BROOKLYN COMMUNITY BOARD 6
TRANSPORTATION/PARKS/PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE & PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE
September 17, 2026 @ Principles GI Coffee House & Zoom
6:30 p.m.
MINUTES
Pre-meeting: Mike Racioppo (District Manager) - Update on CB6 app, first community board with an app; can report issues with DOT in the app in line with Mayor Mamdani's new "Vision Zero Reimagined"
1. DOT: Public E-Bike Charging (PEC) overview
Presenter: Derek Walker, Brooklyn Borough Commissioner's Office
Since 2022, lithium-ion batteries in NYC have resulted in more than:
- 900 fires
- 400 injuries
- 30 deaths
DOT pilot tested battery-swapping cabinets in 2024 with delivery workers who rely on e-bikes (100+ delivery workers)
- Popular, improved fire safety, reduced at-home charging
- Willingness to pay for service
Solution: $3 million in state grant funding to put 25 battery charging cabinets
Battery swapping cabinets are a safer alternative to charge e-bike batteries
- Certified to UL Standards, weather- and theft-proof with fire safety features
- Vendor will charge fee and be responsible for site maintenance and cleanliness
Sites were identified where the most deliveries are taking place and took into account congregation, clear path, fire safety, and appearance issues
CB6 locations:
- Dean St and 5th Ave, NW Corner
- Court St and 1st Pl, NE Corner
- Replace curbside charger given Court Street redesign no longer makes sense (with bike lane)
Board questions/comments:
1. Are we racing against private sector with this (e.g., do private charging docks already exist)?
1. Answer: No public charging stations, there is one at city hall that was done by the parks department. Private companies do this already and we want to expand their network, not compete with them, but increase how many we can get on the ground.
2. Excited about the Court Street location because the current charging station is useless.
3. Will there be a DOT representative to remove an old battery and if it's replaced is it given to that particular delivery person for nothing?
1. Answer: You do not have to be a delivery person to be a part of this program. If there's a bad battery, the company will take the battery out and replace it. No one owns anything, but it's a rental service.
4. Were delivery drivers consulted about type of battery and issue of spare batteries?
1. Answer: We see some people already using these vendors and they do have two batteries. We want to continue to expand the network so they don't need to rely on the extra spare at home. Eventually, there will be so many they won't have to charge a spare at home.
5. Can we add more benches and shelters near the charging areas?
1. Answer: Will take this into consideration.
6. Can business owners opt in for battery stations out front of their business?
1. Answer: We do have places where business owners can opt in, will send follow-up information on this.
7. Are all batteries the same for e-bikes?
1. Answer: This program, they will be universal batteries in the sense that all batteries for this program will be the same. But not everyone with e-bikes can use this program. We skewed this toward supporting delivery workers and the primary type of bike they use.
Community member questions/comments:
1. Is there any way to use existing citibike infrastructure?
1. Answer: Trying to colocate this as much as possible and use existing infrastructure as much as possible.
Board resolution on public e-bike charging
Community Board 6 supports the "Public E-Bike Charging" program as presented and especially looks forward to the 2 locations within Community Board 6 and would like more locations. - Jerry
Seconded by Madeline
Unanimously passed with one abstention by Leroy for cause (DOT)
Committee questions for DOT from the August 19 notes:
- Concrete divider on 6th Ave near 21st St
- Bergen St bike boulevard update
- 4th Ave and 7th St construction safety issue (CB6 letter sent 9/1) - 3rd Ave and 9th St pedestrian signal: stop lines further back, bollards
2. Residential parking permits
- Going to revisit this until October meeting because 4 speakers were asked to come discuss and none were able to make September meeting.
- Hope is to have a full presentation from experts to discuss.
- Offered time for community or board input, none were offered.
