PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Julia Campanelli, President of Hell's Kitchen Block Association
1:22:04
·
141 sec
Julia Campanelli, President of Hell's Kitchen Block Association, presented requests and suggestions for the Port Authority Bus Terminal project on behalf of her community. She emphasized the need for a community action committee, noise mitigation practices, and improvements to the project design.
- Requested formation of a community action committee with various stakeholders to establish noise mitigation plans
- Suggested less retail/commercial space and more affordable housing in the development
- Proposed more pedestrian and green spaces in the Dyer Avenue approach area
Julia Campanelli
1:22:04
My name is Julia Campanelli.
1:22:05
I'm president of Hell's Kitchen Block Association, which incorporates West 33rd to 35th Streets between 8th and 10th Avenues nestled in the shadow of Hudson Yards in Manhattan West.
1:22:16
On behalf of my community, I'd like to request the formation of a community action committee working group with representatives from the Port Authority of New New York and New Jersey, the mayor's office, senator Hollen Siegel's office, assembly member Tony Symone's office, council member Eric Batcher's office, community boards 45, the city agencies involved, the developers in this project, and representatives from the affected communities to establish a plan for best practices in noise mitigation before the construction starts.
1:22:47
We did this 8 years ago with Manhattan West and Hudson Yards when the amount of and duration of so much construction so negatively impacted our community.
1:22:58
We were able to establish noise mitigation hours and practices without diminishing weekly work hours for the developers, we would love to do this again for such an immense project as the Port Authority Bus Terminal in such a densely populated area.
1:23:15
We would also like to see less retail and commercial space and more affordable housing in this new development because it's so desperately needed.
1:23:22
We'd we'd like to request more pedestrian and green spaces in the Dyer Avenue approach between West 34th and West 37th Streets, that bisects our densely populated community.
1:23:36
Currently, it is a blighted sea of concrete, and we'd like to eliminate we suggest eliminating one of the merges, northbound merges, to create more pedestrian green space in that location instead of shutting down all of the northbound, tunnel approaches.
1:23:57
We did put in we were able to put in place I personally came up with a plan to change the night work hours and the DOT and DOB issue their after hours work permits.
1:24:11
That plan has been in place for 2 years, and it has been very effective and has helped the benefited the health and well-being of our community.
1:24:23
Thank you so much for your time.
Kevin Riley
1:24:25
Thank you, miss Julia.
