CB4 Votes Against Bus Garage at Intrepid Pier

Dear Neighbors,

Thank you for supporting our efforts to abate bus idling and its assorted health impacts in our neighborhood.

Many of you came all the way to Fulton Center to testify last night in favor of adding bus garage spaces to the Intrepid museum. Your strong voices showed the Community Board that Clean Air, Bus Idling and creating a Charter Bus Garage are very high priorities for our neighborhood. MMCC distributed to each board member a copy of your letter.

In spite of your speaking up and the whole neighborhood being close to 100% unified on this issue (8 block associations and two schools) the Community Board members voted against the wishes of its residents and rejected - by a slim margin (4 votes) - asking for a mere 20 bus spaces to be included in the museum expansion.

A few members of the board argued loudly that there is no idling problem (!) that a museum is so valuable we should feel lucky to welcome it (there is already a museum) and not encumber the project with any health considerations, and that the plan is to regroup all buses at the Port Authority bus garage, although we know that there is no funding, the Port Authority is not planning any space for charter buses and multiple small garages are technically preferable.

But in the end, as a result of your advocacy, the Intrepid Museum volunteered to study and build garage space for 14 additional buses as part of their project, bringing up the total number of bus spaces to 28 at this location.
It is not clear whether theses spaces will be open to all or just reserved for Museum space, but in any case, at least the neighborhood will not have to suffer additional idling due to the Museum.

This is the DNA article: http://www.dnainfo.com/20111103/chelsea-hells-kitchen/community-gets-first-look-at-proposed-space-shuttle-museum

Thank You again. We will keep you posted on new developments.
Best Regards

Christine Berthet
www.chekpeds.com