Andrew Gounardes Thought A Panel Could Explain to Bay Ridge Why He Ignored Street Problems in Bay Ridge For Years
Andrew Gounardes has represented Bay Ridge for years, but he has never taken on street safety, even though he said he would for years.
Tonight’s meeting format was ridiculous. There should not have been a panel for what the two politicians and the police should have been able to discuss and handle.
Andrew Gounardes does not know how to prepare and run a meeting. Gounardes gave out cards for people to write questions and then he barely answered any of the questions from the cards.
Gounardes told the audience, “We are going to have breakout groups and answer questions. At no point at this meeting did Andrew Gounardes make any breakout groups to answer questions.
Keith Bray, the Brooklyn Borough Commissioner from the Department of Transportation talked about people getting signs by calling 311. There was no reason for Keith Bray to be at this meeting.
Bay Ridge parents easily saw Bray was there as a time filler. One smart mother asked Gounardes to address the issues in our community, so time didn’t run out.
At 6:50 pm, Gounardes started reading statistics, instead of providing them to the audience on the screen behind him or on a handout. No preparation was done for this meeting because it wasn’t important to Andrew.
At 6:55 pm, Captain Tolson spoke and “did the usual.” Tolson talked about how collisions are down this month. Tolson never says when the numbers are up. Captain Tolson said there have been no fatalities. He said , speeding and texting are the number one problems.
Trailers on Poly Place
Captain Tolson said writing summons doesn’t work for these vehicles. The captain sounded very sympathetic to the truck companies because there is nowhere for them to park, except at JFK.
Captain Tolson said they can’t boot these vehicles because they have to have a certain number of summons.
Captain Tolson said he was talking to the DOT to have angled parking. Tolson told Bay Ridge this months ago and it never happened. At this point, it was 7:05 pm and nothing was accomplished.
Brannan said they changed the signs on Poly Place and he spoke as if he thought HE DID something big. Parents kept him honest and called out that the signs weren’t useful. Brannan also was sympathetic to the truck drivers and wanted to give them parking on 58th Street on the pier. Keith Bray said trucks were parking throughout NYC.
311 Calls Go Unanswered
People complained that no one comes from when they call 311. One man said he called 311 for three days this weekend and nothing happened.
Gounardes wants people to call 311 and then call his office with the incident number from 311. Andrew said he is sorry he can’t help you if you don’t do that. A woman stood up and said that she has called 911 and then Brannan’s office and nothing has changed.
The officer with Captain Tolson offered to help. *This sounded hopeful. When a mother in the community asked for the officer’s number, he told them to call 311.
Another woman said the police drive by and do nothing. Captain Tolson said that the NYPD are not going to chase scooters because that will cause an accident.
The electric bikes do not have to be registered.
Motorcycles and scooters are riding on the sidewalk. One mother explained how dangerous this was. Parents clapped for her. How do we get that mother to run for NYC Council? She was a great voice for this community!
ONE MAN SAID THE MOST TELLING THING….THESE GUYS ARE TWO YEARS TOO LATE. At that point it was 7:30 pm and no solutions had been reached – people came out to get help and were frustrated.
Gounardes and Brannan lost control and people started to get roudy. A man complained and held up this yellow sign:
Enforcement
One woman said, there is no enforcement. Captain Tolson was offended. She continued, “We love you. We don’t understand why you are not around.” At 7:36 pm. an officer with Captain Tolson said there will be a shift and focus on ebikes. (This was the only time there was any talk about change.)
Speed Cameras
Andrew Gounardes did not come prepared with the information about the local speed cameras. He spoke about generic information about speed cameras. Brannan said he hasn’t gotten another ticket since the article was printed.
At 7:40 pm, Andrew Gounardes said that the security said they must be out of the building by 8:00 pm. (*Anyone running a meeting would have reserved the place until 9:00 pm, so all questions could be answered).
Drag Racing
Captain Tolson that the 69th Precinct gave out 12 summons on June 4th. Highway police also issued summons.
Many residents said that they contacted Councilman Brannan’s office and nothing has been done about problems on their street. Gounardes said, “We will follow up.”
** Many people didn’t know about the meeting because Gounardes didn’t inform them in a mailing.
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Hugs,
marlene
Topics: Bay Ridge | 1 Comment »
September 3rd, 2022 at 5:10 pm
There is good and bad in everything, and bad make it difficult for anyone to live in peace feel protected and confident and not afraid of what they worked hard for is stolen, misuse, violated and abuse while the bad politician could not be bothered with their constituent’s plights as they are busy pushing their propaganda
REASON: Every constituent really be cognizant of those with sweet talk and the mask.