Community Board 11 wants street signs fixed

Community Board 11 wants street signs fixed|Community Board 11 wants street signs fixed
Photo by Ben Kochman|Photo by Ben Kochman

Does this sign meet your standards?

A local community board is pressuring the Department of Transportation to pick up the pace on replacing dirty or missing street signs in the neighborhood.

And part of that process is convincing the city that a sign is damaged enough to need replacing.

Among the many damaged, fading or missing street signs in Community Board 11 – which covers Morris Park, Van Nest, Pelham Parkway, Pelham Gardens and Allerton – is a rusting Bronxdale Avenue sign on the northeast corner of Morris Park Avenue.

Board 11 wants the sign fixed, but DOT has told the board’s district manager that, at least for now, the sign meets the city’s standards.

“I mean, you can barely see this thing!” complained Warneke. “If you’re a driver looking to make a turn on Bronxdale, you might drive right by it.”

Myriad missing signs

The Bronxdale Ave. sign is just one of the many missing or damaged street signs in the neighborhood, he said. A series of street signs are gone from the commercial Allerton Avenue, and a slew of signs on Astor Place are fading, according to the board’s latest count, which it compiles from 311 reports.

Warneke says he’s been working with DOT to address the issues. DOT prioritizes replacing signs that have a “direct impact on safety,” according to the department’s website.

At the top of the repair list are intersections where signs are missing on both sides.

“Any location that is missing Street Name Signs on both sides of the intersection will get repair work orders prepared quickly by our Borough Engineering Office and they will be replaced,” Bronx DOT Director of Community Affairs Keith Kalb wrote in a December 2013 email to Warneke.“The locations that have at least one set of signs for the entire intersection will be forwarded to our contractor for a bundle replacement. These locations will take longer to repair.”

City fixes Lydig

And though Warneke is still waiting for the city to fix the Bronxdale sign, DOT has repaired some other crucial local signs over the last few months.

A highlight was installing shiny new signs on a stretch of Lydig Avenue that had been missing many street signs for months, said neighborhood activist and board member Edith Blitzer.

“For once,” said Blitzer, “I actually have no complaints with DOT.”

Reach Reporter Ben Kochman at (718) 742–3394. E-mail him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @benkochman.
Not the best looking street sign.
Photo by Ben Kochman