Seen & Heard: Laight Street Traffic Petition

••• J. noticed this on the Westfield World Trade Center website (no rendering though):

Beginning on Thursday, December 1 and then continuing until the end of the year, the destination will be set aglow between 3:30pm and 11:30pm each day with an artistic holiday light show projected onto the walls of iconic, Santiago Calatrava-designed Oculus. An innovative and modern reimagining of traditional holiday lights, Oculus Holiday Lights at Westfield World Trade Center is the product of a partnership between Westfield and trailblazing local New York visual artists Susan Holland and Bentley Meeker—who have won widespread accolades for creating captivating art installations.”

••• “Laight Street has become a traffic jam of huge buses and trucks that use the residential street as their Holland Tunnel exit,” emailed S., “which is illegal and extremely dangerous (especially with all of the children in the area), and it creates a ton of noise and interferes with quality of life!” She included a link to this petition. “We need 500 signatures to get this in front of City Council to get proper signage and regulation.” The question is how to get trucks from the Holland Tunnel to West Street. The Port Authority sends traffic west on Laight, even though the New York City Department of Transportation has designated a no-truck street. So the Port Authority and have to work together on a solution. (And having them go north on Hudson exacerbates that street’s traffic problem below Canal.)

laight-street-buses••• Augustine’s website says that the restaurant will start serving brunch on December 4 and breakfast on January 3.

••• Last we heard from Ward III, it was hoping to reopen in early October, but the interior doesn’t look a lot further along than it did back then. I emailed the bar but have yet to hear back.

••• David Weeks Studio is having a “special sale” on December 9 (noon to 8 p.m.) and 10 (noon to 5 p.m.): “Join us at our new Brooklyn studio [1815 Pacific St.]. This year we’re offering a collection of small batch, made to order lights available for two days only. Samples and prototypes of lighting, furniture and accessories available at discounted prices.”

••• Toni says that the sidewalk shed at 101 Warren isn’t going away anytime soon: “The work hasn’t even started on the building and they are now saying April is the start date.”

101-warren-shed

 

9 Comments

  1. Presidents come and go. Sidewalk sheds are forever.

  2. Re: bus issue on Laight street – what is the proposed solution as obviously busses coming through the Holland need to get to the West side highway.
    Does the proposal present an alternative?

    • when did laight street become residential? holland tunnel traffic has been exiting that way for as long as i can remember. i’m sorry but you really should research a street before you buy a loft on it.

  3. Is it just me or does it seem like the residents of laight street complain a lot about things that come with… living on laight street?

  4. Re: Laight St- This is a situation in which we Laight st residents
    are concerned about the safety of children and pedestrians. In February of 2016 a bicyclist was struck and seriously injured from a truck. A resident’s dog in my building was also struck by a vehicle. If you notice at Harrison and North Moore there are traffic safety guards there but NOT on Laight st, only at Hudson and Laight.
    If you look up NYC Truck Route Network, Trucks and Buses are barred from using Laight st. The 1st precinct doe not enforce this.

    The signs directing buses and trucks to use Exit 2 not Exit 1 was placed by NYNJ Port Authority not the NYC DOT.

    The solution better enforcement, more traffic guards at rush hour directing the trucks and buses north to Canal, which is a designated route for trucks and buses. The best would be for the NYNJ Port Authority to restrict these vehicles, in the past Holland Tunnel was Passager Cars Only.

    • GPS thanks for the clarification- appreciated.
      My suggestion would be for exactly what you have now clearly described to be added to the proposal itself. The solution to the issues described are not clearly presented.

      Perhaps the answer is simply one of better signage and more police presence and enforcement.

      I don’t live on Laight street but it certainly is one of the more commercial streets in the neighborhood in terms of fast moving traffic. We are always extremely careful when crossing with our son,

      Certainly agree that it is the first Precincts responsibility to uphold the traffic laws. It is best they start to do this now and not only after someone gets hurt.

  5. The answer is 2 fold…go to the 1st precinct community council hearings at the end of the month…next week I think and speak up with facts figures photos and kids in tow…best place to get a reaction by NYPD…

    • It actually came up at last month’s Community Council meeting. Detective Inspector Mark Iocco expressed frustration at the situation I describe in the post (being caught between the Port Authority and the DOT). So not sure that alone will do it; getting the City Council to push the Port Authority might help.

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