Anyone who lives near Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza knows it is a nightmare to navigate if you are a pedestrian or cyclist. And with its proximity to Prospect Park it's also an area with vast potential for becoming one of the most popular public spaces in Brooklyn.
The Grand Army Plaza Coalition formed in the Spring of 2006 to help improve the area. Community driven, it is a prime example of how the public planning process should work and how the Department of Transportation should support such efforts from citizens to improve their quality of life. After all: no one knows a neighborhood better than the people who live there.



Recently, fifty members of the community met to brainstorm ideas of how to make the plaza safer, more accessible, greener, and people-oriented. The workshop was facilitated by Project for Public Spaces, which specializes in community Placemaking activities.
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">[intro music]</font> <br>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Robert Witherwax:</i>
[00:32] GAPCo came about because a group of people got together and
decided that something was wrong with Grand Army Plaza and they wanted
to fix it. These are people from all walks of life, all parts
of this community, professionals, amateurs, city people, you know, non
city people. Well after the Park Slope Civic Traffic Forum last
year, just about a year ago, we met in a room at the Montar Club, we
just put everything down on paper, what we liked, what we didn’t like,
what we loved, what we hated about Grand Army Plaza. And from
there we went and we did a walk through and we saw on site what needed
to be addressed and what worked, what didn’t work. We made some
suggestions to DOT. They’ve responded. We’re in a great
dialogue with the DOT and with Parks, and this was the next step.
You know, that was sort of short term fix focused. Now we’re
in the long term vision focus. We’ve started to take ownership
of the Plaza and that’s very important. I mean we live here,
we can’t just sit around and whine and moan about it, you got to get
out there and you got to do the fixes yourself, what we can do.
So we’ve been in the centre arch area, we’ve been in the Berms picking
up garbage, pulling up invasive plants, taking ownership. And
as for Jan Gehl, I mean that was incredible to have a man of his vision
and his experience to come and present some wild, whacky, out of the
box ideas for what Grand Army Plaza could be. </font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Jan Gehl:</i> [01:45]
So I do think that the traffic and for sure is the major problem, and
I would like to see a solution which will invite fewer cars to shoot
through this particular area on the way from somewhere to somewhere
else, because this area is a very bad road. </font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Kathleen Ziegenfuss:</i>
[02:02] Well behind us we have about 50 people that have come from around
the neighbourhood, different cultural organisations, residents groups,
people who have a vested interest in what’s happening right outside
in Grand Army Plaza, because it’s important to them as somebody who
lives or works or plays in this community. So people have come
here on a Saturday to help create a vision as to what this place can
become in the future and kind of guide this GAPCo group forward, to
spend the morning looking at Grand Army Plaza, and imagining what it
could be in the future.</font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">[music]</font> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [02:36]
It’s very dangerous to cross the street, and there has to be a way
to get people to the Plaza area, to the fountain area, but there really
isn’t. It’s a problem because it’s a beautiful area but
it’s become a dead area. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">[music]</font> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [02:52]
There’s a problem of feeling security cos the cars are spinning around
in a circle. That’s why people don’t walk here.</font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Letitia James:</i>
[02:59] We have six lanes and to me it represents six degrees of separation,
separation for our friends in Park Slope, our friends in Crown Heights,
and we’re isolated, we’re on all different islands and we don’t
talk to one another. And the city has done a really poor job of
planning. And rarely do they talk about the community. </font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">[music]</font> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Ethan Kent:</i> [03:27]
If you have a couple first impressions with… you know, what you went
out there, how you evaluated it quickly, what you saw that you thought
was great about this place, you didn’t realise what some of the particular
issues were or perhaps you didn’t first notice.</font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [03:38]
So if you could just build planters or some kind of planting out there
to make it more attractive. </font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [03:42]
You know there is a bike lane here and that’s good, but people drive
on the bike lanes, so that’s not a good thing. </font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Aaron Naparstek:</i>
[03:51] You know you have to wait for a long time for the lights and
you have to walk a really long way to cross and it’s just such a key
crossing, there’s tons of people using it from Union… between Union
and the Park.</font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [04:00]
Having signage say from the subway station guiding people to the Plaza,
to the library, to the museum. You know there are all these great
things in the neighbourhood, but there’s no sense whatever when you
get out of the subway where they are. </font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">[music]</font> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Kathleen Ziegenfuss:</i>
[04:17] We’re Projects for Public Spaces, we work with communities
around the nation and internationally as well to help through visioning
processes such as this.</font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Robert Witherwax:</i>
[04:26] And what happened today was we had 50 brains in the room, 50
different brains, different backgrounds, different perspectives, great
ideas, great common themes. We’re already seeing a lot of the
themes that are running through what we’ve gotten today. It’s
amazing. </font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [04:38]
This is so refreshing and exciting for the first time in three years
to be able to work on something where the community is planning something
that’s really positive.</font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [04:49]
I thought it was great. It’s a great process and, you know,
I’m happy to participate in something like this. </font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Kathleen Ziegenfuss:</i>
[04:55] It’s an important process because it really puts the ideas
of what people want to do in the foreground and let’s that speak as
the highest voice going forward. </font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Letitia James:</i>
[05:04] It was just refreshing to be in a room with likeminded people
for a change, and so it’s a good day and, you know, this is our community,
this is our background, and so I’m proud to be associated with GAPCo
and I’m proud to be here this morning.</font> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">[music]</font> <br></p>
http://transcriptdivas.ca/transcription-canada/
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