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Read the press release here.

New Coalition Seeks Ideas For Hell's Kitchen After Bus Terminal 'Restart'

By Maya Rajamani | December 8, 2016 11:32am
 CB4 asked residents to write their ideas for the neighborhood on Post-It notes at the meeting.
CB4 asked residents to write their ideas for the neighborhood on Post-It notes at the meeting.
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DNAinfo/Maya Rajamani

HELL’S KITCHEN — A newly formed coalition is seeking residents' ideas for the neighborhood in light of the Port Authority’s decision to “restart” its plans for a new bus terminal, local officials said.

At a community planning session at the Metro Baptist Church Tuesday evening, Community Board 4 chairwoman Delores Rubin announced the formation of a coalition that will collect ideas and work toward carrying them out.

“We are at a restart,” Rubin told the approximately 100 residents gathered inside the church at 410 W. 40th St. “And because of this, we’re starting here tonight with our planning process.”

Anyone can join the coalition, which will expand on an existing CB4 working group that has been focusing on the Port Authority’s bus terminal plans, Metro Baptist Pastor Tiffany Henkel explained.

Residents and CB4 members feared the agency’s original plans for the terminal could “obliterate” swaths of the neighborhood.

The coalition will address residents’ concerns about issues including transportation, air quality, parks, housing, small businesses, community services and neighborhood preservation, Rubin said.

It will also take into account transportation developments separate from the bus terminal, including the Gateway Project, she added.

Board 4 plans to post information about joining the coalition on the board’s website, Rubin noted.

“There’s a lot of history here, and that history would have been wiped out,” she said. “We’re going to define the context of the neighborhood.”