"Within a 10-minute walk, three day care centers, one senior center, one swimming pool, one after-school program and a health clinic are to close. Venture 20 minutes more, and six additional facilities — two day care centers, two after-school programs, a senior center and a health clinic — are also to shut down on July 1, the start of the new fiscal year. Making matters worse, the nearest public transit option — the B37 bus along Third Avenue — is being eliminated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority"You can add to this the elimination of the B71 and other local bus routes.
But here's the rub: if not here, then where? Does Red Hook deserve cuts more? How about Brownsville? Kew Gardens? Inwood?
The cuts have to come from somewhere. While I'm not exactly pleased about them happening here, I can't be so self-centered as to think that Carroll Gardens (or Gowanus or Cobble Hill or Boerum Hill) is a neighborhood in need or somehow "deserves" the service more than any other neighborhood.
It's easy to walk most places, there is great subway access and there are still numerous bus routes in the area. If my 85 year old grandmother can manage (which she does), so can you.
