The east side of 4th Avenue between 9th and 10th Streets in Brooklyn is currently a blighted one. The subway entrance and storefronts will reopen next year. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
The main thrust of the Culver Viaduct rehab involves a complete overhaul of the station at Smith and 9th Sts. At the highest altitude in the system, the F and G stop has great views of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan Skyline, and it is a mess. The walls and staircases have holes; the paint is flaking off; the viaduct is sheathed in mesh to prevent it from falling. In a nutshell, it needs work.
Down the road, though, the station at 4th Ave./9th Sts. is no better. Windows on the once-beautiful overpass haven’t seen the light of day for decades, and the platform and canopies are in equally as bad a shape as those at Smith St. Still, as the rehab project’s cost ballooned, the MTA had to scale back work at 4th Avenue. Now, though, the on-again, off-again rehab at that station is firmly back on thanks to the MTA’s component-based approach to repair.
Even better, though, is news from the past week that will improve pedestrian flow and passenger safety: Thanks to an infusion of funds from Marty Markowitz and Joan Millman will ensure that, as part of the station rehab, the entrances on the east side of 4th Ave. will be reopened as well. As first reported by the Brooklyn Paper and confirmed this week by the MTA, Markowitz will contribute $2 million for station improvements and Assembly Member Joan Millman secured $800,000 for work on the 78-year-old station.
Overstating his role just a bit in securing less than one percent of the funds needed for the entire Culver Viaduct rehab, Markowitz nevertheless spoke of the changes coming to the station and his vision for 4th Avenue as a grand Brooklyn Boulevard. “With funding I have allocated along with Assemblywoman Joan Millman, the MTA can pull back the billboards, fix the crumbling bricks and restore this 1930s art deco beauty to its former glory,” he said. “Its location on 4th Avenue at the crossroads of Gowanus and Prospect Park is highly visible from Downtown Brooklyn to Sunset Park, and its restoration as a signature streetscape element will mark the beginning of what I hope will be many more efforts to transform the entire stretch of 4th Avenue from the Atlantic Ocean to Atlantic Avenue into my grand vision for a magnificent Brooklyn Boulevard.”
Millman chose to focus on the pedestrian improvements on the east side of the station. Assemblywoman Millman added: “As more people discover how wonderful it is to live in Brooklyn, especially along and near 4th Avenue, the increased demands on mass transit must be met. I also look forward to the reopening of the east side station house on 4th Avenue,” she said.
It’s hard to understate how important it is to reopen those east side entrances. Right now, those heading to and from this popular station must cross 4th Ave. to get there, and the intersection at 4th Ave. and 9th St. has long been one of the more dangerous ones in the city. This entrance, long a blight on the area, will be a big help to those looking to avoid crossing the busy street.
As for the details of the work, the MTA says all entrance doors and storefront windows will be replaced. The authority hopes to bring in new retail tenants in 2012, but the entrance itself will remain unstaffed. Below is a slideshow of photos I snapped there last week. The physical improvements will be welcomed indeed.
12 comments
Great! These are such simple improvements that mean so much.
This is good news. Hopefully, one day the windows on the platform will be back too.
This was my home station for 3 years before I moved a bit further south. I welcome the improvements and wholeheartedly agree about how opening the east side entrances will improve safety. I only wish they could do something for all the R stops along 4th Ave. I now use the R at Prospect Ave and calling that a death trap of an intersection is an understatement. A station crossover is a pipe-dream, but I wish the DOT would implement some traffic calming measures there.
There are a lot of closed entrances around the system. I hope these will be the first of many to re-open.
Too late – a number of formerly closed entrances have been reopened already.
But on the flip side, many station rehabs seal off old entrances and passageways permanently, with the space underground turned over to all sorts of facilities and offices.
There remain many that have not, and that still could be (i.e., that haven’t been permanently sealed or re-purposed).
Agreed. I’m just picking nits – it can’t be the first of many if some have already been reopened.
Anyone know the reason why they shuttered this entrance way back when?
In the 1970s/80s, after a wave of muggings, rapes, and murders in the subway system, the MTA closed a lot of entrances that were considered dangerous. You can readily see from the photo how this one, located under a dark overpass, would have been scary, back in the days when this neighborhood wasn’t as upscale as it is today.
But the matching entrance across the street, under the same overpass, is open!
It may well have been saved just to reduce operating costs.
I think you mean that “The main thrust of the station component of the Culver Viaduct rehab involves a complete overhaul of the station at Smith and 9th Sts.” The Culver Viaduct Rehabilitation Project incorporates a lot more than stations. From the press release issued at the start of the project in mid-2009:
There’s more information here: http://www.mta.info/news/stories/?story=177
[…] project, as I reported last year, was funded through an $800,000 grant from Assembly Representative Joan Millman’s office and […]