BQE trench to be covered

From the Brooklyn Paper:

The notorious trench portion of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway would be cleaned up and beautified under a less-than-ambitious proposal put forward by the city late last month.

City officials announced that they had hired a crack team of architects and urban planners to propose inexpensive improvements to the “ditch” — a bit of a comedown from loftier plans to build housing and parkland atop the submerged stretch of the BQE from Atlantic to Hamilton avenues.

But this time, the city thinks it can get it done, likely through green walkways along the ditch and new pedestrian bridges.

But the green plan is not the only idea on the table. Since the Economic Development Corporation is organizing the study, the mayor’s proposal to build housing atop the ditch is not completely dead — though in this economic climate, it doesn’t seem likely.

Long considered a noisy source of pollution — and an inconvenience to boot — the subterranean portion of the BQE features only four road crossings that connect Carroll Gardens from its western portion, now known as the Columbia Street Waterfront District.

Has the EDC been to Queens other than to make diagrams about how they are going to remake Willets Point? Have you noticed the multiple trenches that run through neighborhoods from Maspeth to Bayside cutting neighborhoods in half? Why is Cobble Hill such an important community to stitch back together and not the others? And do we really need housing on top of highways?

Will a "crack team of architects and urban planners" be tackling this or, as usual, a team of architects and urban planners on crack?