3. Low Traffic Neighborhoods
6th Ave cut-through traffic; school-based pilot approach. - Catherine Vaughan (absent) proposed the blocks west of PS 282 and west of PS 39, using the Open Plans Neighborhood Needs Assessment Dashboard
From Catherine Vaughan - I've had a few conversations with David Scatterday, who built this amazing new tool for Open Plans, the Neighborhood Needs Assessment Dashboard. I highly recommend you check it out—it allows you to look at Census tracts across the city and filter on different variables to determine where a low-traffic neighborhood (or any types of street redesigns/treatments, etc.) might be needed. For example, you might toggle the filters to look for neighborhoods under a certain median income, over a certain pollutant level, with a higher than X percentage of people who commute by public transit, etc. — and it will show you which specific neighborhoods fit these criteria. You can overlay data on schools, crashes, Community Boards, etc.
I gave him some context on the 6th Ave cut-through traffic, and we used his tool to identify a few areas where we might pilot LTNs or, at the least, a few diverters. We should speak more with Open Plans about this (curious what Jackson Chabot said, for example), but David agreed that our suggestion of an incremental approach, starting with schools because they're likely to get the most buy-in, makes sense.
The two neighborhoods highlighted as places to potentially divert the cut-through traffic on 6th Ave: the blocks west of PS 282, and the blocks west of PS 39. The filters I used included:
- Median income <$200K
- % residents who primarily use public transit to get to work >50% (note: these %s are low / don't add to 100 because non-commuters are counted)
- % residents who primarily use car to get to work <20% (note: these %s are low / don't add to 100 because non-commuters are counted)
- Car-free households >40%
- PM2.5 mean pollution concentration level (μg/m³) >6.8
Board questions/comments:
The board will investigate whether other boroughs are implementing LTNs and what size they are focused on, how they are choosing boundary roads etc.
Community member questions/comments:
1. Is there a reason median incomes were chosen when thinking about LTNs?
1. The board wants to consider equity and distribution of resources, consider what parts of the district would benefit most from these kinds of treatments.
2. Community members are not convinced about boundary roads not getting worse, need to be cautious about this.
1. Fewer cars on roads everywhere in places that have done LTNs, so there is research on this.
3. Choose a couple streets/areas to pilot an LTN and let it spread out from there
1. This is something that has come up previously, do the benefits of LTNs come when they are treated on just a few intersections or roads or do the benefits multiply with a whole neighborhood.
4. Enforcement
Follow-up on the resolution supporting moving traffic enforcement back to DOT
Whether to invite the 76th or 78th Precinct
Marriott illegal parking update
Board member questions/comments:
1. Anything that touches "public safety" is unlikely to get done during this mayoral administration and if the mayor is the one to do it, it's unlikely to be successful.
Community member questions/comments:
1. Is there any data on how effective the NYPD is at enforcement in the first place?
2. Most of the problem is around people who are either in the NYPD or have family members in the NYPD and cover for them/do not enforce illegal parking.
3. The community wants to see enforcement of e-bikes as much as cars.
4. 311 complaints about illegal parking if there was decent enforcement that number would go down so that offers some soft data on how enforcement is going.
5. Community comments and suggestions for future agenda items
1. Court Street down by Luquer/Nelson, etc. there are ADA updates that are taking a long time and it's become dangerous.
2. Community member wants the BQE/DOT conversation to happen at CB6, with huge traffic implications.
3. Truck route concern, is there a new truck route but it looks exactly the same?
1. Councilmember Alexa Aviles covered this during the full board meeting and is also frustrated and working on advocacy around this issue, unclear if councilmember Shahana Hanif is also working on this.
1. Are the DOT still collecting public comments on the Bergen/Dean bike boulevard program?
1. Yes, DOT is still collecting and will be coming to a CB6 meeting in the future once the comments are closed with updates on the program.
5. New turf at JJ Byrne park, community members want a say in what kind of turf gets installed at the park. One member representing over 70 people wants to be in contact with the Parks department. - Provided contact info for Mike Racioppo & encouraged to come to next meeting where BK park commissioner will attend