members approached UPROSE in large numbers to advocate for service restoration. In turn, we began an extensive grassroots organizing campaign that involved local residents, businesses, community groups, workers, elected officials, and TWU Local 100 members.
The coalition launched a series of rallies, forums, and press conferences to demonstrate the broad public demand for service restoration. In 2013, UPROSE and its coalition members realized success when the MTA announced restoration of the service line would occur in June 2014 between Fort Hamilton and the Atlantic Avenue/Barclays Center subway station, just ten blocks short of its original terminus Borough Hall.
Expansion of the Fourth Avenue Median
After years of advocating for safety improvements along 4th Avenue, UPROSE partnered with the safety division of the NYC Department of Transportation to create a community- driven safety proposal that was implemented in 2013. The improvements included median extensions and expansions with markings and left-turn bans, as well as mild parking suspensions to reduce congestion and traffic. Further improvements UPROSE continues to advocate for include stormwater management measures to protect the New York’s subway infrastructure and relieve the city’s sewage system.
#NOBQX
UPROSE opposes the Brooklyn Queens Express (BQX). The BQX is a novelty project of several powerful real estate interests along the Brooklyn/Queens waterfront. Together, they make up the so-called Friends of the BQX. While their public relations team emphasizes the public housing along the route, they do not highlight the real estate developers’ waterfront properties that are in actuality driving this proposal.
The PR team does also not highlight how the project is proposed to be funded: by inflating real estate values along the route and then taxing them. What this means is the guaranteed displacement of low- and working-class residents, mom-and-pop shops, and blue-collar industrial businesses. Moreover, there is no guarantee that BQX riders would be able to transfer for free to MTA subway and bus lines. In essence, this is transportation for the privileged at the expense of the poor. There are city government staffers privately referring to this proposal as the GX, or Gentrification Express.
Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI)
UPROSE anchors the Northeast regional Hub for the Climate Justice Alliance and is coordinating the organizing efforts on the Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI). TCI is a policy agenda developed by 13 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states and facilitated by Georgetown Climate Center, which aims to address greenhouse gas emissions from the mobile transportation sector. TCI is currently utilizing a cap, trade, and invest model to reduce transportation-related emissions, which poses many problems for environmental justice communities. Cap and trade have proven ineffective and resulted in higher emissions in environmental justice communities. TCI was developed in a vacuum for almost a decade before public engagement started in 2018. Through our organizing efforts we achieved a major victory 2 months ago by forcing TCI conveners to extend their timeline –for rolling out the final policy proposal– into next spring.
TCI threatens to undermine New York's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) and similar or complementary state climate legislation throughout the region.
Last Mile E-Commerce Facilities
The rapid and uncontrolled expansion and development of e-commerce facilities in South Brooklyn and industrial areas across New York City is an environmental justice issue. The size, density, and cumulative impacts of these giant facilities threaten to negatively impact the environment, health, local economy, safety, and transportation/traffic of the surrounding communities. Last mile e-commerce distribution centers threaten small businesses and industrial retention. If left unregulated, these facilities may perpetuate and exacerbate existing exposure to pollution.
Special Subcommittee on Last Mile Trucking Facilities Public Comments