Editorial: Our Wish List

2014 is officially underway, New York City and the borough of Brooklyn both have new leadership, and residents are eagerly waiting to see what the future holds.

From our vantage point, there are several items that urgently need attention.

First and foremost, as journalists, we ask Mayor de Blasio to rescind the NYPD directive limiting community newspaper access to precinct level crime reports. Not only reporters but residents rely upon that access for information of importance to them in their daily lives.

In the arena of transportation, we would like to see the ferry service from Sunset Park to Manhattan continued at least until the R train is back on track, bringing commuters all the way from Bay Ridge to Manhattan without necessitating one or more transfers.

We also would like to see the full route of the B37 restored when the bus returns; the MTA plans to stop it at Barclays Center, 10 blocks short of its old terminus, making it far less useful to commuters who want to get to downtown Brooklyn.

Finally, we would like to see weekend express bus service restored on the X28, X37 and X38 routes to accommodate those people who cannot take the subway to and from Manhattan.

In the area of education, we would hope that our new mayor would reconsider the school co-locations that the Department of Education plans to impose over the objections of parents, staff and students at the existing schools which would be impacted. Decisions to co-locate schools within a single building should be collaborative; some may appropriately go forward; others should be scrapped.

With respect to the environment, we ask the new administration to reconsider the plan to build a waste transfer station on Gravesend Bay. The plan was pushed forward before the completion of the environmental review, which revealed potential hazards.

As for health care, our wishes are few but urgent – keep both Long Island College Hospital and Interfaith Medical Center open and operational. The two institutions are badly needed in this borough of two and a half million residents, and should be saved by whatever means possible.