Community Board 2 narrows capital and expense priorities, flags cobblestone repair and Lafayette/Jersey crossings

Community Board 2’s traffic and transportation committee met on Sept. 30 to review and re-rank its capital and expense budget priorities, emphasizing cobblestone repairs, a granite bike path on Morton Street and pedestrian-safety changes along Lafayette and Jersey streets.

The committee said the items matter because failing cobblestones and unclear curb and crosswalk treatments are recurring safety and maintenance issues in much of the district. Members sought clarity from the Department of Transportation on which agency should receive each request and urged specific, street‑by‑street project descriptions to improve the chance of funding.

Janine (committee staff) opened the capital discussion with a short list carried from the prior year and said the board was reorganizing requests to align by agency. Kate, a DOT representative, told the committee that DOT operates an annual cobblestone restoration fund and prefers specific street segments for capital requests. “For Granite bike lanes as well as for Cobblestone Street repair, we want to see a specific request for each street on each,” Kate said, urging the board to identify blocks (for example, “Wharton Street between X and Y”) rather than broad neighborhood-wide asks.

Key clarifications and proposals recorded in the meeting included: - Morton Street: committee members asked DOT to fund a granite paver path on Morton Street to create a durable route for bikes where current cobbles fail; the committee asked that Morton remain the top capital priority for cobblestone/granite work. - Bond Street and Clarkson Street: committee members discussed cobblestone repair and flagged Clarkson as complicated because of an active large construction project; members suggested moving Clarkson up in ranking for capital attention but noted coordination with developers may be needed. - Lafayette/Jersey: the committee agreed to combine the Jersey/Lafayette crossing and curb-cut requests as a single expense-priority package and to confirm whether curb/ADA ramp work should be submitted to DOT or the Department of Design and Construction (DDC). Kate indicated some ADA curb-access items may fall under DDC and asked the board to confirm agency routing. - Canal Street: DOT told the committee it is currently pursuing short-term corridor improvements along Canal Street with paint, signage and vertical delineators; the committee agreed Canal Street should remain on the capital list as a potential larger project and discussed a joint Community Board 1/2 meeting to review DOT outreach.

The committee also discussed Petrosino and Mowry (Mowley) squares and whether those projects needed DOT, Parks (DPR) or joint funding and direction. Valerie suggested the board pursue a planning fellow or similar grant to catalogue cobblestone conditions across the district and produce a prioritized, fundable list; several members supported that approach.

Kate advised the board to submit separate, street‑specific requests for both granite bike lanes and cobblestone restoration and confirmed DOT’s cobblestone program is funded periodically and prioritized by need and available resources. The committee noted that private contractors or utilities that open cobblestone streets are typically required to restore them "in kind," and asked DOT to confirm whether developer activity on Clarkson Street would trigger restoration requirements.

There were no formal votes recorded in the meeting minutes presented; the committee worked by consensus to reorder and refine the list. Committee members said they will finalize rankings before the board’s October meeting and will follow-up with DOT and DDC on agency responsibility for specific items and timing.