Although Anthony Weiner talked heavily about Health Care and Immigration reform at the last property owners meeting it’s a little out of our scope and we won’t touch on those larger topics. You can watch the whole video here. However there are some topics which you need to know about!

The Green Streets money still exists! After the crash and burn death of the project, we were under the assumption that Anthony Weiner allocated the money elsewhere or NYC DOT stole allocated it elsewhere, but no we were wrong! Here’s the deal.

The Green Streets money was allocated toward Gerritsen Beach through our federal gas tax dollars through our congressman. DOT did try to steal use it for other purposes but the congressman took it off the table until Gerritsen Beach can find a use for it.

Councilman Lew Fidler asked a very direct question about the federal warrant guideline that DOT uses to continuously deny requests for a traffic signal at Channel Avenue.

Congressman Weiner did say that the issue with DOT it isn’t a money issue but an issue of DOT of understanding some streets don’t cross and pedestrians still need to be protected. The federal warrant is only a guideline however it is used by transportation commissioners around the country as the end all say all document. It basically says there needs to be a certain amount of traffic on streets that intersect to qualify for a signal. For us – the outgoing Channel Avenue traffic would have to be just as heavy as and the north and sound bound Gerritsen Avenue traffic.

Lew offered up the idea that he and all the other elected officials get together with the congressman and DOT to offer up some of the money to use for a traffic signal.

Although Congressman Weiner jokingly implied that our chances are slim unless we want to do anything with a bike lane he did say YES!

There may be hope yet for a traffic signal at Channel Avenue. A 40 year battle may be coming to an end.