Council Member Dinowitz criticizes DOT responsiveness to community requests

Thank you, Chair.

This is a very interesting hearing because I want to hearing testify today is extremely different than what I'm experiencing in my community and my constituents are experiencing.

So it is interesting to hear that you have towing capacity because Webster Avenue, Goulden Avenue, the service road of Henry Ritz and Parkway are a mess.

And we have heard that there's no capacity for towing or heavy towing.

So I would love to continue that conversation with you further.

And Chief Obey, why we are getting different reports from different people in PD about what is and isn't feasible to clean up our neighborhood.

So I appreciate the testimony and look forward to speaking with you sooner.

But I do want to ask the DOT.

You know, there are, you testified, you're concerned about

certain legislation, you want the flexibility to be able to meet the needs of the city.

And I appreciate that.

And I think in normal circumstances, that would be normal testimony.

If these ballot proposals pass, you will be given more authority to

in my view, ignore the community, which is actually the experience we have now.

And it is deeply frustrating because we want simple things.

We're not asking for hundreds of miles of bike lanes or bus lanes.

We want some stop signs and we want some speed humps.

We requested a speed hump on Richardson Avenue over a month ago.

No response.

No response from the Department of Transportation.

We requested a two-way stop on the service road of Henrietta and Parkway about a month ago.

Not even acknowledgement of receipt.

And of course, as I've mentioned at this hearing before, stop signs in North Ruda that were rejected.

At a hearing just like this, it was committed to me that we would get data associated with that, including velocity.

The speed of the cars.

As to why those life-saving signs were rejected, we received no information despite follow-up.

I am just simply wondering if there is an affirmative policy to ignore council member and community requests, or if that is a problem with the culture within the DOT.

Thank you, Councilmember.

And I want to apologize if there's been any gaps in communication.

We really, we recognize just how critical community input and

Feedback is to the work we do because we know the work we do is so tangible and really does impact people's day-to-day lives.

So we take, and I personally take that responsibility very seriously.

That said, I know there's always room for improvement.

So we're going to definitely take this feedback back.

You know, with some of the specific traffic control requests you mentioned, we do get a large volume.

And I know that, you know, there are criteria we have to use so that we can be objective.

I believe that.

I want to be clear.

I'm not talking about the criteria.

Although in one case I am.

In the cover letter, this was two years ago we got this report, I know before you.

The cover letter said we considered velocity.

The report itself did not list velocity.

I asked for that data from this administration, did not receive it.

And I'm not talking about what the data say in the other cases.

I'm talking about acknowledging receipt and continuing a conversation, despite follow-ups from my office.

We should absolutely be acknowledging receipt.

So I'll certainly look into that later today.

And it's a weird bare minimum to be asking to just acknowledge receipt.

And as I've mentioned at this hearing before, it is unfortunate that the only time the DOE seems to act with urgency is when they want to do a project like a bike lane or a bus lane.

And by the way, do not take community input into consideration.

Or if there is a crime, like a woman getting run over by a bus or a rape, which are the two instances I can remember.

member of the DOT being responsive.

And it shouldn't take that for the DOT to be responsive to a community.

And we in my community are at our wits end to try to just get a few safety measures or at least start the conversation about that.