Revenge of the Bedford Bike Lane Activists
Angered over the city’s backroom deal with Hasidic community leaders to remove a 14-block stretch of bicycle lane on Bedford Avenue in South Williamsburg, a group of bike lane proponents took matters into their own hands early Monday morning. Interestingly, a post on StreetsBlog claims that the renegade painters included some members of the Hasidic…
Angered over the city’s backroom deal with Hasidic community leaders to remove a 14-block stretch of bicycle lane on Bedford Avenue in South Williamsburg, a group of bike lane proponents took matters into their own hands early Monday morning. Interestingly, a post on StreetsBlog claims that the renegade painters included some members of the Hasidic community. “Scores of people in the Hasidic community are actually pissed about this bike lane being eradicated at the behest of traditionalists,” said Baruch Herzfeld, a local bike-shop operator and cycling advocate with ties to both the Jewish and secular groups in the area. “These members of the community may not want to ‘come out’ as bike warriors just yet, but they’re promising continuous action until the bike lane returns.”
Hipsters Caught Repainting Bedford Bike Lane [NY Post]
Video: Repainting the Bedford Avenue Bike Lane [NY Daily News]
Guerrilla Stripers Paint Back Bedford Bike Lane [StreetsBlog]
Men Arrested Trying To Repaint Bedford Bike Lane [Gothamist]
“If the people who sold their property at high prices were Italian or Irish would anyone be pointing it out”
Yes, if predominantly so. I seem to recall quite a bit of (imsr) Syrian-Christian bashing (guys who have those over-large and horribly decorated houses). It’s human nature to try and see patterns in behavior even if not justified.
cmu- yes- I see exactly where you are coming from. I don’t have to put words in my mouth- you’re doing quite well with yours. They are an extremely religious group- I don’t agree with them on a lot of issues but then again, you’re a bit of a social troglodyte yourself. They don’t have to like scantily clad cyclists. Their view of morality is different than yours or mine, they are insular. But you looking down your supposedly superior nose at them is a laugh. Stick with what you know- like riding without a helmet in street traffic.
I’m digging that…
“Religious views? Have you been reading the Protocols of the Elders…”
Excuuuuse me? Now if I say you’re over-reacting about supposedly anti-semitic statements, you’ll accuse me of putting words in your mouth (as you have before)…but it sure looks that way.
It’s their “religious views” (and, more broadly their social troglodytism) that initiated their object to “scantily clad” cyclists in the first place. How is that not germane?
havelc- that comment applies to everywhere in Brooklyn. And to any real estate owner or homeowner who sold during the bubble and made out like bandits. I have no quarrel with that.As for complaints- well…. everyone does it. I hear it in Crown Heights, Bed-stuy, Bay Ridge, Red Hook…. We just need to admit that we seem to take a little more joy out of Hasid bashing, than we do bashing other group. Certainly it gets quite venal. If the people who sold their property at high prices were Italian or Irish, would anyone be pointing that out?
In this country, you have the right to make a profit and the duty to live with the consequences.
You cannot make a shit-ton of money off something (in this case selling or renting all of North, Central and half of South Williamsburg) and then complain about what happens.
Your points are right on dirty hipster.
The Hasids absolutely have a right to make money off hipsters just as any company in the world has the right to make an honest profit.
My criticism is based in the notion that if you sell tons of land to developers and collect huge profits on those sales and from rent on (that should rightly be condemned in many cases) you lose all right to complain about how the neighborhood changes…
We need to get PETA, MADD and the Earth First guys involved in this, then the Tea Party and the Kansas Baptist Church guys would join as well. After that, Al Sharpton would surely be interested, as would the Lyndon Larouche crowd. The whole thing could be covered live on CNN around the clock….
“Can you deny that they got preferential treatment because of their religious views and clout?
Posted by: cmu at December 8, 2009 12:04 PM”
Religious views? Have you been reading the Protocols of the Elders of Zion again? Political clout – they got that. What you think religious views has to do with that I’m interested in hearing.