Open Streets 'Cannibalizing' These Brooklyn Businesses: Locals

PROSPECT HEIGHTS, NY — Citrico survived a global pandemic, but the Brooklyn Mexican restaurant's owner says Open Streets might soon spell its doom.

Noor Shikari is among over 1,200 Brooklynites who say a nearby Open Street has clogged Prospect Heights’ streets, endangering local businesses and putting pedestrians at risk, according to organizers on the ground.

Shikari represents a group of those opposed to the Vanderbilt Avenue Open Street who say Washington Avenue has become a "non-stop traffic jam" that threatens businesses, many of which are owned by women and people of color.

Pleas sent to city officials and local Open Streets organizers have gone largely unheeded, leaving Shikari uncertain her restaurant will survive, she said.

"I want to believe that there's an end in sight for this hurdle [but we] may not make it," Shikari said. "We're suffering."

Troubles began for Washington Avenue business owners when the global pandemic sent New York City looking for safe new ways to gather.

Stretches of Vanderbilt and Underhill avenues were shuttered to traffic (Underhill partially) in June 2020 and, as throngs of people reveled in the ability to revel in the streets, the program was made permanent in 2021.

This year, the city is running an Open Street on Vanderbilt weekends between April and November and a partial closure on Underhill on weekdays. Underhill also recently got a permanent pedestrian plaza and is slated to become a bike boulevard.

The result, according to Shikari, was a slew of outdoor dining tables standing empty outside Citrico all summer long, even after a spring that saw business at pre-pandemic levels.

Corridors with Open Streets outpaced their neighbors in pandemic recovery. A Transportation department report from 2022 found while restaurants along Vanderbilt’s Open Street saw a 20 percent increase in taxable sales over pre-pandemic numbers, a nearby stretch of Flatbush Avenue had seen sales plummet 40 percent.

And Shikari's not the only business owner starting to feel like collateral damage of the program.

By Monday, at least 13 Washington Avenue businesses — including Muse, Kimchi Grill and Stocked — had supported a letter to the Transportation department asking for a reconsideration, according to Lesley Covitz, co-owner of Stocked.

The restaurant owners argue pedestrians are opting for the inviting, wide open Vanderbilt, patrons in cars are avoiding the area altogether.

"It is unacceptable that the businesses on Washington Avenue have become unintended casualties in the pursuit of these noble goals," the petition reads.

"Our business is down EVERY SINGLE weekend that Vanderbilt is 'OPEN'."

The owners also argue the issue affects a row of woman- and BIPOC-owned businesses operating in a neighborhood city data show is rapidly losing Black residents.

"Many of our businesses on Washington Ave are woman-owned and also BIPOC businesses," the group wrote. "We have so much to give and no patrons to share it with."

A second petition — signed by 1,200 locals over months and shared with electeds and community leaders — raises big concerns about traffic, parking, and accessibility problems for differently abled people.

Lynda Balsama, a 20-year resident of Prospect Heights, says the closures are sending more drivers down Washington Avenue — an already congested corridor — and creating significant smog and unsafe conditions for pedestrians.

This year, Washington Avenue saw 11 crashes with injuries, compared to 8 on a similar stretch of Vanderbilt and 4 on Underhill, according to NYC Crash Mapper.

The year before Open Streets kicked off, Washington saw 18 injurious crashes, compared to 23 on Vanderbilt and 11 on Underhill.

"It's just a non-stop traffic jam," Balsama said.

And, the closures are hard on older and disabled residents, Balsama said.

Organizers of both petitions said there's been little cooperation from electeds and the Transportation department despite many attempts. Meetings have been canceled, calls not returned and locals are consistently met with a dismissive attitude, according to Balsama.

"If you're not going to listen to us, we're gonna talk louder," Balsama said.

Both the Transportation department and Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council told Patch they would be willing to help Washington Avenue businesses find a solution and, if desired, start their own Open Street.

"We are open to listening to any ideas they have for helping the businesses," a Transportation representative told Patch. "We would share those details with NYC's Department of Small Business Services."

Ultimately, though, a solution will have to be spearheaded by the businesses collectively, said Gib Veconi, Chair of the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council.

Veconi emphasized a reality that Shikari finds particularly suffocating — grown out of the pandemic, the future of Open Streets looks increasingly unclear despite the program becoming permanent in 2021.

"This is all stuff that we're inventing while it's happening," Veconi said. "[We're] building the airplane after it’s taken off from the runway."

As many organizers agreed, Veconi said running another Open Street is not likely a realistic situation.

Vanderbilt is Brooklyn's only volunteer-run Open Street and among the borough's largest, covering about four acres of temporary public space, Veconi said. It's a monumental task that takes something around $200,000 a summer to produce, Veconi said.

Veconi said Vanderbilt Avenue was initially chosen for its density of willing businesses, and Underhill largely for traffic safety concerns.

A fan of Open Streets’ street safety and economic goals, Shikari said she wishes there was another culprit. She’s considered every option — and even hoped her troubles were internal, like maybe her "guac is just not what it used to be."

But the guac holds up, and she can’t help feeling Washington Avenue is being left behind.

"It's not sustainable," Shikari said. "Do you recognize that? Do you see that?"

This story was updated Sept. 13 about 10 a.m. to provide additional context about the 2022 Open Streets study referenced above.