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BPC Residents Angry Over Stop Sign Removal The city took away three stop signs from Battery Park City, and some residents are signaling their distress. “We’re members of this community and we’re telling you we think this change was made in error,” BPC resident Peter Smith told city Department of Transportation (DOT) representatives at a recent meeting of Community Board 1’s Battery Park City Committee. “We believe this decision was not made in the interest of public safety.” About 10 people came to protest the signs’ removal. The DOT removed the three signs following a study of 11 intersections in northern Battery Park City. According to the agency, three signs did not meet federal warrants mandating a certain level of pedestrian and vehicular traffic. Two of the signs were on River Terrace, at Warren Street and at Murray Street, and the third is at North End Avenue and Murray Street. (The study also concluded that a stop sign on Murray Street, between West Street and North End Avenue, should be upgraded to a traffic signal. It will be installed in late June, according to DOT representatives.) Battery Park City’s stop signs were installed years ago, when the streets were built. According to the DOT, the Battery Park City Authority put them in illegally, without first approving the level of traffic at the intersections with the city. “We are simply applying our rules to the neighborhood that had not been applied,” said Lori Ardito, the DOT’s new Lower Manhattan borough commissioner. “These are standards that the city uses on every single intersection throughout the five boroughs.” But residents and board members were having none of it. “It’s a bad decision,” said board member Tom Goodkind. “Someone’s gonna get hit because of your bureaucratic sandbagging excuses.” Others were more measured in their criticism. “I counted 500 people in Rockefeller Park a week ago,” said resident Nick Shotsky. “Most of them were children, and they all got into this park basically either by coming from the south or by crossing over River Terrace. And now the only place they can safely cross River Terrace is coming out of Teardrop Park.” Resident Chuck Meyers wondered if the federal warrants distinguished between street types. “Are the standards exactly the same for West Street, which is clearly a thoroughfare, and River Terrace, which clearly isn’t?” DOT representatives responded that yes, the standards are the same. “No wonder we’ve got an issue,” said Meyers. Leticia Remauro, a spokesperson for the Battery Park City Authority, said the Authority did not support the removal of the stop signs, either. “But the commissioner has said they’ll continue to study it,” she said. “Maybe it would be a good idea to ask them to study it during a concert night,” she added, referring to the well-attended summer shows staged in Rockefeller Park. “That’s fine,” said Ardito. “Give us the best time, and we’ll come.”
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